Impact Stories from Professional Growth Policy Area
Middle East North Africa Alumni Thematic International Exchange Seminars (TIES)
Fellow(s): Mariam Keriakos and Nazha Larhissi
Country: Egypt, Morocco
Cohort: 2013, 2015
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Mariam Kariakos, 2015 fellow of Egypt, and Nezha Larhrissi, 2013 fellow of Morocco, were invited to speak at the Middle East North Africa Alumni Thematic International Exchange Seminars (TIES) seminar held in Casablanca, Morocco in July. Funded by ECA, Alumni TIES brings together alumni of U.S. State Department exchange programs for regional, thematically focused seminars. Mariam and Nezha spoke on an all-female panel called “Identifying and Leveraging Untapped Resources and Markets.” Mariam highlighted how she used her business consulting and technology experience to launch her own business, Craftista.me, and offered guidance on how to blend entrepreneurship with social impact and strategies to create women friendly working environments. Nezha spoke about how her experience as an advisor to Morocco’s Minister of Environment brought her to realize how much global collaboration was crucial to the fight against global warming and how she used the network she established with TechWomen to co-found e-STEM Morocco with two other TechWomen fellows.
Read More »Report Date...: 8/7/2017
Fellow(s): Marie Claire Murekatete
Country: Rwanda
Cohort: 2014
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Marie Claire received the Change Agent ABIE Award, which honors an outstanding non-U.S. woman who created or expanded opportunities for girls and women in technology. Marie Claire’s accomplishments include founding a non-profit organization called Refugee Girls Need You and becoming a Master Educator with the Technovation Challenge.
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Report Date...: 7/31/2017
Fellow(s): Rumbidzayi Mlambo
Country: Zimbabwe
Cohort: 2013
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth
Rumbidzayi Mlambo, 2013 fellow of Zimbabwe and intellectual property expert and scientist, is participating in a four-month research study program at the Japan Patent Office and Asia-Pacific Industrial Property Center of the Japan Institute of invention and Innovation, on behalf of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO).
Report Date...: 7/17/2017
Fellow(s): Tiisetso Lephoto
Country: South Africa
Cohort: 2016
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Tiisetso Lephoto, 2016 fellow of South Africa and a postdoctoral researcher, has been named one of South Africa’s Top 200 by Mail & Guardian. During the TechWomen program, Tiisetso was hosted at Illumina. In June, Tiisetso served as a judge at the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Agriculture Research Symposium. “My experience was humbling because over the years, I’ve presented my work and scooped awards for the past five to six years at the research symposium, and I was now invited to select winners,” she said. Tiiestso has also been active in youth outreach. On June 22, she participated on a panel for youth month in Soweto, her hometown, to talk about her work and passions.
Read More »Report Date...: 7/3/2017
Fellow(s): Cisca Oladipo
Country: Nigeria
Cohort: 2016
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth
Cisca Oladipo, 2016 fellow of Nigeria, presented at the International Conference on Technology, Knowledge, and Society at the University of Toronto on May 26. “I was excited talking about the TechWomen initiative and my experiences, as well as the limitless opportunities after my return to my home country,” Cisca explained. Cisca has been appointed head of the computer science department at Federal University Lokoja and helped launch a tech pipelining project supported by Google. “The Google initiative was made possible with the help of my TechWomen mentor Naisha Silva.”
Read More »Report Date...: 6/12/2017
Mentor(s): Mercedes Soria, Anar Simpson and Leedjia Svec
Company: Knightscope, Mozilla, NASA
Mentor Type: Cultural, Impact
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth
Three TechWomen mentors have been named 2017 Women of Influence Honorees by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Impact Advisors Mercedes Soria of Knightscope and Anar Simpson of Mozilla, along with Cultural Mentor Leedjia Svec of NASA Ames will be recognized at an awards ceremony in May. The award recognizes women who “had to shatter glass ceilings, knock down doors, create their own paths and help others along the way.”
Read More »Report Date...: 3/27/2017
World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa
Fellow(s): Omnia Eteyari
Country: Libya
Cohort: 2013
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Professional Growth
Omnia Eteyari, 2013 fellow of Libya and member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community, participated in the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa, May 19-21, at the Dead Sea, Jordan. Omnia met leaders from partnering countries and worked with other thought leaders to brainstorm ideas on using technology to prosper and develop the region.
Read More »Report Date...: 5/22/2017
IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference
Fellow(s): Nadiah Saba’neh; Salima Kaissi
Country: Morocco, Palestinian Territories
Cohort: 2013, 2015
Policy Area(s): Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth
Nadiah Saba’neh, 2015 fellow and Head of the Technical Development Directorate at the Palestinian Higher Council for Innovation and Excellence, presented an overview of the Palestinian entrepreneurship ecosystem at the IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference, May 23 in San Jose, Calif. The session was moderated by Salima Kaissi, 2013 fellow of Morocco and co-founder of eSTEM Morocco, who chaired the entrepreneurship track of the conference.
Report Date...: 5/22/2017
Google Developers Group
Fellow(s): Hoda Mahmoud, Rayan Al Zahab, Maha Ech-Chefaa
Country: Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco
Cohort: 2014, 2016
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth
At Google’s annual developer conference in Mountain View, California, 2014 and 2016 fellows: Hoda Mahmoud of Egypt, Rayan Al Zahab of Lebanon and Maha Ech-Chefaa of Morocco joined the Google community for technical sessions focused on building web, mobile and enterprise applications with Google. At the Google Develop Groups (GDG) Spotlight, Rayan shared how she launched GDG Coast Lebanon upon returning home from TechWomen.
Report Date...: 5/15/2017
Women in Data Science Conference
Fellow(s): Ouafa Benterki
Country: Algeria
Cohort: 2012
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Ouafa Benterki, 2012 fellow of Algeria, presented on challenges in natural language processing at the Women in Data Science Conference on April 29 at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene. As president of the Machine Translation Association – Algiers and Ambassador of Stanford Women in Data Science to Algeria, Ouafa helped organize the one-day conference to feature women involved in data science all over the world and to encourage women to be involved in the field.
Report Date...: 5/1/2017
