Keynote Speakers

Keynote Speaker Viola Maxwell-Thompson is President of Information Technology Senior Management Forum (ITSMF), a national organization committed to the continuous professional development of black senior-level executives in the technology industry.  Their members, who are CIOs and other senior-level technology executives, are from Fortune 500 companies, the public sector, Academia and privately-owned technology companies.  Ms. Thompson has drawn on her vast experience in program management and career training to transform ITSMF into a professional development organization with the fiscal soundness and infrastructure […]

Keynote Speaker Lesley Slaton Brown is the Chief Diversity Officer at HP, Inc. With over 20 years of experience in the technology industry, Lesley has a unique ability to align and build strategy across organizations and drive business outcomes within corporations, start-ups and non-profits. Coupling her global marketing, branding, communications and diversity and inclusion experience, with a deep passion for social entrepreneur and leadership development, she has led key efforts to address the digital divide and build sustainable enterprise in […]

Keynote Speaker Teresa Y. Hodge, a passionate advocate for people with criminal connections, is committed to reducing the lasting harm caused by prison. It was a 70-month federal prison sentence for a white-collar, non-violent, first-time offense that introduced her first-hand to the justice system and mass incarceration in America. Upon coming home, she and her daughter Laurin Hodge co-founded Mission: Launch, Inc. a non-profit focused on introducing technology and entrepreneurship to previously incarcerated individuals as a way of ensuring self-sufficiency. Additionally, the organization founded […]

Keynote Speaker Dr. Raquel Hill is an Associate Professor of Computer Science in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University. She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard University. Dr. Hill‘s primary research interests span the areas of trust, security, and data privacy. Her more recent work on data privacy uses the semantics of data to create privacy preserving frameworks for text data. Her inter-disciplinary work on the […]

Keynote Speaker Dr. Latanya Sweeney is a Professor of Government and Technology in Residence at Harvard University, and her mission is create and use technology to assess and solve societal, political and governance problems, and to teach others how to do the same. One focus area is the scientific study of technology’s impact on humankind, and she serves as Editor-in-Chief of Technology Science.  Another area of focus is data privacy, for which she is Director of the Data Privacy Lab at Harvard.  See […]

Keynote Speaker Alana Ward Robinson is a transformative information technology executive with over 30 years of experience increasing value in organizations with breakthrough applications of emerging technologies to support changing business models. Throughout her career, she has built successful business-aligned IT organizations within publicly traded companies, specifically large manufacturers and healthcare (payer) companies. She is recognized for her expertise in developing and gaining consensus, whether that is through implementing technologies that enable bold transformation initiatives, obtaining buy-in from peer leadership […]

Keynote Speaker Brenda Darden Wilkerson is an advocate for access, opportunity, and social justice for underrepresented communities in technology. She currently serves as the President and CEO of AnitaB.org, an organization working to shape public opinion about issues of critical importance to women technologists in academia, industry, and government. She founded the original Computer Science for All program, building computer science classes into the curriculum for every student in the Chicago Public Schools, and serving as the inspiration for the Obama […]