Me a little bit more details about my background as I speak through the presentation. Um and tell you about my why.So I'm gonna filter this whole conversation in between statistics, my own experience and end up with some advice for all in terms of what we can do as we recognize the challenges, but also the opportunities um especially as being a black woman in tech. So as you can see here, Iy has a couple of pieces that I'll, that I'll put together for you, but I'd like to start off with is that I was one of four girls growing up in my household, one of four girls. So, you know, we were raised that you could do anything that's possible, you could do anything that you want. So I was raised to be a confident black woman and we'll talk a little bit about how that confidence can come off a different way, but I had to be comfortable with it. Um I'm a proud graduate of a historical black college and university that South Carolina State University. Tell you a little bit about that story and how actually I ended up in tech really started at South Carolina State University.

Also, I'm an army vet, an environmental scientist at that, which then led me to teaching and naturally into STEM and where we are today. Um I'm a proud mom of two boys and actually I have to say I should update this slide. I'm actually a proud mom of two young men. One who is um at American University here in the district of Columbia and one who's a rising sophomore in high school. And I'm also a mentor and all these pieces speak to my why. But I think they also speak to the challenges that I face as a black woman in tech. But now the opportunities that I see as well. So if you take a look here at this particular slide, you will see that. Well, what do you see if I were to ask you in the chat? And I'm not so sure if I can see all the chats or comments. But if you were to look at this, you could see that I did a simple Google search and this is what I came up when I Googled computer science and technology. These are the images that came up. And what I'm seeing is a lack thereof women represented in these slides, if not just women, women of color in these images. What does that say to a young girl that is seeking or is interested in stem or technology?

But when they Google the images that they see is only mostly of men, white men and very limited women, but then less black women in those images. And so we are doing this work just because of what you see here. And again, my own lived experience. So where technology is everywhere, but where are the girls? Where are the young women? Where are the leaders in technology? Where are we seeing them? And what message does that send? And if you look here at statistic, the challenge is simply this, it can be tracked all the way back to school and education of young women. About 8 to 10 um US public school teachers, 79% of them identified as non-hispanic. Or what if you want to say just simply white, 79% of us public school teachers identified as non-hispanic or white, meaning that the population of teachers aren't representing the diversity of our kids that you see in classrooms. Again, what message does that send to young women, women who want to see themselves even at their early age in education? But cannot 74% of young women, high school and lower express interest in stem, but only 18% actually end up in a STEM or computer science pathway. So these statistics are very daunting and just imagine if you are that young girl in the classroom, such which I was, I didn't have a student or teacher of color until I entered in South Carolina State University. That H BC U that I spoke of.

And then that's when I was actually encouraged to join the STEM field. I was majoring in education. So I always had a passion for education. But at the same time, I also did not see myself in any other field. Although I was interested in STEM, I never had anyone come to me and say, did you ever consider a STEM field? Did you ever consider that? You're so excited when I remember dissecting a frog or looking into a microscope or even when I had um computer science class actually in elementary school. However, I was never encouraged to advance in that field, college and, or career and it continues through after, after schooling and after college, what do we see in the workforce? We simply see that only 2.2% 2.2% of women that look like me represent in the technology field.

So can you imagine in the most places that I've entered either through school or through professional atmospheres or environments? I only, I was often the only one in that room. Let me describe an experience that I had being the only one in that room because I recognize that some folks just can't fit themselves in the shoes that or the life experience that you lived. So I I just want to share something with you. So as I was writing the next generation science standards, these are us National Science standards that were adopted from a lot of international science standards. We learned a lot from our international partners. So we were writing, we were going through this writing process, which happened to be in Washington DC. I, I arrived early one day and I'm setting my things up and I'm setting, I think I was just looking for something in the room and another person came in and said, excuse me, um, are you setting up breakfast? I was, it was automatically assumed that I was not there to do the work, but I was there to serve those that were doing the work. That's just one experience that I've had throughout my lifetime.

