The key to resilience with a career in tech is your network, especially for women and introverts. Here are strategies from the Girl Geek X community for maintaining trajectory of jobs, careers, passion projects, and more.
#1 — Leverage the buddy system
For the past decade, Sukrutha Bhadouria and Angie Chang have carpooled together to Girl Geek Dinners, from San Francisco to San Jose, when schedules align. This makes sitting in traffic almost enjoyable as we happily catch up about family and friends, work, and more. At Girl Geek Dinners, we stay abreast on current technology trends and the latest career advice for women in tech.
Meeting interesting new people at inclusive women’s events is easier to do than you think. Some confess they are dreaming of working elsewhere but are afraid of making the leap. Some inspire us to do more with our time and abilities. Some remind us how we can do better. Onstage, executives and engineers take turns on the microphone sharing best practices, giving lightning tech talks, and hosting panel discussions. You can listen and learn intently, or sit back (because talks are recorded for Girl Geek X’s YouTube channel) while your brain processes a work problem with a welcome change of scenery. Also, be sure to check out the company’s snack, beverage and women’s toiletries collections before leaving with some company swag.
Girl Geek Dinners are a force multiplier — a safe, inclusive “third place” apart from work and home, to recharge and recoup. Staying in touch with people you meet shouldn’t be a chore to sweat over — just add new friends on your preferred social networks because you just never know when you may want to drop them a note.
#2 — Do the work & communicate it
A common feeling in tech workplaces is that men are promoted at higher rates than their female counterparts. Doing excellent work will not be rewarded by more pay and a better job title.
Women succeed by rigorously communicating progress and learnings — from writing and sharing lists of accomplishments, and asking regularly about getting that promotion:
“Never in my professional career had a situation, I mean NEVER, had a situation where a manager has said, ‘Great, Arquay, you’re doing awesome. Time to promote you to the next level.’ Every single promotion that I’ve ever gotten has been me saying — ‘I am operating at this level. I’ve done all of these things, and I think I’m ready for the next level and here is why’ and you hand this [accomplishments list] to your manager and have a conversation with your manager to demonstrate these things.” — Arquay Harris, VP of Engineering at Webflow
Transparency is key for companies: provide regular audits and share promotion rates across gender and race for every promotion cycle and level. Industry leader Salesforce audits employees salaries annually then spends millions to reconcile any gender or racial discrepancies in employees pay, and shares annual Equality data and quarterly Equality updates.
People of color leave tech workplaces in droves citing unfairness. Such high rates of turnover ring up a $16 billion a year problem for the tech industry:
“Tech companies spend millions of dollars finding, recruiting and onboarding top-level talent, but the data show they must focus real attention on retaining the talent they’ve got. Unfair, non-inclusive and subtly-toxic cultures drive people out, and the trends are particularly pronounced for women, LGBTQ employees, and underrepresented people of color.” — Dr. Allison Scott, lead author of Kapor Center’s Tech Leavers Study
The Tech Leavers Study quotes female engineers who reported about the unfair promotions, and Black employees who bristled at being called “diversity hires” and being otherwise other-ed in the workplace. Diversity and inclusion trainings have always been in the toolkit for corporate HR to leverage, and while the Black Lives Matter movement rallied white people to utilize their privilege to dismantle systems that oppress other groups and increased awareness for equity globally, myriad organizers are still working on elements for long-term, systemic change in the world.
By attending Girl Geek Dinners, women can investigate alternate workplaces that may have better work cultures and different coworkers / managers, and meet more women in tech who will refer fellow girl geeks to their next job. Because Ally is a verb.
#3 — Move those goal posts
We’ve heard that what got you here won’t get you there, but how can you find role models for new goals, ambitions, and careers? If you don’t work at a company with tens of thousands of employees to provide dozens of women executives to look up to, Girl Geek Dinners hosted at various companies provides an endless parade of role models — speakers — with tables of girl geeks sharing their experiences, challenges, and connecting over dinner over shared experiences.
Learning to move her goal posts at work is a winning plan for Sukrutha Bhadouria, who has been managing high-performing teams at Salesforce for seven years. She was recently promoted to Director of Engineering, and welcomed the good news as she eased back into work from taking parental leave.
Sukrutha reflected on how her mindset has shifted over the years:
“I was so burned out after grad school, so I coasted for a few years. I started to see people zip past me, and I realized that I needed to find new goals to achieve, and once I achieve them, find more goals, rinse and repeat. My advice is to always look ahead at your goals, but when you get close, don’t underestimate the achievement. Take a moment to reflect on how far you’ve come. Then look ahead again and fight to the finish line!” — Sukrutha Bhadouria, Director of Engineering at Salesforce
If you’re facing a particularly tough challenge at work, you may benefit from enlisting some help. Some employers provide or subsidize the cost for professional development thru third-party coaches who work with underrepresented groups (minorities, women) to move up corporate ladders, reported NPR. This is important because all-white and all-male executive boards and executive teams are common, visible, and troublesome symbols of company cultures that are ripe for transformation.
Minji Wong coaches executives at Fortune 500 companies for decades, and focuses on coaching Asian women leaders. Through discovery, her clients find that 80% of challenges lie in misalignment of their strategic leadership vision- and how it’s embodied, expressed, and perceived by their teammates. For Asian-American women, making the most of your Asian assets at work means reconciling traits like humility and work ethic with what works in American workplaces. You can find yourself in a cycle of frustration and resentment you learn that assertiveness and informal relationships catalyze career growth, not simply doing excellent work.
“To bridge gaps between expectations and behaviors, Asian leaders benefit from understanding how they show up at work. Self awareness of gaps between your intended leadership brand and how it actually lands is critical for career ascension and success.” — Minji Wong, executive coach, At Her Best
She works with individuals to “identify the top behaviors or actions necessary in order to be seen, felt and heard by others. Common themes include taking up space and self authorization. Being aware of intersectionality in gender/race and taking action is critical for career success.”
Leading authentically lets others to see who you are, so they can more fully understand your point of view, bringing detractors to your side.
