Participant Bios

May Abdallah Al-Dabbagh is an Assistant Professor of Social Research and Public Policy at NYUAD with an associated appointment at NYU New York. Previously, she was the Founder and Director of the Gender and Public Policy Program and a Research Fellow at the Women and Public Policy Program, HKS, Harvard University.

Al-Dabbagh is a specialist on gender and globalization in the Middle East and has conducted research on the topic using a combination of social psychology, public policy, and feminist lenses.

Her current research projects include: the psychology of globalization; gender and negotiation; feminist activism in Saudi Arabia, and the intersections of family formation and women’s work in the Gulf Cooperative Council countries (GCC).

Al-Dabbagh has publications in both academic and policy outlets in Arabic and English and her work has been featured in over 40 local, regional, and international media outlets.

Al-Dabbagh is a graduate of Dhahran Ahliyya Schools in Saudi Arabia, received a BA in Psychology (with high honors) from Harvard University and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Oxford. She is married to Hashem Montasser and they have one son, Abdallah, who keeps them both highly entertained.

PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Hannah Brückner is professor of social research and public policy and associate dean of the social sciences at NYUAD. She works on a wide range of topics related to the life course, inequality, health, gender and sexuality. She is the author of Gender Inequality in the Life Course and has published numerous chapters and articles about gender inequality in the labor force and in retirement, the integration of women in academic workplaces, and adolescent health and sexual behavior. Recent publications include a piece on social networks and educational attainment and a chapter that examines the relationship between occupational aspirations and gender inequality in wages. 

Professor Sana Odeh is a Clinical Professor of Computer Science and Faculty Liaison for Global Programs of Computer Science at the Department of Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University. Her research focuses on Web and Mobile Programming, Information Systems for the Developing World, e-learning Systems, and Women in Computing in the Arab World.

Professor Odeh is also an Affiliated Faculty of Computer Science at NYUAD where she setup the Computer Science Department at NYUAD between 2010 and 2013. She is the founder and chair of the Annual NYUAD International Hackathon for Social Good in the Arab Word (sponsored by the NYUAD Institute).

A proponent of women in technology, Professor Odeh is the founder and chair of the NYUAD Conference on Women in Computing in the Arab world (Sponsored by the NYUAD Institute), founder and chair of the Arab Women in Computing (arabwic.org), chair of the annual New York City Girls Conference on Computer Science and Engineering (sponsored by Google, NYU’s WinC and Princeton’s GWISE), and faculty advisor for NYU’s Courant Women in Computing (WinC) at NYU New York. She is a member of the leadership committee of the Grace Hopper Conference on Women in Computing (GHC), the world’s largest conference for women technologists, and also a member of the steering committee of the Association for Computing Machinery Council on Women in Computing (ACM-W.)

Dr. Abu Talib’s research interest includes software engineering with substantial experience and knowledge in conducting research in software measurement, software quality, software testing, ISO 27001 for Information Security and Open Source Software. Manar is also working on ISO standards for measuring the functional size of software, and has been involved in developing the Arabic version of ISO 19761 (COSMIC-FFP measurement method). She published more than 40 refereed conferences, journals, manuals and technical reports, involved in more than 50 professional activities and sponsored research activities and supervised 30 capstone projects. She received the Best Teacher Award two times, the Exemplary Faculty Award in 2008 and 2010 and Google CS4HS Award. She was the Counselor of IEEE Student Branch at Zayed University, 2012-2013. She is GDG Sharjah Manager, an executive member in Arab Women in Computing Association, CEO and founder of Emirates Digital Association for Women (EDAW111), an executive member in UAE IEEE, the UAE representative for the COSMIC International Advisory Council and International Collaborator to Software Engineering Research Laboratory in Montreal, Canada.