Many times, I was the only person in the room or just assumptions were made through that writing process. The writing process for these standards was comprised of teachers as, as well as those in the technology field. We had engineers, we had scientists and if and I didn't tell you this part, I started as an environmental scientist as we talked about a little bit as an environmental science officer. 8.5 years, I practiced environmental science and then I went into teaching. So while we were writing these standards, we also leaned on not only our classroom experience but our professional experience. So during this writing process, we were engaged with each other's teachers, those in industry. And it was a great, unique team that was working together.

But I remember this one particular time when I was asked to work with the middle school and high school team on life science. Be it that I had a degree in biology. I practiced environmental science for 8.5 years. So we're debating on language and, or theory that we should actually propose in the standards. And one of the industry, men, men in industry leaned over and said as we were debating this particular topic, I can't remember exactly what it was. I just remember hearing this, oh, you're just a teacher. So you don't really probably understand the science behind this, not knowing my background. So you know what I had to simply do, I had to simply school the industry um person, this young man to let him know. Actually, this is what happens in the real world and this is actually how you apply environmental science because I did it for 8.5 years and I can possibly translate it to how a student might understand this. The assumption was I was a teacher lacked experience and could not understand a simple science con uh concept that we were trying to make sure students could understand. And again, this is just examples of how again you are only sometimes the only one and it is a lonely journey as you continue to to um continue on your trajectory of your career, the further you get in leadership, the lonelier it gets.

And the less people, you see that look like you. So again, 2.2% that's what I represent today, 2.2% in the technology field or workforce. But I also look at challenges as opportunities. And so uh we often point out all the statistics and all the things that, that are wrong. But I also look at those as opportunities kind of like my superpower. Um when I think about those challenges and how I can turn them into opportunities. So one of the opportunities is simply as black women in tech and simply as women in tech, we have to be prepared. And you might think I'm saying prepared in terms of our professional or our technical skill, that's not quite it because we got that, we've got our professional skills, we have our, you know, um technical skills that we developed, but we have to prepare for, for those things that we wouldn't necessarily account for being prepared means that it's, you're going to show up in spaces that you're not always represented.

You're going to show up in spaces where you have to be your own champion, you're going to show up in spaces where you're gonna have to do some convincing because it's over an assumption that you may not be long there. And we have to get comfortable with that fact. But see it as an opportunity to show how well prepared you are and then mentorship, I can't begin to tell you I would not be standing here if it wasn't for mentorship. And sometimes it's not a formal mentorship. Sometimes it's informal and that confidence, the confidence that my parents instilled in me is that little girl that I was talking about. One of four girls, you could do anything that you want to do in the world was that sometimes I had to seek out mentorship, the opportunities don't always present themselves. So I in terms of army training, one of the things that we always were taught as leaders was to seek out the opportunity that you want to happen. Look at those around you ask them for the help and support. They walk down that road that you have walked. So why not ask them for help? We have to be willing to ask for help and sometimes we have to seek out mentorship, provide that own opportunity to ourselves. I love the fact that many of you have already connected me with linkedin or connected with me at linkedin.

Let's keep the conversation going and mentorship doesn't always need to be the one or two or three step person that's ahead of you. It could be the person that's right beside you sharing in those experiences that will help you. So I hope to think that um we uh could help one another and mentorship one another, which brings to network, networking with people. But here's the key that I have found to be helpful as a woman that's trying to navigate in a space that remember, I only represent 2% 2% is all. And that is a network that doesn't necessarily look like your network. I graduated from a historical black college. It's a large network. I belong to one of the historical or divine nine sororities. Um Delta Sigma Theta sorority. It's a great network. But what I have found is I need to network outside of my network. So now when I'm in these spaces, I'm looking to see who can I also meet. That's somebody that's different than me because just as much as much as we want diversity in the workforce that we see, we also want to ensure, ensure that we build diversity even within our own network because it helps you think differently. It helps you gain a new perspective.

