At AnitaB.org, we celebrate and highlight the success of women technologists and those who support women in tech. Our Abie Awards honor these distinguished women, whose achievements and life stories demonstrate that all of us has the power to improve our world, individually and collectively.
We honor our Abie Award winners at the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC). Our 2018 winners will speak on the main stage at GHC 18, which will be held September 26—28 in Houston, Texas. Find out more about our incredible winners and their accomplishments below.
Dr. Rebecca Parsons – Technical Leadership Abie Award
Sponsored by Intel
For decades, Rebecca has used her knowledge and technical experience in applications development across a range of industries and systems. She has led the creation of large-scale distributed object applications and the integration of disparate systems. Furthermore, Rebecca is a strong advocate for diversity in the technology industry. Committed to increasing the number of women in coding and STEM fields, Rebecca served on the board of CodeChix and acted as an advisor to Women Who Code. She held the position of chairwoman for four years on the Agile Alliance Board of Directors, and has served the organization over a total of six years.
Read more about Rebecca.
Chiara Amisola – Student of Vision Abie Award
Sponsored by FactSet
Chiara is an incoming college freshman from Yale University. She founded Developh as a school club in 2016, which expanded into a global nonprofit working to improve computer science education in the third-world and to nurture student innovation for social good. It has impacted over 40,000 students. Chiara is also the Co-founder and Front-End Developer of Batid, a startup network of sociopolitically-driven applications, of which the titular application was developed in response to the Philippine climate. Rooted in digital humanitarianism to move and alert communities, Batid has been published in international emerging technologies journals, was a finalist in the Philippine National Microsoft Imagine Cup. It also received recognition in various hackathons and was recognized by the Philippine government.
Read more about Chiara.
Holly Liu – Technology Entrepreneurship Abie Award
Sponsored by Dell
Holly co-founded the mobile gaming company Kabam in 2006. She led the design for Kabam’s award-winning “Kingdoms of Camelot” franchise, which grossed over $250 million in less than four years. She was also the founding mobile designer for the extension “Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North,” which was the top grossing app on iOS in 2012. Kabam has since gone on to partner with some of the largest Hollywood brands such as Marvel, Star Wars, The Hunger Games, The Hobbit, and countless others. Holly’s work has led to over fifty patents as well as technical and data innovations within Kabam and for the entire gaming industry.
Read more about Holly.
Dr. Debbie G. Senesky – Emerging Leader Abie Award in Honor of Denice Denton
Sponsored by Medidata
Debbie is an Assistant Professor at Stanford University in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, with a courtesy appointment to the Electrical Engineering Department. In addition, she is the Principal Investigator of the EXtreme Environment Microsystems Laboratory (XLab). Debbie’s research interests include the development of nanomaterials for extreme harsh environments, high-temperature electronics, and robust instrumentation for Venus exploration. She is currently the co-editor for the journals IEEE Electron Device Letters, Sensors, and Micromachines. Debbie is also a recipient of the NASA Early Faculty Career Award and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship Award.
Read more about Debbie.
Mariana Costa Checa – Change Agent Abie Award
Sponsored by Microsoft
Mariana is the Co-founder and CEO at Laboratoria, a social enterprise working to equip young women from economically underserved backgrounds in Latin America with the skills they need to build successful careers in the tech sector. With centers in Peru, Chile, Mexico, and Brazil, Laboratoria is training thousands of young women as software developers and placing them in tech jobs where they get to transform their lives and the industry. Mariana has been recognized on multiple occasions for her work as a social entrepreneur. The BBC named her one of the most influential women in 2016, and MIT named her one of Peru’s leading innovators under 35. She also shared a panel with President Obama and Mark Zuckerberg at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and is an Ashoka fellow, recognized as a changemaker for the good of society.
Read more about Mariana.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.