Fatma Zohra Djoudjou is a software developer at Ericsson, a TechWomen, and a She Entrepreneur Alumnae. She is leading Women Who Code network in Algeria. Fatma is very passionate about Technology, innovation, open source projects and empowering women in Computer science and technology in Algeria. She worked as an Android mobile developer for a large development company based in France (LSCM) that develop innovative logistic solutions for tracking Oil tankers, technologies used: QR Code and wearable bracelets. She also worked on the development of a micropayment system, alternative solution for the e-payment. She has mastered developing with Java for both mobile and desktop applications. Recently she was selected as TechWomen emerging leader 2014, and awarded a professional mentorship at Twitter HQ in San Francisco. Fatma participated in various professional development workshops and networking events. She also worked with the Twitter Android mobile team on their new SDK called Fabric. Currently, she is working to launch some initiatives that aim to empower women in computer science in Algiers and promote innovative and creative projects in Algiers. Fatma has a great ambition to be a female role model in technology in Algeria.

Sabrina Elghers has more than 14 years of experience in both the IT and Academic sectors in Algeria. She was awarded a Master’s degree with honors from University of Saad Dahleb Blida in Algeria in 2004, with focus on Artificial Intelligence and advanced Databases. She has been a lecturer-researcher in the computer sciences department since. Moreover Sabrina, has lot of interest in the IT industry in Algeria where she worked as an IT Manager at Siemens and a Business Development Manager at Intel. Currently she is very interested in the impact of technology on the human health, she is investigating the body sensor networks research area, within AND team at the University of Franch-Comté, in France. In 2011 , she was selected by the U.S. Department of State as a technical woman leader from Algeria to further her career as a mentee at SAP labs, Palo Alto, Silicon valley. She was honored by the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a woman participating and succeeding in the program. More recently she joined ArabWIC as a Coordinator of the fundraising committee and a member of the mentorship committee. Sabrina is very passionate about educating young learners, coaching, mentoring ,personal development skills, speaking foreign languages also reading, and writing.

Ouassila holds a Master’s degree in Computer Engineering from the Mouloud Mammeri University in Algeria and is currently a PhD candidate in Computer Science in the same university. Her experience in the field includes her training with UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research), and her role as a network administrator and Cisco switches configure with SNTF Algiers. 

Dr. Azer obtained her BSc, MSc, and PhD from the Electronics and Communications Department, Cairo University Faculty of Engineering. She has more than 14 years of experience in Communications and Information Technology. Throughout her career, she held several positions, either academic or managerial.

After her BSc, Dr. Azer worked for Cairo University in the Electronics and Communications Department, and the American University in Cairo (AUC) in the Electronics,  Computer Science, and Mathematics departments. Upon receiving her Master degree, she joined the National Telecommunication Institute and continued her work at the American University in Cairo. She also worked for the French University in Cairo, in the Engineering Department. In addition, she worked for the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport.

Dr. Azer is an author/ co-author of over 40 publications in referred journals and/or conference presentations.  She received awards, certificates, and fellowships from different international institutions. To name a few, the U.S. Department of State, Academy of Science, Research, and Technology, Google, the University of Michigan Dearborn, The British Council, and ACM SIGCOMM.

Dr. Azer is a member of the IEEE, ACM, IFIP working 8.4, Arab Women in Computing (AWIC) a Syster affiliate of the very well-known Anita Borg Institute as well as several other scientific, and civic organizations. Her areas of expertise include security in wireless communications, cloud computing, e-Learning, and Engineering Education. Dr. Azer was invited as a speaker, panelist, and keynote speaker in a number of international conferences and events. She is also a reviewer and a technical committee member in many conferences.

Dr. Arati M. Dixit received a PhD in Computer Engineering from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA. She has also completed the Certificate in Scientific Computing Program from Wayne State University. She is an Alumnus of IIT Bombay with M.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering. She also received a BE in Computer Engineering from the University of Pune.

Currently she is an Associate Professor at the Department of Technology, Savitribai Phule Pune University. She is also the Dean of Research and Development, and a visiting faculty at the Department of Computer Engineering, PVPIT, Bavdhan. She has been associated with the academic profession for the last 16 years. She has published more than 80 research papers in reputed refereed national and international conferences and journals. Her areas of interest are Cyber Security, Cyber Physical Systems, Soft Computing, and High Performance Computing. She has been mentoring PhD students at the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology and Savitribai Phule Pune University. She has been a member of the Board of Studies and Research Recommendation Committees with reputed Institutes/Universities.

