Back

Let’s Celebrate Women in Tech: A Roundtable Discussion on International Women’s Day

Share

Join our newsletter!

Receive the latest data collection news in your inbox.

International Women’s Day is a global holiday that honors and celebrates the social, cultural, political, and economic achievements of women across the globe. On March 8 each year, we come together worldwide to recognize the impact women are making in the world and to raise awareness of women’s equality and gender parity. As the business landscape becomes increasingly diverse, we also celebrate women who have climbed to leadership positions at some of the most reputable companies while others have excelled in entrepreneurial endeavors. In honor of International Women’s Day, we re-broadcasted our recent Women in Tech roundtable discussion.

About the Panelists

Ashley McAlpin, VP of Marketing and Sales Development at FormAssembly

Ashley McAlpin is the VP of Marketing and Sales Development at FormAssembly, a data collection and form building platform with advanced compliance standards. With 15 years of marketing experience, Ashley’s leadership style enforces success in her team, which she has proudly grown from the ground up. Her experience is focused in healthcare and B2B tech SaaS, where she has led multiple teams through strategic marketing initiatives to scale business and drive success. 

Philanthropically minded, Ashley has spent the last five years teaching marketing classes as an adjunct professor at Southern New Hampshire University with the hope of engaging and encouraging the next generation of marketing professionals.

In her spare time, Ashley and her husband, along with their two children, are building a hobby farm in East Tennessee. With a passion for sustainability and cultivating a better tomorrow, they seek to show others that balance between corporate living and sustainability is possible. Ashley shares their journey and pursuit on her social channels and podcast, the Stewarding Well Podcast.

Heather Black, CEO and Founder at Supermums

Heather Black is the CEO and Founder of Supermums, a training and employability program that aims to empower mothers to establish a career within the Salesforce sector. Since its 2016 launch, Heather and her team have welcomed over 400 trainees composed of mothers and fathers. 

Heather is the mother of two girls who fueled her passion to start Supermums. Over the years she’s worked flexibly with Salesforce, even from a campervan in Australia. When Heather’s eldest daughter was born, she continued to work flexibly around her family. In 2016, Heather began to think about how Salesforce enabled her to stay working after the birth of her second daughter. She realized that Salesforce enables flexibility, allowing her to continue her professional career while mastering motherhood, leading to the creation of Supermums. 

With a background in training and employability support alongside Salesforce, she designed the perfect program. Since November 2016, the organization has welcomed over 400 trainees (comprised of moms and a few dads) to the Supermums family with a mission to grow and to continue empowering working parents.

Karie Harris, Global Operations Sourcing Manager at Facebook 

Karie Harris is a Certified Career Coach holding a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and 15 years of experience in Information Technology (IT). Her career in IT spans across many industries and major organizations including Oracle, Accenture, and Amazon Web Services. She has fulfilled many roles including full cycle technical recruiting, career coaching, and management. 

Karie is currently the Global Recruiting Manager at Facebook and WhatsApp. Karie’s expertise in recruitment, certification in career coaching, leadership in technology, and customer relationship management has allowed her to understand and meet the needs of her employers and clients at a qualified, professional level worldwide. She has a strong passion for what she does with a mission to help her clients find their purpose and grow their careers.

Karie is the founder of Diversity Career Coaching Academy at www.diversitycareercoaching.com, which offers services specifically for females, veterans, individuals with disabilities, Blacks, Latinx, and Native Americans. Services include career coaching, personal brand building, resume writing, interview preparation, salary negotiation, and more. Karie believes finding a job shouldn’t be hard or stressful, which is why she chose her path to educate, coach, and help people achieve their career goals.

Tiffany Spencer, Co-Founder/COO, Esor Consulting Group

Tiffany Spencer is a 7x certified Salesforce.com Professional and Salesforce MVP with over 12 years of experience leading digital transformations for small to large corporations utilizing the Salesforce.com platform. She is currently the Co-Founder and COO of Esor Consulting Group, a black-owned Salesforce partner with a team of Salesforce experts that have experience working with nonprofits and education institutions. She is also the founder of HBCUforce, a nonprofit organization that partners with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Minority Serving Institutions, and organizations to implement programs that provide early access to cloud computing careers. 

Tiffany is very active in her community and uses her expertise to mentor high school and college students. She is also currently the Board Chair and Program Director for Black Orlando Tech, a nonprofit organization committed to accelerating minority economic advancement through workforce, small business, and socioeconomic development. The organization supports the awareness, activities, network, and resources for local minorities who pursue careers or entrepreneurship in technology. She is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and a graduate of Bethune-Cookman University with a degree in Computer Information Systems and a minor in Business Administration.

Rebecca Yang, Business Advisor, Worldwide Public Sector at AWS 

Rebecca builds bridges across tech, government, and civil society to solve global challenges. At Amazon Web Services (AWS), she leads strategic initiatives across the Worldwide Public Sector & State and Local Government and Education organization to scale the business. 

Previously, Rebecca worked on Facebook’s Global Trust and Safety team, focused on Commerce. She has also served as a U.S. diplomat in Istanbul, where she covered elections, domestic politics, human rights, and religious freedom. Rebecca led U.S. engagement on women’s rights in Turkey and collaborated with the UN and U.S. interagency to address the unique needs of LGBTI refugees. She led her team through unprecedented security challenges, including a coup attempt, terrorist attacks, and an evacuation due to increased terrorist threats. Her reports were featured in the President’s Daily Brief and she won a Meritorious Honor Award for her service. 

Rebecca is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, a Truman National Security Fellow, and a World Affairs Council Fellow alumna. She has a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Dedicated to building inclusive organizations, Rebecca founded, led, and scaled inclusion initiatives at Facebook, the U.S. State Department, and Harvard. She is proficient in Turkish and Mandarin Chinese and is currently learning Japanese. In her free time, Rebecca enjoys scuba diving, reading, traveling, oil painting, music, and food.

Jessica Hood, Vice President, Global Innovation & Digital Transformation at Salesforce

Jessica has been a part of the nonprofit and education community for over 20 years. Today in her role at Salesforce.org, she is responsible for ensuring that the CxOs of top nonprofit organizations and education institutions are set up for success as they adapt to a digital-first world and take on the disruptions impacting today’s organizations and institutions. Jessica has presented on Digital Transformation at Skoll World Forum, NetHope Global Summit, Traction on Demand’s Digital Transformation Series, Appiro’s Unlock & Discover Conference and Salesforce events Dreamforce, Connections, Education Summit and Go for Something Bolder. 

Prior to Salesforce.org, Jessica was a leader with consulting agencies focused on nonprofits, political action committees, and education institutions that sought technology to scale and deliver impact on fundraising, communications, and missions. Jessica also worked for an environmental conservation organization focused on education, advocacy, and restoration. 

Jessica is passionate about the education and empowerment of girls, volunteering with Girl Scouts of Northern California as a STEM and Camp CEO mentor. Jessica has been a judge for the CARE Scale X Design Pitch Night and sits on an advisory council to their technology team. Jessica graduated from the University of Maryland Global Campus.

Join future webinars

To find more sessions like this, please visit our website to see a list of upcoming webinars.

Don’t just collect data
— leverage it