Grace Rodriguez

Grace Rodriguez helps do-gooders do greater. After co-founding Station Houston to unite the local innovation ecosystem and help entrepreneurs launch and grow high-tech startups, Grace saw many diverse entrepreneurs still being left behind. She decided to tackle that problem by helping launch and lead Impact Hub Houston: a locally rooted, globally connected community dedicated to inspire, connect and empower changemakers and social entrepreneurs. Working to make Houston a role model for how the world solves its most pressing issues, Impact Hub Houston joins 100+ Impact Hubs in 50+ countries around the world, recognized by the United Nations for building inclusive ecosystems and supporting entrepreneurial solutions toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Grace has helped spread ideas, create experiences, and spur action as a speaker, facilitator, events producer and community organizer for diverse organizations, directly reaching over 286,000 people in the past decade. During Hurricane Harvey, she helped disseminate information to a quarter of a million people throughout Houston, and helped Sketch City’s tech volunteers connect with resources to effectively inform, rescue, shelter and feed people across the region. Grace has promoted Houston to over 17,000 people over seven years of leading “Houston at SXSW;” and was responsible for engaging and energizing 800+ high-profile participants as TED’s “TEDActive” Creative Director.

Grace has real-world experience in design thinking and facilitating transformational change, which she uses to serve Houston’s broader community as an advisor, mentor or member of: the City of Houston Women and Minority Business Task Force and the Opportunity Zones Task Force; MassChallenge TX; WeWork Labs; TMCx (Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute); TX/RX Labs; Houston Public Media; Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston (MATCH); Writers in the Schools (WITS); and as a lead organizer for Women In Tech: Houston (WIT:H) and TEDxHouston.