Our mission
We partner with organizations to support learners from low-income and under-represented communities to achieve their educational and career goals, which improves their economic mobility and well-being.
“I’m excited about the impact we’ll create with our partners—transforming young people’s lives while easing the challenges these organizations face in their important work.”
— Carrie Portis, President
Our values
At PIPs Rewards, we strive to act in ways that are:
Accessible
We want our platform to be easy-to-use and understandable for our partner organizations and learners who use the app. We strive to improve access to our platform, including addressing language and disability barriers. We believe that our platform improves accessibility by being always available and, through the incentives, encouraging.
Collaborative
We work with others to learn and grow. Our belief is we’re all figuring this out, and we all have wisdom to contribute. We learn by doing and being nimble, and we will create intentional opportunities for reflection and knowledge sharing in our partner learning communities.
Delightful
We want to provide fun and joy to the learners who use our app and to our partners. Life is busy and it can at times feel overwhelming. We want your experience with us to be positive, and not feel like added work.
Equitable
We believe all learners deserve to navigate institutions with confidence and agency. By incentivizing those who are less engaged to take advantage of services and resources, we can help them feel more connected to their community. We seek to partner with organizations that have less capacity, and bring in resources to support their work. We want our work to provide data to our partners on how they can reduce programmatic and systemic barriers, and to support our partners in influencing their peers in improving equity.
Impactful
We will hold ourselves to meaningful metrics that relate to improved outcomes for the learners who use our app and our partner organizations. We will share our learnings and work with others so there can be impact beyond our direct activities.
Who We Are
We formed as a non-profit social venture in 2024 to bring behavioral science, technology innovation and consumer design as a customizable incentives product to support learners, and the organizations where these learners go to get ahead. We draw on our lived experience receiving and managing services, our commitment and expertise in building community, and the wealth of knowledge and dedication of our partners. Our background and collaboration enables us to create direct personal impact at scale.
Ahmed Naguib, Ed.D.
Evaluation and Research
Bio
Ahmed is a dynamic leader and researcher in education and systems transformation to improve equity and student success. He is passionate about sustainable systems and empowering communities.
Carmen Perkins
Partnerships
Bio
Carmen develops and manages relationships with our partner organizations. She is an advocate for equity, a change maker, and an entrepreneur at heart. Her background is in working with education systems and is a founder of Project Edquity, a collective to challenge and dismantle systemic barriers and biases within the workplace.
Carrie Portis
President
Bio
Carrie is a recognized social innovator. Her career has focused on helping people successfully develop their careers and for educational systems to improve their access and results, often using simple technology to make this impact happen. She enjoys building community, leading diverse, talented teams, and learning more about user experience design
Kam Stewart
Designer
Bio
Kam is a seasoned UX designer who has led design teams and crafted user-centered products for companies including Amazon, Kaiser Permanente, HP, LeapFrog, and top design studios—delivering impactful work that surprises, delights, and keeps users coming back.
Steve Hawker
Product
Bio
Steve is a veteran in the mobile and web app world having launched apps for blue-chip technology companies such as Verizon Wireless, Palm, Motorola, France Telecom and AT&T. His recent focus has been in the social impact space, working previously as Co-Founder and Head of Product at Neobloom (focused on economic mobility) and as Director of Platform at Saverlife (focused on financial wellness).
Zoe Laventhol
Developer
Bio
Zoe is a full stack developer with a background in and passion for climate and community work. She enjoys building useful tools that help people.
PIPs Rewards Founding Board
Lilly Fu (Treasurer, with Izzy), Carrie Portis (President) and Karen Gee (Secretary)