Women In Tech In Washington D.C. : 5 Innovators Actively Working For Change
As the hotly contested presidential election draws near, focus has not only narrowed in on the candidates themselves, but also on the city of their future home. Many say that a watchful eye has always been on Washington D.C., as tech innovators strategically make power moves in the background of a larger political scope.
Some of the women amongst this new crop of impactors believe in the power of leadership and technology to spark change. Here’s PowerToFly’s list of six women who are dominating the Washington D.C. tech scene, inspiring many along the way. Tech is their weapon of choice for tackling issues of access, gender equality and social justice, all while creating new business opportunities for women.
- Shannon V. Turner, Full Stack Developer and Founder of Hear Me Code
Working for social justice has always been a top priority for Shannon V. Turner, full stack developer and founder of Hear Me Code. Seeing technology as a way of creating change, she combined her coding skills along with teaching to help more women get into the game. “Tech alone won’t solve our problems,” she explains, “but to me it’s a way of using the skills I have to fight for the things I care about.” Shannon started Hear Me Code after growing weary of being the only woman at tech events. The self-taught developer offers free coding classes, with a rich curriculum, to women on the weekends. According to her website, students are offered 12 lessons over a year of coaching, that “focus on practical applications to real-world programming.” Students not only learn how to tweak the backends of their own websites, but also use APIs, build webcrawlers, and develop long term projects related to their personal interests.
Shannon started Hear Me Code with three of her friends around her kitchen table. It has now grown to over 2000 members. “I think it’s because we focus on turning students into teachers and providing opportunities for women to grow and develop their leadership skills,” she tells PowerToFly. “Nearly 100 women have been teachers and teaching assistants through Hear Me Code.” The best advice that she has for other women in tech who feel challenged by the gender imbalance is to find their own community. She adds, “Surround yourself with people who want to see you succeed wildly. Surround yourself with people who will help you be your best.”
2. Allison McMillan, Engineer, Conference Speaker, Co-Organizer of Rails Girls DC and Silver Springs Ruby Groups
Although the former startup founder never used to consider herself a “computer person,” she joined the first Rails Girls DC programming workshop three years ago. Allison McMillan wanted to learn how to code to better communicate with developers. She now credits the learning as her biggest accomplishment, saying, “It took a lot of determination, grit, and fortitude to continue teaching myself and transition to being a full-time developer.”
Allison enjoys leveraging her multifaceted skill set, as a startup founder turned engineer. Her past experiences include working as an engineer for General Assemb.ly, a leading education center for the tech, business and design industries in Washington D.C. She was also a full-time Ruby on Rails Contract Developer, contributing to products like Foodstand and Salsa Labs Gem. She now looks at all angles while examining problems and determines solutions more accurately. The developer values her Rails Girls experience and gives back to the local Ruby community that mentored her.
The engineer and mom co-organizes the Rails Girls DC and Silver Springs Ruby groups. Allison is also a sought after technical conference speaker, drawing on her experiences as a student, leader and engineer. She explains, “My biggest learning has been that you don’t need to be an expert developer to contribute positively to a tech conference. I’ve been speaking at conferences since my first year of being a developer.”
3. Amber Stradford: Founder of Endorsevent and Co-Creator of Girl Develop It, Washington D.C.
After seven years of lending her digital management and advertising expertise to corporate campaigns for clients like Disney, Adobe and Microsoft, Amber Stradford launched Endorsevent. The online platform helps match businesses and funders with under-promoted events. “Our platform helps small to mid-sized brands understand the power of event sponsorship as a means of affordably reaching their local audience,” she mentioned in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. The added value, Amber explains, is that brands can help promote viable companies and causes that may have otherwise been overlooked.
Amber conceptualized the idea after launching the Washington D.C chapter of Girl Develop It, alongside Misty Melton. She later brought on Mariella Paulino to help. Amber tells PowerToFly that she, like many other women, co-created the DC chapter after “feeling uncomfortable trying to break into a field that’s so heavily dominated by men.” In college she was terrified at the thought of majoring in Computer Science. Although she chose Marketing because it felt ‘safe,’ she’s always dabbled in tech. “I think my entire career has been ‘How technical can I get, while still living in the advertising world?’ Hence my progression in roles heavy in product management at ad tech companies,” she admits.
Now that Girl Develop It DC has grown to nearly 3000 ‘Nerdettes,’ Amber recognizes the scale of the organization’s impact and its role in pushing herself and other women in tech forward. Through the partnerships that Girl Develop It DC has forged, she says “it’s apparent that local DC tech companies, and government agencies, are eager to hire more women and minorities in web development roles. Most of our students are professionals looking to make a career transition and we strive to prepare them and help them develop relationships with these companies.”
4. Shana Glenzer, CMO MakeOffices, Co-Organizer of DC FemTech and DC Tech Meetup
With a strong background in sales and marketing, Shana Glenzer, the Chief Marketing Officer of MakeOffices, has leveraged the power of networking through meetups for years. Her biggest learning, she says, is that as long as you’re doing it sincerely, networking in and out of the office is similar. Allowing her work, personal and philanthropic lives to intersect, Shana says, allows her to create long lasting connections. “If I need help with recommendations on a vacation abroad or to find my next marketing team member — I can go to the same network,” Shana tells PowerToFly.
It was through meetups that this sought after executive (who has helped amplify startups like Aquicore, SocialRadar and Blackboard) co-created DCFemTech. DCFemTech is a group of women tech leaders that meet bimonthly to share resources aimed at increasing the number of women working at tech companies. This year they recognized 52 DC based “Powerful Women Programmers And Designers,” at an annual awards dinner. “I’m proud that we’ve been able to recognize women who spend their days in the trenches of engineering and design to make create products and companies,” Shana wrote on their website.
Nurturing connections and focusing on customer service has been key to Shana’s success. “Feel what they feel,” she says, adding that it’s all about putting in time to get to know your customers. Shana’s advice for women seeking to grow in the tech field is to maintain their professional relationships. “Even as you transition out of an organization, you’ll (see) those faces again,” she emphasizes.
5. Katherine McClintic, Associate Software Development Engineer at LivingSocial and Dir. of Education for Women Who Code DC
When most people see a movie concession clerk or history teacher, they may not think of them as someone who codes. But those are a few of the job titles Katherine McClintic held before she became an Associate Software Development Engineer at LivingSocial. Katherine credits her impactful teachers (from programs like Dev Bootcamp NYC) for helping her climb through the ranks. She says that they’re the reason why she mentors other women in tech today. “I was the teaching assistant for the first cohort at The Iron Yard DC … Helping students learn some basic Ruby concepts that I hadn’t seen in a while gave me the confidence to apply for jobs.”
Giving back also motivated Katherine to increase her civic presence. She takes pride in being the Director of Education for Women Who Code DC, a nonprofit dedicated to “helping women excel in tech fields.” She’s overjoyed that many of the women who first started coding and attending meetups with her are now getting their first developer positions, which she says often takes a while to materialize. In addition to their talent and hard work, she says that community support is key. Katherine encourages women in tech to “Talk to people in the industry who have had similar experiences, but also to people who don’t know the difference between the Java running on their TV and the java in their coffee maker. Find a combination that works for you.”
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