Yan Lawrence is a founder, ecosystem builder, and strategist whose work sits at the intersection of education, workforce development, entrepreneurship, and public-private partnerships.

Her foundation is technical. With a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and self taught coder from The City College of New York, Yan built her early career at the intersection of data and institutions — doing quantitative analysis at Bank of America and analytical work with the NBA. That training in systems, patterns, and data-driven decision-making is the engine behind how she now designs opportunity infrastructure at scale. She approaches education, workforce development, and entrepreneurship the way a mathematician approaches a complex problem: looking for the gaps, the leverage points, and the structures that create the most durable impact.

Through Lawrence Venture Group and The Lawrence Foundation for Technology & Education, she builds what she calls “opportunity infrastructure” — the pathways, partnerships, and systems that connect students, emerging professionals, and underserved communities to the experiences, networks, and resources that change the trajectory of their lives.

Her entrepreneurial journey has taken her from leading STEM programs and classrooms to acquiring and operating education businesses, securing public-sector contracts, and building scalable partnership models with cities, school districts, nonprofits, and workforce organizations. Her operating partners have included the City of Dallas, City of Plano, Plano ISD, and community organizations across Texas and New York.

Yan has been recognized as a Forbes Under 30 Scholar and as co-founder of Black Wings through Rewriting the Code, she helped cultivate partnerships and initiatives that contributed to the launch of the Goldman Sachs–backed RTC Women in Tech Fund — a $2.5M initiative providing scholarships, mentorship, and career support for women in technology.

What distinguishes Yan is not just what she builds — it is how she thinks — she builds ecosystems. She approaches education, government contracting, workforce development, and entrepreneurship not as separate disciplines, but as interconnected levers within a single larger system: the system of opportunity.