She is an executive council member of ACM-W India. She is the Vice-Chairperson of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) iSIGCSE(India Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education) as well as ACM Pune Professional Chapter. She is on the Eminent Speaker Program of ACM India.  She is an active ACM-W volunteer supporting and advocating full engagement of women in computing.

Shatha has been a contributing member in the Jordanian ICT sector since 2000. Her career has developed and matured through implementing projects in different industries (Insurance, Financial, Media, and Telecom). Her technical skills coupled with her business insights enabled her to transform business needs and demands from ideas into defined solutions implemented with the latest technologies.

Shatha’s ambition is to be a top-notch executive who has diversity of international technical and business experience to promote entrepreneurship, education, empowering of women and creating an enabling and positive environment for the less privileged segments of the society.

Shatha is a TechWomen 2013 alumnae and a mentor in Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition 2015.  

Rana El Chemaitelly, holds a BE in Mechanical Engineering 1993, AUB Penrose Award 1993, and Master's in Engineering Management 2008. In 2009 she launched  her second venture The Little Engineer®, a Beirut-based Edutainment center geared towards engaging young minds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics through proven hands-on learning activities to unleash their full potential in pre-engineering skills while highlighting robotics, renewable energies and latest technologies working in parallel on their leadership and presentation skills. For her initiative and business plan, she was recognized as one of MENA's most promising entrepreneurs by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009. She was awarded the “Coup de Coeur Femme by “Medventures” for the Mediterranean in 2010, selected the woman entrepreneur by the American Embassy to participate in the International Visitor Leadership Program “IVLP” 2011, won the Cartier Women Initiative for the MENA region in 2011 and the Green Mind Award in 2012. In 2013 The little Engineer signed a strategic Partnership with Airbus Middle East to deliver regional workshop for youth. She is working hard to be a voice of change in the Arab World by investing in young minds, our future leaders, preparing them for the challenging future, while at the same time aiming high to empower woman in her community, country, and around the world.

Nisreen holds a BS degree in Computer Science (highest honors) from the Islamic University of Lebanon, as well as an MS degree in Computer Science from the American University in Beirut. While at AUB, Nisreen was a teaching assistant, and a software engineer in a startup company. In 2013, she was selected as one of TechWomen’s top Lebanese emerging leaders, and had the opportunities to attend workshops at some of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley. She is currently working as a senior software developer at the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC and MSC Cruises), where she is responsible for the systems that handle all shipping operations. She has also built her own software that now handles all operations related to MSC Cruises. In March 2015, she was selected as an ambassador for the ArabWIC (Arab Women in Computing) chapter in Lebanon, where she will be responsible for conducting workshop and events that encourage women to join the IT sector. She was also selected as a Global Tech Leader from Lebanon. 

Ghida is the planner and designer of the Content Delivery Network (CDN) of Liberty Global, a multinational content provider and the largest international cable operator with operations in 14 countries. She is responsible for CDN traffic reporting and forecasting, CDN and network capacity planning and definition of CDN physical and logical design. She coordinates the CDN activity across departments, countries and affiliates. Prior to Liberty Global, Ghida worked more than 3 years at the R&D division of Orange in Paris where she completed an industrial PhD on video content distribution and delivery with Telecom ParisTech. Her PhD led to patents, international publications, and technical deliverables and served as inputs for operational units and standardization bodies. Ghida was guest lecturer at Telecom ParisTech and a full-time lecturer of advanced calculus at the American-European campus of SciencesPo. She was also the doctoral ambassador of Paris Institute of Technology providing guidance to international students and defining doctoral training programs to reduce the gap between academic research and industry. In 2011, Ghida obtained a Master in Engineering in computer networking from Telecom ParisTech and Saint Joseph University in Beirut. She has many internships in the Telecom and IT sectors in France and in Lebanon. Ghida received two fellowships for completing her Master and PhD studies and two excellency awards. Ghida’s technical interests include future video delivery, software-defined networks, Big data, and IT-enabled social entrepreneurship. She is a member of the program and fundraising committees of ArabWIC and an active contributor to the Lebanese chapter.

