(intense music) >> Hi and welcome to theCUBE, I'm Lisa Martin coming to you from our Palo Alto studio. Very excited to be joined by a CUBE alumni, the CEO and president of Anita Borg, Brenda Darden Wilkerson. Welcome back to theCUBE, Brenda. >> Thanks so much for having me. >> It's great to have you here. You have been at Anita Borg for about six months. You've got a great background in the tech industry and in education. Give us some perspective of what's happening, what's new with Anita Borg? >> Well, we are very excited to be in this space at this point in history. It's very exciting. Women are alive to the possibilities of what they can contribute in tech. We can thank so many important women who are contributing to the conversation, and it is our job to make sure that they have a voice. And so we are working really hard to make sure that the perceptions that would create barriers for women contributing to tech, having a career path, taking those really important positions of power in tech, that we obliterate them and that the flood gates are open for all who want to participate. >> I love that on the website I saw the what we do, one of the things that shattering perceptions. And I thought that word shattering, that description, was really, really important. >> It is very important because you would think in 2018 that these issues that our founder, Anita Borg, talked about years and years ago, I mean she was a visionary, when she said 50/50 by 2020. And actually we are coming back from the cliff that we fell off of in terms of being our percentages in tech. We're at about 22% now, and a lot of that has to do with those perceptions. What are the images that young women see? Or people in power in tech. What are those images that continue to contribute to those barriers, and that's first and foremost the thing that we're working to change. >> When you were on theCUBE at Grace Hopper 2017, just six months or so ago, one of the things that you said that I really love was people can be what they can see. So having awareness and showing females in technology and leadership positions, showing people this power of representation is critical. >> Very much, very much so. And really all we're talking about is telling the truth. You know? It's not as though the women haven't always been there. It's not as though they aren't making huge contributions, it's just making sure that when they do the work they get the credit for it and that people get to see it. I've seen it be very important in my previous work in driving computer science. All of the stakeholders needed to understand that underrepresented people of all kinds could do tech, and they were very much impacted by the images that they saw. And so it's our job to make sure that all of those stories get told. >> So you spent 15 years in education, and you had many years before that in tech. You made a massive impact with the Computer Science For All initiative that you founded back in 2013 in Chicago. Tell us a little bit about that because it's really exploded and I'm sure really kind of exceeded your expectations. Tell us about that initiative and where it is currently today. >> I'm very excited about the initiative. I mean, really it was born out of some of my own experiences. I was a person who, in my background, I wasn't exposed to computer science until I found it accidentally in college. I mean, obviously that accident changed my whole trajectory, right? So when I found out that that was still happening to women and underrepresented students when I got into education, that was sort of the genesis of wanting to do something about it. That was when we launched Computer Science For All. And yes, now it is a national initiative. In Chicago we have a graduation requirement. Students all have to graduate with at least one year of computer science, and we're seeing that transformation. I've got students who we started with in the beginning who are graduating this year from universities with computer science, data science, information science degrees, and they are doing amazing things. They're starting companies, they're developing products, all because they had that exposure. And so it's exciting now to be on the other side, really kind of coming home full circle, back to advocate for women in tech, as I started out. To make sure that those hundreds of thousands, millions of students have access to the opportunities that we need them to have access to. >> Right, that access is such a critical thing. And you kind of think in some respects, as we were talking about earlier, you've made a massive impact in Chicago, New York City, the Obama administration got behind this. Well, you started out with a goal of reaching four hundred thousand kids in Chicago, there's now over 1.5 million. But it starts with that awareness, that this shouldn't be an elective. But kids need access to understand I can be what I can see. If I can't see it, I don't know that it's an opportunity. >> And if I don't know, if I can't touch it and know that I have access to being the creator of technology, changing the world as we know technology alone can do, then we're going to miss out on the contributions that only they can make, and so that's what makes this so exciting. When we started out, I'm thinking of the kindergartners that started that first year. They're in fourth grade now, right? What is the world going to