Asians in tech hold a unique “mix of privilege and exclusion that gives us just enough power to speak up but not enough to gain equitable access to opportunities and safety,” write Ellen Pao and Tracy Chou — “It’s no coincidence that those who initiated the first wave of lawsuits against tech monoliths (Kleiner Perkins, Facebook, and Twitter)” and that those who called out investors for harassment were almost all Asian women.
Research from Ascend foundation has found: “From a racial perspective, Executive Parity Index analysis shows Whites overall are overrepresented in the Executive level, while all minority races are underrepresented at the Executive level, with Asians and Blacks the least likely to be Executives. Asian women and Black women are the least likely of all cohorts to be Executives.”
For the time being, the onus is still on the individual to do the work and be recognized by management as a high-potential candidate for promotion. Companies may have a budget for leadership development, bringing in executive and career coaches to support their ambitious new leaders. You can also tap an executive coach to work outside the corporate structure and get that development work done for yourself.
And if you find yourself feeling burned out, depressed, or always irritated or angry, consider enlisting support from a licensed therapist for a short-term or long-term goal. Therapists work with people facing a wide variety of struggles, from depression, anxiety and trauma to trouble with relationships, multicultural issues and difficult life transitions.
“I like to focus on micro-progressions. People beat themselves up as they come in and want to make change, and they want to change faster than they are. The 25-year habit they want to change needs more time, self-compassion and self-realization of micro-progression. Let’s say, you are a big spender — celebrate that moment of hesitation when shopping online, and reflect back that, hey, you did think about making a different decision and didn’t, but that didn’t used to happen before, acknowledge that growing self-awareness.” — Nicole Chung, PsyD, licensed therapist
Many women have found EMDR therapy beneficial and proven in treating PTSD from work and other traumas, so they can rewire the brain and resume living full lives.
Support groups (facilitated in Facebook groups for people of a certain job title, recovery from addictions, or health afflictions) can be helpful in providing feedback and camaraderie. Whether you’re silently struggling with infertility or being a new mom, there are folks who understand where you’re coming from, and will empathize — and maybe share a tip on what has worked for them in their journey.
Girl Geek X Community: Have you overcome a personal/professional challenge, or want to share a story about a transformative experience?
Please email us at hello@girlgeek.io — we’d love to hear your story. If you haven’t solved a problem yet, and want to share your current challenge, email us too! While we may not be able to personally respond to every email, please know we will read every single one of them. Thank you in advance!
Our 4th annual Elevate virtual conference hosted over 4,000 around the world—the largest gathering yet of mid-to-senior women in tech celebrating International Women’s Day. By the numbers, Elevate hosted 26 speakers across 17 sessions,supported by 13 sponsors — check out their jobs, they are hiring!
Top 10 Highest-Rated Sessions from Elevate 2021 Conference
Here are the top-rated talks from Elevate 2021, as voted on by attendees! You can watch (or re-watch) them at the links below:
Building High-Performance Teams in a Pandemic – Elaine Zhou, CTO at Change.org, Rachana Kumar, VP of Engineering at Etsy, Tina Huang, CTO & Co-Founder at Transposit and Sukrutha Bhadouria, CTO & Co-Founder at Girl Geek X
Special Thank You To Elevate 2021 Sponsoring Companies
Thank you to the great folks at: Atlassian, Slack, OpenAI, U.S. Digital Service, Carta, Salesforce, Intel AI, Johnson & Johnson, MaestroQA and Amazon Web Services for supporting the 4th annual Elevate virtual conference for International Women’s Day!
#1 – Kellee Van Horne (Director of Client Success at Affirm) shares guidance on career moves: choose your boss and reporting chain carefully, prioritize roles where you have a differentiating skill or area of expertise, and be clear on what skills or content you want to learn in your next role.
#2 – Anu Bharadwaj (VP of Product at Atlassian) encourages attendees to lead with your strengths to find resilience. She talks about self care and allies in her keynote.
#3 –Sukrutha Bhadouria (Director of Engineering at Salesforce), Elaine Zhou (CTO at Change.org), Tina Huang (CTO & Founder at Transposit), Rachana Kumar (VP of Engineering at Etsy) discuss building high-performance teams in a pandemic.
#4 – Ashley Dudgeon (VP of Engineering at Salesforce) shares stories climbing the ladder at Salesforce, and navigating two maternity leaves. Hear advice on decision-making in the face of career challenges, and negotiating for impactful projects to secure career growth.
#5 – Nicole Salzman Page (Product Manager at Zumba) shares her new communications strategy for staying aligned with Engineering, Executives and Business Stakeholders to release products faster while working from home.
#6 – Kat Chiluiza (UX Researcher at Google) shares tips to empower folks on how to advocate for more inclusivity at their job. With real world examples, she will discuss dos/don’ts for research surveys or interviews.
#7 – Dessa discusses her viral hit “Who’s Yellen Now” — a 90-second Hamilton-inspired send-up to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen — one part biography, one part brag rap. She talks about her creative writing process and what she’s up to now.
#8 – Vrushali Paunikar (VP of Product at Carta) speaks candidly about her own career journey and why a problem-oriented mindset has been such an important tenet. She shares her problem-solving flywheel framework.
#9 – Amy Quispe, Julie Meloni, Elizabeth Schweinsberg, and Gina Maini (Engineers at U.S. Digital Service) discuss solving gnarly problems in government tech, and how they are using their skills to improve government services and benefits for all Americans.
#10 – Tracy Stampfli (Senior Staff Engineer at Slack) talks about modernizing and refactoring code, with lessons drawn from an overhaul of the mobile codebases at Slack.
Our 4th annual Elevate virtual conference hosted over 4,000 around the world—the largest gathering yet of mid-to-senior women in tech celebrating International Women’s Day.
We hosted 26 speakers across 17 sessions – scroll down to watch (or re-watch) their talks:
Anu Bharadwaj, VP of Product at Atlassian, in her morning keynote shares tips like leading with your strengths and how to find resilience.