Marwa Al Habsi is the ArabWIC Oman Ambassador. She was awarded the AlMara’a Excellence Award in Technology. Marwa and her friend, Asya, were the first Omani females to attend The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing under the theme of “Think Big, Drive Forward” back in October 2013. Marwa holds a bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering from Higher College of Technology in Oman. 

In her role as a Chief Operating Officer of Obtikar Fund, Ambar has been directly involved in supporting Palestinian entrepreneurs, and managing the Digital Entrepreneurship Programs at Leaders Organization, including FastForward, Palestine’s first startup accelerator. Ambar has also launched the Celebration of Innovation, Palestine’s first National Demo Day, during the Global Entrepreneurship Week in Palestine. Ambar has an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

In 2008, Ms. Amel graduated from Alquds University with a Bachelor Degree in Computer Engineering. She gained her experience during her intensive working in many IT companies and attending IT related events to know more about the IT Sector in the local Palestinian market

Prior to that, Ms. Amel has been recruited as Support Engineer for PDF company (Semiconductor Industry). She was responsible for providing support for customers worldwide in using the Company Software and tutoring them through the first phase of support for the company products.

Currently Amel is a “Senior Quality Assurance Engineer” working with Live Person which is a company Specialized in Live Chat Engagement, where she is responsible for delivering a quality product that many customers use it worldwide. Also Amel has participated in Techwomen Program 2013 which is a program dedicated to empowering women in STEM fields .

In 2015 Miss Awadallah have joined the Arabwic family as an ambassador and membership coordinator in her country, Arabwic is an organization dedicated to empower Arab women in STEM fields. Amel is passionate about technology and development in her country and women role in it.

Razan is a tech savvy female who readily embraces cutting-edge technology and passionate about education and women empowerment. As an Ambassador for Arab Women in Computing Organization - Palestine Chapter (ArabWIC), she is committed to inspire women to get involved and excel in computing and technology, achieve their entrepreneurial ambitions and fulfill their dreams. She is also a member of the ArabWIC Social Media Committee.

Razan has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Engineering from An-Najah National University, Palestine. While a student, she was involved in many communities and activities that helped her obtain leadership skills and gain valuable experience. She was a member of GDG Nablus, Google Women in Technology, IEEE and Zajel Youth Exchange Program, and was volunteering as a teacher’s assistant at AMIDEAST organization.

She is a Software Engineer working currently at Experts Turnkey Solutions and has experience in designing and building Android applications and front-end software development.

She had the chance to be a mentor at NYUAD Hackathon for Social Good in The Arab World 2015 and Google Online Marketing Challenge 2014. Currently, she is mentoring undergraduate female students (Computer Science interns) at Experts Turnkey Solutions, helping them to learn Android Development by sharing expertise in the real software market, offering guidance and providing them with the needed information to reach their full potentials.

Alaa Shaheen is a technology entrepreneur and software engineer. She finished BSc degree in Computer Engineering from An-Najah National University - Palestine, and Certificate in Graduate Studies Program from Singularity University, California, USA. She works as a Software Engineer with Progineer Technologies on Maestria Software for PDF Solutions. She is passionate about new technology ideas related to Health, Education, and Big Data. She has experience in backend software development, both in mobile apps and web apps development. She also has experience in Lean Startup approaches and Agile Methodologies. Alaa worked on different startups in e-learning and travel apps. She is co-founder and organizer at Nablus Tech Meetups and Member of the Arab Women in Computing organization.

Hadeel Elsafadi, who is 25 years old, graduated from The University College of Applied Sciences in Information Technology (Multimedia). She motivated young entrepreneurs in the field of animation and motion graphic, in particular, in the small Gaza strip. She enrolled in Entrepreneurship once she got in college, then she had the dream to become the director of her own company. This dream pushed her to work the extra hundreds of hours in order to gain more experience and skills. A big step towards her dream was establishing a unique animation specialized graduation project, which was represented in many conference in Gaza. This motivated her to take a bigger step towards her goal by establishing an animation company that went straight to the top of the market in 2011 with Hadeel as Founder of Newtoon Company. She then became co-founder of the Davinci box Company, which started working globally with more than 20 clients.