look like when they graduate from high school? It's just going to be amazing, I can't wait. >> Yeah, we were just covering Women In Data Science a couple of weeks ago, I was mentioning to you before, and I love that event because you walk into where the main event at Stanford is held, and you just instantly feel positivity, excitement of this movement. And there's so much opportunity within data science alone, and one of the things I wanted to talk with you about is we heard a lot of people that were guests that day talk about the creative element. And we often think of the hard skills that computer scientists and data science need to have, but you found CS accidentally as you said, and one of the things that I've heard you say is the opportunity to be creative. Tell us a little bit more about what, how people, young girls can get creative and expressive creativity through computer science. >> Well, that's very important. We found that we could attract more girls into computer science when we told them that they could use these skills and this knowledge to solve problems that they cared about. You know, initially because it was such a, thought to be such a male-oriented subject, it was all about computer games and the kill games, and the girls were like, I'm not interested in that, but I want to do things that are impactful to the world, to change my society, to change my community, and you can do that with technology, and you can create something out of your own ideas from scratch, from concept, and I can see the lights go on for them, wait, I can create an app that helps my friends through a particularly difficult time with bullies. Yes, you can do that. And so, that is the exciting explosion that's about to happen. People who are really using these skills to solve problems for the human good, that's what we're going to see an increase of, because that's what many times the women bring. So Grace Hopper 2018 is coming up, what in September? >> It's September 26th through 28th this year, and it's in Houston, we're returning to Houston. We're actually even going to use the Toyota Center for our keynotes. >> And you're expecting 20 thousand people this year? >> That's right, we had 18 thousand last year, we're inviting 20 thousand this year. We're going to have over 17 tracks. Last year we had 405 concurrent sessions. The whole point is to give women an idea of how they can transform their lives, coming into technology at whatever stage they found themselves in, whether they are just seekers and are interested in learning about technology, or if they are middle career and going to that next stage or the executive level, we have something for all of them. >> So, and you give out awards, the Abie awards, at Grace Hopper. Give us a little bit of an idea of the types of categories in which women are awarded. >> So we award the top innovator, we award top educator, so wherever women find themselves, we want to bring attention to the fact that we need participation not in just what we think as the high-tech sector, but all along the pathway. People who are bringing attention to issues using technology in their community. We award all of those, people who participate in creating more of a well-rounded experience for all of us to understand what technology can do for our lives. >> And it's really everywhere, right? And that's one of the thing that I think is personally really intriguing about technology is every company now has to be a tech company. >> That's right, every company is a tech company, right? And so that's another thing that we want to make sure that people are not just thinking, oh if I'm going to get in tech I can just work for these five or 10 high-tech companies. Tech is everywhere, it's across the country, it's around the world, it's right where women are living and having their existence. And we need their contribution in those places. >> Yeah, another thing about WIDS and women, we were talking about data science that I found interesting, was some of these female leaders talking about the hard skills, the data analysis, the interpretation, but also needing to have more diversity in the analysis to remove, we all kind of come with biases, but to start having more female perspectives to really kind of open up the analyses and remove some of the biases, which was kind of something, to be honest, I've been in tech for a long time, I hadn't really thought about before. >> Yeah, and it's really shocking just how impactful some of those biases are in the data on people's everyday lives. We've heard things everywhere from as serious as different sentencing levels for people based upon the algorithms that are there, to how much things can cost more for important things like insurance, based upon the data that's there. I think the New York Times did a piece a couple weeks ago about face recognition software and those images that are in those databases. And so it's so important that we have diverse faces at the table, as a black woman, my face is likely to be misunderstood 37% of the time. Right? So to be able to have the diverse background there that will check for those images to make sure that they are more representative of the whole population is just going to make all of our lives better. >> So at Grace Hopper your audience is made up of girls maybe interested in STEM, women that you said are in many stages of their careers, on