ACT | The App Association recognizes the gap in representation in the tech community, and we want to change that. Our Amplify series lifts the voices of those in the tech community who are working to close those gaps in representation. We’re highlighting the problem solvers, elevating those who are driving change in their field, and amplifying the efforts and voices of all people.
While a month isn’t nearly enough time to celebrate the achievements of women throughout history, nor the many other marginalized and untapped groups with dedicated days or months of honor, it is important to take these times of amplification to reflect on the contributions of those groups and to learn more about how they shaped history, society, and culture. As we reflect at the end Women’s History Month, we thought it was about time we put our fearless leader front and center to celebrate her contributions.
Chelsea Thomas, ACT | The App Association’s executive director, joined the App Association nearly five years ago after an impressive stint with the Senate Finance Committee (more on that in a second) and a deep dive in tech policy with some of the biggest names in tech today. Under her leadership, the App Association has grown, diversified our policy priorities, made diversity, equity, and inclusion a central pillar to our mission, and remained a close-knit dedicated team through a global pandemic and nearly a year working from home, just to name a few of her achievements. But don’t just take it from us, we sat down with Chelsea to learn more about the path that brought her to the App Association and what excites her about tech policy.
Who is Chelsea Cole Thomas? (Tell us a little about you)
Oh hey. Going straight for the deep questions from the get-go, huh? Let’s see. As you mentioned, I’m the executive director of ACT | The App Association, and I’ve been with this great crew for five years in April (my first full week was during AppCon’16 – really jumped into the deep end!). While I’m a proud Montanan (I grew up on a potato farm in Manhattan, MT), my husband, daughter, and I live here in Washington, DC. And (in non-COVID times and soon post-COVID) we take full advantage of all of the awesome perks of this great city, including live music, great food, numerous book stores, fantastic museums, and delightful people. I also LOVE a good pair of kicks and have been known to impulse buy Nikes on occasion.
Tell us more about your background. You spent 12 years at the Senate Finance Committee…what was that like?
It was fantastic. In fact, it has a lot of parallels with my work at the App Association. I was working with smart, dedicated people who were trying to craft good policy. My primary role when I started there was helping to think through how trade policy that we were working on would affect Montanans. I had the opportunity to travel around the world and back to Montana to hear from people firsthand about how different policy decisions would affect them. And that work—thinking through the broad implications of policy decisions—has served me well with the App Association where we think about, and hear from our members firsthand, how laws that are primarily aimed at regulating “Big Tech” will affect our member companies.
What got you interested in tech, and how did you get into tech policy?
The nice thing about “tech policy” is that it encompasses a whole host of interesting issues: from privacy to encryption, workforce development to digital trade, connected health to intellectual property. The opportunity to work at the intersection of all of those issues appealed to me.
What about the App Association? What brought you to the App Association and what has kept you here?
When I worked at Apple, I had the opportunity to see the App Association’s work from an outsider’s perspective. I learned from the App Association’s staff and members about the ways that they interacted with and used Apple’s platform to grow their businesses as well as the ways that policy decisions can have different consequences for small businesses.
When I got the chance to work with the App Association in-house, I jumped at the chance. And I haven’t had a single boring day of work since I started! I love that we get to tell stories about the interesting work that our members do and that those stories help lawmakers make better policy. And it’s not just our members who are interesting. The App Association team is made up of smart, dedicated, and hilarious people who keep me on my toes and bring policy issues to life.
What is the issue we work on you get most excited about?
How do I pick just one? For the past year, I have been impressed with the way that our members have adapted their business models to address COVID-specific challenges and help Americans conduct their lives online. And we have seen that with the App Association team as well. We have had to adapt the way that we do things to fit the current situation, and I think our upcoming mini AppCons (MACs) are a great example of that. Our members’ stories are as important as ever, and our team has worked together to make sure that they are able to articulate the potential impacts of policies to lawmakers in a COVID-safe way. (Though I will be super jazzed when we all get to meet in person again and have interesting and raucous meals together!)
What excites you most about tech and the future of tech?
Tech has the potential to make our lives not just easier but better. Healthcare is a great example of this. In fact, our Connected Health Initiative partnered with the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® to pull together the Health Equity and Access Leadership (HEAL) coalition, which has been meeting for more than six months to come up with recommendations on ways that technology can help to mitigate health disparities. And over the past year, we’ve seen the ways that digital health can help people manage their health, including chronic conditions, remotely. That area holds so much promise, and I’m excited that we get to be a part of it.
Since this article is for Women’s History Month, we want to know about women who helped you get here. Have you had mentors, colleagues, or even family who have inspired/guided you throughout your career?
I am inspired daily by great women. My mom encouraged me from a very young age to think for myself and to appreciate the importance of grace and laughter. Interestingly, my daughter teaches me the same things every day. Like my mom, my sister is a constant source of encouragement and has a way of dissecting a problem to get to what then is the obvious solution, and she and my two sisters-in-law and mother-in-law are strong leaders who give me great and honest feedback. I have had smart, kick ass mentors and colleagues who shared their experience and expertise, along with dear friends who followed their bold, thoughtful dreams and encouraged me to do the same. And I would be remiss if I failed to mention my App Association ride-or-die ladies who make this the best job in the biz.
If you had a piece of advice for women—especially women in this industry—what would it be?
You are at the table because you have something to say. You are the only one who can bring your perspective to the conversation, so do it. Sometimes you’ll need to pretend to be bolder than you feel (or perhaps just find that bolder version of yourself deep down), but the world is a better place when we all dare to use our voices. As I tell my daughter every day, “Be kind, wise, and strong. You’ve got this.”