Mai is the first Palestinian female licensed amateur radio operator in Palestine — considered as a great accomplishment in her society. From the United States, She holds the highest status of amateur radio operators (Extra class level). In 2014, Mai was one of the TechWomen Emerging Leaders in San Francisco and was honored to be featured as one of the "TechWomen Emerging Leaders Honoree Cards” highlighting women leaders working in STEM. These cards were distributed to many schools and centers.

In Gaza, Mai is a communication engineer, founder and CEO of Amateur Club Training Center — designed to engage young minds in learning science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) with modern methods. In particular, she wants to see basic electronics and technology occupy a bigger part of middle school curriculum. For this, she was awarded best-entry level STEM Executive 2015 at the Women in STEM conference held in Dubai earlier this year.

Recently, Mai began leading the Mentorship & Women Inclusivity Program at Gaza Sky Geeks, Gaza's first startup accelerator.

Mai's also a Regional Ambassador for Technovation in Gaza Strip, a Global Tech Leader representing Palestine and Gaza Strip, and a member of the ArabWIC Mentorship Committee for the 2015 round.

Houda Bouamor, PhD, is a Special-Faculty, Senior Scientist in the Computer Science-Natural Language Processing (NLP) Lab in Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q). Houda received a PhD in Computer Science from Paris-Sud University, France, in 2012, a MSc from Paris-Est Marne-La-Vallée University in 2008 and BSc the University of Manouba, Tunisia in 2007.

Dr. Bouamor has conducted research on different projects aiming at resolving different NLP issues. Her main research interest and expertise revolves around machine translation for Arabic, evaluation of Arabic MT systems in addition to her interest and expertise in general Arabic NLP (Automatic diacritization, spelling correction, etc.). She participated in different research projects and has also served as program committee member in several prestigious conferences and workshops. Dr. Bouamor hase contributed to multiple outreach initiatives to promote Computer Science in Qatar and more particularly to increase the participation of women in the field.

Eman Fituri, PhD, is the director of educational initiatives at Qatar Computing Research Institute, and the engagement director of QCRI-MIT research collaboration program. Eman holds a PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Prior to joining QCRI, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar, conducting research on cross-layer protocols utilizing Software Defined Radios. Before that, she worked at Nortel, Ottawa, Ontario, as a technical prime for WIMAX terminal development, and in a previous post, she worked as a wireless systems engineer at Wireless Technologies Lab. Eman has also worked as a research associate at the University of Ottawa, conducting research in the area of Wireless Sensors Networks, and at Carleton University, conducting research on interference management in wireless networks.

Fatimah Alabdrabalnabi works as a project manager at a Saudi telework company. Recently, she joined Microsoft Arabia. She received her BS in Computer Science from Prince Mohammad University, Saudi Arabia, in 2014. She is the founder of Google’s Developer Group (GDG) Dhahran, an all-women group that aims to foster Saudi women engagement in IT sector. Working outside of her comfort zone has given Fatimah a great vision and a lot of passion to compete.

Jihed is a software engineer (SAP ABAP Developer) working in Tunisia at Focus, for SAP client. She believes that IT combined with science is the most important field. Advancements made in the World thanks to Technology are just amazing and that's what empowers her to learn more, to achieve more. Jihed started by joining a club named Netlinks which encourage youth people in IT to develop innovative spirit. She was the Co-founder of that club in her school in 2014. The club is now an association connecting different IT schools/ Universities.

Her ambition is to establish the spirit of innovation and inspiration in my country, in order to encourage people from their very beginning to hold on their ideas until they come true. She strongly believes that the key of a successful revolution comes from improving both fields of IT Research and Development in Tunisia.

Gulustan Dogan is currently working at Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey as an Assistant Professor. She worked at NetApp and Intel as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. She received her PhD degree in Computer Science from City University of New York. She received her BSc degree in Computer Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Turkey. She is one of the founding members of Turkish Women in Computing (TWIC), a Systers community affiliated with Anita Borg Institute.

