Women of Silicon Valley (WoSV) is one of the largest interview repos online of women and gender queer folks in tech.
To date, we've interviewed over 400 techies, accrued 72K+ cross-platform followers, and received shout-outs from cool people like Melinda Gates and Chelsea Clinton. We’ve also received coverage on publications including ABC, Bustle, Buzzfeed, Corriere della Sera, and Mic.
Founded by Stanford-student-turned-Googler Lea Coligado, WoSV is a “Humans of New York” spin-off that tells the stories of resilient female and gender queer techies, particularly those of color.
“If you can’t see it, you can’t be it…”
or at least it’s really, really hard to be it. So our team of very-busy-and-very-fed-up-women-in-tech volunteers have taken it upon ourselves to increase the visibility of underrepresented techies online:
Clarissa Bukhan, Editor-in-Chief
Clarissa (she/her) is a Top Partner & Corporate Strategy Manager at Google. Prior to Google, she was an early member of the business development teams at Box and Optimizely. After experiencing gender discrimination early in her career, Clarissa became passionate about advancing women in technology through education and storytelling. Prior to becoming Editor-in-Chief at Women of Silicon Valley, she served as a committee member of the Box Women’s Network and as a mentor to female high school entrepreneurs through BUILD.org. Outside of work, Clarissa can be found reading, traveling, chasing around her two young kids—or sometimes, trying to do all three at once.
Elizabeth Smith, Europe Lead
Elizabeth (she/her) is an MBA candidate at the University of Oxford. Born and raised in Washington, she moved to California in 2014 to attend Santa Clara University and intern as a software engineer in the Silicon Valley tech scene. She holds both a BS and MS in Computer Science from Santa Clara and Oxford, respectively, and specializes in cyber security. In her free time, Elizabeth enjoys playing the harp, snuggling with yellow labs, drinking coffee, and running.
Jess Candido Webb, Events Lead
Jess (she/her) is an Executive Summit Manager for Google’s Partner Plex. She has over seven years of experience in the event planning arena and coordinates logistics for an average of 200 events per year. Born and raised in Brazil, Jess is a first-generation college student and proud member of the LGBT* community. Event planning is Jess's way to create opportunities for diverse communities to have the platform and safe environment to share ideas, create strong networks, and execute progressive change. Jess spends her time outside of work playing competitive European Team Handball and going to the beach with her beagle Dash.
Kendrick Umstattd, Seattle Lead
Kendrick (she/her) is a Software Engineer at Google Seattle and graduate of Yale’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science departments. She served as Women of Silicon Valley’s first-ever intern, piloting the successful Interns of Silicon Valley series.
When Kendrick is not busy writing code in JavaScript or Python, she can be found traveling, trying out new coffee shops, and searching for a new favorite book or podcast to enjoy.
Lea Coligado, Founder
Lea (she/her) is a software engineer on Google Maps from Dallas, Texas. She started Women of Silicon Valley her junior year at Stanford because she had been sexually harassed during a technical internship the summer prior. As a the daughter of Vietnamese refugees and Filipino immigrants, she cares deeply about structurally elevating migrants displaced by forceful Western colonization. When not coding, Lea enjoys petting dogs, walking dogs, and Skyping her dogs back home, Snickers and Ollie.
Marianne Abreu, Design Lead
Marianne (she/her) is a Lead UX Designer for YouTube with almost 15 years of experience creating products and online experiences. Prior to YouTube, she worked for Samsung and startups in Silicon Valley and New York. Originally from Brazil, Marianne worked at Globo, the largest TV network in Latin America, and for organizations like Purpose and Avaaz to create “MeuRio” – a mobilization group that seeks for more transparency in politics.
Raquel Small, Community Lead
Raquel (she/her) is a Paralegal at Google on the Litigation team as well as a part-time graduate student pursuing a Master of Communication Management at the University of Southern California. Originally from the NYC area, she is the child of a proud Jamaican mother and a Panamanian father, and she believes empowering women and people of color is the only way to make society better. In her very limited free time, she likes to bake, try new restaurants, and exercise because of all the baking and dismantling of the patriarchy. She currently lives in San Francisco with her husband Eric and her cat Foxy Cleopatra.