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23 May 24 May Virtual Speakers
23 May Speakers
Candy BaroneCEO of You Empowered Strong
Candy Barone, CEO of You Empowered Strong, is a leadership development expert, trainer andexecutive coach, as well as an international speaker and Amazon best-selling author.She is a catalyst and change agent who works with executives and emerging leaders to helpbring "heart" back to leadership while feeding the soul of their business. With nearly 20 years incorporate, combined with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering, certification as a SixSigma Black Belt, and MBA, she is a master at building exceptional, high-performing teams,maximizing and leveraging ROI, growing emerging leaders, creating metrics for greateraccountability, and catapulting individuals to achieve explosive growth.She was named a 2014-15 VIP Woman of the Year by the National Association of ProfessionalWomen, was recipient of the 2015 Public Speakers Association Local Collaborator Award, andwas nominated as a 2015 Profile in Power Central Texas Woman of Influence.Candy also has been showcased in CNN, U.S. News & World Report, The Austin Statesman,Austin Business Journal, Be the Boss Magazine, OffBeat Business Magazine, The ChicagoTribune, ciLiving TV, Femmes Under 40 Magazine, along with numerous radio shows andpodcasts. In addition, she serves as a call leader for the Evolutionary Business Council, aPartnering Director for the Public Speakers Association, is a member of the Good Deed Society,and volunteers within her community.Candy currently lives in Austin with her dog, Payton, and enjoys her free time outdoors, on thewater, spending time with friends, reading, or working out.
Dr. Celeste FralickChief Data Scientist, Senior Principal Engineer McAfee
Dr. Celeste Fralick is the Chief Data Scientist and Senior Principal Engineer for McAfee, bringing nearly 40 years of data science, statistical, and architectural experience in eight different market segments. Dr. Fralick has developed many AI models to detect ransomware and other security threats. She leads the McAfee Analytic Center of Excellence to enable Agile model development and eight Community of Practice groups world-wide. She has chaired numerous global engineering bodies, served on editorial boards, developed countless standards, and led corporate-wide process and product development efforts at Intel, Medtronic, Fairchild, and Texas Instruments. Dr. Fralick received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University in Biomedical Engineering, focused on Deep Learning and neuroscience. Dr. Fralick has been named as one of Forbes America's Top 50 Women in Tech for 2018: https://www.forbes.com/profile/celeste-fralick/?list=top-tech-women-america#12385de12d33 Celeste's blog: https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/author/celeste-fralick/ Co-Author, Intelligent Analytics: Bringing Analytics to the Internet of Things
Orly LibaResearch Scientist in Google
Dr. Orly Liba is a Research Scientist in Google's Computational Photography team, which is in Google AI Perception, since January 2018. Prior to that, she interned at Apple's Camera Software team and also worked on camera algorithms for three years in a high-tech company in Israel. Orly completed her PhD at the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford University, where her research focused on developing computational and optical tools for medical imaging.
Rosemary FrancisCo-founder and CEO of Ellexus
Dr Rosemary Francis is the co-founder and CEO of Ellexus. Rosemary obtained her PhD in Computer Architecture from the Cambridge University Computer Lab after studying maths and computer science as an undergraduate. Rosemary founded Ellexus to solve IT infrastructure problems in the semiconductor industry.Since then Ellexus has grown to become the I/O profiling company, providing unique application and supercomputer monitoring tools to accelerate cancer research, chip design, machine learning and high performance computing around the world.
Elizabeth FreedmanPrincipal, Management Consulting • Contributor at Forbes • Leadership Advisor • CSP
Elizabeth Freedman, MBA, CSP, is a Principal at Bates who advises and coaches executiveson developing strategies to gain global influence and credibility, building strong stakeholderrelationships, and motivating their employees and teams to deliver business results throughoutstanding leadership and communication. Through her consultative approach, and backedby rigorous evaluation, she helps C-suite leaders and senior leadership teams at over 20% ofthe Fortune 500, and has worked with leaders holding a broad range of C-Suite functionaland business roles.Her work includes a deep assessment of performance and communication gaps, teamdiscussion to define vision and strategic objectives, and individual "on your feet" coachingtime to create a strong approach that builds and sustains momentum for business initiatives.She is a certified Bates ExPITM feedback provider. The Bates ExPITM (Bates Executive PresenceIndexTM) is the first and only research-based, scientifically validated assessment to measureexecutive presence.Elizabeth is also a certified Bates LTPITM feedback provider. The Bates LTPITM (LeadershipTeam Performance Index) shines a light on a team's collective strengths and gaps, in realtime, with the goal of interpreting that data in context with the team's mission, goals andchallenges.Results AchievedElizabeth has an extensive list of clients at the executive level at companies including Textron, Boeing, DowChemical, BMS, Infosys, State Street, and Raytheon. Clients seek Elizabeth out to help their best get better throughexecutive advisory and coaching work, strategic team facilitation, and creating alignment and collaboration acrossteams to achieve key business objectives. Her work includes:• elevating the executive influence of C-suite leaders• building ownership and accountability across leadership teams• accelerating the performance of leaders transitioning and onboarding to the C-suite• readying high-potential leaders for future challenges• ensuring the execution of organizational strategy and change initiativesExpertise and CredentialsBefore joining Bates in 2011, Elizabeth worked at the consulting firms Accenture and marchFIRST. She also servedas an MBA Marketing lecturer at Dominican University in Chicago and was a former Peace Corps volunteer inRomania. Elizabeth is author of Work 101: Learning the Ropes of the Workplace Without Hanging Yourself(Penguin Random House, 2007). Her expertise on leadership has appeared in dozens of publications, including TheNew York Times and U.S. News & World Report, and was a featured coach in The Boston Globe. She has alsoappeared on The Moth, the Public Radio show that airs on over 470 public radio stations worldwide.Elizabeth is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), earning the highest-level designation awarded by the NationalSpeakers' Association. She is a dynamic, motivating speaker who has delivered hundreds of keynote presentations,and was a finalist for College Speaker of the Year, awarded by the Association for the Promotion of CampusActivities.
James E. LukaszewskiAmerica's Crisis Guru®
James (Jim) E. Lukaszewski (Loo-ka-SHEV-skee) is one of America's most visible corporatego-to people for senior executives when there is trouble in the room or on the horizon. AsAmerica's Crisis Guru®, Lukaszewski is known for his ability to help executives look atproblems from a variety of sensible, constructive and principled perspectives. He has spent hiscareer counseling leaders of all types who face challenging situations that often involve conflict,controversy, community action or activist opposition. He is known for taking a businessapproach rather than traditional PR strategies by teaching clients to take highly focused, ethicallyappropriate action. He is the very model of a trusted strategic advisor.An important part of his personal goals is breaking down gender, verbal and other barriers towomen having happier, more important, influential and successful careers how to Charge of theirown careers and destiny.He is the author of "Why Should the Boss Listen To You, the 7 Disciplines of Trusted StrategicAdvisor," Jossey-Bass 2009 and has devoted much of his career to teaching, coaching, andtraining those who advise and counsel leaders. His goal is to help these individuals, especiallywomen, succeed in having the influence, access and impact they seek, and deserve to be trustedstrategic advisors. Those who follow Jim, read or hear his messages have called him abreakthrough thinker, a realist, and advisor who lives where so many aspire to be. He asks toughquestions and his answers are surprisingly candid.Lukaszewski has written 13 books and hundreds of articles and monographs. He has lectured atthe corporate, college and university level and has earned many professional recognitions in hisfield. Corporate Legal Times once listed him as one of 28 experts to call when "All Hell BreaksLoose."Lukaszewski currently resides with his wife of 55 years, Barbara, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Erin KeysLead advisor to all ATI Water & Food companies and manager of Water RIOT.
Lead advisor to all ATI Water & Food companies and manager of Water RIOT. She 12 years of experience in the power industry, including two years in a General Electric leadership development program and four years selling demand side management programs to electric utilities across the US.Erin is a co-developer of a variety of STEM curricula for primary and secondary school students, and a mentor for Explore Austin, a nonprofit that provides leadership development to at-risk youth in Austin through outdoor adventure over the course of a six-year programShe is MS in Mechanical Engineering from UT Austin, where she was a National Science Foundation Fellow under the direction of Dr. Michael Webber and competed in startup pitches related to the application of her research
Helen BraunerDescriptionSenior Director of Origination for 7X Energy
Helen Brauner serves as the Senior Director of Origination for 7X Energy, an Austin-basedutility-scale solar developer with over 5 GW of solar capacity in its development pipeline. Helenhas worked in the renewable energy sector for over 15 years. Prior to joining 7X, Helen was astrategy and marketing consultant for cleantech companies. Before consulting, Helen spent nineyears at Green Mountain Energy, a retail electric provider selling green power and subsidiary ofNRG Energy, where she served as the Senior VP of Strategic Planning and Marketing. She hasan MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas and a BA inEconomics from Rice University.Helen has worked in the renewable energy sector for almost 15 years. Prior to joining7X, Helen was an independent strategy and marketing consultant for cleantechcompanies. Before becoming a consultant, Helen spent nine years at Green MountainEnergy, a retail electric provider selling green power, where she served as the SeniorVP of Strategic Planning and Marketing. She has an MBA from the McCombs School ofBusiness at the University of Texas and a BA in Economics from Rice University. Helen has served on the boards of CleanTX and the Texas Solar Power Association.She currently volunteers on the marketing committee of Impact Austin. When she's not working to get more renewable energy onto America's electric grid,Helen likes to snuggle on the couch with her family and her pug, Gabby, and watchdocumentaries on climate change while checking the output of her 7 kW solar systemon her smartphone.
