Tech Intersections — Celebrating WOC in Tech

Tiffany Price is the Strategic Partnerships and Grants Manager, helping ensure smooth processes and facilitating strong partnership development for the Kapor Center. Prior to this role, Tiffany spent two years as the Education Program Fellow for The San Francisco Foundation where she helped manage the education grantmaking portfolio. Before philanthropy, Tiffany spent six years doing education policy research and evaluation, which fueled her desire to work more closely within her local community. She serves on the board of the Grants Managers Network and is Co-director of Northern California Grantmakers’ Family Philanthropy Exchange Steering Committee. Tiffany holds a Master’s degree in International Comparative Education from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and International Studies from Emory University. Tiffany is an avid photographer who likes to capture life’s little unnoticed moments. She’s part of a choir, does solo gigs at weddings and events, and designs and makes jewelry as a hobby. Contact Tiffany Price at tiffany [at] kaporcenter.org.

On January 27, 2018, a beautifully sunny and crisp Oakland day, over 200 womxn of color and 50 allies assembled on the Mills College campus for the first ever Tech Intersections Conference to celebrate the contributions of the womxn most underrepresented in tech. The conference also included a half-day Allies Workshop led by Y-Vonne Hutchinson.

What started out as an idea just a few months before became a movement, and it was an honor to serve as one of the conference coordinators, alongside Idalin Bobé, Maira Benjamin, and Ellen Spertus to make this momentous and vibrant gathering come to fruition.

The conference was bookended by amazing keynote speakers, Erica Joy Baker and Leah McGowen-Hare, who both spoke truth to power, shining light on the realities of the tech sector for women of color while also inspiring us to personally strive for new heights while also remembering to lift up those who come after us. The conference sessions included everything from technical presentations on programming in the Go language and breaking into Open Source tech to sessions focused on self-care and career advancement.

I look forward to seeing even more women of color get engaged with this conference in 2019. To learn more about the details of the conference, search #TechIntersections on Twitter and read an attendee’s personal account of the event.