Allison James

Allison James is a Senior Program Manager for NASA Space Apps based in Chicago, Illinois. She is responsible for the training and community management of participants in the largest global annual hackathon.

Prior to joining SecondMuse, Allison was a Senior Program Manager at SecondMuse Foundation for GET Cities (Gender Equality in Tech), where she designed and led data-driven workforce and entrepreneurial development projects to accelerate opportunities for historically marginalized technologists. Her background in tech partnerships, strategy, and program implementation spans from key innovation nonprofits (Illinois Science and Technology Coalition - STEM Challenge and Chicago Innovation - Invention Convention) to the University of Illinois at Chicago where she taught and advised undergraduate students. A former Peace Corps volunteer based in Nicaragua, she excels in community-designed, cross-functional collaboration.

In her free time, Allison enjoys rolling dice with friends in board games or tabletop roleplaying games. She also loves cooking, traveling, biking Chicago’s forest preserves, and taking walks with her dogs.