Lyel Resner

Lyel has extensive experience in launching and scaling innovative products, services, and organizations at the intersection of technology and social change.

He is the Co-founder of Swayable (YC W18), which uses data science to create more persuasive media for many of the worlds leading advocacy organizations, social + political campaigns, and brands, including the ACLU and Airbnb. He has also worked with Google, Girls Who Code, and The Rockefeller Foundation, among others. He is an Adjunct Professor of Public Interest Technology and Social Innovation at NYU, and a Fellow at the MIT Civic Data Lab.

Previously, Lyel was the Head of PreCollege and Social Impact at The Flatiron School, The country's leading school for web and mobile development that has worked with the White House and The City of New York on groundbreaking economic mobility initiatives. Under Lyel's leadership, Flatiron Precollege built a diverse, mission-driven, 60-person team, expanded to 13 cities, achieved 10x year-over-year revenue growth, and built teacher-training programs with 100 NPS.

Lyel is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist on Public Interest Technology, Social Innovation, and the Future of Work. He has spoken at Google, MIT, SXSW, Spotify, Techonomy, the US State Department, The Mexico Foundation for Science, among others. His work has appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techcrunch, Bloomberg, and more. Lyel sits on the boards of the Centre for Social Innovation, The Bronx Academy for Software Engineering, Sourcemap, and the NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and School Transformation.

He holds degrees in Physics and Political Science from MIT, where he was a Burchard Social Science Scholar, and an advanced degree in Business, Media + Technology, and Education from NYU where he was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. He was named a World Economic Forum Global Shaper in 2013.

Select Publications:

• 8 Design Principles for Teaching Online. Medium. April 2020
• Why the Tech Worker Activism Movement is Just Beginning And Three Big Ways the Industry Must Change With It. w/Michelle Shevin. Techonomy. May 2019
• Techno-Utopianism in Crisis: Sub-track:Organizing in the Age of Digitalization and Datafication: Surveillance, Transparency, and Power. EGOS Colloquium, Edinburgh, UK. w Prof Matt Statler, NYU Stern. Feb 2019
• Building Collaborative Learning Environments, Edweek. Oct 2017
• We Need More Empathy: Why its Essential we Craft Diverse and Collaborative Learning Environments, Edweek. May 2017
• The Bronx Is Brimming. Huffington Post. Jun 2013
• Building a Healthy and Sustainable Social Impact Bond Market. Rockefeller Foundation Publishing. Dec 2012