Women from Brazil, India, and Haiti to Be Honored at 2010 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
PALO ALTO, Calif. — August 9, 2010 —The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) today announced the three winners of the Anita Borg Change Agent Awards for 2010. These awards, underwritten by Google, celebrate the accomplishments of technical women from developing countries who are working in their community to attract and support women in technology. This year’s winners are Dr. Ana Regina Cavalcanti da Rocha from Brazil, Gayatri Buragohain from India and Tayana Etienne from Haiti. The Change Agent Award winners are being recognized for their technical leadership and advocacy work.
The winners will be honored and will speak at the 2010 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Atlanta, Georgia September 28 – October 2, 2010.
Ana Regina Cavalcanti da Rocha, Associate Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Graduate School of Engineering, Computer Science Department, has given software engineering unprecedented visibility in Brazil and beyond. Her work has addressed two major problems facing Brazil – lack of educational and professional opportunities for women and poverty. As a result of her work she has been a true change agent for Brazilian women in software engineering.
Gayatri Buragohain is the founder of Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT), a pioneering organization that empowers women using technology. In May 2009 she co-founded Joint Leap Technologies (JLT), a for-profit web development company. Gayatri is the ACM-W India Ambassador as well as a frequent public speaker. She has traveled throughout India leading gender sensitization trainings, hands-on tech trainings, and workshops on gender inequalities within technology. In 2008 and 2010, she was awarded the Anita Borg Institute’s “Systers Pass it On” Award.
Tayana Etienne is a full-time professor in the Science Department of the State University of Haiti and is the director of the MBDS Master in Haiti. Tayana Etienne has been instrumental in providing opportunities to local Haitian girls to obtain their computer science degrees. Tayana Etienne has also co-founded one of today’s most successful Haitian IT consulting companies and she participates in several committees to improve the extension and exploitation of ICT (information and communication technology) for development in Haiti.
“The Anita Borg Change Agent Award Winners are true role models for our attendees. Each of the Change Agents has a profound impact on the lives of women in their countries,” said Telle Whitney, CEO of the Anita Borg Institute.
The world’s largest gathering of women in computing in industry, academia, and government, GHC is a five-day technical conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Conference registration is now open. For more information, go to www.gracehopper.org.
About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI)
The Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs to help industry, academia, and government recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high-tech fields, resulting in higher levels of technological innovation. ABI programs serve high-tech women by creating a community and providing tools to help them develop their careers. ABI is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. ABI Partners include: Google, Microsoft, HP, CA, Cisco, First Republic Bank, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lockheed Martin, National Science Foundation, NSA, NetApp, SAP, Oracle/Sun, Symantec, Thomson Reuters, Wilson Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, Motorola Foundation, Yahoo!, Amazon, Facebook, and Raytheon. For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.
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Media Contact
Anita Borg Institute
Jerri Barrett
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jerrib@anitaborg.org