Kagan Coughlin launched Base Camp Coding Academy in Water Valley, Mississippi, in 2015, along with Glen Evans, president of the mortgage software technology company FNC/CoreLogic. Base Camp Coding Academy is a nonprofit educational initiative that provides an innovative, one-year coding curriculum to under-advantaged Mississippi youth, at no charge. The intense, hands-on course accepts a small class of students directly out of high school, and delivers over 2,000 hours of instruction over the course of one year. Upon course completion, course graduates are fully trained as level-1 software developers and enter the workforce with partnering regional employers.
Coughlin spent ten years in finance and technology with Fannie Mae and FNC / CoreLogic. He and his wife, Alexe van Beuren, have spent the past fourteen years working in historic preservation and creative economy initiatives in Mississippi.