Jenny Q. TaVeteran Wall Street self-made millionaire
Jenny Q. Ta is a veteran Wall Street self-made millionaire and founder of two tech companies VCNetwork.co, a virtual "E-Harmony meets Shark Tank" matching entrepreneurs with VCs and Sqeeqee.com, the first "social networthing" platform. Ms. Ta is the mastermind behind the first-of-its-kind social networthing® site, Sqeeqee.com. Launched in 2015, the site gives individuals, businesses, celebrities, politicians, and non-profit organizations the ability to monetize their profiles in unprecedented ways. Sqeeqee is the first integrated ecommerce and social media platform offering live streaming capabilities built from within. Sqeeqee's intent is to provide our global users an unprecedented platform to share compelling stories in real-time, empowering them to broadcast and receive live video footage anytime, anywhere on any device. Ms. Ta is a seasoned entrepreneur with two successful ventures to her credit. She was the Founder and CEO of Titan Securities, a full service investment firm that was acquired. Prior to founding Titan Securities she was the driving force behind Vantage Investments, a full-service broker-dealer start-up she founded and grew to a quarter of a billion dollars in assets. Overall, she has extensive experiences in senior executive management, sales, marketing, finance and the FinTech industry of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Jenny is an author whose book, Wall Street Cinderella (which is currently in production talks to become a movie) detailing her escape from Vietnam during the war and her path to success from welfare to Wall Street. As a self-made millionaire by her mid-twenties, the book will serve as a road map for women looking at a business career. She earned a Master of Business Administration degree in Financial Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems from California State University, Fresno.
Kathy ChouVP of Research & Development Operations and Central Services for VMware
Kathy Chou is VP of Research & Development Operations and Central Services for VMware. Chou has more than 25 years of operations and management experience in the high-tech industry. Previously, she has served as SVP of Sales Strategy and Operations for Informatica, VP of Sales Operations and Strategy at Intuit and spent 18 years at HP in various management roles. Chou holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in manufacturing systems engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. She most recently served on the Stanford Presidential Search Committee, has chaired the Stanford Alumni Committee on Trustee Nominations and served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors. She is currently Vice Chair for the Stanford Institute for Research in Social Sciences (IRISS), development director for the Asian Pacific Fund, member of the Santa Clara University Board of Regents and Engineering Advisory Board. Kathy received the Stanford Medal in 2013, Wise Woman Award from Deloitte LLP in 2011, and was the Winner of the Franz Edelman Award for excellence in Operations Research in 2009. The Silicon Valley Business Journal selected her as one of the Top 100 most influential women in 2011. Chou lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and four sons.
Rhonda HoltVP of Software Development & Operations at the Public Broadcasting Service(PBS)
Rhonda Holt is the VP of Software Development & Operations at the PublicBroadcasting Service(PBS), where she leads PBS' Corporate IT and MediaBusiness Systems teams. Prior to joining PBS, Ms. Holt pursued herentrepreneurial aspirations and leveraged her extensive business and technologyexperience by working to build and develop an early-stage health technologystart-up, where she was a Principal in the company management, as well as theleader for the Engineering team. She remains on the board of Advisors forTrustedCare Inc.Ms. Holt's most recent corporate role was as Senior Vice-President, DigitalMedia Technologies, at Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. In this role, herresponsibilities included oversight for the delivery of Turner'sweb based products, including website development, deployment, andoperations for Turner's new media and mobile businesses in News, Sports, andentertainment. Ms. Holt has also held Executive leadership roles atSun Microsystems and Dell.Ms. Holt is a graduate of the University of Florida and holds a BS degree inComputer Science, a graduate of the Betsy Magness Leadership Institute at theCenter for Creative Leadership, as well as a graduate of the NAMIC ExecutiveLeadership Development Program at the UCLA Anderson School ofManagement.Ms. Holt previously served as a Director on the board for Public BroadcastingAtlanta, WABE TV, 90.1FM, and isa Director and Executive Committee Member for the University of FloridaFoundation Board, as well as theDean's Advisory board for the University of Florida, College of Engineering.
Kathy GruverMotivational health speaker
Kathy Gruver, PhD has graced stages on four continents (including TEDx), three cruise ships and a handful of islands. Her combination of humor, performance background, real life experience and formal education makes her a well-rounded, in-demand speaker. She hosts the TV show based on her first book, The Alternative Medicine Cabinet and has earned her PhD in Natural Health. Dr. Gruver is the twelve-time award-winning author of seven books including, Conquer Your Stress, Workplace Wellness, Conquer your Stress at Work, and Journey of Healing. She has studied mind/body medicine at the famed Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at Harvard, and has been featured as an expert in numerous publications including Glamour, Fitness, Time, WebMD, Prevention, Huffington Post and Dr. Oz's The Good Life, and has appeared on over 250 radio & TV shows including Lifetime, NPR, CBS Radio and SkyNews London. In 2015 she had the privilege of creating a stress reduction program for the US Military and has been studying psychology and human behavior her entire life. She is also the co-host of the new Fire and Earth Podcast. For fun and stress relief Gruver does hip hop and flying trapeze.
Lauren HassonFounder of DevelopHer
Lauren Hasson is the Founder of DevelopHer and a senior engineer in appsand information security at a leading fintech company. She foundedDevelopHer to help fellow engineers advance their careers and negotiate forthe salaries they deserve after learning she a male peer was paid 50% morethan her. And, because she invested in learning how to negotiate for herself,Lauren was able to triple her salary in less than two years.Now, she's single-handedly bridging the gender wage gap and her work hasbeen featured in the international IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine, she'sbeen hired by top companies like Google to train and inspire their women,and she received the Women in IT Awards Silicon Valley "Diversity Initiative ofthe Year" Award. She's currently a Finalist for the United Nations's WSISStakeholder Platform Prize and the Women in IT Awards New York "Innovatorof the Year" Award.In addition to her DevelopHer work, Lauren's professional tech work has beenfeatured in Apple keynotes, she was one of 100 top innovators invited toattend the UK G8 Innovation and Decide Now Act Summits, and she's wonmultiple, high-profile hackathons. Lauren holds a degree from Duke whereshe completed a triple major with top honors in electrical engineering,computer science, and economics in just four years, is a graduate ofLeadership Texas, and is a current member of Leadership America.
Lauren ZackHead of User Experience for SONY Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation)
Lauren is a recognized UX and Product leader, with a proven track record of infusingdesign thinking throughout organizations to create world class product experiences.In her current role, she leads User Experience for the PlayStation platform, includingteams focused on interaction and visual design, user research and insights, UX writingand prototyping tools development.Beginning her career in 1989, Lauren has led multi-disciplinary UX teams, contributing toaward-winning experiences in healthcare, FinTech, and consumer electronics by drivingcross-functional focus on customer experiences through innovative application of usercentered design principles. Passionate about employing a user-centered focus to allaspects of work, Lauren has been publishing and speaking on these topics throughouther career.Lauren obtained her Bachelor of Science in Physics and Cognitive Psychology fromCarnegie Mellon University, her Master of Science in Industrial & Systems Engineering(Center for Human-Machine Systems Research) from Georgia Institute of Technologyand her Master of Arts in Education from Tufts University.
Marcela FujiyCo-Founder at Be.Labs Aceleradora & Franchisee at Kopenhagen Chocolates
Graduated in Law, graduated from the State University of ParaíbaPost-graduate degree in Business Administration from the University of São PauloCertification in Project Management from George Washington UniversityFOT - Friends of Tomorrow by PerestroikaStartPB Mentor - Sebrae PBSpeaker in the area of women's empowerment and management+12 years of experience in large multinationals in Brazil and abroad in the area offinance and infrastructureCo-founder of Be.Labs Accelerator and partner at Kopenhagen Chocolates ParaíbaMarcela loves to learn and share her experiences. With an entrepreneurial spirit, she isconstantly evolving. She has worked in multinational companies and now leads anationally recognized business through innovative, horizontal and autonomousmanagement. In her wanderings around the world she has visited 45 countries, runmany marathons and brought back not only several medals but also the vigor of thosewho never tire of pursuing their purpose: to develop people and themselves to createan equal world. At 40 years old, she is married to Christian and the mother of Yuri andYasmin - from whom she also learns every day.
Rashi KhuranaVP, Engineering for eCommerce Images, Front-end Platform and Mobile at Shutterstock
Rashi Khurana is VP of Engineering, currently leading Shutterstock's technical teams for eCommerce platform and Contributor experience. Since joining Shutterstock in 2016, Rashi helped lead three teams through a technology transformation, all the while managing day-to-day operations of delivering a quality product to customers. Rashi is passionate about managing teams of engineers to deliver above expectations every day and building resiliency into all initiatives. Hailing from India, Rashi moved to the United States in 2007 to pursue a master's degree in Information Technology and Management at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Upon graduation, she worked at Orbitz in Chicago for seven years—before moving to New York City.
Hagit Messer YaronProfessor, Tel Aviv University.
HAGIT MESSER-YARON received the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University(TAU), ISRAEL, and after a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University, she joined the faculty ofEngineering at Tel Aviv University in 1986, where she is The Kranzberg Chair Professor in SignalProcessing at the school of Electrical Engineering. On 2000-3 she has been on leave from TAU,serving as the Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Science. After returning to TAU she was thehead of the Porter school of environmental studies (2004-6), and the Vice President forResearch and Development (2006-8). Then, she has been the President of the Open University(2008-13), and from Oct. 2013 till January 2016 she has served as the Vice Chair of the Councilof Higher Education, Israel. On 2016 she has also become a co-founder of ClimaCell.Hagit Messer-Yaron, Life Fellow of the IEEE, is an active researcher in the field of StatisticalSignal Processing, with applications to environmental monitoring. She is also interested invarious aspects of higher-education and science policy, including: ethics, science-societyinterplay, and commercialization of academic research. Prof. Messer-Yaron is committed to theadvancement of women in science and technology.
Iga HallbergBoard Member at Pecan Street Project Inc
Iga Hallberg is determined to help develop Austin as the "Cleantech Capital of theWorld". Her practice is focused on working with start-ups during pivotal stages of theirdevelopment and growth when commercialization strategy, key partnerships and vitalproduct positioning decisions determine the growth of the company.Iga is the former Vice President of Business Development and Marketing for HelioVoltCorporation, a next generation thin film solar panel manufacturer. During her time withHelioVolt, Iga was critical in raising over $250M in venture funding to launch thecompany's first operations in Austin. Her expertise in international expansion strategywas key in landing a number of vital strategic partnerships for HelioVolt. Prior toHelioVolt, Iga was a General Manager with NovaCentrix, an innovative nanoparticleapplication developer for the printable electronics industry. Her career in launching newproducts and markets started at 3M, where she held multiple global marketing andbusiness roles in the company's offices in Austin, St. Paul and Brussels.Iga serves on the Board of Directors of Pecan Street, Inc. She is an active member ofthe start-up community in Austin as a mentor at the Austin Technology Incubator. She isalso a founding member of The Treaty Oak Chapter of the National Charity League andserves the community along with her two daughters.