It's not asking you to change who you are, but it's also shaping who you are as well. So I like to just say an opportunity is to build a network, but build a network outside of your network and then take the leap, take the leap into, we know that it's sometimes gonna be lonely and sometimes you are going to enter spaces that don't want you there or were not made for you.

And that's the opportunity to change, that's the opportunity to change. But if you're prepared, if you have mentorship and support, and if you have a network that's outside of your network, all of those things will help you take that leap and as you take that leap challenges and things will get hard. But I say, keep going, keep going because there's a reason why you're walking the path that you're walking. I of often look at it like this. If I stop where I'm headed, then I cannot look back and bring those along with me. So I have to keep going. It, I feel it as though it's my responsibility to keep going and be well equipped because I'll be prepared for things that I know that I can't necessarily prepare for. I have mentorships that are really guiding me, either those colleagues again that are right beside me or those that are ahead of me. And then that network that you can always tap into to get that piece of advice just when you need it. And there's some more opportunities I like to speak to and that's taking up space and not shying away from it. I think you may, you may have heard the saying, don't dim your light for others to feel comfortable in your own light.

Be the light is what I think that we need to think and consider in terms of taking up space, taking up the space to be who you are and to add value. I often tell my team now that that does hiring there used to be, oh, are they a good culture fit or other, you know, candidates that were, were looking to, to join organizations and build diversity. Are they a good culture fit? I challenge them now and I asked them to say, ask our candidates the value they're gonna add because it's a different experience that they're gonna bring to our organization that's gonna make us better and we can't shy away from that. We can't shy away from something new, something different. We should honor that. So taking up the space because it, it embraces your own diversity and uniqueness, embrace it. Like I said, it's a superpower. It's great to know that I'm not like the majority because that makes me unique.

That to me adds value to anything that I pursue. And that's changing your mind and looking at a different mindset and then be confidence is a leadership skill. That's something that I had to learn. Like I said, I was told that I could do anything I wanted to do at a very young age. So in my mind, I really believed it, but I have to under, I have to understand that my confidence may come off to some and may be intimidating, but I step into that confidence every day. It's a leadership skill. That's what I see as a leadership skill. And don't let anyone else tell you anything different. And how about we go beyond allyship? So we have this term allyship where you be my ally, so we can be together in this fight to to build diversity um to build different cultures and to be, and to build inclusion um and equity. But I think we need to go beyond the step of allyship and be a coconspirator. That's a different angle. That's, that's going way beyond that. I have your back or I I'm with you in this. We can go well beyond that and do a better job.

I already talked about diversifying network and this goes out to everyone, not just that 2.2% that I showed you in the other slide of the workforce that is representative by um black women. I want to also share with you is to take care of yourself. Know, when enough is enough. Often I'm in spaces where I'm automatically looked to, to be the expert because I have lived experience of diversity or I have, I have lived experience of not feeling always included or I have feelings of, you know, life experience of not things not being equitable, but I've had to learn to step back, regroup, regenerate and sometimes sit it out because I have to, I have to make sure that I provide myself with that self perseverance that I preserve my, my mentality, my physical health, my emotional health, my mental health, we have to learn to take care of ourselves.

And that's not something of a sign of weakness. It's actually a sign of strength that you're willing enough to care about yourself first. So that you can support and fill others to the, to the best of your capability. So please let us all take care of ourselves and make sure that it's a priority and not seem like a weakness. So I'm gonna end here because I know I'm coming to the ender time code.org. That's who I work for. That's our, it's our vision for this young lady that to me is, you know, looking into that computer with, with absolute excitement here, she's saying I can do it. I, I'm, I belong here. This is who I am despite the statistics that I shared earlier. But our vision is that every student in every school has the opportunity to learn computer science. And if you can, I hope you join in us, join with us in the hour of code, which you can simply go to code.org and learn how to become a volunteer so that we can continue to close the gap for those that are underrepresented. Those that I look like shouldn't be having this conversation anymore. The, the conversations have been had, let us go into action and I thank you for having me here today with you.