Women in IT Awards USA shortlist announced

The USA edition of the 2021 Women in IT Awards will presented in an online ceremony on the 21st September, in the aim to recognise advocates, role models and allies that are looking to break down barriers for women in the tech industry.

Following on from the first of two Women in IT Summits, which was presented in April, the awards ceremony will be the second of four planned this year under the Women in IT series, the first being the UK edition in June.

Women in IT Awards ceremonies for Asia and Ireland are scheduled for the 26th October, and 7th December respectively.

According to a report by The World Bank, women make up less than 40% of the total global workforce, and despite diverse organisations being found to perform better, hire better talent and have more engaged employees, women remain widely underrepresented in IT roles.

These figures demonstrate the need for continued recognition of women in tech and their successes, which the Women in IT Summit and Awards Series has looked to facilitate since 2015.

This year, the sponsors for the awards are:

The shortlist for this year’s Women in IT Awards USA is as follows:

Advocate of the Year

Aaratee Rao, Microsoft
Adrienne Shulman, Cornerstone
Ashley Scott, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Deborah Waters, Citi
Elise Kohl-Grant, IMSNY
Katie Toole, BNY Mellon
Kitty Chaney Reed, IBM
Mary N. Chaney, Minorities in Cybersecurity Inc.
Michelle Knedler, Pearson Education
Swathi Young, Integrity Management Services Inc.

Board Director of the Year

Anna Soo, Illuminet Inc.
Cathy Ross, Fraud.net
Donna Wells, Valencia Ventures
Jay Ganapathy, ITOrizon Inc.
Monica Bajaj, Workday

CIO of the Year

Angelic Gibson, AvidXchange
Elise Kohl-Grant, CBC
Kristie Grinnell, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT)
Lori Pender, NJ Transit
Melanie Kirkwood Ruiz, ABM Industries
Rashmi Kumar, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Sheryl Haislet, Vertiv
Suzi Connor, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Tara Wanner, BP
Teri Green, Normandy School Collaborative

CTO of the Year

Barbara Bickham, Trailyn Ventures
Angelique “Q” Napoleon, IntellecTechs Inc.
Debra Danielson, Digital Guardian
Helen Johnson, Data Dynamics Inc.
Marta Kosarchyn, Khan Academy
Rachel Clara Smith, SquareOffs
Ravs Kaur, Uplevel
Sara Abiusi, Accenture Federal Services
Teresa Dietrich, Stack Overflow

Data Leader of the Year

Ashley Scott, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Barbara Nelson, InfluxData
Carly Gottorff, SpeechifAI Inc.
Cathryne Doss, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
Gladys Kong, UM
Julie Nguyen, BP
Sahar Arshad, CloudMedx Inc.
Swati Oza, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Sylvia Kang, Quantum Loophole
Toni O’Connor, Rolls-Royce

DEI Initiative of the Year

Unleashing Our Collective Greatness With DEI, Skillsoft
Take Care, Bitwise Industries
The Next CISO, Tiro Security
Salary Overflow, Keysoft LLC
Let There Be Change, Accenture Federal Services
DYVVYD
PagerDuty
S.T.A.R.T.U.P. Mentorship Program, BNY
Mellon Women in Tech Chapter, IHS Markit
AbilityFirst, GDIT

Digital Transformation Leader of the Year

Alanna Walsh, The Bank of New York Mellon
Alexandra Morehouse, Banner Health
Gabriele Bauman, Pearson
Jennifer Taylor, Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC)
Jessica Barrett Simpson, U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA)
Kari VanderVeen, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Kelly Nuckolls, InfoSystems
Laura Macca, EisnerAmper LLC
Rashmi Asati, Verizon
Tammy Hall, Verizon

Education and Training Initiative of the Year

TechShopz Pandemic Pivot, TechGirlz
Women in Technology New York Chapter, BNY Mellon
The Next CISO, Tiro Security
Generation Giga Girls Program, Moody’s
Remote Ed with Melody
FAANGPath
Tech-Moms, RizeNext
Virtual On-Boarding, JAGGAER

Employer of the Year (over 250 employees)

