2022 Speakers

Ruby Mendenhall is the Kathryn Lee Baynes Dallenbauch LAS Professor in Sociology and African American Studies. She is an Associate Dean for Diversity and Democratization of Health Innovation at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also has appointments in Urban and Regional Planning, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Social Work. She is affiliated with the Carle Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. She examines how […]

Jamika D. Burge, PhD, is Co-Founder and Board President of blackcomputeHER.org, INC., a non-profit (501(c)3) an organization dedicated to supporting computational thinking, design thinking, and workforce development for Black women and girls in computing+tech. blackcomputeHER.org, INC has raised and invested over $1 million in funded to supporting Black women in computing+tech, and has partnered with prominent and influential organizations for maximum impact. Dr. Burge is an authority in research and programming that investigates the intersectionality of Black women and girls […]

Dawn Hunter serves as a program manager in the Education & Outreach group at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin.  Since 2016, she has focused on recruitment and outreach at Title I schools along with program implementation of TACC’s K-16 outreach programs. As a core team member of TACC’s Education & Outreach summer programs, Ms. Hunter administers program recruitment, outreach, planning and logistics of targeted student programs, student residential housing and safety, […]

Teri Platt, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Administration and the Director of the Isabella T. Jenkins Honors Program at Clark Atlanta University. She has over 15 years of higher education teaching experience in courses on American political institutions, public policy, urban politics and planning, and research methodology. Dr. Platt has a long-standing commitment to research and service in areas of civic engagement and community-based participatory research activities. She is currently a Faculty Affiliate with Data […]

Jaye Nias, a native of Buffalo, NY currently serves as the Assistant Professor in Computer and Information Sciences Department at Spelman College and as a Data Science Fellow for XSEDE Advanced Computing for Social Change. Dr. Nias serves as the lead researcher in the Brave IDEAS Lab where her research explores various applications of computational methods for promoting cultural diversity and societal inclusion.

Dr. Thanawala spent 39 years in the high-tech industry, the last 17 as Vice President at Bell Labs. She held executive positions at AT&T, Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia, including product management, business management, and software development. For her encore career, one of social impact, Dr. Thanawala was selected for the Harvard 2018 Advanced Leadership Fellows Program. She is the Founder of the Leadership Academy for Women of Color in Tech and has created a curriculum for women of color who […]

Danielle Davis, Esq. is the Founder of  AI Policy for Black Women (AIP4BW),  an organization that focuses on the intersection of AI, law, and culture in U.S. technology policy. AIP4BW’s work broadens the conversation on ethics and AI by introducing new frameworks for examining solutions to algorithmic bias in AI and automated decision making technology. Danielle currently serves as the Tech and Telecom Policy Counsel for the Multicultural, Media, Internet and Telecom Council (MMTC), the nation’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated […]

Dr. Felesia Stukes is an assistant professor of Computer Science at Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). Dr. Stukes joined JCSU in the fall of 2017 as the first African American faculty in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. In 2019, she founded The Social Computing Lab where her research is situated at the intersection of communities and technology, using computer models and data science to explain social phenomena. Her work has several application areas including sports, business, and education. […]

Ananda Leeke is an award-winning Thriving Mindfully Coach, an artist, an author, a Human Design Doula, and an ordained interfaith minister. Ananda discovered mindfulness when her career as a lawyer, an investment banker, and a digital communications professional stressed her out, caused burnout, and did not produce the level of success she expected. During her healing journey, she studied and became an artist-in-residence for Smith Center for Healing and the Arts at Howard University Hospital and Walter Reed National Military […]

Dr. Laine Powell is the founder and executive director of Tech Sassy Girlz, a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring underrepresented girls in middle and high school to engage in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Powell created the organization in 2012 to address the critical shortage of women and minorities being represented in high-tech STEM careers. She firmly believes that leveraging technology is an opportunity for girls to be content creators and makers. Powell is also the vice president for […]

Black Women in Technology was  created as a Meetup group in late 2014. New to LosAngeles and a self described tech enthusiast, she attended technology events around the city. Much to her surprise she noticed most of the events were not well attended by Black Women. She asked several women of color why and found one nagging reason – they didn’t know the  event was taking place. Lori began to post technology and technology-related events held in Los  Angeles and […]

Dr. Jasmine Jones is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Berea College. Jasmine’s expertise is in Human-Computer Interaction, specializing in the study and design of interactive embedded computing systems in social contexts. Her work has focused on designing novel technologies for preserving and sharing collective memory, helping people with chronic conditions achieve their health and wellness goals, and understanding the role of accessibility tools in the lives of people with disabilities. Before joining the faculty at Berea, […]

Siobahn is the first woman Computer Science Ph.D. graduate from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (2018). She is an Assistant Professor of Information Science/Systems in the School of Library and Information Science at North Carolina Central University and an Office e-Learning Faculty Fellow at North Carolina Central University. Her research focuses on utilizing machine learning to identify sources of misinformation on social media and toward improving fault detection in autonomous vehicles (https://www.nccu.edu/slis/laboratory-artificial-intelligence-and-equity-research-laier). Dr. Grady advocates increasing the number […]

Dr. Jean Muhammad, Chair Hampton University Endowed Professor Department of Computer Science School of Science Hampton University Research Areas: Computer Science Educational Curriculum Development, Software Engineer, Risk Management, Cyber Security Education, Leadership Management.

