PWiC: Meet Team Seattle!
PWiC Seattle has been critical in shaping the success story of PWiC in 2019 — kudos to the team for the huge impact it was able to make in its kick-off year! If you haven’t been following our updates before, here is the year in review.
With growth comes scaling. So, as we enter 2020, a new PWiC global leadership team has been established and many new local chapters have been formed around the globe — totally exciting times! Many of the previous leads of the Seattle chapter have moved to the global team and the Seattle team has new faces now. So let me introduce you to the new Seattle team!
Please join me in welcoming an amazing group of smart and driven team members of PWiC Seattle!
Samia Khalid: Lead
Sr. Applied Scientist at Microsoft| AI Engineer| AI Blogger | Tech Speaker | Adventure Lover
Samia is a Senior Applied Scientist at Microsoft. She is working with large-scale distributed systems to power new intelligent experiences in Office 365 and Outlook. Before moving to Seattle she was working at Microsoft in Norway. She has been actively supporting diversity and inclusion efforts in the technology industry by speaking at various tech events and leading technical workshops.
Samia is a firm believer in continuous learning, growth mindset, helping others, and in living a life rich in experiences. She strives to create an impact on others by inspiring them to live to their fullest.
In her free time, she can be found leading women empowerment efforts, working out at the gym, writing about AI, learning a new skill, or travelling around the world trying out some crazy adventure!
Connect with Samia
LinkedIn: SamiaKhalid
Instagram: SamiaKhalid
Blog: https://towardsml.com/
Medium: https://medium.com/@samia.khalid
Sabahat Durrani: Connect Lead
Software Development Engineer at Expedia | Microsoft TEALS
Sabahat has been working as a professional for 12+ years. She is currently working at Expedia as a Software Development Engineer. Along with being an Ex-Microsoft employee, she is also part of the Microsoft TEALS program, teaching computer science to High school kids.
In her free time, she enjoys reading books and various outdoor activities, including but not limited hiking, swimming, traveling or a nice morning walk.
She is super excited to contribute as a Connect Lead for PWiC and excited to collaborate with people with great minds and strengths to make a difference.
Rubia Latif: Growth Lead
Product Manager at Microsoft | Azure Returnity Program
Rubia is currently a Product Manager at Microsoft on the Azure IoT team working on IoT Edge, the NextGen technology that allows you to run AI workloads and cloud computations on the Edge devices closer to premise. In her previous role in the company she was part of Azure Networking where she led teams to build tools and services that enable monitoring the health of the entire backbone network and datacenter fabric at Microsoft. After graduating from FAST-LHR she started her career as a developer at IBS in the greater New York area focused on building real estate software for the top fortune 500 companies like Vornado realty trust and then shortly after moving to the product management space, where she found her true calling and explored different industry verticals ranging from retail software to wealth management.
As a teenager in Pakistan and an avid sports fan she actively played field hockey and cricket at a regional level and was part of the (PWIC-Pakistan Women In Cricket) before it was taken under the umbrella of PCB. This exposure led her to understand the huge disparity and limitations that girls and women face in our society just to come out and play a sport they love, leading her to become a strong women’s advocate at a very young age which continued through with her in her career journey.
At Microsoft, she is part of the Azure Returnity Program focused on retention of the women workforce, helping them navigate through the challenges of returning to work after the birth of a child, a cause very dear and personal to her. Some of the feedback from these program sessions have led towards advocating for certain policy changes, the most recent ones being that a new parent returning to work can opt out from an on call rotation for 6 months!!
Anushey Nasar: Design Lead
Graphic Designer | Founder of Featherstone Event and Design
Anushey Nasar is a graphic designer from the greater Seattle area who has spent the past five years pursuing her passion for digital storytelling and innovative artistry. She is well-versed in design concepts and tools and specializes in branding and marketing where she helps clients bring their vision to life through eye-catching designs and creative digital strategies.
Anushey is also the owner and founder of Featherstone Event and Design, a small business dedicated to providing exceptional design and marketing services as well as event planning and decoration.
When she’s not working, Anushey enjoys traveling, reading, and spending time with her family.
Go Team Seattle!
