Paula Nolan | Junior UX Designer | SmartBear
Paula Nolan is a Junior UX Designer at SmartBear in Galway, Ireland, who recently returned to the tech industry after a 16-year absence.
During the Covid lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, Paula earned two postgraduate diplomas in user experience design, achieving first-class honours. Paula ran a successful photography business for 11 years and now works alongside much younger peers, and her passion lies in designing solutions that address user problems.
In 2018, Paula created the Humans of Offaly project, interviewing 100 people from Tullamore to New York to record history for future generations. She is currently working on publishing a book on the project, with the proceeds going towards charities and worthy causes in her area. Before joining SmartBear, Paula was a software engineer for Eir Ireland, the country's primary fixed-line and mobile telecommunications services provider. Paula has a Bachelor's degree from Maynooth University and postgraduate diplomas in computer science, art, graphic design, multimedia, and digital marketing.
In addition to her work, Paula is an avid marathon runner who has completed five Dublin City Marathons and raised thousands of euro for three terminally ill brothers. She also led a successful fundraising initiative in 2021 by running 100 miles a month to raise funds to help her neighbour receive life-changing treatment for Lyme disease in Cyprus. Additionally, she spearheaded a fundraising campaign to purchase specialist equipment for a sensory room at her local primary school. This led to the school opening a resource centre for autistic children one year later.
Saachi Dhillon | Lead - Marketing | National Geographic
Saachi Dhillon is an award-winning Marketing Communications professional with twelve years of international work experience across media, entertainment and e-commerce and across both start-ups and MNCs.
Currently, she leads marketing at National Geographic India, a part of the Walt Disney Company. Recently, she was recognised as Indian Television’s Top 50 PR and Communication Professionals.
Her debut book, Dreaming Of Everest, an Amazon Bestseller, chronicles her 130-km journey to the Everest Base Camp. Her story inspires people to realise impossible dreams and proves that limitations exist only in the mind.
Rim Elfallal | Registered Nurse | The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
I’m a Registered Nurse and I work at Ohio State University Hospital East in Oncology/Nephrology.
I am a member on the Nursing Ethics Commitee and my hobbies include studying the intersection between theology and society, advancements in technology and I enjoy exercise. I am a mother to a 3 year old boy and I have 2 wonderful step daughters and a supportive husband.
Meehika Barua | Freelance Journalist | Meehika Barua
Meehika Barua is a freelance journalist.
She has written for Vogue magazine, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, British Vogue, The Washington Post, Harper's Bazaar, The Spectator, Glamour magazine, Business Insider, Elle, The Independent, Vice, Allure, Al Jazeera, Stylist, Grazia, Tatler, among other publications. She was nominated for the Asian Media Award 2022.
She also won the 2018 Journalism Now Scholar competition by Thomson Reuters.
She has written about crucial social issues, such as the rise of accent coaches for Al Jazeera.
She has also covered how toxic TV affects Asian women for The Guardian.
She has written academic longform reports for American Student publications such as CQ Researcher on Cultural Appropriation.
She constantly does panels on how to be a freelance journalist in order to mentor buddying writers.
Karyna Tubolyeva | Team Lead - Conversational AI | E.ON Digital Technology GmbH
Karyna is 25 years old and was born in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Since she was 17, she moved to study in Slovakia and was active in international exchange programs. Back then she joined a market research company, where assisted with organising international educational events worldwide. After finishing her bachelor's degree, she came to Germany in 2019 to start her masters studies in International Management. While studying she joined E.ON as a working student and thank to her hard work and involvement she has has started her career as a Conversational Expert just after graduating in September 2022. Since then she has been coordinating a team of conversational designers and by September 2022 she got promoted to lead a German-based team of professionals in Conversational AI at E.ON. Now Karyna is actively contributing to development and automation of customer support channels at E.ON Group and represents the company externaly.
Blanca Vázquez de Castro | Associate | Latham & Watkins
Blanca Vázquez de Castro is an associate in Latham & Watkins’ Tax Practice, based in Madrid.