Rabab is a software engineer living in the UK and working currently for MixRadio. She identifies herself as a UX developer. She is an Imagine Cup worldwide finalist, a Microsoft certified Technology Specialist, Microsoft Student Partner Alumni, and Microsoft Career Factor Idol. Rabeb is also qualified as STEM ambassador working closely with schools and students to encourage them into STEM, and especially engineering. She is a contributing author for DZone, a global community of technology experts and professionals. She advocates to bring more women into engineering and coding. She has been speaking in different events and for different user groups such as Girl Geeks. She is also the director of Women Who Code Tounes, the Tunisian branch of the global Women Who Code organization and member of the leadership board for ArabWIC-Arab Women In Computing organization.

Fida Adely is an Associate Professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University and the Clovis and Hala Maksoud Chair in Arab Studies.  Dr. Adely’s research interests include education in the Arab world, women and development, and gender and labor.  Previously she was a Lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs as well as a Visiting Professor in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies.

Selected publications include Gendered Paradoxes: Educating Jordanian Women in Nation, Faith & Progress (University of Chicago Press, 2012); “God Made Beautiful Things”, in the American Ethnologist (2012); and, “Educating Women for Development” in the International Journal for Middle East Studies (2009).

Ashwag Alasamri is currently a graduate student in the Department of Information Systems at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), USA. She received a BS in Information Systems from King Khalid University (KKU)- Saudi Arabia, where she has been a Teaching Assistant since 2011. During this time, she received a scholarship for a Master’s degree as a result of her excellence and academic accomplishments.

Her current research interests are mobile HCI, mobile search, online searching in a foreign languag,e and search behavior of Arab users.

Ashwag is very passionate about supporting and promoting the participation of women in technology. This can be seen through her past and current participation and affiliation with a variety of organizations dedicated to support women in technology including WICS at Penn, CWIT at UMBC, and recently ArabWIC. In 2013 she received the Grace Hopper Conference (GHC) Allstate Grant to attend the conference.

She is currently an ArabWIC Saudi Arabia Ambassador and serves as a member of ArabWIC’s Social Media committee.

Claudia Galván is a Senior Director at the Anita Borg Institute and President of the Society of Women Engineers Santa Clara Valley section in Silicon Valley. With almost 20 years of experience in launching software products worldwide, Claudia is considered a worldwide expert in software globalization. She has been responsible for building international teams from the ground up and developing technology platforms used in many Fortune 500 Companies reaching over one billion users worldwide. Claudia holds a BSc in Computer Science, MSc in Program and Project Management and she is a doctoral student at Drexel University researching strategies to increase the pipeline of women in engineering. Claudia is a regular speaker in local and international conferences, and mentors women in STEM to help them stay and advance in the field. She recently was selected as one of the 100 Women of Influence in Silicon Valley and she has been recipient of technical and women empowerment awards.

Dr. Kaoutar El-Maghraoui is a Research Scientist at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. Her interests include systems software, distributed computing, and applications of analytics to solve systems’ problems. She is leading a research project to apply IBM’s Watson cognitive technology for systems problem diagnosis and resolution and technical support. She has co-authored several conference and journal publications in the areas of systems research, distributed systems, and high performance computing. She has served in many technical conferences as co-chair, member of the program committee, and reviewer.

Kaoutar obtained a PhD in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York and a Master’s degree in Computer Networks from Al-Akhawayn University, Morocco. She has received several awards including the American Association of University Women fellowship, the Robert McNaughton Award for best thesis in CS at RPI, IBM’s Eminence and Excellence Award, and IBM's outstanding technical accomplishment award. She is a member of IEEE Computer Society, ACM, SWE, ArabWIC, and IBM Watson's Women's Network.

Dr. Kaoutar El-Maghraoui is currently serving as the co-chair of the Arab Women in Computing (ArabWIC) organization. She is very passionate about mentoring, promoting, and increasing the participation of women in STEM and computing fields. She has been an active member of the leadership team of the Grace Hopper Conference (GHC), the world’s largest conference and gathering of women in computing.