Voeronica bermudezSenior Research Director at QEERI
Veronica is Senior Research Director at QEERI where she is the Director of the EnergyCenter leading the efforts in research and innovation in Energy programs as EnergyManagement (smart grids, EV, demand-response, power management,…), EnergyStorage (high capacity concepts and outdoor test and reliability), Energy Conversion(mainly downstream PV and adaptability and durability to Harsh Climates), EnergyEfficiency and Sustainable Development, Catalysis and Process Technologies forAdded Value products and Disruptive Technologies (mainly Solar Rectennas andSensors)...Prior to joining the organization in 2018, she was Acting General Manager of AtsugiResearch Center at Solar Frontier KK in Japan, PrincipalScientist at EDF R&D, Senior Scientist at NEXCIS (EDF start-up) and Head of theOptoelectronic Characterization Laboratory at IRDEP (EDF) in France.Veronica has a PhD in physics from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain) andholds a number of international awards for her research activity. She is an AssociateEditor in Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy and acts as independent expertfor a number ofinternational funding agencies as the European Commission. She is also the author orco-author of more than 120 scientific papers in renowned journals, including Nature,Nature Energy and Science, a large number of invited and keynote conferences as wellas a relevant patent portfolio. She has extensive experience in laboratory to industryresearch and technology transfer. She is IEEE Senior Member and an expert for theEuropean Commission and other funding bodies.
Suzanne RussoChief Executive Officer at Pecan Street Inc.
Suzanne is chief executive officer for Pecan Street. Prior to joining the organization in 2010, shewas director of sustainability initiatives for New York City's Department of Housing Preservationand Development where she led the development of green building and sustainable retrofitstandards for municipally-funded affordable housing. Over the past seven years, Suzanneserved as chief of staff and then chief operating officer for Pecan Street, during which timeForbes named her one of five women 'Using Technology to Blow Up Social Change.' An urbanplanner with a masters degree in community and regional planning from the University of Texasat Austin, Suzanne has worked in Africa, China, India and the USA on community-basedsustainable development.
Aneshia Y. SmithExecutive director of the Aneshia Y. Smith Institute for Women and Girls
ContentAneshia Y. Smith is the executive director of the Aneshia Y. Smith Institute for Women andGirls, a nonprofit corporation based in the beautiful sunshine coastal community of Carlsbad,California, approximately 20 miles north of San Diego. AYSIWG empowers and improves thelives of women and girls through training on topics related to mind, body and spirit. Aneshiahas over 20 years of experience as an engineer and instructor in the field of advancedmanufacturing - industrial automation, including ten years as a senior controls engineeringconsultant. She worked for Rockwell Automation for 10 years, starting as a field engineer EIT attheir Milwaukee headquarters immediately after college, and as a senior level controlsengineer and senior level field technical instructor. Aneshia is also the founder of and leadcoach at ITATI, a stock market coaching company for women. She is the author of two books:Personal Testimonies of the Universal Presence and Wealth Wisdom for Ladies and has beeninvesting and trading in the stock market on her own behalf for two decades.Aneshia holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&MUniversity, where she left her mark "literally" on a plaque that is mounted inside theDepartment of Mechanical Engineering building as the recipient of the Simmang Award inThermal Science. Aneshia has been featured as the keynote speaker for several events. She hasalso appeared on various radio and television shows, including Lifetime Television's TheBalancing Act, broadcasting to 2 million women nationwide. To learn more about AYSIWG andhow you can get involved, log on to www.AneshiaYSmithInstitute.org for details on how youcan help women and girls develop and maintain high self-esteem and self-worth, reach theirpersonal and professional goals, make a positive economic impact on their communities, liveempowered lives, and ultimately deliver their gifts to the world.
Zona KosticActive Bidirectional Learning in Autonomous Digital Society
In the act of massive data and breathtaking advances of artificial intelligence, social infrastructure promotes automation, digital engagement, and active presence. Digital democracy propagates the participation of growing number of people to interact with institutions and services, ensuring that decisions made by digital tools reflect human values. The future environment and its vitality will depend on the ability to use intelligent applications and "systems thinking". In this talk, I will focus on automated processes as part of the "City as a Platform" infrastructure. The presentation will emphasise the automation in urban planning and its role towards objective, rational thinking. We will discuss how systems and users react on each other, producing continuous and bidirectional flow of information. This talk brings scientific and industry experiences, projects successes as well as challenges of incorporating feedback loops in human-machine models.
Allen LuCTO and co-founder of AdaptiLab
Allen Lu is the CTO and co-founder of AdaptiLab, a B2B SaaS Startup that builds data-driven solutions to companies' biggest challenges in the machine learning talent pipeline. Allen is an experienced software engineer and published ML researcher, with particular focus in natural language processing. He owns a degree in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University, where he spent time researching spoken dialog systems and abstractive text summarization. Previously, Allen held positions at both Google and Microsoft. At Google, he worked on improving search results with contextualized intent prediction. At Microsoft, he worked in the research branch (MSR) to automate Microsoft's customer service with turn-based spoken dialog systems. Allen currently lives in Bellevue, Washington and enjoys spending free time outdoors or on the water.
James WuCEO and co-founder of AdaptiLab
James Wu is the CEO and co-founder of AdaptiLab, a B2B SaaS Startup that builds data-driven solutions to companies' biggest challenges in the machine learning talent pipeline. James is an experienced dev lead and machine learning researcher, with a focus on anomaly detection and interpretable machine learning models. He studied computer science and statistics at Duke University. He has experience working as an engineer and dev lead at early stage tech startups and was a Freestyle Venture Capital Engineering Fellow. James currently lives in Bellevue, Washington and when he's not working on AdaptiLab he enjoys playing tennis and walking his dog.
Patty BurkeProfessional Biography
Patty is an Innovation and Venture Catalyst in CCL's Commercialization and Innovation (C&I) Unit.She is responsible for identifying, validating and commercializing innovative product and serviceopportunities. Her first project is the breakthrough Advancing Technical Women program, launchedin Spring 2018 and now offered globally. Patty also represents CCL and C&I in the Bay Area,working closely with clients in technology, healthcare and financial services, and with Women'sLeadership and other advocacy organizations.Patty is an experienced technology executive who has served in global operational roles with largecorporations and startups and as a consultant to venture capital firms, corporate innovation groupsand technology startups.She was founder and managing partner of Accelevate, an innovation consulting firm specialized inLean Startup and was a Partner with Bell Mason Group, conducting corporate venture andinnovation readiness assessments and innovation training. Consulting clients included Merck, RoyalPhilips, AmEx, CitiGroup, Coca-Cola, Siemens, Fujifilm, the American Heart Association amongothers. She was previously Vice President of Marketing for internet start-up Ramp Networks(acquired by Nokia), Corporate Vice President of Marketing for leading security software companySymantec, and a Partner with Regis McKenna Inc. in Palo Alto and GM of RMI's Los Angeles office.Patty was also an instructor for the CalTech Industrial Relations Center Executive Educationprogram.Education and Professional AffiliationsPatty is a member of the advisory board for the Global Corporate Venturing and Innovation Summitand is a Catalyst Award Advisor for the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute. She isalso a mentor and advisor to entrepreneurial programs at California College of the Arts/Design MBAand San Jose State University Lucas College and Graduate School of Business. Patty holds a BA inEnglish and German from the University of Texas at AustinAbout The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)CCL is a global research and leadership development non-profit, ranked among the world's Top 5providers of executive education by Financial Times and in the Top 10 byBloomberg BusinessWeek. CCL's mission is to improve the understanding, practice, anddevelopment of leadership at all levels for the benefit of society worldwide. CCL has offices inGreensboro, NC; Colorado Springs, CO; San Diego, CA; Brussels, Belgium; Moscow, Russia; AddisAbaba, Ethiopia; Johannesburg, South Africa; Singapore; Gurgaon, India; and Shanghai, China
Stephanie Watts ButlerTexas Instruments
Is the Technology Innovation Architect in High Voltage Powerat Texas Instruments (TI), driving new high voltage and isolation technology innovations fromconcept to revenue by leading partnerships with TI's technology organizations, manufacturing sites,universities, and product development teams. In her career, she has produced innovations in theareas of control, process and package development, R&D management, and new productdevelopment. Dr. Butler has authored more than 40 papers and 17 U.S. patents. She is the Chair ofJEDEC's JC-70 Wide Bandgap Committee, a Fellow of the AVS, and a Senior Member of IEEE andAIChE. Dr. Butler is also a member of the IEEE PELS WIE Committee . SWE honored Dr. Butlerwith their highest award, the Achievement Award for Outstanding Technical Contributions, andBusiness Insider named Dr. Butler to their most powerful female engineers list of 2017. Dr. Butleralso serves on the TxGCP Champion Board and UT Austin Department of Chemical EngineeringAdvisory Council.
Sonji ThompsonDesign Program Manager at Samsung Austin
Sonji Thompson is a Design Program Manager at Samsung Austin R&D Center whereshe is primarily responsible for removing road blocks and enabling teams to deliverIP for mobile and automotive Samsung products. She is a passionate advocate forwomen and has lead the SARC Women In Technology at Samsung EmployeeResource Group for the past 4 years. This year she is co-leading the ERG forsmoother transition out in 2020.Sonji has over 28 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, ranging fromproduct engineering, failure analysis, custom design and chip integrationengineering at Motorola/Freescale. She had been a manager for 10 of those yearsand transitioned to project and program management when joining Samsung in2010.Sonji also holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin inElectrical Engineering and a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from NationalTechnology University through course and project work from several highlyrenowned universities. She has lived primarily in Texas, Houston and Austin. Shecurrently resides in Austin with her husband, their teenage son and daughter, anddog Bandit. She loves to travel, hike, and spend time with family and friends.
