Dr. Winnette McIntosh Ambrose

Engineer-turned-entrepreneur and Owner of The Sweet Lobby

Dr. Winnette McIntosh Ambrose emigrated from her native Trinidad and Tobago to attend MIT. After graduating with bachelor’s degrees in Chemical Engineering and French Language and Literature, Winnette went on to a career in the cardiovascular device industry and holds the patent for the first FDA-approved device for carotid stenting. Following her time in industry, Winnette earned her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. As a biomedical engineer, Winnette combined stem cells and biomaterials to rebuild the layers of the retina and cornea, with the ultimate goal of restoring vision in patients with damaged or diseased ocular tissue.

Winnette opened The Sweet Lobby in June of 2011, during the last year of her postdoctoral fellowship. Within months of opening, Winnette’s baking talents gained international attention when she won Food Network’s Cupcake Wars. In the six years since its inception, Winnette and her team have grown The Sweet Lobby from neighborhood treasure to national brand, with multiple retail locations in DC and wholesale clientele throughout the USA, including some of the nation’s premier food retailers, luxury brands and coffee shops.

Winnette is passionate about the role of STEM education in creating successful entrepreneurs. 

Aerica Banks

Patent Strategy and Policy Analyst, Google

Aerica Banks is a patent policy analyst in Google's DC office. In this capacity she monitors the legislative and legal patent landscape and works to expand the pool of technologists in underrepresented communities. She leads Google's sponsorship of BEACON, the campaign to make Washington, DC the most supportive ecosystem for women entrepreneurs in the United States.

Previously, she was a political appointee in the Obama Administration, worked in government relations for The Pew Charitable Trusts, and advanced environmental justice policies in Washington state. She holds a MSc in Environmental Policy from Oxford University and a BA in Environmental Studies and Public Affairs from Seattle University.

Aisha Bowe

Co-Founder and CEO, STEMBoard

Aisha Bowe co-founded STEMBoard in 2013, a startup providing smart solutions to complex problems for government and private sector clients. Aisha has also made it her mission to close the achievement gap by empowering minority youth in #STEM to become the industry's future and providing underserved communities with enabling technologies. As CEO, Aisha leads development, expansion and management of STEMBoard’s multi-million defense-contracts and private sector clients. Previously, she spent several years as a researcher at the NASA Ames Research Center, where she conceived and implemented programs encouraging students to pursue careers in science and technology. In addition to her work at STEMBoard, Aisha is a member of the NASDAQ Young Executive Advisory Board, the National Society of Black Engineers and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Aisha holds a B.S.E. in aerospace engineering and an M. Eng. in space systems engineering, both from the University of Michigan.

Olivia Ma

Head of Partnerships, Google News Lab

Olivia Ma is one of the founding members of the Google News Lab, Google’s effort to empower innovation at the intersection of media and technology. Previously at Google, she was YouTube’s first News Manager, where she oversaw the site's news programming and product strategy, and was Head of News and Media Partnerships for Google+. Prior to joining YouTube and Google, Olivia was the product manager for Plum, a social media-sharing website acquired by Nokia, and ran Current, a national college news magazine published in partnership with Newsweek. Olivia graduated from Harvard University with a degree in History and Literature. She is also Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for the Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalism nonprofit The Center for Public Integrity. 

Malika Saada Saar

Civil & Human Rights Senior Counsel, Google

Malika Saada Saar is Google's Senior Counsel on Civil and Human Rights. Before joining Google, Malika was co-founder and Executive Director of the Human Rights Project for Girls (Rights4Girls), a human rights organization focused on gender-based violence against young women and girls in the U.S. She also served as Special Counsel on Human Rights at The Raben Group.

As a human rights lawyer and advocate, Malika led the effort to shut down Craigslist sex ads that served as the leading site for the trafficking of children for sex, ended the federal practice of shackling pregnant mothers behind bars in U.S. prisons, and successfully advocated for millions in federal funding for treatment services for at-risk families. Newsweek and the Daily Beast have named Malika as one of “150 Women Who Shake the World.” The Obama White House selected Ms. Saada Saar to serve on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights.