Faylene Bell, Director of Digital Marketing at Nvidia, talks about extending opportunities in digital marketing to drive growth for technology leaders.
Kat Chiluiza, UX Researcher at Google, shares tips to empower folks on how to advocate for more inclusivity at their job. With real world examples, she will discuss dos/don’ts for research surveys or interviews.
Amy Quispe, Julie Meloni, Elizabeth Schweinsberg, and Gina Maini, Four Engineers at U.S. Digital Service, discuss solving gnarly problems in government tech, and how they are using their skills to improve government services and benefits for all Americans.
Ashley Pilipiszyn, Technical Director at OpenAI, discusses how prompt design and engineering works to build a variety of GPT-3-powered applications. Check out her final slide in her talk for her contact info to request access to the GPT-3 API to build your own!
Dimah Zaidalkilani, Director of Product at GitHub, shares her journey from Palestine to Microsoft Product Management: accessing resources to learn how to interview, to overcoming imposter syndrome, with the support of allies. She chats with Iliana Montauk, CEO & Co-Founder at Manara, on elevating engineers in emerging markets.
Ashley Dudgeon, VP of Engineering at Salesforce, shares stories climbing the ladder at Salesforce, and navigating two maternity leaves. Hear advice on decision-making in the face of career challenges, and negotiating for impactful projects to secure career growth.
Amrisha Sinha, Infrastructure Engineering Team Lead at MaestroQA, covers 5 DevOps insights that are essential for engineering managers to know to unlock their true potential.
Sukrutha Bhadouria, Director of Engineering at Salesforce, Elaine Zhou, CTO at Change.org, Tina Huang, CTO & Founder at Transposit, Rachana Kumar, VP of Engineering at Etsy discuss building high-performance teams in a pandemic.
Swati Raju, Head of Confluence Experience Engineering at Atlassian, shares her learnings on Confluence Cloud of building a reliability habit in the team, treating reliability front and center in team processes, tools, and decisions.
Tracy Stampfli, Senior Staff Engineer at Slack, talks about modernizing and refactoring code, with lessons drawn from an overhaul of the mobile codebases at Slack.
Nicole Salzman Page, Product Manager at Zumba, shares her new communications strategy for staying aligned with Engineering, Executives and Business Stakeholders to release products faster while working from home.
Kellee Van Horne, Director of Client Success at Affirm, shares guidance on career moves, from choosing your boss and reporting chain carefully, to prioritizing roles where you have a differentiating skill or area of expertise.
Vrushali Paunikar, VP of Product at Carta, talks candidly about her own career journey and why a problem-oriented mindset has been such an important tenet. She shares her problem-solving flywheel framework.
Hema Chamraj, Director of Technology Advocacy at Intel AI, talks about responsible considerations to address limitations presented by AI in healthcare and drive better patient outcomes for all.
Suzanna Khatchatrian, Senior Engineering Manager, Product Security at Slack, covers several best practices and explores how Slack’s Product Security team collaborates with other Engineering teams.
Dessa discusses her viral hit “Who’s Yellen Now” — a 90-second Hamilton-inspired send-up to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen — one part biography, one part brag rap. She talks about her creative writing process and what she’s up to.
Special Thank You To Elevate 2021 Sponsoring Companies
Thank you to the great folks at Atlassian, Slack, OpenAI, U.S. Digital Service, Carta, Salesforce,Intel AI, Johnson & Johnson, MaestroQA and Amazon Web Services for supporting Girl Geek X: Elevate 2021 virtual conference!
To celebrate International Women’s Day, Girl Geek X hosted our fourth-annual Elevate virtual conference. The March 8 event featured luminary engineering and product leaders who came together to elevate the conversation around women – an important opportunity to empower the women globally in a pandemic with diverse set of talks from technical women leaders on the hard and soft skills needed to succeed.
Events such as these, along with our Girl Geek Dinners, are important ways to elevate women as experts in their profession, to provide a safe space to speak candidly about career development. The inspiring speakers shared nuggets of wisdom and encouraged each other to persevere.
Here are 5 key takeaways from Elevate 2021 Conference:
#1 – Lead with your strengths
“Resilience is the capacity to deal with setbacks, yet continue to grow. It is also the cornerstone of mental health. Good mental health doesn’t mean never being sad,” saidAnu Bharadwaj, VP Product at Atlassian in her morning keynote:
“When you start a movement, you have a chance to move the Overton window. As a leader, you should shift the frame of reference, that the unthinkable and radical can happen. As a leader, my personal style is to be the activist, the person who shifts the Overton window, doing so energizes me.”
She weighed in on prioritizing strengths over weaknesses – that while it is important to build skills in your career, Anu encouraged conference attendees to “really lean into your strengths” – because it is when you are happiest, and helps you to be resilient.
#2 – Make problem-solving a virtuous cycle of communicated learnings
“Share that you’ve solved a problem, or what you learned by trying. Women often shy away from this step. You won’t earn the right to solve bigger problems without sharing what you’re working on,” said Vrushali Paunikar, VP of Product at Carta.
It is totally OK to fail! In fact, “a failure will be full of learning and it will help you form your next hypothesis.” She is adamant that “your solution hypothesis matches the problem.” Her problem-solving flywheel framework is here:
“Tell your manager what you want to grow toward. Flag things early, and communicate specific idea(s) as to how you want your career to grow so they can keep it in mind as the org changes,” said Kellee Van Horne, Director of Client Success at Affirm.
She distilled guidance into 3 key principles: choose your boss carefully, prioritizing roles where you have a differentiating skill or area of expertise, and being clear on what skills you want to learn in your next role – so you can look for growth opportunities.
Research suggests mid-career women are often held back from the C-suite due to lack of experience managing a P&L, for example. Here are some skills to consider:
“Executives aren’t thinking about your project all day. Don’t overload them. They may only need to know the goal and how you’re going to measure success. Make sure you’re giving the right information to the person receiving it,” said Nicole Salzman Page, Product Manager at Zumba.
She shares her framework to release products faster while working from home – check out her new communications strategy for staying aligned with engineering, executives and business stakeholders to launch products faster!