the corporate side, one of the things I read recently is that article that you wrote in Mashable called Voices of Women in Tech collaboration with Anita Borg where you talked about corporate activism, and there's some pretty significant benefits that companies can achieve by speaking out. Tell us a little bit more about that. >> Well, you know, we have a much more engaged and active population, especially the millennials, and they care what their companies care about and how they contribute or don't contribute to the causes that they care about. And so one of the most expensive things that a company will ever experience is their ability to retain great talent. And what we've seen is that millennials will decide to stay or leave based upon some of the things that companies contribute to or don't contribute to, so being able to pay attention and to get into the game of other things that are outside just the product that they produce, actually contributed to company's bottom line. >> That's pretty interesting. >> It's very interesting and very important, and knowing that is something that they can immediately put in place that impacts the success of their company. >> Absolutely, and some of the things, too, that I've heard on various CUBE shows that we've done is the millennials perspective on the gender gap. And often they'll go, I don't know why you guys are still talking about this. And we think, we don't either, but we are, and it's refreshing to hear that this next generation thinks that that is just something that is just kind of ridiculous that we're still talking about, and also how important seeing a leader, a CEO being involved in something important, is to retention, so I think that's a great message that Anita Borg can help get out there and show businesses this huge impact and benefit to you and fostering your own talent. >> Yeah, you know, and it's encouraging, as you say, the millennials are jumping in, and many more people are jumping in and giving this perspective to companies, which is actually assisting them, right? So now they don't have to feel like, okay, this is just my idea, I'm going to take a risk and jump out. They've got people who are loyal to their organization saying, I believe in this and I believe in you, let's do this together, and so definitely our job is to make sure that companies have access to all the information they need to make these, what shouldn't be hard decisions, but we're there to help them. So the 50/50 idea, you have said that, and you mentioned that earlier, that you want to see 50/50 representation of females in the next 10 years. Tell us a little bit more about kind of what's coming out the rest of 2018 from Anita Borg, and how you guys are working to help make that, help get those numbers up from where they are currently. >> So it's all about awareness, and there's a lot of awareness out there, but what we want to do is increase it. You mentioned the idea of people can't be what they can't see. Images are so powerful, and so we want to work with media outlets, we want to work with entertainment companies with writers, with producers, and say help us create the images that can turn around and tell the truth, really. I mean we're not creating a fiction. Let's just tell the truth and allow people to understand that yes, this is how this works, and let's couple that with the data that shows that the bottom lines of companies that have more diverse workforces, that have more diverse boards, are muchly improved over those that are nondiverse. And so, we are creating that awareness, we are helping our companies find out what we call, not only best practices, but many times it's better practices. We're still working towards that best practice of here's how you can make incremental steps forward. Excuse me, you mentioned 10 years, I'm a little more urgent than that. I feel like the things that we get done are the things that we're most urgent about. One of the issues about why we're still dealing with these things, it's just been sort of like let's work on it in the sweet by and by. I want to say, let's work on it in the next two years, in the next three years. Let's make some goals, let's put some metrics behind them, and those were some of the things that we help companies do. >> I love that urgency. I think it's essential, but the awareness and kind of this idea that you have of, let's just tell the truth. There's really nothing more powerful than that. But also, the imagery and the representation is critical for that. If you look back at all of your success and think back to younger Brenda, what advice would you give somebody that looks at you and goes, wow. Where do I start? What's that recommendation for shattering someone's own maybe perception of themselves in getting into technology? >> Right, I mean we have to start with the conversation that we have with ourselves, but you know, we're in this world now where there's so many great images. Find those images. You know, you can find successful women. There are so many of them. Talk to them, reach out to those of us, because we want you to succeed. We want you to participate and come on board. And so, we have a world with social media that allows people to have access to each other that we didn't have before. The most important thing is don't take no for an answer. Not only because it's just not true, but because we need you, and it is an