Founder
 Katy Dickinson makes mentors shine. Since 2001, she has designed and managed successful mentoring programs in the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia – while holding a variety of senior executive roles in the Silicon Valley. At Sun Microsystems, she created and managed the global Engineering mentoring programs for 10 years, after creating and managing the Sun Labs archiving system, the Software development life cycle process, and other large corporate infrastructure. Katy Dickinson is an Accredited Mentor by the University of the South. She was the Process Architect for the first class of the U.S. State Department’s TechWomen mentoring program, member of the TechWomen Alumnae Council, Anita Borg Institute Advisory Board, and a lecturer for 12 years for a University of California at Berkeley Engineering class on entrepreneurship. In 2017, Katy Dickinson became a Certified Interfaith Speaker for the Islamic Networks Group. She earned a 2021 Master – Theology degree at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU, Berkeley, California), and a 2022 certificate in GTU’s Interreligious Chaplaincy Program. She is now a Doctor of Ministry student at GTU’s Berkeley School of Theology. She is an author, speaker, and popular blogger on Katysblog. |
Board of Advisors
Jessica Dickinson Goodman bridges the worlds of technology and politics, bringing the best of both to what she does. She seeks to empower amazing women, whether serving as a scheduler for now-US Senator Kamala Harris or as an Impact Coach for #TeamPalestine in the US State Department’s 2017 and 2018 Techwomen programs. Jessica graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Carnegie Mellon University with a BS in Ethics, History, and Public Policy, a minor in Opera, and 3 years of Arabic. She volunteers as Chair of San Jose Human Services Commission, overseeing human rights policy for the one million person city. This spring, she accepted a role as a Technology Fellow with a Harvard University-affiliated think tank, Sense and Sustainability, focused on connecting research-tested solutions to climate change to policy makers. She practices her Arabic daily. |
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John Plocher is a senior software architect and experienced engineer expert in corporate systems-level problem solving, massive storage systems, open source development and process design. He has deep systems engineering experience; from real-time firmware, drivers and network protocols to clusters; cloud storage and web services; build systems and code repositories; and even embedded Arduino / AVR / PIC microcontrollers. |
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Mai Temraz is the co-founder of Gaza Geekettes and the former head of Gaza Sky Geeks‘ women’s programming. She is a Fulbright Scholar and TechWoman Fellow. Mai is also the first Palestinian female licensed amateur radio operator. Mai was awarded the best entry level STEM Executive at the Women in STEM conference in Dubai, and the 2015 Change Agent ABIE Award from Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC). |
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IdaRose Sylvester is the founder and managing director of Silicon Valley Link, a company providing mentorship and hands on business support to companies expanding into new markets, both geographic and commercial. She is also a mentor and project director at the US Market Access Center, a Silicon Valley accelerator exclusively supporting clients from outside the US. Most recently, IdaRose ran the pilot accelerator program for Babson College SF, mentoring 11 teams during the program. She has also taught Global Marketing at the University of California at Berkeley. She holds a Bachelor of Science from UC Berkeley and an Master of Business Administration with a concentration in marketing strategy from the FW Olin School at Babson College. |