Atos
Cognizant Softvision
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
IHS Markit
JAGGAER
PVH
Solarwinds MSP / N-able

Entrepreneur of the Year

Joyce Durst, Growth Acceleration Partners
Lauren Lemieux, Bundlar
Nataliya Anon, Svitla Systems Inc.
Sahar Arshad, CloudMedx Inc.
Sher Downing, Downing EdTech Consulting
Srii Srinivasan, Chargeback Gurus
Stacia Nelson, Pivot Strategies
Susan Ruhl, ICC Inc.
Tiffany Xingyu Wang, Spectrum Labs, Oasis Consortium
Whitney Cathcart, 3DLOOK

Innovator of the Year

Cindy MacFarlane, Deloitte Consulting LLP
Glo Gordon, MATRIXX Software
Kathleen Pierson, HSBC
Nancy Van Delist, Pearson Nicole Raimundo, Town of Cary
Ooshma Malkoti, Verizon
Rocio Belfiore, BairesDev
Ruchi Mahindru, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
Tina Tarquinio, IBM
Whitney Cathcart, 3DLOOK

IT Team of the Year (led by a woman)

Beverly Chamberlain, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Helen Johnson, Data Dynamics Inc.
Judy Lai, HSBC
Kimberly Bailey, City of Memphis – Information Technology Division
Marta Kosarchyn, Khan Academy
Padmaja Adusumilli, Pearson
Potoula Chresomales, Skillsoft
Ramya Raj, Intel Corportation
Sara Nixon, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Tina Traquinio, IBM

Male Ally of the Year

Dave Carlisle, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Jake Soberal, Bitwise Industries
Joshua Lawlor, BNY Mellon
Kevin Gallagher, BNY Mellon
Paul Rebeles, Equinix
Ray Meiring, QorusDocs
Reginal Bryant, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
Roger Blumberg, JAGGAER

Next Generation Leader of the Year

Abigail Franco, T-Mobile
Amanda Clevey Brown, Accenture
Aparna Dhinakaran, Arize AI
Irina Soriano, Seismic
Judith Olson, ColdQuanta
Kyra-Lee Harry, NYU Tandon School of Engineering
Melanie Dauber, IBM
Rocio Belfiore, BairesDev
Tiffany Xingyu Wang, Spectrum Labs, Oasis Consortium
Zarmeena Waseem, National Cyber Security Alliance

Outstanding Contribution of the Year

Barbara Hewitt, Texas State University
Casey Jones, Buckle
Chitra Balasubramanian, CircleCl
Diem Le, GE Aviation
Elka Krupka, HSBC
Karen Mazer, Deloitte
Laura Hermann, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Rhonda Collins, Vocera Communications
Shano Jacob, Verizon
Shilpa Maram, HSBC

Security Leader of the Year

Angelique “Q” Napoleon, IntellecTechs Inc.
Christine Purpura, SmartBear
Dana Simberkoff, AvePoint
Heather Paunet, Untangle
Jennifer Pace, Lincoln Financial Group
Katie Ledoux, Starburst
Lama Abu-Amara, Grainger
Mary N. Chaney, Minorities in Cybersecurity Inc.
Valerie Moreno, Clark College
Vibhuti Garg, Cisco

Tech for Good Award of the Year

Carly Gottorff, SpeechifAI Inc.
Charlotte Dales, Inclusively
Fastly
Mercy Manning, Aligned
Nabila Salem, Revolent
Neeti Mehta Shukla, Automation Anywhere
Nicole Raimundo, Town of Cary
Sarah Walker, Ribbon
Sylvia Kang, Quantum Loophole
Whitney Cathcart, 3DLOOK

Woman of the Year

Britta Meyer Rock, Claris International Inc.
Charlotte Dales, Inclusively
Dawn Andre, JAGGAER
Gina Murphy, Navisite
Irma Olguin Jr., Bitwise Industries
Jess Iandiorio, Starburst
Joyce Gottbetter, Microsoft
Kristy Friedrichs, New Relic
Rashim Mogha, Skillsoft
Valerie Moreno, Clark College

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Aaron Hurst

Aaron Hurst is Information Age's senior reporter, providing news and features around the hottest trends across the tech industry.