Samantha SnabesCo-Founder, Catalyst, re:3D
Samantha is a Co-Founder & Catalyst for re:3D a company built on a community of makersusing gigabot to print human-scale objects using recycled materials. Their mission is tocreate more access to 3D printable solutions worldwide. The re:3D team consists of severalformer NASA engineers interested in driving social and economic change through open-source engineering-driven innovations.Additionally, re:3D and Samantha recently won the world wide 2018 WeWork Creator AwardMillion Dollar Prize and is a mentor with Puerto Rico's startup community via Parellel18.Previously, Samantha served as the Social Entrepreneur in Residence for the NASA HQ andDeputy Strategist supporting NASA Johnson Space Center's Space LifeSciences Directorate after selling a start-up for a DARPA-funded,co-patented tissue culturedevice.She holds a BS in Biology, BA degrees in International Relations & Hispanic Studies, a MBAwith concentrations in Supply Chain Management & International Relations, andcertifications as a firefighter & EMT-B.Samantha is the 2018-2019 Chair for IEEE Entrepreneurship. She has been an activevolunteer leader with IEEE's Entrepreneurship Exchange since 2016 and was the 2017 ViceChair, Industry Partner for the IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee. Samantha is ajudge for the IEEE N3XT® Stars Program.
Rama HariharaAI on mobile GPU
Nakshatra GajbhiyeTexas Instruments
Nakshatra Gajbhiye joined Texas Instruments in 2008 as a Design engineer where she worked onproducts for personal electronics and industrial markets. After 4 years in Design, she built and led aMixed Signal Design Verification team and executed on several power products. Nakshatra was electedto the TI Technical Ladder (MGTS) in 2016 and holds 3 patents. She has driven TI level initiatives thatfocused on methodology improvements for New Product Development and Demand Creation. In 2017,she transitioned into the WW Business Lead role for Power Switches managing the Systems,Applications & Marketing teams across US and India. Most recently she took over the Product LineManager role responsible to drive the business strategy, execution and marketing for PowerManagement IC's
Lisa FinneranVice President, Engineering
Lisa Finneran is Vice President of Engineering for General Dynamics MissionSystems. She is responsible for engineering execution across 60 major GD-MSsites and 7000 employees. Previously, she was P&L leader for Strategic Systemsproviding strategic warfare system solutions to the U.S. Navy, U.K. Navy, and theU.S. Air Force. She managed the execution of multi-discipline design andproduction teams for the system that controls the launch of Submarine LaunchedNuclear Ballistic Missiles and modernized it for the past 50+ years. This alsoincludes guidance design, production, and repair. Similar work is performed forthe United States Air force Intercontinental Ballistic Missile strategic deterrent.
Leslie RobertsonVP, User and Developer Experience
Leslie Robertson (VP, User and Developer Experience) leads all aspects of the Oracle CloudInfrastructure (OCI) user and developer experience, including the administrative front-end OCIConsole, programmatic interfaces (APIs, SDKs, CLI, Terraform, and Ansible), the UI platform intowhich all OCI services plug, the Search and Announcements services, and the content platform andproduct documentation for all OCI services. As an early member of the OCI team, Lesliebootstrapped both product documentation and content infrastructure as well as multiple initiatives todrive a cohesive engineering culture within the OCI organization, including writing our OCI corevalues, spinning up weekly onboarding and engineering bootcamps for new hires, and founding theWomen of OCI program geared at mentoring and driving professional growth for women in OCI.Leslie graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with University Honors, and holds a double BA inProfessional Writing and Creative Writing.
Katie Van StranderSenior Engineer, Material Technology, Samsung
Katie Van Strander is a Senior Engineer and Material Quality Engineering Team Lead in the MaterialTechnology group at Samsung Austin Semiconductor. She has 8 years of experience in thesemiconductor industry; in her 5 years at SAS, Katie first worked in bulk chemical and slurry deliveryequipment operations and projects, and she now leads a team focused on incoming raw materialquality, monitoring, and performance. She was a founding member of Women in Technology atSamsung (WITS) in 2014 and joined the WITS board committee for Professional Development in 2019with a focus on conference coordination.Katie holds a BS in Chemistry from New York University and a BE in Chemical Engineering from StevensInstitute of Technology.
Kelly SimmonsSenior Faculty
Kelly joined the Center for Creative Leadership in EMEA in 2008, and the San Diego faculty in 2015. She beganher working career as a Manufacturing and Supply Chain engineer at Hewlett Packard Company in San Diego,USA and Guadalajara, Mexico where she led projects based in Asia and South America.Kelly is a specialist in helping teams and individuals think about their organizations like systems and build theskills to lead more effectively in their environments. She is an energetic and insightful communicator whocan connect broad technical and sector knowledge with critical client needs – areas such as designing anddelivering culture change to support the organization's goals and mandates and designing high touchleadership development programs that feel like they are a natural part of an organization's learning anddevelopment strategy. She is currently focused on mobile learning and women's leadership for women inSTEM.She has led the set up and operation of the consulting and training departments of two start-up boutiqueconsulting firms in Barcelona, Spain. She has been on the faculty at EADA business school in Barcelona, Spainfor 10 years, and has designed and delivered leadership and organizational development programs acrossEurope and the United States. She has supported senior leadership teams with facilitation, design andconsultation as they define and realize the deep organizational and culture changes they have wanted tomake.Her specialization in organizational systems shows up in the chapter she co-authored in the book, "Seeingteams as Human Systems" in the 2008 publication of "Do you Work or Collaborate?" ("¿Trabajas ocolaboras?) by Profit Editorial, 2011. She has spoken twice about Systems Thinking in Leadership at the IEEEInternational Women's Leadership Conference in the Silicon Valley (2014 & 2015).
Kathy ChouGlobal Executive & Board Director
Kathy Chou is vice president of R&D Operations and Central Services at VMwareresponsible for performanceand security engineering,release management,globalization, technicaleducation and ecosystemservices serving technicalpartners.Before joining VMware in 2016,Chou worked at Informatica assenior vice president of SalesStrategy and Operations. Chouworked at Intuit as vicepresident of Sales Operationsand Strategy. At Hewlett-Packard, Kathy was vicepresident of Personal SystemsGroup Sales Strategy and Operations and Worldwide CommercialSales representing $18B in revenue. Chou led the HP team that wonthe 2009 Franz Edelman award for outstanding achievement inapplied operations research.
Carrie ChitseyCo-Founder/CEO, One Touch Video Chat/Live Video Interviews
Carrie Chitsey Wells, a native Austinite, is a digital technology innovator currently on her 7th company.She loves to stay busy running companies like healthcare (One Touch Telehealth), digital banking (OneTouch Video Chat) and recruiting/HR (Live Video Interviews). She is extremely passionate about youthmental health and the opioid crisis, which led her to start the non-profit Humans Helping Humans andexpand her podcast "Executive Innovation Show" to gain awareness. She is nationally recognized as Top100 Female Founders, Top 50 Mobile Experts and Top 40 Under 40 Marketing executives.
Deepa RajanCPU Specialist and Leader, Samsung
Deepa Rajan is a CPU specialist and leader with focus on building high speed, low power CPUs in themobile technology space. She has 19 years of experience in various technical roles such as Micro-Architecture, RTL and Physical implementation. In her current role at Samsung, she is focused onphysical implementation of CPUs and building high performance teams with emphasis on team workand innovation. Deepa has her Master's degree from Arizona State University and Bachelor's degree inElectrical Engineering from University of Madras, India. She is passionate about advocacy for women intechnology and STEM education for girls.
Billy StanberyChief Science Officer at Siva Power
Billy Jack "B.J." Stanbery has an illustrious career spanning more than 40 years in the solarindustry. He is an expert in the business and science of photovoltaics (PV) and especially CIGS.Before joining Siva Power, Stanbery was the founder and CEO of HelioVolt where he developedand manufactured CIGS thin-film PV. Prior to founding HelioVolt, Stanbery managed Boeing'sterrestrial PV program. During that 17-year tenure at Boeing his team manufactured anddeployed PV for spacecraft and in 1990 achieved the world record in multi-junction thin-film PVconversion efficiency. Stanbery completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the Universityof Florida, having previously obtained an M.S. in Physics from the University of Washington andB.S. in both Physics and Mathematics from the University of Texas. Stanbery currently serveson the Board of the DuraMAT Consortium, having previously served on the Board of the TexasRenewable Energy Association and as Chairman of the Board for the Texas Solar EnergyIndustry Association. He is presently a member of the Strategic Advisory Board and ChiefScience Officer at Siva Power.
24 May Speakers
Eileen ScullyFounder and CEO of The Rising Tides,
Eileen Scully is the Founder and CEO of The Rising Tides, making the workplacebetter for women through consulting and advisory services. She is an internationalspeaker, and author of "In the Company of Men: How Women can Succeed in aWorld Built Without Them", set for publication in the spring of 2019.She is a SheSource Expert with the Women's Media Center, and has beeninterviewed by Forbes, the Boston Globe, Standard and Poor's Global MarketIntelligence, Thrive Global, Psychology Today, and Inc..In June of 2016, she was invited by the Obama White House to participate in the United State ofWomen, one of five thousand global advocates for women and girls.In April of 2017, she spoke at the first ever Diversity in Marketing and Advertising Summit in London,the only event of it's kind focused on fostering greater diversity and inclusion in the industry.In August of 2018 she spoke at the first Women In Engineering conference sponsored by the globalInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Tunisia.In September of 2018, she delivered her first TED talk at the TEDx conference in Sfax, Tunisia.In November of 2018, The Rising Tides launched the Leadership Diversity Index, the firstcomprehensive measurement of the representation of women and people of color on corporate boardsof directors and executive leadership teams.In December of 2018, Eileen was named to Irish America Magazine's 2018 Business 100 list, thesecond consecutive year she received this prestigious and deeply meaningful honor.In the spring of 2019, her book "In the Company of Men: How Women can Succeed in a World BuiltWithout Them" will be published.Much of her free time is spent working with The Get In Touch Foundation, on whose board she hasproudly served since 2010. Get In Touch provides free breast health education to girls around theworld, and to date have reached over one million girls in 34 countries, all 50 states.She also serves as an advisor to LEAP, Leadership & Executive Acceleration Program, which empowersIrish and Irish-American women to accelerate their careers by providing access to professionalinsights, mentors, and role models.
