Army and Air Force veteran Anthony Edwards just might be the only person in the world with an Apple App Store Developer Award and an Impact Award from the James Beard Foundation.
“I’m kind of one of one,” the 2014 Fordham grad jokes about his rare collection of hardware.
Edwards received both awards for his work as co-founder and CEO of EatOkra, a mobile app and online platform he launched with his wife, Janique Edwards, in 2016 to help customers find and support Black-owned food businesses. The app boasts nearly 1 million users and 23,000 businesses from Brooklyn to California, with a growing international presence in London and Toronto.
The platform also highlights culinary creatives’ stories and offers local guides through its blog, The Roux.
“It was kind of our path to activism,” he says of the idea to help Black-owned businesses with limited marketing budgets connect with customers. “To help these restaurants survive, help tell their stories, help champion the work that they’re doing in their community.”
Earlier this year, the James Beard Foundation—one of the preeminent food organizations in the United States—took notice, honoring Edwards with an inaugural Impact Award, created to recognize people working to “create a more equitable, sustainable, and economically viable restaurant industry and food system for producers, workers, and consumers alike.”
A Veteran Gets ‘Under the Hood’ With Fordham’s Computer Science Program
As a teen, Edwards worked in his father’s soul food restaurant in California. “Entrepreneurship has always been in my family,” he says. “It’s in our bones.”
He’s also long been interested in computers, robotics, and technology. After high school, he followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, joining the military and becoming an avionics systems repairer in the Army for six years and an Air Force reservist for three years.
He began searching for degree programs in computer science after earning an honorable discharge and was drawn to Fordham both for its academic strength and its commitment to covering 100% of tuition and fees for eligible post-9/11 veterans through the Yellow Ribbon Program. As a dancer since childhood, he also loved Fordham’s proximity to and connection with renowned dance companies, and he took classes at the Alvin Ailey studios and Broadway Dance Center, in addition to dancing with Fordham Flava, the University’s student-run hip-hop dance team.
Once he dug in to computer science classes, he became confident that his skill level matched his interest in the field. “I had some really good teachers at Fordham who told me, ‘I think you could really do well in this field,’” he says. “That was when I first started making, from the ground up, simple scripts and programs.”
Now, in addition to his work on EatOkra, which includes managing a team of four engineers, he is the chief technology officer at imedview, a claim and litigation service provider specializing in liability, workers’ compensation, and automotive claims.
He credits Fordham’s computer science program with putting him on the successful career path he has followed since graduating. “Fordham showed me under the hood. It really got my feet wet and showed me what’s possible.”
