Faculty member since 2024
Tiana Tukes serves as an instructor in the economics department at Spelman College, where she specializes in teaching courses within the entrepreneurship program. She also serves as co-chief executive officer of LGBT VC, a global nonprofit created with the goal of advocating for and supporting LGBTQ investors. Before founding LGBT VC, she held positions in investment, operations and partnerships at various firms, including Silicon Valley Bank, Plume Clinic, Sequoia Capital, Accenture, and Spotify. Tukes co-founded LGBT VC in December 2022.
Tukes earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with high honors from Morehouse College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, awarded the Oprah Winfrey merit scholarship, and designated an HBCU All-Star by The White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges & Universities.
Tukes has been recognized as one of Forbes 30 under 30 in venture capital. Most notably, she is regarded as the first transgender woman to work in the venture capital industry. She is proud to lecture at Spelman College given her family’s enduring legacy of service within the Atlanta University Center Consortium. She is the great-grandniece of late Bishop Cornelius L. Henderson, the 13th President of Gammon Theological Center and the namesake of the Clark Atlanta University Student Center.
My academic research interests include venture capital investment, the formation and management of startup technology companies, leadership among Black women in business, entrepreneurship among Black women, and LGBTQ+ inclusion in the innovation economy.