Ameni ChannoufiPKI Consultant, Gemalto – Thales. WoLTech President, Techwomen Alumnae
Ameni works as a PKI and IT security expert in Gemalto-Thales Company and is in charge of providing PKI consultancy and support for projects within the company's Government Program business unit.With more than10 years' experience in PKI Government projects in 4 continents, Ameni's experience covers electronic certificates, electronic signature, eID, ePassport, eDriving License and IOT PKI...In an other hand, Ameni has a career as an active member in women in technology, leadership and mentoring organisations and programs: Techwomen, Technovation, WoLTech, Techgirls, Mentoring Standard, ...In 2014, she was selected to represent Tunisian women in Techwomen program in Silicon Valley USA, a life changing experience that affects her professional and social life. In Tunisia she volunteered as a mentor in the first edition of Technovation challenge program in Tunisia 2015, an experience that allowed her to be certified professional mentor from Mentoring standard, San Francisco.In 2016 and to have more flexibility and efficiency in her activities, Ameni decided to create WoLTech NGO in collaboration with a high level of Tunisian women working in STEM fields. As president and founder of WoLTech, Ameni is working on empowering women and girls working in STEM fields in Tunisia. Also she participated in Techwomen program delegation trips in Jordan and Tunisia in order to empower and support women and girls in STEM fields everywhere.
Babette Ten HakenKeynote Speaker | Author | Storytelling for STEM Professionals & Left Brain Thinkers
Babette Ten Haken's mantra is: "Depending on where we sit around the table, we 'see' the same things,differently. Shouldn't our differences become our strengths and opportunities to better serve eachother and our customers? " In today's digitally connected workplaces, machines and software oftencommunicate far more compatibly than their human counterparts. It doesn't have to be that way,anymore. Babette Ten Haken created her One Millimeter Mindset™ Storytelling for STEM Professionals and LeftBrain Thinkers speaking programs for individuals, teams, associations and organizations who want tocatalyze stakeholder success and customer / member retention. Leverage storytelling to enhance yourcareer trajectory. Bridge unprofitable communication disconnects caused by professional silos, paygrades and levels of education. Start telling the stories your stakeholders and customers really need tohear.Babette Ten Haken's speaking programs are forged by her own background as a STEM design thinker, SixSigma Green Belt and Voice of the Customer facilitator. She is a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM and theNational Speakers Association. Her collaboration playbook, Do YOU Mean Business? is a Top Sales WorldTop 50 Sales Book (2015, 2017, 2018). Babette is a Cloud Top 100 Global Power Influencer and a TopSales World Top 50 Marketing & Sales Influencer & Blogger, 2013-2018.
Emma FeshbachProduct Design Engineer at Nest
Emma Feshbach is a product design engineer at Nest. Prior to Nest, she worked at Fitbit designing and integrating next generation heart rate sensor systems. She's passionate about building products that enhance consumer well being and create experiences for a more thoughtful home. Emma graduated in 2015 from MIT with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in French. In her free time, she loves exploring new cities, watercoloring, lifting weights, and testing new recipes in the kitchen.
Jennifer Heproduct manager at Visa's Innovation Lab
Jennifer is a product manager at Visa's Innovation Lab where she uses rapid prototyping and human centered design to build new payment solutions. Her background is in technology, having previously worked at Stripe and Microsoft. She has also been deeply involved on the nonprofit side both as a long time mentor and now in an advisory role. In 2015, Jennifer launched and managed Girls in Tech DC, a nonprofit focused on empowering women in technology, and she currently sits on the advisory board of Spark Program, which aims to give children early exposure to career opportunities through immersive projects and mentorship. She can talk to both finding a nonprofit board position as well as different ways to get involved with nonprofits
Jean McManusExecutive Director - Emerging Technologies
Jean is the Executive Director of Emerging Technologies in Verizon's Technology Development organization. She is currently responsible for product innovation with emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, and quantum technologies. Jean leads a product technology proof of concept lab which creates proofs of concept with emerging technologies. She received her PhD (Systems Engineering) and MSE (Electrical Engineering) from University of Pennsylvania and a BSE (Electrical Engineering) from Duke University. She holds several patents.
Kay AikinChief Executive Officer
Kay Aikin, Chief Executive Officer, co-founded Introspective Systems. She graduated fromPennsylvania State University with one of the first sustainability engineering degrees in thecountry, spending her career as an energy engineer, architectural designer, and businessdevelopment executive. Kay's expertise includes reconciling diverse requirements, engineeringfeasibility, and budgetary limitations to ensure projects are both cost-effective and sustainable.With her co-founder Dr. Caryl Johnson, over 4 years they studied complex systems designrelated to integrating Distributed Energy Resources into the electrical grid. With Dr. Johnson,she helped design their patented xGraph platform as the first independent, modular servicearchitecture for collaborative AI, used in the electrical grid, distributing control to the grid edge.With 25 years as an entrepreneur in the renewable industry, she has experience in foundingand running design/build construction companies, managing multi-million dollar sales forces,and business and market development consulting and now complex software systems.
Pratima GluckmanEngineering Leader- Blockchain at VMware
Pratima Gluckman has worked in the software engineering field for two decades where she has both developed and driven software solutions for Silicon Valley startups and several Fortune 500 companies. At VMware, she has spearheaded several engineering initiatives in Compute and Networking space. She currently runs Blockchain engineering and is an intrapreneur at heart. She is passionate about diversity in the workplace and has led the charge on several initiatives for gender and diversity efforts both internally and for the company's campus recruiting and summer internship efforts. She recently published a book detailing leadership journeys called Nevertheless She Persisted: True Stories of Women Leaders in Tech and speaks at conferences, universities and companies around the world. Pratima Gluckman holds both a Bachelor of Science in Instrumentation Engineering and a Masters in Chemistry from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) in Pilani, Rajasthan, India and a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Arlington, Texas. She lives with her husband and 3 children in Palo Alto California.
Sreeja NairSenior Product Manager , Wireless Connectivity and Networking , Qualcomm
Sreeja is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Qualcomm. In her role, she interacts withWireless Enterprise Providers to align their connectivity needs with Qualcomm's prolificwireless portfolio. She is excited to play her part in defining the roadmap, features and usecases for the next generation of Wifi chipsets which are laying the foundations for IOT andSmart Homes. Prior to Product Management, she scaled up the Engineering Ladder withinthe Wireless Connectivity Organization at Qualcomm to become a Systems TestEngineering Manager.She has a Masters' Degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech. She has 3 patents inthe fields of Wireless and Display technologies.Sreeja is extremely passionate about promoting and encouraging women in the STEM fieldand actively works for the cause through the Qwomen organization at Qualcomm as thePresident of the Bay Area chapter. She acts as the Qualcomm Liaison for IEEE WIE SantaClara Valley, is a Techwomen Mentor and works with the NCWIT Bay Area chapter on theirevents. She also Emcees and volunteers for Vibha, a non-profit organization for under-privileged kids. In her spare time, she loves reading, mentoring and volunteering.
Timoni WestDirector, AR/VR/MR Research at Unity Technologies
Timoni West is the Director of XR Research at Unity, where she leads a team of cross-disciplinary artists and engineers exploring new interfaces for human-computer interaction. Currently, her team focuses on spatial computing: how we will live, work, and create in a world where digital objects and the real world live side-by-side. One of her team's first tools, EditorXR, a tool for editing Unity projects directly in virtual reality, won SF Design Week's first-ever Virtual Tech award in 2018.A longtime technologist, Timoni was formerly SVP at Alphaworks, co-founder of Recollect, and CEO of Department of Design, a digital agency. She's worked for startups across the country, including Foursquare, Flickr, Causes, and Airtime.Timoni serves on the OVA board and is an advisor to Tvori and Spatial Studios, among others. In 2017, Timoni was listed in Next Reality News' Top 50 to Watch. Additionally, she serves on XRDC's advisory board, is a Sequoia Scout, and was a jury member for ADC's 2018 Awards in Experiential Design.
Tom CoughlinPresident of Coughlin Associates
Tom Coughlin, President, Coughlin Associates is a digital storage analyst and businessand technology consultant. He has over 37 years in the data storage industry withengineering and management positions at several companies. Coughlin Associatesconsults, publishes books and market and technology reports (including The Media andEntertainment Storage Report), and puts on digital storage-oriented events. He is aregular storage and memory contributor for forbes.com and M&E organization websites.He is an IEEE Fellow, President of IEEE-USA and is active with SNIA and SMPTE. Formore information on Tom Coughlin and his publications and activities go towww.tomcoughlin.com .
Conrad TuckerAssociate Professor of Engineering Design, Industrial Engineering
Dr. Conrad Tucker holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor in Engineering Design andIndustrial and Manufacturing Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He is also affiliate facultyin Computer Science and Engineering. Dr. Tucker is the director of the Design Analysis TechnologyAdvancement (D.A.T.A) Laboratory. His research focuses on the design and optimization of systemsthrough the acquisition, integration and mining of large scale, disparate data.Dr. Tucker has served as PI/Co-PI on several federally funded grants from the National ScienceFoundation (NSF), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Defense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) through the NSF Center for e Design.He is currently serving as PI and Site Director of the NSF Center for Health Organization Transformation(CHOT), an NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center at Penn State. In February 2016, he wasinvited by National Academy of Engineering (NAE) President Dr. Dan Mote, to serve as a member of theAdvisory Committee for the NAE Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) Symposium. Dr. Tucker isthe recipient of the American Society of the Engineering Education's (ASEE) Summer Faculty FellowshipProgram (SFFP) award and conducted research at the Air Force Institute of Technology at the WrightPatterson Air Force Base during Summer 2014 and Summer 2015. He received his Ph.D., M.S. (IndustrialEngineering), and MBA degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his B.S. inMechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Dr. Tucker is part of the inauguralclass of the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program, funded by a $1 billion grant from the Bill andMelinda Gates Foundation.
