Chix who Speak

LinuxChix includes a number of women who are available to give technical talks or training sessions on Linux, free software and a wide variety of other topics. (Some of their past talks related to women in Linux can be found on our bibliography page.

Some other places to find women technical speakers:

Devchix Speakers.

LinuxChix speakers, in alphabetical order:

Name Location Website Contact info
Laura Bowser Washington, DC http://www.geminisecurity.com Contact
Topics:
  • Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
  • network and host security
  • security management and policies
Bio:

Laura has worked for five years in the security industry and previously as a unix system administrator. She has an MS in Information Networking from Carnegie Mellon University and is working towards an MBA at the University of Maryland - University College. As a person with both technical and management experience, she offers a unique perspective on security policy and risk management. Laura is currently serving as the Director of Security Assessments for Gemini Security Solutions.

Máirín Duffy Boston, MA USA http://mihmo.livejournal.com/ Contact
Topics:
  • using open source creative tools - Gimp, Inkscape, Scribus
  • interaction design & usability for GNOME and web applications, also UI mockup workflow with FOSS tools
  • Fedora & the Fedora community, micro-community building in a large FOSS project
  • free artwork/creative assets
Bio:

Máirín graduated with an M.S. in Human Computer Interaction from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is currently an interaction designer in Red Hat's Engineering group. She is also the leader of the Fedora art team and is a design contributor to the GNOME desktop project.

Tina Gasperson Tampa, Florida www.gasperson.com Contact
Topics:
  • Open source in business
  • Building a business on open source
Bio:

M.A. in counseling; IT trade journalist and reporter with expertise in open source for the enterprise and open source business models.

Leslie Hawthorn Mountain View (but willing to travel) http://code.google.com mebelh at gmail dot com
Topics:
  • Organizing & Facilitating Community Events
Bio:

Leslie Hawthorn held various roles at Google before joining the Open Source Programs Office in March 2006. She manages the Google Summer of Code program and the Open Source Developers @ Google Speaker Series. She has organized and facilitated many open-source community conferences, meetups and hackathons at Google's campuses. Proud to be known as Google's geek herder, Leslie holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature from U.C. Berkeley.

Brianna Laugher Melbourne, Australia http://brianna.modernthings.org/ Contact
Topics:
  • wikis
  • free content
  • free culture movement
Bio:

I've been an editor with the Wikimedia Foundation projects since 2005, in particular Wikimedia Commons, a multilingual media collection.

In August 2007 I gave two talks at Wikimania (the annual Wikimedia conference) - one on newbie culture in the English Wikipedia, and another was a tutorial on using Wikimedia Commons.

Cathy Malmrose CEO, ZaReason, Inc. http://zareason.com/shop/About.html Contact
Topic:Stress-Testing Linux Hardware: Secrets of the Hardware Industry

Flourish! 2011, Chicago, April 1-3.

Bio:

CEO of ZaReason, Inc. is currently building and supporting optimized-for-FOSS computers. Cathy thrives in the FOSS community where people are generous and helpful. She established a headquarters for ZaReason in Berkeley, California, and will soon be setting up a second store in Wellington, New Zealand later this year. The next countries who have asked for optimized computers are Canada, Italy, Brazil, and the Netherlands. Cathy is particularly happy to see and hear feedback from customers who are happily surprised at how easy it is to use free and open software.

Mackenzie Morgan Washington DC, US http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com maco.m AT ubuntu DOT com
Topics:
  • Ubuntu development, bug processes, etc.
Bio:

Mackenzie is an Ubuntu developer with an interest in security who also likes helping new folks get involves in FOSS contributions.

Michelle Murrain Massachusetts, US http://www.metacentric.org Contact
Topics:
  • Nonprofit Technology
  • Open Source in Nonprofit organizations
  • Open Standards
  • Web application technology
  • Women in Science and Technology
Bio:

Michelle Murrain, Ph.D., principal of MetaCentric Technology Advising, has a background in neuroscience, and has more than 15 years of nonprofit and educational technology experience, and is considered a leader in the nonprofit technology field.

