The Tech Supporter

The Tech Supporter

ANNA JAEGER ’93

AFTER SHE GRADUATED WITH A MAJOR IN DRAMA, Jaeger worked for a nonprofit that provided services for those with disabilities. She did well but burned out. “I get too emotionally involved doing direct support work,” she says.

Now the San Francisco resident channels her passion to do good in a less personal, but perhaps more widereaching method. As chief technology officer of Caravan Studios, Jaeger builds mobile apps to address pressing social problems. One of her projects has been creating Safe Shelter Collaborative, which connects victims of domestic abuse with shelters. The app is designed to avoid the stressful, inefficient process victims often face when they attempt to find safe housing. Frequently facilities lack rooms or resources to effectively treat a victim, who then has to start calling around to find space elsewhere. Because providers need to know whether they have the proper treatment tools, victims have to recount their abuse with each call. Jaeger’s app addresses this problem with a brief questionnaire that sends information to all nearby shelters and quickly connects a victim with the right facility. In a recent pilot program, Safe Shelter reduced the average time to connect a victim with an appropriate shelter—which Jaeger says previously took from two to 10 hours—to just seven minutes.

This is only one of Jaeger’s many projects. Another app, Range, helps underprivileged youth find free meals in summertime, when they can’t get food at school cafeterias, Another app, 4Bells, helps volunteers organize and tackle the most time-sensitive tasks after areas are hit by natural disasters. “They are all just examples of how technology and data can make a big difference in a person’s health, safety and emotional well-being,” says Jaeger.

Keith Chapman, Adv’12