“It was my childhood as a refugee that taught me that resilience was the key to not only surviving, but thriving. At 18, I thought I might have ruined my future by not pursuing medicine. Studying computer science seemed easy compared to what my parents went thru,” said Ashley Dudgeon, VP Engineering at Salesforcein her afternoon keynote.
She talks about her experiences in childhood, growing up in east San Jose with encouraging teachers and coaches. Ashley made a big bet on herself in college, spending two years taking computer science classes to see if her GPA would be high enough to be accepted into the selective major at UC Berkeley:
“I remember seeing my name above the [computer science major] cut line and feeling the weight of the two years slipping off my shoulders. The bet that I made on myself paid off. It has nothing to do with the data structures, the compiler I built, the mathematics I applied. What I did gain was the sense of resilience and confidence in myself.”
Fast forward 15 years — Ashley successfully led a multi-release project at Salesforce that solved a problem that hadn’t been solved in 17 years, and navigated two maternity leaves at Salesforce (which has an amazing parental leave policy).
She shares a story about negotiation:
“I believe the transition back from maternity leave is one of the most vulnerable in a female’s career – and it typically happens in the mid career. So what did I do? I was far too stubborn, or, dare I say, resilient, to put my ambitions on the back burner. I sought support from my trusted circle, and reached out to every technical leader I knew and talked to each. After two months, my boss told me a new project was on the horizon – and that he believed I was the one that I could deliver it. That’s when I knew I had to negotiate. I told him that if I committed to the project and helped make it a success, he’d put me up for promotion in exchange. It took 1.5 years to build and release, and the reception from customers was phenomenal. My boss held up his end of the deal, and I was promoted to Vice President.”
GET THE WORD OUT. Tell your friends and co-workers about our 4th annual Elevate virtual conference livestreaming on March 8, 2021 in celebration of International Women’s Day!
Spread the word: In addition to emailing the colleagues you work with directly, consider creating a calendar invite, posting on Slack and to your internal bulletin boards, ERG groups, Chatter, LinkedIn, etc. We welcome all genders and allies – this event is relevant to everyone!
PUT IT ON THE BIG SCREEN. Connect your laptop to a projector or HD television. Try a VGA cable to connect to a projector, or an HDMI cable to connect to your HD television. Crank up the sound. Enjoy!
SHARE THE CONFERENCE LINK (ELEVATE.GIRLGEEK.IO) so everyone can tune in from their home or couch, and soak up the learnings!
Tips to make your Virtual Viewing Party an even bigger hit:
INVITE WOMEN ON YOUR COMPANY’S LEADERSHIP TEAM to kick off the viewing party.
HOST AN INTERNAL Q&A, FIRESIDE CHAT, OR LIGHTNING TECH TALK after Elevate ends onscreen.
TAKE NOTES DURING THE CONFERENCE. Start a discussion about topics relevant to your team and your company, and make a note of any that aren’t addressed during the webinar. You might decide to host an internal event to dive deeper into those topics at a later date.
SHARE A SELFIE! Show us your viewing party so we can share in the excitement. Take a picture and tweet at @GIRLGEEKX using hashtag #GIRLGEEKXELEVATE and we’ll retweet.
MAKE IT FUN! Encourage attendees to mingle online and discuss the sessions, and ask each other questions. Have fun and make sure everyone feels welcome.
Meeting people was easy until the pandemic in 2020, as events became synonymous with superspreading, and so we socially distanced while hearing from women at companies talk about work, life, industry, challenges, jobs and more on Zoom. In 2020, Girl Geek X hosted 10 events and handed the mic to 84 women speakers: we heard from women at companies like Planet, Confluent, Sentry, CodeSee, Inflection, Cadence and Gap Inc virtually – and at Bloomberg (San Francisco R&D office) and Microsoft (Sunnyvale office) in early 2020.
While sheltered in place, we’ve kept writing lists of inspiring women in STEM, sharing videos from past Girl Geek X events, resurfacing our 21 podcast episodes, and sharing articles on social media.
We found it inspiring to see that the most-shared articles in our circles have been about women finding success mid-life, the importance in raising feminist sons, decolonizing Silicon Valley, and sisterhood.
In 2021, we continue Girl Geek Dinners virtually – and are planning our 4th annual Elevate virtual conference tackling topics familiar mid-to-senior women, with the help of sponsors.
It’s cold outside! Stay in and check out Girl Geek X’s most popular articles, videos, and podcasts:
Champion the unapologetically ambitious! Girl Geek X supports women who support women. Nab some swag and tag us (@girlgeekx) on social – we love to see how you are styling this winter.
Here are some fresh face masks, hoodies, pillows, and even bumper stickers to cheer on women leaders in all arenas.
All proceeds thru January 5, 2021 will go to Fair Fight, Stacey Abram’s nonprofit fighting voter suppression. So buy one for you and one for a friend!
In a global pandemic, masks are a must! Run your errands politely and firmly stating that “a woman’s place is in the White House and Senate” celebrating all the women ascending in leadership. Champion the unapologetically ambitious, like Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, to name a few. Get your face mask for $10 here!
Stay warm this winter with a soft hoodie with kangaroo pockets! Champion the unapologetically ambitious with a hoodie reminding the world that “a woman’s place is in the White House and Senate.” Perfect for your next Zoom meeting! Get your cozy hoodie for $34.85 here!
Update your couch with this mood! Support the unapologetically ambitious: “a woman’s place is in the White House and Senate.” Perfect for having in the background at your next Zoom happy hour! Get your throw pillow for $21.65 here!
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously said: “women belong in all places where decisions are made”. Girl Geek X supports women making decisions! Ethically sourced following the World Responsible Apparel Practices Standards. Get your hoodie for $39.90 here!
Entertain the cars sitting behind you in traffic with a bumper sticker stating “a woman’s place is in the White House and Senate” celebrating Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris, who famously said: “our unity is our strength and our diversity is our power.” Get your bumper sticker for $5.40 here!
