Cynthia Bailey is a Senior Lecturer in the Computer Science Department at Stanford. She has a PhD in high-performance computing from UC San Diego, and her other scholarly specializations include computer science education, tech/AI ethics and social impact, and machine learning/AI algorithms. Her teaching awards include the President's Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for exceptional contributions to undergraduate education at Stanford, a "Top 10 Papers of All Time" award at the 50th anniversary of the ACM SIGCSE technical symposium, and the Stanford Society of Women Engineers' Professor of the Year. Outside of academia, her work experience includes NASA Ames, startups, and expert witness testifying for top intellectual property law firms. She is on leave from Stanford this year to work on AI Policy in the U.S. Senate, as a AAAS AI Policy Fellow.

Computing with a Conscience: crafting a career that matches your values

Did you fall in love with coding, but have concerns about the negative impacts some technology has had on society and the planet? Are you excited about the potential for technology to improve the world, and want to do your part to realize the best vision of what's possible? I'll share stories of my own journey: from writing simple games, to designing AI algorithms at a startup, to teaching at Stanford, and now advising the US government on AI policy. And I'll share advice on how you can shape your own journey.

As college students, women who are in technology fields often find themselves in the minority. Luckily, most students are able to access supportive student groups such as SWE, WIC, women in data science, and others. But what happens when you graduate and land your first job working as a women in tech? Many women find themselves at companies that are even more gender- imbalanced than their college programs, often in new cities where they have to build new connections from scratch. Many networking groups for women in technology are hard to find or only offer conferences or meetups once or twice a year. It can be challenging to find a supportive community that offers guidance from women's perspective on professional situations such as salary negotiation, getting recognition for your work, and professional development. And as women progress in their careers, additional challenges emerge, including navigating management tracks, maternity leave policies, and juggling family life. Charlottesville Women in Tech (CWIT) is a non-profit that was created to address this need for connection and support among women who work in technology careers. This panel will feature CWIT board members who will share their stories about feeling alone in new jobs, seeking connections, and creating a strong, thriving group of local women who can network and guide each other through career (and life) challenges. The panel will discuss ways to find women in similar situations, how to create networking opportunities, and how to continue fostering connections throughout your entire career.

Panelists

• Eileen Krepkovich, Senior Research Scientist at Barron Associates and President of Charlottesville Women in Tech

  Eileen Krepkovich is a senior research scientist at Barron Associates, where she works with wearable devices for medical rehabilitation. She has degrees in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve and Northwestern, and has 20 years' experience working in biomedical research. She co-founded Charlottesville Women in Tech in 2014 to help find a network of other local women working in technical fields, and has served as president of the board for the past 10 years.

• Elaine Cheng, Chief Information Officer at Shentel and Board Member of Charlottesville Women in Tech

  Elaine Cheng is a Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Shentel (Shenandoah Telecommunications). She leads the Information Technology organization, Customer Service, Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO), and Enterprise Risk Management program. Elaine has over 30 years of experience in diverse business environments across all areas of Information Technology. Prior to joining Shentel, Elaine served as Chief Information Officer and Managing Director of Global Strategic Design for CFA Institute in Charlottesville, Va. Prior to her time at CFA Institute, Elaine held a number of different roles over 16 years with M&T Bank in Buffalo, NY, including Group Vice President, Technology Business Services, Vice President of Retail Operations and Assistant Vice President, Web Product Owner. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar College and her Masters of Business Administration from the University of Rochester. More importantly, Elaine is a founding board member of Charlottesville Women in Tech, a non-profit organization which encourages women to join and thrive in technology careers. Elaine loves to run, bike and swim. She’s completed eleven marathons, two 70.3 IronMan triathlons and too many other races to count. She is the mother of two amazing kids.

• Jane Jackson, Senior Software Engineer, Q-Centrix

  Jane Jackson wrote her first program at the age of 12 and fell in love. She is a Software Engineer, a graduate of the University of Virginia Engineering School, and a life-long learner. She has worked with many programming languages, platforms and paradigms and also across a variety of industries including Finance, Media, Healthcare and Fitness. Currently, she is a Senior Software Engineer at Q-Centrix. Outside of work, she is the mother of two children and two hound dogs and loves to run marathons.

• Kim Wilkens, Education and Outreach Director at the UVA School of Education and Vice President of Charlottesville Women in Tech

  Kim Wilkens is currently an Education and Outreach Director in the School of Education and Human Development at UVA where she recently completed her doctoral studies in curriculum and instruction with a focus on K-12 computer science education. She founded Tech-Girls in 2012 and then helped fold that program into Charlottesville Women in Tech in 2014 as a founding board member. Kim has worked for over two decades to bring K-12 CS education into both school and out-of-school settings for historically marginalized youth. Prior to her foray into education, Kim graduated with a degree in computer science and worked as a development relationship and release manager for IBM Personal Software Products and a test manager for IBM's Interactive Media and PC Gaming Division. She enjoys biking, hiking, camping and most recently pickleball.

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• Moderated by Briana Morrison, UVA Computer Science

What Rocket Science & Banking Have in Common

When you think of Rocket Science and Banking you probably don’t think of them as interchangeable careers, but they actually have a lot more in common than you might imagine. Join Melanie Frank as she talks about how her dream to become an astronaut led her down the unanticipated path to software engineer.