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 want to pursue careers in the tech industry. Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda Gates company funded the program pilot through the Women of Color in Computing Research Collaborative. The program’s goal is to create a cadre of Women of Color middle managers in tech firms, at twice the current speed. The Leadership Academy incorporates 19 Actionable Levers and 100 Stories from “wise” Women of Color who have succeeded and is offered nationally via Zoom, and in close partnership with faculty from the University of Massachusetts and the Harvard Kennedy School.
Throughout her career, Dr. Thanawala has been an active mentor and sponsor to many women and minorities. She has a PhD in Computer Science from Yale. She is a Leader in Practice at the Harvard Kennedy School, and is driving the creation of evidence-based solutions to the challenges of advancing women of color in tech.