Xin HuSenior Staff Software Engineer at LinkedIn
Xin Hu is currently a tech lead and an architect for the LinkedIn flagship feed team. At her current role as a senior staff engineer, she has lead multiple large cross-functional initiatives such as Project High5 (High Feed Iteration Velocity) which is a feed infrastructure improvement to speed up product iteration, "World Without Email" which is LinkedIn's strategic growth initiative to allow members without email address to have a seamless experience on the LinkedIn platform, and LinkedIn/Outlook integration which aims at enhancing MSFT Outlook with LinkedIn's knowledge graph. Xin has a bachelor's and a master's degree in computer science from Peking University and Bloomington University.
Shweta ShrivastavaVice President of Product
Shweta is vice president of products at Nauto and overseas product and design for Nauto'sfleet, insurance, and automotive offerings. Prior to Nauto, she was the head of productmanagement for Amazon Web Services, as well as various strategy and product managementleadership roles at NetApp and Cisco, where she drove the productizing and launch of Cisco'sIoT platform for smart cities. Shweta has an MS in CS from Penn State University and an MBAfrom INSEAD, France.
Robin M AustinEvangelist, Speaker, Author, Investor
Having built several successful technology companies including Cyber Defense Resources RobinAustin today is one of the highest sought after Trusted Advisors in the Technology industry. AsChief Revenue Officer/Evangelist for Technology and Finance, C-Suite Executives from everyrevenue size including Large, Mid-market and Start-up companies benefit from Robin's strategy,risk analysis and safety and security advice. Robin has over 35 years in technology and 17 incyber security focusing on "game changing" disruptive, beneficial, money making solutionswithin 4 Pillars: Technology, Real Estate, Energy and Health and Wellness. She advises C-LevelLeaders, Board Members and Investors to very lucrative results including an Initial PublicOffering that yielded as much as a 34% return back to her investors within the last 5 years.Robin is a critical thinker and problem solver; constantly innovative and evolutionary. Shechooses the best technology for securing data from both inside and outside threats whiledeveloping additional revenue possibilities for service providers. As President of Cyber DefenseResources Robin's integrity has made her one of the highest sought after Trusted Advisors to C-Suite Executive clients. Cyber Defense Resources specializes in safety and protection fromthreats, bleeding edge digital technology platforms, effectively reducing operational expensesand maximizing capital for fantastic returns for clients.
Neetu AgarwalSr hardware engineering manager in Microsoft Azure
ContentNeetu Agarwal is a Sr hardware engineering manager in Microsoft Azure, where she is building thenext generation cloud and AI systems. Prior to Microsoft she worked in Texas Instruments forSilicon development. Over last 15 years, she has led multiple incubation projects from concept tomass production in consumer electronics and cloud industries. Neetu loves building hardware and high performing teams. She is passionate about empoweringwomen in hardware and helps support their career aspirations. She co-leads AI hackathon forGirls, STEM outreach efforts and mentoring rings. Outside work, she spends most of her time chasing her two kids who are 6 and 2 and enjoys doingcool art and science projects with them.
Kris McGuiganMBA, BCC, ACRW
Early in Kris's career, a supervisor coined the term"professional courage" to describe her direct and fearlessapproach to problem-solving. Kris McGuigan now brings thatsame bold outlook to her clients and their career aspirations.In founding Professional Courage, Kris translated 15 years ofcorporate success into a targeted mission: empowering highpotentials to step up and stand out in the marketplace. Shebuilt a premier career services firm from the ground up,replacing a 6-figure income within 24 months of leaving hercorporate position.Kris is distinguished as a Board Certified Coach with 200+hours of training alongside some of the industry's top experts.She also holds the prestigious ACRW designation, making herone of only a handful of Academy Certified Resume Writersacross the globe to also hold an MBA.With a brand formed by courage and constancy, Kris uses herown story to guide clients and audiences to success in an ever-changing job market. When not onstage or in the office, she and her husband, Rick, enjoy time with their two children – Claire andMatthew – and a mini golden named Geoffrey.
Jessica F. WinchesterPatent
Jessica F. Winchester is a seasoned patent attorney whose practice includes advising companies on patent procurement, patent portfolio analysis, and contentious proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Jessica has experience in a wide array of technologies and has worked with companies of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, to cultivate valuable protection for their innovations and to secure business advantage. Jessica has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a "Rising Star" in Intellectual Property for four years in a row.
Elizabeth A. ShahPatent
Elizabeth A. Shah works collaboratively with companies to generate and execute successful patent strategies that further their business goals. Having worked in-house previously, she understands the many moving parts involved in successfully developing and introducing new technologies, both from an IP-perspective and a logistical business standpoint. She counsels startups and established companies on how to tailor their patent filings to protect developing products, to block against competitor design-arounds, and to stage their portfolios for monetization. She is frequently invited to speak internationally on topics of patent acquisition and licensing.
Heather QuinnElectrical engineer
Heather Quinn received a B.A. degree in mathematics and physics fromKnox College in 1992, and M.F.A in poetry from Emerson College, andM.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Northeastern in 2000 and2004, respectively. She has worked at Los Alamos National Laboratorysince 2004, where she researches integrating commercial electronicsinto nuclear survivable systems. She has authored or co-authored over70 papers. Dr. Quinn is active in the IEEE, serving as an associateeditor of the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, and Section Chairfor the Los Alamos and Northern New Mexico chapter.
Susan K LandProgram manager for the U.S. Department of Defense
Land is a program manager for the U.S. Department of Defense with more than 30 years of industry experience in the application of software engineering methodologies and the management of information systems, as well as leadership of software and systems product development teams. Kathy is an IEEE Fellow and longtime volunteer for the IEEE having served three terms on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Board of Directors, two terms as a member of the IEEE-USA Board of Directors, and three years on the IEEE WIE Committee. She is currently the 2019 Past Vice President for IEEE Technical Activities. Ms. Land is the author or co-author of a number of texts, papers, podcasts, webinars all supporting sound software engineering principles and practical application of software process methodologies. For additional information please visit: www.susankathyland.com.
Sarah Kurtz
Dr. Sarah Kurtz received her PhD from Harvard University in Chemical Physics in 1985 with Roy Gordon. She moved directly to the Solar Energy Research Institute (now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL) where she worked for more than 30 years on a variety of solar energy projects. She is known for her contributions to developing multijunction, GaInP/GaAs solar cells, supporting the Concentrator Photovoltaic (PV) industry, and, more recently, her work with PV performance and reliability. Her work has been recognized with a jointly received Dan David Prize in 2007, the Cherry Award in 2012, and the C3E Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. In late 2017 she transitioned to a faculty position at the University of California at Merced, while continuing work with NREL.
Catherine JerezaDeputy Assistant Secretary, Transmission Permitting & Technical Assistance (TPTA)
Catherine (Katie) Jereza is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transmission Permitting & Technical Assistance (TPTA) in the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Electricity (OE). She is responsible for leading the Department's efforts to facilitate the development of reliable and affordable electricity infrastructure. Ms. Jereza has 25 years of experience in the energy, water and manufacturing industries, where she led multiple startup, turnaround and major problem solving initiatives that delivered real-world solutions and high-impact results.Prior to joining OE, Ms. Jereza served as the Director for Infrastructure Resilience at the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) where she co-led the smarter energy infrastructure initiative and helped launch the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council's Cyber Mutual Assistance program. She was a management consultant with the McLeod Group, LLC and Energetics Incorporated and also worked for the Maryland Department of the Environment, GE Water and Process Technologies (formerly BetzDearborn), and the Lincoln Electric Company. She holds an MBA from the Loyola University Maryland and BS in Chemical Engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Joan Wills is the Cummins Power Systems Technical Executive Director leading development and support of power systems and reciprocating engine systems including both diesel and natural gas fuel options. These products are used in distributed power generation, commercial marine, oil and gas, mining and rail markets globally. Wills is also responsible for technical site leadership for UK and Charleston, US-based power systems technical centers. Starting from 2014, she was Chief Engineer and Program Leader developing Cummins high-horsepower engines to meet North America Tier4 emission regulations. Prior to that, Wills led technology strategy and planning for Cummins and worked with global technical and business leaders to set long-term technical investment direction linked to market and product roadmaps. Her early career experience is in developing control and diagnostic systems for diesel and natural gas engines. She has a career track record of putting together diverse, relevant experts to solve complex energy and engine-related issues plus a passion for clean energy and energy access issues. She holds 19 US patents for her work in diesel engine controls and diagnostics. She currently serves as invited Ambassador for the US Department of Energy C3E (Women in Clean Energy) initiative and is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Futures Council on Energy along with being an active member of SWE, IEEE and SAE. She holds an MSEE from The Ohio State Center for Automotive Research, a Strategy & Innovation certificate from MIT Sloan and a BSEE from the University of Dayton Ohio.
Karen Butler-Purry is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University, where she also serves as Associate Provost for Graduate & Professional Studies. She leads a research group at Texas A&M's Power System Automation Laboratory, which investigates all aspects of automation, control, and protection of electric power systems. Her research interests are in the areas of protection and control of distribution systems and isolated power systems such as all electric power systems for ships, mobile grids, and microgrids, cybersecurity protection, intelligent systems for equipment deterioration and fault diagnosis, and engineering education.Butler-Purry is passionate about attracting the next generation of minority and female students into STEM fields. She has been involved in fellowship and education program projects with the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education and directed several of these programs that target recruitment, retention, and advancement of pre-college, college, and graduate students in STEM fields. She currently leads a National Science Foundation-funded project studying the use of video games to transform student learning and influence the attitudes of college and high school students toward electrical and computer engineering. In addition, she serves on the Advisory Council for the Young Women's Preparatory College Academy in Houston, Texas.Prior to Texas A&M University, Butler-Purry held technical positions at Hughes Aircraft Company Radar Systems Group, IBM, and MIT Lincoln Laboratory.Butler-Purry holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Howard University, an MS in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Southern University. She is a registered professional engineer in the states of Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi. In 2018, she was elevated to Fellow status with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Kristen RussellIEEE Senior Elevation
Kristen Russell is the staff lead within IEEE Technical Activities on initiatives geared towardunderrepresented groups including women and young professionals. She also supports the recentlyformed IEEE Ad Hoc on Diversity, Inclusion, & Professional Ethics, and IEEE Technical Activities Board(TAB) Committee on Diversity & Inclusion. Kristen received her B.A. and M.A. from New York University,where she serves as a Director of the NYU LGBTQ+ Alumni Board.