We support and appreciate our community organizers and instigators who fight for fairness. This is why all proceeds thru January 5, 2021 will go to Fair Fight, Stacey Abram’s nonprofit fighting voter suppression. So buy one for you and one for a friend! The holidays are around the corner, or brighten another person’s day just because we’re all mired in this pandemic winter together.
We are seeking session proposals for the 4th Annual Girl Geek X: Elevate 2021 Virtual Conference to be held March 8th, 2021 – inviting women technologists, innovators and tech leaders from around the world to participate in Elevate to share the latest in tech and leadership with fellow mid-and-senior level professional women.
This virtual conference is FREE for attendees – last year, over 3,000 women signed up to attend – tuning in from 42 countries around the world – to be inspired by speakers on the latest in tech trends and leadership on International Women’s Day.
Sessions may reflect the theme of this year’s conference – “Resilience” – and content typically covers the following topics:
Lightning Tech Talks – Dive deep into an area that’s unique / critical to your business or role, from engineer to PM.
Technical Skills & Tactics – Tutorials, walkthroughs, or deep dives into a skillset or tactical approach to how you solved a real-world challenge.
Learning & Development – Topics include negotiation, mid-career job searches, interviewing tips, managing up the chain of command, self-awareness, management, overcoming ageism / return to work bias, etc.
Work on a unique technical project or have interesting insights you’d love to share with other women & allies? We want to hear from you!
Tip: The best proposals include 3 key takeaways — things attendees can expect to learn from your talk!
Here are female founders solving problems for developers. Developer tools run the gamut from Chrome DevTools, to solutions for all kinds of issues. Check out the innovative features these inspiring girl geeks have built for teams!
Shanea Leven founded CodeSee, a developer platform helping developers and development teams visualize codebases. She has over a 10 years of experience of leading teams, delivering high quality and innovative features for consumers and developers at Google, eBay, and Cloudflare. Follow her on Twitter at @shanealeven.
Michelle Ufford is Founder & CEO of Noteable.io, an early-stage startup building next-gen analytics infrastructure. Before starting Noteable, she led the Big Data Tools engineering team at Netflix, where she was responsible for platform innovation and analytics tooling for Netflix’s industry-leading data platform. Prior to that, she led data engineering, data management, and platform architecture for GoDaddy, where she set a TPS record for SQL Server and helped pioneer Hadoop data warehousing techniques. Follow her on Twitter at @MichelleUfford.
Marissa Montgomery is Founder of Instantish, letting you do your issue tracking in Slack. Before starting Instantish, she led engineering at Zebra Intelligence. Prior to that, she was a senior software engineer at Spoke — and before that, worked at Google as a software engineer. Earlier in her career, she founded Swingset Labs. Follow her on Twitter at @MarissaMary.
Kate Whitcomb co-founded Chrysalis Cloud, the first low cost, light-weight streaming platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for real-time video processing and AI. The company was spun out out of smart baby monitor maker Cocoon Health, which used computer vision to inform new parents. Before that, Kate was a partner at HAX hardware accelerator — and before that, she led Growth and Innovation for Target’s Consumer IoT team.
These powerful women leading technology and innovation at their companies are ones to watch. Many earned advanced degrees in engineering and robotics, serve on boards and give back.
We are unlocking the clubhouse and building a bigger table for CTOs of companies big and small — more opportunities for women and underrepresented groups to lead.
ADP CTO Urvashi Tyagi joined the benefits and payroll company in New York in 2019. Before joining ADP, Urvashi worked at American Express, most recently as Vice President of Global Head of Commercial Data Engineering. Before American Express, she was a Director of Engineering at Amazon. She began her career as a Software Engineer at NuGenesis. Urvashi mentors at Newark Venture Partners and Illicit Mind. Follow her on Twitter at @urvashidtyagi.
Adstream CTO Katie Nykanen has been at the digital advertising company in London since 2012. Prior to Adstream, Katie worked at Nokia for six years, most recently as Marketing Solutions Development Manager. Prior to Nokia, she spent a decade working at B&Q as a Project Leader. Check out this interview she gave recently about working in tech. Follow her on Twitter at @katienykanen.
Advanced Energy CTO Isabel Yang has been at the innovative power company in Denver since 2018. Prior to Advanced Energy, Isabel worked at IBM for over 19 years, most recently as Vice President of Research Strategy. She began her career as a Lead CMOS Device Engineer at Motorola. She earned advanced degrees from MIT, and is open to serving on boards.
Biden for President CTO Jacky Chang was a senior engineer on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and worked for the Democratic National Committee’s voter protection team during the 2018 midterms. She spent most of her career as a software engineer in Silicon Valley, working for companies like Stripe and Eventbrite. Prior to Eventbrite, she was CTO and co-founder at Plympton and began her career as a Research Engineer at StumbleUpon. Follow her on Twitter at @kyoki.
Bloc CTO Amina Yamusah co-founded the career service management platform for job training organizations. Prior to Bloc, Amina worked at MoveOn as a Data Engineer. Before MoveOn, she was a Social Entrepreneurship Fellow at Echoing Green in New York. She began her career in diversity affairs at Princeton University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in politics, and led a career development organization, Our Bloc, dedicated to lowering the black collegiate unemployment rate from 13% to 5%. Follow her on Twitter at @AminaYamusah.
Breaker CTO Officer Leah Culver co-founded the social network for podcasts in 2016. Prior to Breaker, she worked at Dropbox, Medium and Sincerely. Before that, Leah co-founded Convore and Pownce (acquired by Six Apart). She is an angel investor in GitHub (acquired by Microsoft), Sentry, Numeracy (acquried by Snowflake), Opsolutely (acquired by Shift), and many more. She is an author of OAuth 1.0, passionate about many technical topics, and a frequent conference speaker. Fun fact: she is renovating the Pink Painted Lady, one of the famous Painted Ladies in San Francisco. Follow her on Twitter at @leahculver.