amazing time right now where you have all these women who are standing up saying that they want change, and we're here to support them, and we're here to support you. >> Speaking of this kind of movement going on globally about we want change, with the Me Too movement, a bit of a different genesis, however, the awareness is starting to be there. You talked about needing the entertainment industry to get on board and really start ensuring that we're sharing the truth here. What opportunities do you see to deliver through Anita Borg that maybe you can leverage that's coming from the Me Too movement and all of Hollywood that's really starting to stand up and be very vocal about this? >> Well, you know, it's interesting because people ask me that question a lot, and from my own perspective, there's this awakening because those same sorts of things are happening in tech as well, we know. We've seen the stories. It's not as though we're looking aghast at what's happening to women across the way. So these things have been happening, and what is happening is people are starting to look internally to say, how can I strengthen myself and stand up like these women did? And so at AnitaB.org we are creating those opportunities for women to network, for them to get mentored. We have communities around the world where women can get together and understand what the pathway was of other women. It would have been really helpful for me to have sort of some of those breadcrumbs out in front of me, some of those examples and other people to talk to, but we provide that as part of what we do in our organization. We provide training opportunities, other experiences where people can see all across the tech ecosystem where they can come in. It's not just one way in, it's not just one pathway, and so that's going to be a really important thing to make sure that women know they have choices. >> And I think it's so important in general, but you mentioned some of the attendees at Grace Hopper are maybe women who are in transition who are maybe, had a career in something different for a while, and are now getting into tech. I'd love to maybe understand that a little bit more, maybe some of the demographics there, but how do you see, what are some of the inspirational stories maybe that you can see where a woman who was maybe mid-career or somewhere around there, just went, you know what, I am interested in this, maybe didn't have the confidence when she was younger. Any stories there that kind of jump out at you that are great examples of it's never too late? >> Absolutely, in fact that was some of my first inspiration in getting involved with taking my background in tech and sort of lighting the path for people to get in who had traditionally been shut out. My first educational experience was at a community college level. And many of those people were people who, like myself, had not been given that introductory experience of computer science in K-12 space. Maybe they went to work and did some other things, maybe they got talked out of it. You know, it's not for you. And they came back later saying, you know, maybe I could learn, maybe I could try, and so really opening up that pathway to them. I've seen people who have gone from either having no education or maybe having even a PhD in linguistics figuring out once again that creativity. How can I take that and apply that technologically to creating solutions that only I would care about or know about? And so we've seen people come from all different walks of life, different career paths, and start small. Some of them are self trained, some of them are bootcamp trained, some of them go back and get an additional education. What we do at AnitaB.org is, not only help them understand those multiple pathways, but we work with partner companies to say, you know, there are other ways for people to come in. We've got these, what, 500, 600 thousand empty positions. Why don't you take a look at some of the people who are in your industry already? If you're a bank and you've got a woman who's been working for you for 20 years, she knows your business inside out, she is loyal, she can learn the tech. So we're seeing those types of transitions take place as well. >> Fantastic, well Grace Hopper in Houston in September. Is there also Grace Hopper, there are forums in other countries? >> Yes, so we also have Grace Hopper India that takes place in November, right after the one we do here in the United States. We've also started to have one day Grace Hopper events, we call them Hopper by Once, and we are planning those out around the world. And so we're increasing, we're trying to increase people's opportunity to come and experience all of the wonderful things that are available at Grace Hopper. We hear so many wonderful things about how it's transformative in their lives to see that many women in one place, to have access to training and mentoring and networking opportunities, and we're just excited for what's to come. >> Well we're excited to see what happens in the next few months, and Brenda thanks so much for stopping by, sharing what's new with AnitaB.org, your vision for that, and the transformation that you're already helping to facilitate. >> Thank you for having me. >> Absolutely our pleasure. We want to thank you for watching theCUBE, I'm Lisa Martin, from our Palo Alto studios, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. (intense music)