She represents large Spanish corporates and global private equity firms in strategic cross-border tax matters related to M&A, finance, and restructuring deals. She is a member of Latham’s Diversity Leadership Committee, an inaugural global leader of the Hispanic and Latin American Lawyers Group, and former local leader of the firm’s Women Lawyer’s Group, where she’s developed various initiatives to support the recruitment, retention, and promotion of individuals with a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives.
Ayesha Afzal | Researcher | Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center
Ayesha Afzal is a researcher at Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU), Germany.
She is the recipient of First Place ISC PhD Forum Award 2021 that recognizes the most outstanding PhD work and is named in 100 Future Leaders Role Model List 2022 supported by Yahoo Finance. Her PhD research lies at the crossroads of analytic performance models, performance tools and parallel simulation frameworks in high-performance computing. Ayesha has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications and serves as an active speaker, reviewer, and/or committee member at various international events. She is a passionate advocate for inclusive technology and training new scientists in mentorship. She was named in 100 Future Leaders Role Model List 2022 supported by Yahoo Finance.
Angela Tedone | Agile Coach | bp
Angela Tedone is an Agile Coach from Houston, TX.
She was selected as one of the first bp agile coaches (part of the global inaugural cohort) that started as a new profession to bp in 2020. Her journey to help bp transform is part of the largest transformations in the company’s over 100-year history.
Angela also serves as the Chief Product Officer, Board of Directors for Agile Austin. Agile Austin is a non-profit learning organization with a mission to connect people and foster professional growth through collaborative events that educate our community. Angela is an active member of the Board supporting the premiere Keep Austin Agile Conference and Special Interest Groups.
In addition, she is also a leader and longtime supporter and advocate of women through her women’s network. As a leader and advisor, Angela has provided leadership and guidance for 13 core team members for the Houston chapter (including membership of over 700 bp employees) with a purpose to advance gender equity in bp in line with Diversity Equity & Inclusion aims.
She was also specially nominated by the American Heart Association as a Houston Woman of Impact (campaign to raise critical funds and awareness to fight cardiovascular disease) candidate 2021 as part of the inaugural class.
Angela's passion is to help enable better lives for society through community support, education and empowerment. Her superpower is empathy!
Amy Golem | Quantum Sales Executive | IBM
I have been passionate about the intersection between business and technology for almost 10 years.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Management Information and Systems, I began my career in technology consulting. Soon thereafter, I discovered a nascent technology called Quantum Computing through my personal interest in theoretical physics.
When my job role in 2017 was serendipitously expanded to include "Quantum Lead", I knew this technology and burgeoning industry was where I wanted to anchor my career long-term. In the years that followed, I worked alongside the Consulting CTO and subject matter experts to create, and ultimately execute upon, a strategy for the firm's approach to quantum. Today, I am proud to work at a leading full-stack quantum computing company that is spearheading quantum research and development with a resonant mission: "To bring useful quantum computing to the world".
Outside of quantum computing, I have held various roles ranging from technology infrastructure consulting, to executive workshopping, to leading a team focused on broad emerging technology market research and thought leadership. Across these roles, I continue to have an unwavering dedication to promoting women in STEM fields, and I am constantly inspired by the mentors and mentees I have encountered throughout my career.
Susan Harvey | Owner | Nurture Gnomes
I am a wife and proud mum to two now adult sons (the youngest of whom is autistic), a children's author and art teacher.
When my children began school (all those years ago)! I supported a young, autistic child in nursery and enjoyed it so much that this started my passion of working with children with additional needs (working in Early Years for 13 years). I have worked in SEND education now for over 23 years (currently ad-hoc in a post 16 alternative provision) and I also volunteer as a parent support worker for a local Autism charity.
During Covid I began crafting gnomes to sell at Christmas, which sparked an idea of writing a children's book. So many parents/carers were worried about their children, so I wanted it to be fun and uplifting, but also gently highlight the importance of talking about your emotions. After my book was published I decided to create a workbook where children could use art as a way of expressing their emotions and also designed a fun card game. These were the first two items on my website, to which I have now added more children's social and emotional literacy resources.
I'm so pleased that they are being used by parents, schools and play therapists.