Cabot CTO Patricia Hubbard has been at the chemicals and performance materials company in Boston since 2018. Prior to Cabot, Patricia worked at Avery Dennison as Vice President of R&D and Materials. Before that, she worked at PolyOne for nine years, most recently as Vice President of Technology. Before that, Patricia worked at GE for a decade, most recently as CVD Technology Manager.
CBS Interactive CTO Elizabeth Carrasco joined the online content network in 2011. Prior to CBS Interactive, Elizabeth was CTO at Clicker Media (acquired by CBS Interactive). Before Clicker Media, she was Vice President of Engineering at Spot Runner, Authenticlick, and United Online. She started her career as an Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Follow her on Twitter at @deneiges.
Change.org CTO Elaine Zhou joined the platform for change in 2020. Prior to Change.org, she was at Vidado as CTO, and has held leadership positions for over a decade at companies including HomeStore, PlanetOut, IAC and more. She’s been a longtime mentor at Upwardly Global. Follow her on Twitter at @softwired.
Curve Health CTO Cheryl Porro joined the senior health platform company in 2020. She spent 13 years at Salesforce.com and Salesforce.org building platforms and industry-leading products that helped grow multiple business lines into 100Ms+ in annual revenue. She has led technology teams for Amazon, DigitalThink, and most recently Thrive Global. Follow her on Twitter at @cporro_sf.
Democratic National Committee CTO Officer Nellwyn Thomas has been leading technology and analytics for the Democrats since 2019. Prior to the DNC, she worked at Facebook in data science and served as Deputy Chief Analytics Officer for the Hillary for America campaign in 2016. Before that, she worked at Etsy for over four years, most recently as Senior Director of Analytics & Business Intelligence. Follow her on Twitter at @nellwyn.
Digital Guardian CTO Debra Danielson has been at the data loss prevention software company in Waltham since 2019. Prior to joining Digital Guardian, Debra was at CA Technologies for 30 years, serving in a variety of VP and SVP roles. She began her career as a Software Developer at Applied Data Research. Debra serves on the board of Rock Solid Technologies and Springboard Enterprise’s Technology Council. Follow her on Twitter at @debradanielson.
Dina CTO Erin Karam has been at the AI-powered care coordination company in Chicago since 2015. Prior to Dina, she was at Solstice Mobile as Director of Solution Delivery. Before that, Erin was at Clean Urban Energy as Vice President of Engineering. She began her career at IBM as an IT Specialist, and worked her way up to IT Architect in nine years. Follow her on Twitter at @erinkaram.
Ding CTO Barbara McCarthy has been working at the international mobile top-up platform in Dublin since 2019. Prior to Ding, she worked at HubSpot as Director of Engineering for four years. Prior to HubSpot, Barbara worked at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for over seven years, most recently at VP of Software Development. She serves on the board of Social Innovation Fund Ireland and mentors at 30% Club Ireland. Follow her on Twitter at @babsogrady.
EXOS CTO Yvette Pasqua joined the human performance company in 2020. Previously, she held product and engineering leadership roles at Meetup, Haven, and the WPP Group. She’s an advisor at Chloe Capital and cares deeply about doing the work to support people from underrepresented groups in the technology industry. Follow her on Twitter at @lolarobot.
ezCater CTO Erin DeCesare has been at the online catering marketplace in Boston since 2019. Prior to ezCater, she was Vice President of Data and Analytics at Bottomline Technologies and Vistaprint. Before Vistaprint, Erin worked at Fidelity Investments as Director of Program Management and was a Project Manager at Sovereign Bank and Woodman Design.
Federal Communications Commission CTO Monisha Ghosh has been at the United States government agency in Washington D.C. since 2020. Prior to the FCC, she worked at the National Science Foundation as Program Director and was a Research Professor at the University of Chicago, conducting research in wireless technologies. Prior to the University of Chicago, she was with Interdigital, Philips Research, and Bell Laboratories. She was recognized for her contributions to the IEEE 802.22.
FeelIT CTO Meital Segev-Bar has been working on predictive maintenance and sensing solutions since 2017 in Haifa. Prior to co-founding FeelIT, she earned her PhD focused on Nanotechnology from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Firefly Health CTO Mimi Liu has been working on technology-powered concierge medicine service for average Americans since 2020. Prior to Firefly Health, she worked at Devoted Health. Before that, Mimi worked at athenahealth for over 12 years, most recently as Executive Director of Engineering. She began her career as a Senior Developer at athenahealth.
Flare CPTO Liz Crawford has been working at the HR software company in Sydney since 2018. Prior to Flare, she consulted for Skillshare, Outdoor Voices, Flare and more. Before that, Liz was CTO at Birchbox in NYC for over five years. She is a serial entrepreneur, launching Aprizi and Crono, after earning multiple engineering degrees and publishing over 20 academic journal and conference publications. Follow her on Twitter at @liscrawford.
GE Renewable Energy CTO Danielle Merfeld has been working at GE since 2007, leading technical efforts to develop differentiated products and services across a broad renewable energy portfolio. She began her career as a Solar Platform Engineer at GE, after earning multiple degrees in electrical and electronics engineering. Follow her on Twitter at @dwmerfeld.
Glassdoor CTO Bhawna Singh has been working at the recruiting and jobs company since 2016. Prior to Glassdoor, Bhawna worked at Ask for over seven years, most recently as Senior Director of Search Intelligence. She began her career as a Software Engineer at Sybase and AT&T. Follow her on Twitter at @bhawna_tweets.
Global Payments CTO Shannon Johnston has been working at the pure play payments technology company in Atlanta since 2016. Prior to Global Payments, she worked at ShopVisible as COO and was CTO at Points of Light Institute. Before that, she was at CompuCredit, most recently as VP of Global Infrastructure Services.
Glossier CTO Pawan Uppuluri has been working at the beauty company in Seattle since 2019. Prior to Glossier, she worked at Amazon for over 14 years, most recently as Director of Alexa Orchestration Engine. Before Amazon, Pawan worked at i2 Technologies, most recently as Director.