Akkana Peck San Jose, CA http://shallowsky.com/linux/ Contact
Topics:
  • GIMP
  • Mozilla, Javascript and web development
  • bug fixing, scripting and programming, especially for non-programmers
  • astronomy and other math/science topics.
Bio:

Akkana Peck is a freelance software engineer and author of the book Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional. She has contributed to numerous open source projects, particularly Mozilla, is a co-coordinator of LinuxChix, and has presented at numerous conferences, special interest clubs and schools.

Nur Aini Rakhmawati> Asia http://nuraini.net (English) and http://ai23.wordpress.com (Indonesian) Contact
Topics:
  • Mobile Ad Hoc Network
  • Joomla
  • Wireless
  • Woman Movement in Open Source
Bio:

I am a lecturer of Information System Department, FTIF, ITS, Indonesia(E-business group research) Making open source course syllabus. Doing master degree in NTUST-Taiwan with Wireless Research Subject Area. Writing some articles that are related with Linux in INFOLINUX magazine. Member of Joomla Development Working Group (http://joomla.org).

Jacinta Richardson Melbourne, Australia (will travel) http://use.perl.org/~jarich Contact
Topics:
  • Perl
  • Programming
  • Optimisation
  • Open source in business
  • Social networking
Bio:

Jacinta Richardson runs Perl Training Australia and has been actively involved in running the Australian Open Source Developers' Conference every year since 2004. She speaks regularly at this and other conferences and user groups throughout Australia.

Fazia Begum Rizvi Texas http://faziarizvi.blogspot.com/ Contact
Topics:
  • Web development in higher education
  • Deploying a web content management system at a university
  • Women in web development/design
  • Women and online communities
  • Advocating accessibility
Bio:

Internet connected and active cyber citizen since 1988, Fazia Rizvi is an anthropologist who brings a unique understanding of the online world to software projects. With over 12 years of web development experience in higher education, her background includes everything from design to development, front-line customer support, training and documentation as well as strategic planning and advocating for web accessibility. She was included in the University's permanent exhibit entitled, 'First Women' - SWT Women: The First 100 Years. Her research focuses on the ways in which women form community online.

Sophia Viklund San Fransisco Bay Area www.backcode.com sophieviklund@gmail.com, (310) 435-9367
Topics:
  • technical entrepreneurship
  • women tech founders
  • how to start/build/fund your own tech company
  • serious games
  • game development
  • software development
Bio:

I am the Founder and Head of Strategic Relations of backCODE. I lead public and community relations for backCODE. I am a serial entrepreneur in technology, gaming and education. I am one of the main organizers and a board member of Innovate Pasadena, the effort to grow a significant startup ecosystem and a strong advocate and mentor of girls and women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in both Pasadena and greater Los Angeles.

I was honored to represent GE's women in technology team as a speaker at Women ETC Technology Conference in October 2014 as a part of GE's initiate in supporting women entrepreneurs and women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

I was deeply honored to receive the Outstanding Woman in Science & Technology Award by 25th Senate District of Senator Carol Liu in June 2014.

I co-organize Innovate Pasadena's Friday Morning Coffee Group with over 1,800 members as well as a number of other technology and gaming groups and initiates for women in technology.

I am one of the lead organizers of Girl’s Geek Dinner in LA and also on the board of Advisers to The LOFT Institute program to minority students who want to create a video game for social change.

Brenda Wallace Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand http://coffee.geek.nz Contact
Topics:
  • PHP
  • memcache, e-acclerator
  • lighttpd (and fast cgi)
  • unittest driven development
  • sms automation
  • mobile wap, cellphone and pda software
Bio:

Brenda writes and uses opensource code for telcos. She works with SMS, WAP, and embedded applications for cellphones and PDAS, realtime billing, remote data access and phone number portability. She wishes she had more Erlang projects.


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