Malika has been featured in the Daily Beast, Huffington Post, O: The Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, Politico, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Elle, Redbook Magazine, Essence, Tavis Smiley Show, BBC, ABC News, Good Morning America, CNN, and National Public Radio. She has also been honored by Brown University's highest alumni award, the Roger Williams award, and by Georgetown Law Center's esteemed Robert F. Drinan Award for Public Service. Ms. Saada Saar holds a B.A. from Brown University, M.A. in Education from Stanford University, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three children.

Jana Landon

Diversity Intern Programs Recruiter and Black Girls Code Relationship Manager, Google

Jana believes strongly in the equalizing force of technology which is what drew her to work for Google. In 2010, she started her Google career as a proud member of the Building Opportunities for Leadership and Development (BOLD) diversity internship in business. Since then, she has held many positions in the world of Google Student Outreach designing and executing diversity-focused programs and internships. She also manages Google New York's relationship with the nonprofit Black Girls CODE in her 20% time. Jana loves her work because she has the opportunity to help cultivate the next generation of tech leaders.

In 2011, Jana graduated from Dartmouth College where she majored in psychology and also engaged passionately with the arts. Her work in theatre was awarded with the department's Artistic Excellence Award for co-directing August Wilson's Fences.

Outside of work, Jana is an improv student at New York's Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. She experienced the moment of a lifetime, thanking and being surprised by former First Lady Michelle Obama on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show.

Juany Torres

Founder, Organize SA

Juany Torres is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrant parents. As a first generation American, she was born and raised in the south side of San Antonio, Texas. She attended Stanford University on a full scholarship by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and worked at the White House as part of the Domestic Policy Council under President Obama. After graduation, Juany joined Google in the bay area, pursuing her passion for helping underrepresented communities by serving as the Hispanic Googler Network's Community Engagement Lead and leveraging Google's resources to narrow the digital divide in the mission of San Francisco. Most recently, Juany served as the Deputy Digital Director for the state of Nevada on the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign. Juany is currently back in her hometown of San Antonio focusing on increasing civic engagement through the founding of Organize SA, and organization that has successfully hosted the largest voter deputization class in the county's history, registering voters and training a new generation of organizers for the upcoming San Antonio municipal elections.

Sabrina Williams

Software Engineer, US Digital Service

Sabrina Williams is a software engineer with the U.S. Digital Service. Sabrina grew up in Monterey, CA and graduated from Stanford with a B.A. in Philosophy and a B.S. in Computer Science. She began her career at HP in Boise, ID where she worked on printer drivers. In 2011, Sabrina then went to Google where she worked on Chrome, Google Glass, and Ads.  She has been with the US Digital Service since 2015 and has worked with multiple agencies, including the Departments of Education, Justice, and Homeland Security, on projects like College Scorecard with the Department of Education and the refugee admissions program. She is currently the Acting Director of Engineering at USDS. In addition to her work as an engineer, Sabrina has also been involved in many diversity in tech initiatives, volunteering her time with organizations like Code2040, teaching computer science at Howard University as part of the Google in Residence program, and serving as a mentor with NewMe Accelerator.

Charlaé Washington

Diversity Programs Specialist

Charlaé Washington is a diversity programs specialist at Google where she helps lead Google’s strategic efforts to create a more inclusive CS industry. Charlaé started at Google in 2008 working in SMB Global Customer Experience. From there she went on to help start a division within Google that empowers minority-owned businesses to succeed online. She went on to do marketing strategy for that division as well as brand marketing for Google’s policy team and Google Cloud, with some of our most well-known products, like Gmail and Google Docs. She has been at Google almost 9 years and is a steadfast champion of intersectionality and inclusion. Charlaé is a very passionate and active Black Googler Network member, a proud Howard University alumna, and a native of Detroit, MI.