Ruthe Farmer has focused her efforts on increasing girls' participation in technology and engineering since 2001. She leads strategy, development, and partnerships at NCWIT and directs the NCWIT K-12 Alliance. Ruthe has a history of successfully scaling up innovative STEM projects and leverages that experience for the NCWIT mission. She is the driving force behind the hugely successful Aspirations in Computing talent development initiative, designed the NCWIT AspireIT outreach program to engage 10,000 girls in computing by 2018, and launched the NCWIT Latinas in Technology campaign and initiative in January 2015. She received the inaugural Education UK Alumni Award for Social Impact in 2015, the Anita Borg Institute Award for Social Impact in 2014, was named a Champion of Change for Technology Inclusion by the White House, and received the Ulla Popken Phenomenal Woman Award for her work to increase girls' participation in technology and engineering in 2013. Ruthe served as the 2012 Chair of Computer Science Education Week and has been featured in Forbes, Tech Republic, and is a guest contributor for the Shriver Report and TechCrunch.

Diane Jordan retired in 2014 as a Program Director after a more than 30-year career at IBM that included most areas of software development in both technical and management roles. In her most recent position she led development of global technology standards and open source software for internet and cloud computing. Based on this experience working with culturally diverse colleagues in other countries, companies, and industry organizations, Diane recognized the importance of increasing the impact of women in computing. She has worked both to advance individual careers and improve corporate culture for women. Family ties in North Africa make ArabWIC especially important to Diane. She is especially interested in mentoring as a way for women leaders to share success with the community.

Safa is a first year PhD student in Electrical and Computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She is interested in Big Data analytics and systems for genomics. Safa ranked the 6th in the Tunisian national high school examination in 2007. For that, she was awarded a government scholarship to pursue her studies in Germany. She obtained a Bachelor and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the Technical University of Munich. She also has a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic and State University. Safa spent one year as a visiting scholar in the University of California Berkeley, where she worked on her Masters Thesis "Optimal Synthesis of reliable by construction Aircraft Electrical Power system." Safa is very proud of dreaming big, having courage and perseverance to pursue her dreams very far, and having a family that believes and supports her. When she becomes an old lady and looks back at her life, Safa wants to see that she made the most out of all opportunities and herself to leave an impact in her field, her society, and make a difference in other women's life.

Safa is passionate about reading, painting, and traveling.

Dr. Fatma Mili is a Professor in the College of Technology, Purdue. She served as the Department Head of Information Technology, and Associate Dean for Educational Research and Development. She is the co-founder and inaugural director of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, an incubator for educational innovation in technology and STEM. Faculty working under her direction developed a new transdisciplinary degree incorporating several innovative features, notably a Competency Based credentialing system, the first of its kind in a residential public university.  Prior to joining Purdue, she was Department Chair of Computer Science and Engineering at Oakland University.  Dr. Mili's research interests are in software verification and validation, distributed computing, and bio-inspired algorithms. She has co-authored two books on program specification and verification and is the author and co-author on several journal and conference papers in the areas of program specification, verification and validation, decision support systems and cognitive architectures, and distributed and bio-inspired algorithms.

She is passionate about equity and diversity in education. A long-term contributor to the Grace Hopper Conference, she was the program co-chair in 2012 and the general co-chair in 2013. She was one of the PI’s on the Oakland ADVANCE-PAID grant funded in 2011. She also received several NSF grants targeted towards mentoring undergraduate.

Jennifer Olmsted is currently Professor of Economics and Director of Middle East Studies at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, USA, and recently stepped down from her position as the Gender Advisor at the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in New York. Her areas of specialization include labor, economic development, and gender economics. She has been a consultant for UN Women, UNDP, and UNFPA. Her research interests were strongly shaped by her experiences growing up in Beirut, Lebanon and doing field work in the West Bank in the early 1990s.  Her research has been supported by the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC), the Center for Arab Women Training and Research (CAWTAR) and UNDP, among other organizations. Dr. Olmsted is guest editor of and also contributing author to a 2014 special issue of Feminist Economics focusing on gender and economics in Muslim communities.  Recent articles published include “Gender and Economics in Muslim Communities: A Critical Feminist and Postcolonial Analysis,” Feminist Economics (2014),  “Choice and Constraint in paid work: Women from low-income households in Tehran,” Feminist Economics (2014), “Motivated migrants: (Re)framing Arab women's experiences,” in Women’s Studies International Forum (2012) “Norms, Economic Conditions, and Household Formation: A Case Study of the Arab World,” in The History of the Family (2011).

