ADAORA is a Nigerian name, meaning daughter of all. She’s tried to make good on that name’s promise in all professional guises in emerging technology, digital media, innovation and storytelling in consulting, venture capital, corporate media and broadcast news.
Currently, Adaora is the Director of Corporate Innovation at New York City’s RLab, the first City-funded hub focused on the next generation of user interfaces including virtual and augmented realities and related technologies. She is also an adjunct professor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and the Interactive Telecommunications Program at the Tisch School of the Arts.
She is on the board of NEW Inc of the New Museum and advises SXSW Pitch 2019, VRAR Association, and the Guggenheim Museum Global Innovation Council. She also mentors at the Op’Ed Project and the 92nd Street Y Women in Power and is a former Entrepreneur-in-Residence at WeWork Labs.
Adaora supports women founders and entrepreneurs: Pipeline Angels, The Helm, and SheEO Radical Generosity.
Her career began at ABC News after graduating from the UCLA School of Law and the University of Michigan. For more than a decade she reported on breaking news, features and politics from Boston to Baghdad for that outlet, CNN and public radio. She traveled the country based in Los Angeles, then New York, and then the world when based in London. For her contributions, she won numerous awards including recognition for her work from The National Academy of Television Arts, and Sciences and the Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award for reporting on the Afghan war and Hurricane Katrina respectively.
In her spare time, she supports and produces short films and documentaries. Adaora holds dual American and Irish citizenship and has lived on four continents.
Advising on Emerging Technology and Digital Media
•NEW INC •Guggenheim Museum Innovation Council •Arilyn AR • VRAR Association-NYC Chapter • News Deeply • AmericaMeetWorld • Single Palm Tree Productions
Investing in Women Founders, Entrepreneurs & Voices
The Helm • Pipeline Angels • SheEO Radical Generosity • Op’Ed Project • 92nd Street Y: Women in Power
Global Speaker
Adaora is a frequently requested presenter, appearances include: Augmented World Expo• Future Reality• Microsoft• Jump Into the Light VR Festival• VERSIONS (VR/AR) hosted by The New Museum and Kill Screen • NYC Media Lab Fusion• Film Festival • Out of the Binders-Los Angeles • Arianna Huffington’s Thrive! Conference • SXSW • McGraw Hill Financial • The Essence Festival • Digital Undivided FOCUS 100 Conference • Panasonic USA • NYC’s Internet Week • The Mesh Conference-Toronto • New York Women in Film & Television • Made in New York by IFP • Doc NYC.
Featured Media
Adaora appears regularly in the press, outlets include: Inc.• Buzzfeed• Mic • Fast Company • Adweek • The New York Times • Crain’s New York Business • The Wall Street Journal • BBC • CBS News • Marie Claire• Virtue• Broadcasting Cable Magazine • Essence magazine. Her writing has been published in: Medium.com • Essence.com • CNN.com • MSNBC.com. Member: SAG-AFTRA (Sometimes I play a reporter on television.) • IMBD profile Producer | Actress
Awards
Adaora was recently named among 20 Tech Speakers Who Will Wow Your Crowd by Inc. and Mic listed her among accomplished women in tech. She was among those honored by CNN’s Peabody Award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina and also among those who contributed to a Dupont-Columbia University Award for reporting on the 2004 tsunami disaster in South Asia. The National Academy of Arts & Sciences recognized her reporting during the Afghanistan war from Central Asia and she was part of the team honored with a Cine Eagle award for an ABC documentary on death row.
She is the recipient of: The Network Journal’s “40 under 40” achievement award; United Nation’s World Diversity Summit, Leadership Award; and Essence magazine named her one of the most 25 Influential African-Americans.