Building Community
Although my career has been in technology, 💻 I have an unconventional background in English and Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies. 📚 In a past life I dabbled in journalism as an opinions columnist 📰 and radio talk show host. 🎙
Outside of work, I spend a lot of time volunteering 🙋🏽♀️ with various local nonprofits, as well as promoting STEM 🧬 education/careers for women and other underrepresented minorities in the tech industry.
You can see some of my recent community engagement below.
QCon SF
I gave a talk at QCon SF about my collaboration with the City of Seattle and Seattle Parks Foundation to develop an app that allows residents to discover local parks, and to take advantage of the various resources that the city has to offer. The long term vision of the project is to integrate IoT devices in public spaces so that the city can have access to real-time data on how parks and amenities are being utilized.
The purpose of the talk was to highlight the impacts of the digital divide, and to encourage members of the tech industry to work towards creating a society of digital inclusion.
Technovation Challenge
I helped to launch the regional chapter of Technovation Iridescent - a global nonprofit organization dedicated to providing girls with opportunities to learn necessary skills to become entrepreneurs and leaders in STEM.
My work involved building the website for the chapter and organizing workshops. I also mentored girls who were participating in the Technovation Challenge - a competition in which they apply the skills they have learned to create apps aimed at solving real-world problems.
AnitaB.org
I was a volunteer at the Grace Hopper Celebration - the world’s largest conference that connects thousands of women in technology.
My main responsibility was to take notes of various talks. The notes are published afterwards so that everyone at the conference has a chance to learn about what the talk covered.
I also worked with the local chapter of AnitaB.org - the global nonprofit that organizes the Grace Hopper Celebration, along with other conferences - to set up a smaller, local conference for women who were unable to attend the larger celebration.