Rose Robinson is Senior Manager, for Anita Borg Institute Communities and accomplished technical woman who was recently (March 2014) listed in The 100 Speakers Who Should Be Seen More at Tech Conferences. Rose is Her Systers’ Keeper, the largest virtual community of technical women with more than 5,500 members from over 60 countries, and diversity manager for ABI communities (Black Women in Computing, Latinas in Computing, LGBT in Computing, Turkish Women in Computing, Arab Women in Computing and others). She has more than 20 years experience in various industries including Telecommunications, Geospatial, and Infrastructure. Her technical expertise includes global consulting in the areas of IT Portfolio Management, large eCommerce software implementation, and systems integration. She is a certified instructor with Software Carpentry, teaches web design at Georgia Tech’s Women in Engineering TEC Camp, and visiting lecturer at Savannah State University. Rose is on the impact journey to empower communities through social innovation.

Peggy Wallace is a Managing Partner of Golden Seeds LLC and was a founding member of the organization. She is a member of the Operating Committee as well as a Managing Partner of the Golden Seeds Funds.

She provides strategic advice to the core group of portfolio companies and their Golden Seeds board representatives. Wallace oversees the Golden Seeds portfolio and is generally involved in all negotiations for M&A transactions and follow-on financings for members as well as the funds. Because of the sector diversity and geographic breadth of Golden Seeds and her particular passion for following disruptive technologies, she remains current on industry, economic, and global trends.

Wallace has invested in numerous privately-held companies, either directly or through one of the Golden Seeds funds. She retains board positions with privately held Chromis Fiberoptics and Plum Perfect. She also serves as a juror on the International Cartier Women’s Initiative Award.

Peggy Wallace is often quoted in the media for her expertise on angel investing and has most recently been featured on Bloomberg News discussing 2014 trends. Before founding Golden Seeds, Wallace was on Wall Street as a Managing Director in the Structured Finance/financial institutions arena. She spent a significant portion of her career at JP Morgan/Chase. 

Rahilla Zafar is co-author of the book Arab Women Rising, which profiles 35 women entrepreneurs from across the MENA region. She currently works with Wondros, a full-service production company with a focus on content that fosters social responsibility. Their clients have ranged from HRH Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, The Clinton Global Initiative, IBM, and the Guggenheim Museum. She previously profiled women entrepreneurs for Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative in countries including Afghanistan, China, Nigeria, and India. Rahilla also lived in Afghanistan and Pakistan working for the International Organization for Migration and the NATO-led mission. She has two graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the London School of Economics. She completed her undergraduate degree at DePaul University.

Dr. Kaoutar El-Maghraoui is a Research Scientist at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. Her interests include systems software, distributed computing, and applications of analytics to solve systems’ problems. She is leading a research project to apply IBM’s Watson cognitive technology for systems problem diagnosis and resolution and technical support. She has co-authored several conference and journal publications in the areas of systems research, distributed systems and high performance computing. She has served in many technical conferences as co-chair, member of the program committee, and reviewer.

Kaoutar obtained a PhD in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York and a Master’s degree in Computer Networks from Al-Akhawayn University, Morocco. She has received several awards including the American Association of University Women fellowship, the Robert McNaughton Award for best thesis in CS at RPI, IBM’s Eminence and Excellence Award, and IBM's outstanding technical accomplishment award. She is a member of IEEE Computer Society, ACM, SWE, ArabWIC, and IBM Watson's Women's Network.

Dr. Kaoutar El-Maghraoui is currently serving as the co-chair of the Arab Women in Computing (ArabWIC) organization. She is very passionate about mentoring, promoting, and increasing the participation of women in STEM and computing fields. She has been an active member of the leadership team of the Grace Hopper Conference (GHC), the world’s largest conference and gathering of women in computing.