Carrie SeversonCarrie Severson LLC
Carrie Severson is a story strategist and publishing coach for women who want to sharetheir story, message and voice. With a background in journalism, public relations,marketing, public speaking she is masterful at bringing stories to life. Her passion lies inthe every day act of storytelling. Stories happen each moment of our day and Carriementors her clients through the process of taking their lessons and crafting them inposts, blogs, essays, books, speeches and even videos. Sharing her voiceunapologetically has helped her be able to support hundreds of women around theworld on their journey. You can find her online at www.carrieseverson.com
Ellen Burts-CooperSenior managing partner of Improve Consulting and Training Group
Dr. Ellen Burts-Cooper is the senior managing partner of Improve Consulting and TrainingGroup, a firm that provides personal and professional development training, coaching andconsultation. Improve has been featured in Time Magazine, Black Voices, Smart BusinessMagazine and Bloomberg BusinessWeek.Dr. Burts-Cooper is on faculty at Case Western Reserve University in the WeatherheadExecutive Education Program and The Institute for Management Studies (IMS). She is theauthor of the books "aMAZEing Organizational Teams: Navigating 7 Critical Attributes forCohesion, Productivity and Resilience" and "Canine Instinct: A Guide to Survival andAdvancement in Corporate America." She also created the workshop curricula "PersonalPositioning: Building Personal Brand Equity" and "Don't Just Think Outside the Box, Makethe Box Bigger."She earned a BS in chemistry from Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, AL, her PhD inorganic/polymer chemistry from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, her MBA from theUniversity of Minnesota, Carlson School of Business and her Lean Six Sigma Master BlackBelt certification from 3M Company.You can listen to Ellen on her segment, "Improve Your Day with Dr. Ellen," aired onWavelengths, The Wave 107.3 Community Affairs Show.
Adrienne HahnIEEE Member Experience & Marketing Specialist
Adrienne has been a marketing professional with IEEE for more than 24 years,specializing in IEEE membership.During this time, she has and continues strengthen IEEE membership through recruitment,renewal, recovery and recognition efforts. Her specific area of expertise is the promotion andfocus on the unparalleled experience of belonging to IEEE at any stage of one's career.
Fatima AhmedSpecialist TAM (Security) | Amazon Web Services
Fatima Ahmed is a Specialist Technical Account Manager (Security) at Amazon Web Services. Majority of her daily activities include improving the Operational experience for Security in the AWS Cloud for customers.Fatima has over 13 years of experience leading Technical teams. She has lived in more than 5 countries having a wide range of experience working in multi-cultural environments. When she is not working, she is travelling in some part of the world or solving puzzles.
Virtual Speakers Speakers
Christina QiCo-Founder and Partner at Domeyard LP
Christina Qi serves as Co-Founder and Partner at Domeyard LP, a hedge fund known for itsfocus on high frequency trading. Christina leads the millennial revolution in the financialindustry, founding Domeyard back in her college days with $1000 in savings. Domeyard closedits Series C in 2017 and trades up to $1 billion USD per day. Her company's story has beenfeatured on the front page of Forbes and Nikkei, and quoted in the Wall Street Journal,Bloomberg, CNN, NBC, and the Financial Times. Christina is a contributor to the WorldEconomic Forum's research on AI in finance. She brings experience in investment management,sales and trading, derivatives operations, and technology across Goldman Sachs, UBS Securities,Zions Bank, and MIT Lincoln Labs. Christina is a visiting lecturer at MIT, within NobelLaureate Robert Merton's "Retirement Finance" class since 2014 and teaches her case on HFT atHarvard Business School. Christina sits on the Board of Directors of The Financial Executives Alliance (FEA) Hedge FundGroup, the MIT Sloan Boston Alumni Association (MIT SBAA), Invest in Girls, the U.S. Non-Profit Boards Committee of 100 Women in Finance, and the Scholarship Committee of theChartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association. Christina and her team have beennamed to the Forbes 30 Under 30 and Boston Business Journal 40 Under 40 lists. She holds anS.B. in Management Science from MIT and is a CAIA Charterholder.
Pattie VargasPrincipal – The Vargas Group
Pattie Vargas is a recognized leader in performance and change management with a proventrack record in behavioral, organizational and personal change, designing and implementing keystrategies to create and sustain a high performing organization. She possesses the balancedblend of business acumen, behavioral competencies and common sense to produce aligned,consistent and repeatable results.With organizations, Pattie focuses on issues with employee retention, leadership developmentand team effectiveness, especially during times of change. She coaches managers andindividuals through the twists and turns of change, helping them gain personal perspective andself-management so they can, in turn, better equip their teams for what lies ahead. Withindividuals, she uses the same approach to explore how they can strengthen their personalResilience Factor. Whether it's organizational change, professional change or a life change it allaffects us personally. Flexibility and adaptability are the key ingredients in increasing yourability to overcome and thrive.Pattie is a sought-after conference speaker and best-selling author on the topics of changemanagement, personal resilience, team dynamics and issues facing women in the workplace,with a delivery that is humorous, practical and backed by years of personal experience, bothpainful and pleasant! In addition to holding multiple degrees, she is certified in the use of DISCBehavioral assessments and is also a certified speaker, coach and trainer with the John MaxwellCompany. From her technical days she holds the Project Management Professional (PMP)certification from Project Management Institute as well as a certification in Total QualityManagement and Process Improvement from University of California, San Diego.Happy to call Northern California home, Pattie enjoys the wine country, experiencing newvarietals and exploring foodie hangouts with her husband, Tony. They have one extremely largecat named Rocco and love spending time with their granddaughters, Halle and twins Adalynneand Laynie.
Charmaine Hammond
ContentFor more than two decades, Charmaine has worked with thousands of clients from the gas and energysector, to emergency responders, government, health care industry, non-profit organizations, professionalassociations, and everything in between. She has presented to thousands of audiences worldwideteaching business owners, leaders and employee teams how to effectively deal with everyday challengesincluding building a respectful workplace, managing conflict, leading multi-generational teams, leadingthrough change/challenge and conflict, and helping leaders inspire the best performance from their teamto improve results.In her first career she was a Correctional Officer, and the pursued a career in dispute resolution as acorporate mediator, facilitating resolution for some of the most complex workplace conflicts. She has aMA Conflict Analysis & Management, and has owned her business for 19 years. Her professionalbackground also includes being a contract negotiation specialist for the provincial government, acommunity development specialist for municipal government and director of several non-profitorganizations.Surviving a near death sailboat accident taught Charmaine a lot about personal leadership and resilience.As a speaker, consultant, bestselling author and consultant Charmaine has shared the stage with globalleaders like Lisa Nichols, Janet Attwood, Debbie Travis, and has been featured in books with DeepakChopra, Jack Canfield and Dr. Ken Blanchard. She is a no fluff, content rich speaker who providespractical strategies to inspire action after the event.
Florence LuSenior Solution Architect at IBM
Fang (Florence) Lu is a Senior Solution Architect and four-time IBM Master Inventorworking at IBM Research. She has developed different software applications at IBM.Florence has used her technical skills to file more than 170 patent applications for IBM,covering a variety of areas, including Social Software, the Internet of Things, HealthcareAnalytics, Security, and Accessibility.Florence actively mentors and encourages other IBM employees to turn their ideas intopatents by hosting workshops and educational seminars. She loves to inspire hercolleagues as they start their careers in computing. Florence has developed S.M.A.R.T.methodology, which she has been using to teach invention techniques to many peoplefrom different countries.
Nita PatelSenior Director, Engineering at L3 Warrior Sensor Systems
Nita Patel, P.E., is the Senior Director, Engineering at L3 Warrior Sensor Systems. Nita wasnamed the 2014 L3 Engineer of the Year and the 2011 New Hampshire Engineer of the Yearaward for her technical contributions to the engineering profession. Nita is a director of the IEEE Foundation Board focused on transforming lives through the powerof technology and education. Nita was the founder and 2014-2018 chair of the IEEE WIE ILCand, in the past, served as Women in Engineering International Chair, 1st VP of ComputerSociety BoG, on the Eta Kappa Nu BoG and 2010-12 IEEE-USA VP of Communications &Public Awareness. Outside of IEEE, she is active with Toastmasters and the United States Chess Federation. Nitareceived her MS Computer Engineering (1998), BS Electrical Engineering (1995) and BSMathematics (1995) from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Takako HashimotoVice President, and Director, Institute of Economics at Chiba University of Commerce
Takako Hashimoto graduated from the Ochanomizu University, and received a Ph.D. in computerscience, specialization in multimedia information processing, from the Graduate School of Systems andInformation Engineering of University of Tsukuba in 2005. She worked at the software R&D center ofRicoh Co. Ltd., in Japan for 24 years, and participated in the development of many software products asa technical leader. She has a rich project management experience including international collaborativeresearch handling as well. From April of 2009, she was involved in Chiba University of Commerce asAssociate Professor. In 2015, she has become Professor of Chiba University of Commerce. In 2015, shestayed at University of California, Los Angeles as a visiting researcher. She has become Director ofInstitute of Economic Research, Chiba University of Commerce in 2016 and the Vice President of ChibaUniversity of Commerce in 2018. She has served as an Associate Editor of Journal of IEICE DataEngineering and Information Management and IPSJ Transactions On Databases (TOD). She is an BoardMember of the Database Society of Japan and IEEE Japan Council. Currently, she has focused on thedata mining research and the social media analysis, especially topic extraction from millions of tweetsrelated to the East Japan Great Earthquake. She is developing the high performance feature selectiontechnique for big data. She's also conducting global researches for developing the social media analysisplatform in multi-language/cultural environment.