(upbeat music) >> Welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of Women in Data Science 2023 live from Stanford University. This is Lisa Martin. My co-host is Tracy Yuan. We're excited to be having great conversations all day but you know, 'cause you've been watching. We've been interviewing some very inspiring women and some men as well, talking about all of the amazing applications of data science. You're not going to want to miss this next conversation. Our guest is Gabriela de Queiroz, Principal Cloud Advocate Manager of Microsoft. Welcome, Gabriela. We're excited to have you. >> Thank you very much. I'm so excited to be talking to you. >> Yeah, you're on theCUBE. >> Yeah, finally. (Lisa laughing) Like a dream come true. (laughs) >> I know and we love that. We're so thrilled to have you. So you have a ton of experience in the data space. I was doing some research on you. You've worked in software, financial advertisement, health. Talk to us a little bit about you. What's your background in? >> So I was trained in statistics. So I'm a statistician and then I worked in epidemiology. I worked with air pollution and public health. So I was a researcher before moving into the industry. So as I was talking today, the weekly paths, it's exactly who I am. I went back and forth and back and forth and stopped and tried something else until I figured out that I want to do data science and that I want to do different things because with data science we can... The beauty of data science is that you can move across domains. So I worked in healthcare, financial, and then different technology companies. >> Well the nice thing, one of the exciting things that data science, that I geek out about and Tracy knows 'cause we've been talking about this all day, it's just all the different, to your point, diverse, pun intended, applications of data science. You know, this morning we were talking about, we had the VP of data science from Meta as a keynote. She came to theCUBE talking and really kind of explaining from a content perspective, from a monetization perspective, and of course so many people in the world are users of Facebook. It makes it tangible. But we also heard today conversations about the applications of data science in police violence, in climate change. We're in California, we're expecting a massive rainstorm and we don't know what to do when it rains or snows. But climate change is real. Everyone's talking about it, and there's data science at its foundation. That's one of the things that I love. But you also have a lot of experience building diverse teams. Talk a little bit about that. You've created some very sophisticated data science solutions. Talk about your recommendation to others to build diverse teams. What's in it for them? And maybe share some data science project or two that you really found inspirational. >> Yeah, absolutely. So I do love building teams. Every time I'm given the task of building teams, I feel the luckiest person in the world because you have the option to pick like different backgrounds and all the diverse set of like people that you can find. I don't think it's easy, like people say, yeah, it's very hard. You have to be intentional. You have to go from the very first part when you are writing the job description through the interview process. So you have to be very intentional in every step. And you have to think through when you are doing that. And I love, like my last team, we had like 10 people and we were so diverse. Like just talking about languages. We had like 15 languages inside a team. So how beautiful it is. Like all different backgrounds, like myself as a statistician, but we had people from engineering background, biology, languages, and so on. So it's, yeah, like every time thinking about building a team, if you wanted your team to be diverse, you need to be intentional. >> I'm so glad you brought up that intention point because that is the fundamental requirement really is to build it with intention. >> Exactly, and I love to hear like how there's different languages. So like I'm assuming, or like different backgrounds, I'm assuming everybody just zig zags their way into the team and now you're all women in data science and I think that's so precious. >> Exactly. And not only woman, right. >> Tracy: Not only woman, you're right. >> The team was diverse not only in terms of like gender, but like background, ethnicity, and spoken languages, and language that they use to program and backgrounds. Like as I mentioned, not everybody did the statistics in school or computer science. And it was like one of my best teams was when we had this combination also like things that I'm good at the other person is not as good and we have this knowledge sharing all the time. Every day I would feel like I'm learning something. In a small talk or if I was reviewing something, there was always something new because of like the richness of the diverse set of people that were in your team. >> Well what you've done is so impressive, because not only have you been intentional with it, but you sound like the hallmark of a great leader of someone who hires and builds teams to fill gaps. They don't have to know less than I do for me to be the leader. They have to have different skills, different areas of expertise. That is really, honestly Gabriela, that's the hallmark of a