Halma CTO Catherine Michel has been working at the global group of life-saving technology companies since 2019. Prior to Halma, she worked at Sigma Systems for six years, most recently as CTO. Prior to Sigma Systems, Catherine worked at Tribold (acquired by Sigma Systems) as CTO and co-founder. She began her career as a Senior Manager at Accenture.
Healx CTO Meri Williams has been working at the AI-powered, patient-inspired technology company in Cambridge in England since 2020. Prior to Healx, she worked at Monzo Bank and Moo.com. Before that, she worked at Marks and Spencer as Head of Engineering and at Proctor & Gamble, most recently as Head of Operations. Follow her on Twitter at @Geek_Manager.
Honeycomb CTO Charity Majors has been working at the full stack observability company in San Francisco since 2016. Prior to founding Honeycomb, she worked at Facebook as a Production Engineering Manager. Prior to Facebook, Charity worked at Parse as Infrastructure Tech Lead. Before that, Charity was a Systems Engineer at Cloudmark, Shopkick and Linden Lab. Follow her on Twitter at @mipsytipsy.
Intuit CTO Marianna Tessel has been working at the global financial platform company in Mountain View since 2017. Prior to Intuit, she worked at Docker as SVP of Engineering and VP of Engineering at VMware, Intaact, Ariba and General Magic. Follow her on Twitter at @mariannatessel.
Iron Mountain CTO Kimber Anstett has been working at the storage and information management company in Boston since 2019. Prior to Iron Mountain, she worked at Nielsen for over 19 years, most recently as Chief Information Officer. Follow her on Twitter at @kimanstett.
Itaú Unibanco CTO Vanessa Fernandes has been working at the bank since 2017. Prior to Itaú Unibanco, she worked at Itaú BBA as CIO. Before that, Vanessa worked in compliance at Itaú Unibanco. Before Itaú Unibanco, she worked as VP at JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank.
Johnson & Johnson CTO Rowena Yeo has been working at the healthcare company since 2016, when she joined as VP and CIO for Asia Pacific at Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Johnson & Johnson, she worked at Cargill for 21 years, most recently as Global Group CIO. Rowena began her career as a Systems Engineer at IBM.
Kapor Center CTCO Lili Gangas has been working at the social impact non-profit in Oakland since 2016. Before Kapor Center, she was a Tech for Good Fellow at New America. Before that, Lilii worked at Accenture and Booz Allen Hamilton. She began her career as an engineer. Lili is on the advisory board for Techqueria and a board member for Latinas in Tech. Follow her on Twitter at @LilsG31.
Kennametal CTO Carlonda Reilly has been working at the materials company in Pittsburgh since 2018. Prior to Kennametal, she worked at DuPont for 22 years, most recently as Global Technology Director. She began her career as an Engineering Technology Manager at DuPont. Carlonda serves on the board of directors at W. L. Gore, Saint Vincent College, and the United Way of Westmoreland County.
Khan Academy CTO Marta Kosarchyn has been working at the educational company in Palo Alto since 2017. Prior to Khan Academy, she worked at SCI Solutions as SVP of Product Development and Operations. Prior to SCI Solutions, Marta worked at Intuit as Director of Product Development. Before that, she was in management at Hewlett-Packard. Follow her on Twitter at @mkosarchyn.
LimeLoop CTO Chantal Emmanuel has been working at the shipping company in Emeryville since 2018. Before launching LimeLoop, she worked at SYPartners and Red Clay as a Software Engineer. Before Red Clay, she worked at New York Cares as Community Programs Officer. She began her career working at AmeriCorps. Follow her on Twitter at @chantalemmanuel.
Lululemon CTO Julie Averill has been working at the athletic apparel company in Seattle since 2017. Prior to Lululemon, she worked at REI, most recently as CIO Prior to REI, Julie worked at Nordstrom for over a decade as VP of Selling and Marketing Systems. She has taught classes on strategy and engineering at Seattle University, and began her career as a Project Manager at Weyerhaeuser. Follow her on Twitter at @julie_i_b.
Lyra Health CTO Jenny Gonsalves has been working at the teletherapy company in Burlingame since 2016. Prior to Lyra Health, she worked at SugarCRM, most recently as VP of Engineering. Before SugarCRM, Jenny worked as a Senior Software Engineer at Epiphany. She started her career as a Programmer Analyst at RBC Dominion Securities. Follow her on Twitter at @jenny_gonsalves.
Carbon Health CTO Claire Hough previously worked as CTO at ticketing company Lyte. Prior to Lyte, she worked at Apollo GraphQL as VP of Engineering. Prior to Apollo, Claire worked at Udemy, most recently as SVP of Engineering. Before Udemy, she led engineering at Tapjoy, Citrus Lane, NextTag, Blue Martini Software, Napster, and Netscape. She is a Limited Partner at Operative Collective.
McKesson CTO Nancy Flores is EVP and CIO, leading the company’s technology initiatives including software, infrastructure, application development tools and processes, operations, and cybersecurity. She also guides the overall direction for the company’s healthcare technology products and data and analytics. Prior to McKesson, she served as CIO at Johnson Controls (JCI) where she was responsible for information technology, cybersecurity and analytics. Previously, she spent 22 years at Abbott in several leadership roles including chief information officer. She serves on the board of the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
Navenio CTO Niki Trigoni has been working at the infrastructure-free location company in Oxford since 2019. She has been a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford for the past 13 years. Before that, she taught Computer Science at University of London and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Cornell University.
NovoEd CTO Farnaz Ronaghi has been working at the online-learning company in San Francisco since 2012. She designed and built the first version of the NovoEd platform at Stanford’s Social Algorithms Lab. The project was part of her PhD thesis on collaborative learning at scale, and her research focused on incentives and motivators in online learning environments. Follow her on Twitter at @farnazr.
Nylas CTO Christine Spang has been working at the unified communications company in San Francisco since 2013. Prior to launching Nylas, she worked at Oracle for two years, most recently as Principal Developer. Christine joined Oracle by way of acquisition of Ksplice, where she worked as Software Engineer after graduating from MIT with a degree in Computer Science. Follow her on Twitter at @spang.
