WITS Spring Summit 2021 | Creating IT Futures | 24 March 2021 | Virtual

To increase diversity in tech and to support those who are underrepresented in the tech industry, we created the WITS Ticket Assistance Program. This program provides complimentary admission to a WITS event of their choice to women who are unable to afford to attend, with priority given to women from underrepresented groups in tech*. We welcome anyone identifying as a woman or non-binary, meeting the eligibility criteria, who is interested in being educated, inspired, and connected to other women in tech to apply. Please read the eligibility criteria carefully and complete the entire application. Applications that are not complete or that do not meet the criteria will not be considered.

Who is welcome at WITS?

Everyone. WITS is a technical conference whose focus is on women and underrepresented minorities who work in, or with, tech in technical and non-technical roles. We want anyone who finds our programming educational or inspirational or who is looking to make connections with women working in a diverse variety of fields in tech to feel welcome to attend WITS.

What types of talks can you expect at WITS?

Sessions in all tracks at WITS are skills-based talks grounded in three basic concepts:
• Positive, forward-looking viewpoints
• Actionable messages that help attendees grow skills, networks, and careers
• Demonstrating that working in tech is writing code and much more

All sessions at WITS allow attendees to leave the room with some new knowledge or a new skill that will assist them in continuing to grow their careers.

Programming is in three tracks:

1. Innovate Yourself – provides audience members an opportunity to develop skills and learn from the experience and expertise of other women working in tech. Innovate Yourself sessions focus on topics useful for career growth on both the technical and business sides of technology.

2. Trends in Technology – provides audience members an opportunity to learn more about a specific technology topic. These sessions focus on some of the new things happening in and with technology. Attendees will come away from these sessions with an understanding of these trends and their applicability, as well as a working knowledge of the terminology relative to the trend.

3. Hands-on Workshops – The hands-on workshops provide audience members with practical experience in a given topic. Workshops are exercise and/or project based and provide either an elementary overview or a deep-dive into a particular technology topic.

2021 Speakers

Alex Fox
Product Manager, Warby Parker

Allison Liemhetcharat
Platform Architect, rideOS

Amanda Perkins
Sr SQA, Rocket Homes

Amber Barber
Senior Manager, Business Operations, Lam Research

Ameeta Soni
President, Altek Consulting

Amy Cliett
Director, TechGirlz

Andrena Sawyer
President, P.E.R.K. Consulting

Annette Leazer
President, Leazer Business Consulting

Aparna Kadari
Senior Manager, Information Security Operations and Engineering, Fannie Mae

Ayodele Odubela
Data Scientist, SambaSafety

Cecily Kellogg
Senior Digital Strategist, Percepture

Chaitali Gondhalekar
Senior Quality Engineer, MathWorks

Deepthi Goguri
SQL Database Administrator, Intone networks Inc.

Devshree Golecha
Head of Analytics, TDECU

Erin Linehan
Business Intelligence Analyst, DaVita

Frances DiMare Dailey
Design Research and Product Strategy, IBM

Ghada Saleh
Senior Quality Engineer., MathWorks

Harika Velamala
Senior Quality Engineer, MathWorks

Heather Stratford
Founder and CEO, Stronger International, Inc.

Helen Horstmann-Allen
Chief Operating Officer, Fastmail

Jennifer Forrest (she/her)
Gustavus Adolphus College

Jenny Gray
Senior Director of Application Development, Power Home Remodeling

Jessica Kupferman
CEO and Co-Founder, She Podcasts

Jill Ivey
Yoga Instructor, Maha Yoga Studio and Tula Yoga + Wellness

Junyun Tay
Senior Software Engineer, Cruise

Kate Garnes
Motivational Speaker

Khuloud Odeh
CIO and VP, Technology and Data Science, Urban Institute

Mansi Kamdar
Principal Product Manager, Walmart Labs

Maya Augelli
Owner & RYT200 Yoga Instructor, Maya Augelli Yoga

Meghan Kelly
Senior UX Specialist, Elsevier

Milecia McGregor
Developer Advocate, Conducto

Mythili Pisolkar
Director of Enterprise Agility, Savana

Nausheen Moulana
VP Of Software Engineering & Operations, Kyruus Inc

Nourma Bumgartner
Technologist, Freelance

Pooja Mistry
Cloud Developer Advocate, IBM

Sara Radkiewicz
Head of Product, CarePort Health

Shanikqua Tucker
Senior Solutions Engineer, Splunk

Sherika Wynter
CoFounder & Managing Partner, Thomas & Wynter R&D, LLC.

Siri Betts-Sonstegard
Design Researcher & Service Designer, IBM

Stephanie Humphrey
Technology Contributor, 'Til Death Do You Tweet

Subhasree Chatterjee
Sr. Data Analyst, LexisNexis

Susan Chiu
Senior Technology Partnership Manager, Futurewei

Sweety Bertilla
Sr. Android Engineer, Comcast Cable

2021 Sponsors and Partners

PLATINUM SPONSORS:
• CompTIA
• Creating IT Futures
• AWS
• Comcast
• TEK Systems

GOLD SPONSORS:
• Cisco Secure
• Accenture

SILVER SPONSOR:
• Community Connect

PARTNERS:
• Wise Her
• Achieve Unite
• Innovate Women
• Project Management Institute Mile Hi
• WorldData.AI