Dr. Kyla McMullen earned her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where she was also a Meyerhoff Scholar. She earned her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan. Dr. McMullen is the first (and currently the only) woman of color to earn a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan. She is currently a soon-to-be tenured faculty member. Dr. McMullen has […]

As a professor of diversity and STEM education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, I investigate what it means to be racially marginalized while minoritized in the context of learning and achieving in STEM higher education and in the STEM professions. I study in particular the racialized structures and institutional barriers that adversely affect the education and career trajectories of underrepresented groups of color, particularly focusing on STEM entrepreneurship. This involves exploring the social, material, and health costs of academic achievement […]

Dr. Sheena Erete is a researcher, educator, designer, and community advocate. Her research focuses on co-designing socio-cultural technologies, practices, and policies with community residents to amplify their local efforts in addressing issues such as violence, education, civic engagement and health. The objective of her work is to create more just and equitable outcomes and futures for those who have historically and who currently face structural oppression. Her research has won several best paper awards in top venues such as ACM […]

Dr. Fay Cobb Payton is the Chief Programs Officer at the Kapor Center where she leads its tech ecosystem building strategy. She was a National Science Foundation Program Director where she initiated the CISE Minority Serving Institution Research Expansion Program and worked on several initiatives, such as INCLUDES, Smart Health and Biomedical Research in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Data Science; AI Fairness, Equity, Accountability & Transparency Dear Colleague Letter and others. She received the NSF Director’s Award […]

Dr. Jeremy Waisome is the President of Modern Figures, Inc., a non-profit organization that seeks to elevate the voices of black women and girls in STEM+C through scholarships and speaking engagements. Dr. Waisome received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from the University of Florida. In 2018, she served as the Project Manager for a National Science Foundation Broadening Participation in Computing Alliance, the Institute for African-American Mentoring in Computing Sciences (iAAMCS, pronounced, “I am CS”), where she expanded the organizations […]

Hadiyah Mujhid is the CEO and Founder of HBCUvc, a nonprofit that is dedicated to changing how investment capital is formed and allocated to benefit historically underestimated groups. She has experience as both a tech founder and software engineer and is obsessed with leveraging technology entrepreneurship for economic inclusion. She is also an Echoing Green and Praxis Fellow. Hadiyah earned her MBA from Drexel University and holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, an […]

AFUA BRUCE is a leading public interest technologist who has spent her career working at the intersection of technology, policy, and society. Her work has spanned the government, non-profit, private, and academic sectors, as she has held senior science and technology positions at DataKind, the White House, the FBI, and IBM. Afua is currently a strategy consultant and advisor to organizations developing and expanding public interest tech projects in the corporate, government, and nonprofit spaces. She is an adjunct professor […]

Nicole M. Joseph is an associate professor with tenure of mathematics education in the department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University. She is also the Director of the Joseph Mathematics Education Research Lab (JMEL), an intergenerational lab that focuses on training and mentoring its members on Black Feminist and intersectional epistemological orientations. Using critical perspectives produce theoretical and methodological scholarship that challenges hegemonic notions of objectivity to emphasize more humanizing, empowering, and transformative research. Dr. Joseph’s research explores two […]

Dr. Fallon Wilson strengthens the tech ecosystem nationwide, especially as it relates both to Black women technologists and underrepresented persons of color who may not have access to the ever-changing arena of technology. Her TEDx–Nashville presentation of Stop Ignoring Black Women and Hear of Our Tech Prophecies addresses the intersection of historical reality for Black women, spirituality, and technology. As the Lead Principal Investigator for #BlackTechFutures Research Institute, Wilson’s Institute’s work, funded in part by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s […]

Merline Saintil is a Fortune 500 board director and was recently named Lead Director of Rocket Lab, a space exploration company. Her role as lead director of this public company is a distinction that only a handful of Black women hold in the world. She also serves on the board of TD Synnex – a Fortune 50 company and recently IPO boards like GitLab. Before her corporate governance experience as a non-executive director, she was a technology and business executive […]