Omada Health CTO Maria Latushkin has been working at the digital care company in San Francisco since 2018. Prior to Omada Health, she was Chief Technology Officer at Narvar, One Kings Lane, and Peet’s Coffee. Before Peet’s, Maria was at Walmart, most recently as Director of Engineering. She began her career as a Software Engineer at Homewarehouse.
One Medical Group CTO Kimber Lockhart has been working at the primary care company since 2014. Prior to One Medical Group, she worked at Box, most recently as Senior Director of Web Application Engineering. Prior to Box, Kimber was CEO and founder of Increo Solutions (acquired by Box). Follow her on Twitter at @kimber_lockhart.
Outer Labs CTO Jen Carlile has been working at the modern architecture, engineering, and construction software company in San Francisco since 2018. Prior to founding Outer Labs, Jen worked at Flux Data for five years as VP of Engineering and co-founder. Before Flux Data, she worked at Google[X] as a Software Engineer for almost two years. She began her career as an Audio and Acoustics Engineer at AuSIM. Jen mentors at Hackbright and Stanford. Follow her on Twitter at @jencarlile.
Pilot CTO Jessica McKellar has been working at the finance company in San Francisco since 2017. Prior to founding Pilot, she worked at Dropbox for three years as Director of Engineering. Before Dropbox, Jessica was co-founder and VP of Engineering at Zulip (acquired by Dropbox). She began her career as a Software Engineer at Ksplice (acquired by Oracle). The open source developer is PyCon North America’s Diversity Outreach Chair. Follow her on Twitter at @jessicamckellar.
Precisely CTO Tendü Yogurtçu has been working at the data integrity company in New York since 1997. She began her career as a Senior Software Engineer at Precisely. Tendü has also served as a part-time Adjunct Professor for graduate level courses (Programming with C++, C++ for Financial Engineering, Programming with JAVA, and Computer Architecture). Follow her on Twitter at @tenduyogurtcu.
Puppet CTO Abby Kearns has been working at the continuous delivery company in San Francisco since 2020. Prior to Puppet, she worked at Cloud Foundry Foundation for four years, most recently as CEO and Executive Director. Prior to Cloud Foundry, she worked at Pivotal Software and OPSWAT. Before that, Abby worked at Verizon and Totality. Follow her on Twitter at @ab415.
Redfin CTO Bridget Frey has been working at the real estate company in Seattle since 2011. Prior to Redfin, she worked at Lithium Technologies, most recently as Director of Engineering for Analytics and Business Applications. Before that, she worked at IntrinsiQ as VP of Development and IMlogic as Senior Program Manager. She began her career as a Software Engineering Manager at Plumtree, after interning at Microsoft and Motorola. Bridget serves on the board for Premera Blue Cross. Follow her on Twitter at @svbridget.
Refinitiv CTO Alex Cesar has been working at the financial infrastructure company in London since 2017. Before Refinitiv, she was at Thomson Reuters as Global Head of Risk Technology, at Deutsch Bank as Head of Governanc, and at J.P. Morgan as Head of Compliance. Before that, she was at Standard Chartered Bank as Head of Compliance and Assurance Technology. Alex began her career as a Technical Analyst at HSBC.
Silicon Valley Bank CTO Ivneet Kaur has been working at the bank in Santa Clara since 2020. Prior to Silicon Valley Bank, she worked at Equifax for over a decade, most recently as CTO. Before that, Ivneet worked at Claritas for six years, most recently as Product Development Manager. She began her career as a Software Engineer at Microsoft.
Skillz CTO Miriam Aguirre has been at the eSports company in San Francisco since 2013. Prior to Skillz, she worked at Financial Engines for over eight years, most recently as Software Architect. Follow her on Twitter at @techaguirre.
Sky Medical Technology CTO Rachel Fallon has at been the UK-based medical devices company since 2010. Their products include Geko devices, OnPulse technology, and Firefly recovery.
Staples CTO Pragati Mathur has been at the worklife fulfillment company in Framingham in 2017. Prior to Staples, she worked at Biogen as CTO. Before Biogen, she worked at Boeing as Enterprise Chief Architect. Before that, she worked at General Motors for a decade, most recently as Chief Architect. She started her career as a Senior Consultant at PWC. Follow her on Twitter at @pragatimathur2.
Starbucks CTO Gerri Martin-Flickinger has been at the coffee company in Seattle since 2015. Prior to Starbucks, she worked at Adobe for over eight years, most recently as CIO. Before that, she was CIO at VeriSign and Network Associates / McAfee. Gerri began her career at Chevron. Follow her on Twitter at @gmflickinger.
SurveyMonkey CTO Robin Ducot has been at the survey company in San Mateo since 2017. Prior to SurveyMonkey, she worked at DocuSign as SVP of Engineering. Before DocuSign, she was VP of Engineering at Eventbrite, Linden Lab, Adobe and Avolent. She began her career as a Software Engineer at BGS Systems. Folow her on Twitter at @rducot.
Token Transit CTO Ekaterina Kuznetsova has been at the shared mobility marketplace company in San Francisco since 2016. Prior to launching Token Transit, she was at Meteor Development Group as a Core Developer for two years. Before that, Ekaterina worked at Google and Akamai Technologies as a Software Engineer. Follow her on Twitter at @technekate.
Transposit CTO Tina Huang has been at the incident resolution company in San Francisco in 2016. Prior to launching Transposit, she was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Sutter Hill Ventures and a Founding Engineer at Sigma Computing. Before that, Tina worked at Twitter for four years as Staff Software Engineer. Prior to Twitter, she worked at Google and Apple as a Software Engineer. Follow her on Twitter at @kmonkeyjam.
Verizon Media CTO Rathi Murthy has been at the media company in Sunnyvale since 2020. Prior to Verizon, she was CTO at Gap — and served as CIO at American Express. Rathi has been in engineering leadership at eBay, Yahoo!, Metreo, and WebMD. She began her career as a Software Engineer at Sun MicroSystems. Rathi serves on the board of directors for PagerDuty. Follow her on Twitter at @rathi_murthy.
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