La Vesha ParkerSenior Software Engineer at Etsy
La Vesha Parker is a senior software engineer and tech lead at Etsy, where she builds ordermanagement software for small businesses. Outside of her work at Etsy, La Vesha is a directorat Progressive HackNight, where she helps run meetups and works to make open sourceprojects in the progressive space more sustainable. When she's not working, she loves to makeart and frequents a local pottery studio.
Ramalatha MarimuthuProfessor at Kumaraguru College of Technology
Dr Ramalatha Marimuthu has been in teaching for more than three decades and has published sixtechnical books and more than forty research papers in international conferences and journals. She alsoguides the students in developing unique solutions for social problems like special needs and womenempowerment. She has delivered lectures on assistive technology in universities and conferences allover the world and was invited to the Google Headquarters, Mountainview, California to deliver aspeech on her research in assistive technology for people with special needs.Dr Marimuthu is a senior member of IEEE and founder chair of Madras IEEE Women in EngineeringAffinity group (2007 – 2014).She was R10 WIE Coordinator for 2008-2010 and Chair, the IEEE Women inEngineering Committee for 2011 and 2012. She launched an exclusive project "Sangamam" for thetransfer of technology to rural areas. Based on her work to improve the quality of life for the ruralsociety she was awarded the "IEEE MGA Achievement Award", 2008 and the "Life Time Achiever Award"by the Lions Club International, 2009 and the Mentor award by the Secretariate for the Disabled, theGovernment of Tamilnadu in 2009, IEEE MGA Leadership Award 2012 and ABI change agent award 2012.She was awarded the "Systers Pass it on Award 2014" by the Anita Borg Institute for Women andTechnology. She also won the "WIE Inspiring Member of the Year Award 2016" from IEEE Women inEngineering Committee.


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Today Promethium and I went to the Oak park Mall. While Park Ranger was shopping on the other side of the mall, we went to some of Promethium's favorite stores.
We toured many different stores on the journey to search for her destined store: wet seal. First Promethium took me to Hot Topic, a 'cool bro' store. There is dim lighting and the latest hits booming on an extra-large stereo. On two of the dirty brick walls oodles and oodles of t-shirts hang because of the day-after-christmas sale. Promethium toured the store with me tailing behind.
There were large assortments of gages (Look those up), bracelets, and tons of other Randoms. Promethium offered to buy me a t-shirt of my choice. I looked upon the Walls of Hanging T-shirts, when I spotted the most epic shirts ever: The Me Gusta face shirt and the Troll face shirt. (Look those up).
Although Promethium didn't let me get either of those epic shirts, I got an even epicer t-shirt than that: GANGNAM STYLE!!
We left the store, satisfied, and continued to search for Wet Seal. Promethium dragged me into Abercrombie & Fitch. I refused to because there was a sick shirtless male model in front of the store. Ew.
We walked circles until we realized that Wet Seal was right next to Hot Topic. Wow.
Promethium was looking for printed jeggings. We couldn't find any that she liked, so we ended up just aimlessly looking around. It was ridiculous. We looked at the belts, and we saw one with a shiny black surface. It flipped over and you know what was on that belt? YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ON THAT BELT? That's right. A mustache. WHY?!?!?! (Look it up)
We ignored it, and we started to look at the shirts. I saw the back of one, and it was nice because it was pale and slightly lacey and opaque. I said, "Nice shirt. YOu should try it on!"
"Turn it around and you will burn."
So I turned it around and there it was; the most ridiculous thing in the world- Mustache. It went on for a long time; you'd see a pair of nice leggings on a manican, go to the shelf to get a pair, examine it, and realize There's a mustache on the butt…. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
This was a great experience! YOu guys should go see Hot topic when you go to the mall. It was so fun!

subset: commoncrawl


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Don't Be Fooled, Conservatism is in Trouble
The idea of conservatism being in trouble might sound crazy when you consider the fact that Republicans now control both houses of Congress and the Presidency. This should be the time where conservatism is on the rise, where conservatism is shining bright! Don't be fooled. Conservatism is in trouble, and there are many factors that explain why this is the case.
President Trump's address to Congress
Trump gave the speech of his life to a joint session of Congress and said many things that conservatives can get excited about. He talked about being proud of the flag, supporting our veterans, supporting law enforcement, strong border security, and the President actually putting the interest of America before the interests of the rest of the world. These are all good things and things that conservatives really missed when Obama was in office, but I see no evidence that he believes in these things based on a belief in limited government, individual liberty, or the Constitution. This becomes evident when he starts to talk about things like major infrastructure projects, tariffs, and using the power of the Presidency to get businesses to keep jobs in the U.S. He also doesn't want to touch entitlements and never talks about the role of government. He is a nationalist and he believes that big government can be a good tool to accomplish his nationalist ideas. He's also starting to cave a little on Obamacare.
When Obama was in office the Republican controlled Congress tried to show off their conservative credentials by voting to repeal Obamacare some 62 times. Now that they control both houses of Congress and the Presidency they are stalling. Many of the Republicans are now even admitting that Obamacare has changed things forever and many of the healthcare reforms are here to stay. Rand Paul put out a new healthcare plan that is obviously conservative and based on real free market principles, but it seems to be going nowhere. The Republicans seem to now believe it is the government's role to be heavily involved in healthcare and that it just needs to be "tweaked" or "repaired". The more entrenched government becomes in our healthcare system the harder it will be to cut the size of government in the future. Unfortunately promoting limited Constitutional government doesn't seem to be the main priority of too many conservatives in the media.
Fighting Fire with Fire
The more I listen to many big time conservative pundits the more I realize that promoting the Constitution and limited government is not the priority right now. The priority is attacking and defeating the other side at all costs. Trump proved that fighting fire with fire can be effective and the rest of the conservative media commentators are following his lead. Just listen to Milo Yiannopoulos and Tomi Lahren and you'll see that the approach is attack attack attack! Don't get me wrong, I'm all for criticizing the other side when they deserve it, but we cannot forget WHY we criticize them. We point out their flaws because we believe their ideology is dangerous for the future of the country. We have to remember to promote our superior ideology in our attempts to criticize. Most of the criticisms now though are focused against the Media.
The Right vs the "Media"
There is no doubt that for a long period of time in this country the vast majority of the media was biased towards big government liberalism. This was possible especially in TV because the number of outlets was limited. Then Rush Limbaugh came along and made a career out of pointing out their biases. I'm all for criticizing certain media outlets, but I believe focusing all out attention against the media will be misguided in the future. Why? Because those liberal media outlets no longer have a monopoly. My generation (millennials) get their news and information from so many different sources that just blaming "the media" will not resonate with them. They will just ask "Which media?" There are now popular alternatives for ever liberal outlet. Instead of MSNBC you can watch Fox News, instead of the New York Times there's the New York Post, and instead of the Washington post there is the Washington Times. If you don't like the Daily Beast you can read the Daily Wire. Don't like listening to NPR? Then of course you can listen to conservative talk radio. This list could go on and on. Once again, I'm all for criticizing liberal media outlets, but we've become so obsessed with it that we've become hypocritical in many instances and care more about being on the right "side" rather than having the right ideas.
The National Debt
If you want evidence that the government is too big and expanded way beyond its Constitutional limits all you have to do is look at the National Debt. It is now approaching $20 trillion, something you cannot accomplish without a giant government. Believe it or not though balancing the budget is a lot easier than you might think. All you have to do is cut the automatic increases in spending every year, and it will balance in about five years. You think this could be something that conservatives in Congress could get behind. We're not even talking about cutting anything, just not increasing it. But every time this is proposed it is seen as too radical, not just by Democrats, but REPUBLICANS as well. Instead there is talk about getting rid of the sequester, the one thing that actually worked in cutting the deficit. If conservatism was really on the rise, this would be tackled immediately, but the President and congress don't want to touch it.
The 2016 Presidential Race
At first I was extremely hopeful in the 2016 Presidential Race for the Republican nominee. We had the most talented and real conservative list of candidates in my lifetime. We had great and proven limited government conservatives like Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal and Ben Carson. Then along came Mr. Trump. Although he does bring a lot to the table, he did not win based on Conservative principles of free markets, limited government, individual liberty, and the restoration of the Constitution. He won because he was a fighter and a proud nationalist. We have not had a real conservative President in my lifetime since Reagan, and it's not looking good that we will in the future.
We Must Not Forget The WHY
When the Tea Party began its rise in 2009 and 2010 I really thought that conservatism was making a strong comeback. I really thought that we might see a real conservative government in my lifetime that would bring our government back to its true role. The Constitution was hip for a while, but not so much now. America is a great country and in many ways it is the brightest beacon of hope and freedom for the world, but we cannot forget what makes America great in the first place. It's not the land or big government projects that make this country exceptional. This country became great because it was founded on the ideas of limited government, individual liberty, free markets, freedom of religion, and a free people able to make their communities better without government interference. These ideas are no longer the priority and that is proof that conservatism is in real trouble.


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|Sat 4 Nov 2017, 7:00pm–8:50pm
Additional fees may apply
Our third in a series of World War One commemorative concerts, the Aorangi Singers and Symphony Orchestra return with a programme featuring works by Gregorio Allegri, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, J.S. Bach and Gabriel Fauré, whose ethereal "Requiem" gives the event its title. With talented young soloists, Leila Alexander (soprano), Jarvis Dams (baritone), Dilys Fong (alto) and Charlotte Francis (violin), award-winning conductor and artistic director Sarah Bisley presents an evening of music of beauty, poignancy, and consolation.
On the programme:
Allegri, Gregorio "Miserere Mei Deus" for mixed choir and solo choir (ca. 1630)
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus "Symphony No.39 in E flat Major" KV 543 (1788)
Bach, J.S. "Erbarme dich" from the St Matthew Passion (1727)
Faurė, Gabriel "Requiem" in D minor, Opus 48 (1893 version, adaptation by John Rutter)
for SATB choir, soprano and baritone soloists, chamber orchestra
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