great leader. And that's not easy to come by. So tell me, who were some of your mentors and sponsors along the way that maybe influenced you in that direction? Or is that just who you are? >> That's a great question. And I joke that I want to be the role model that I never had, right. So growing up, I didn't have anyone that I could see other than my mom probably or my sister. But there was no one that I could see, I want to become that person one day. And once I was tracing my path, I started to see people looking at me and like, you inspire me so much, and I'm like, oh wow, this is amazing and I want to do do this over and over and over again. So I want to be that person to inspire others. And no matter, like I'll be like a VP, CEO, whoever, you know, I want to be, I want to keep inspiring people because that's so valuable. >> Lisa: Oh, that's huge. >> And I feel like when we grow professionally and then go to the next level, we sometimes we lose that, you know, thing that's essential. And I think also like, it's part of who I am as I was building and all my experiences as I was going through, I became what I mentioned is unique person that I think we all are unique somehow. >> You're a rockstar. Isn't she a rockstar? >> You dropping quotes out. >> I'm loving this. I'm like, I've inspired Gabriela. (Gabriela laughing) >> Oh my God. But yeah, 'cause we were asking our other guests about the same question, like, who are your role models? And then we're talking about how like it's very important for women to see that there is a representation, that there is someone they look up to and they want to be. And so that like, it motivates them to stay in this field and to start in this field to begin with. So yeah, I think like you are definitely filling a void and for all these women who dream to be in data science. And I think that's just amazing. >> And you're a founder too. In 2012, you founded R Ladies. Talk a little bit about that. This is present in more than 200 cities in 55 plus countries. Talk about R Ladies and maybe the catalyst to launch it. >> Yes, so you always start, so I'm from Brazil, I always talk about this because it's such, again, I grew up over there. So I was there my whole life and then I moved to here, Silicon Valley. And when I moved to San Francisco, like the doors opened. So many things happening in the city. That was back in 2012. Data science was exploding. And I found out something about Meetup.com, it's a website that you can join and go in all these events. And I was going to this event and I joke that it was kind of like going to the Disneyland, where you don't know if I should go that direction or the other direction. >> Yeah, yeah. >> And I was like, should I go and learn about data visualization? Should I go and learn about SQL or should I go and learn about Hadoop, right? So I would go every day to those meetups. And I was a student back then, so you know, the budget was very restricted as a student. So we don't have much to spend. And then they would serve dinner and you would learn for free. And then I got to a point where I was like, hey, they are doing all of this as a volunteer. Like they are running this meetup and events for free. And I felt like it's a cycle. I need to do something, right. I'm taking all this in. I'm having this huge opportunity to be here. I want to give back. So that's what how everything started. I was like, no, I have to think about something. I need to think about something that I can give back. And I was using R back then and I'm like how about I do something with R. I love R, I'm so passionate about R, what about if I create a community around R but not a regular community, because by going to this events, I felt that as a Latina and as a woman, I was always in the corner and I was not being able to participate and to, you know, be myself and to network and ask questions. I would be in the corner. So I said to myself, what about if I do something where everybody feel included, where everybody can participate, can share, can ask questions without judgment? So that's how R ladies all came together. >> That's awesome. >> Talk about intentions, like you have to, you had that go in mind, but yeah, I wanted to dive a little bit into R. So could you please talk more about where did the passion for R come from, and like how did the special connection between you and R the language, like born, how did that come from? >> It was not a love at first sight. >> No. >> Not at all. Not at all. Because that was back in Brazil. So all the documentation were in English, all the tutorials, only two. We had like very few tutorials. It was not like nowadays that we have so many tutorials and courses. There were like two tutorials, other documentation in English. So it's was hard for me like as someone that didn't know much English to go through the language and then to learn to program was not easy task. But then as I was going through the language and learning and reading books and finding the people behind the language, I don't know how I felt in love. And then when I came to to San Francisco, I saw some of like the main contributors who are speaking in person and I'm like, wow, they are like humans. I don't know, it was like, I have no idea why I had this love. But I think the the people and then the community was the thing that kept me with the R language. >> Yeah, the community factors is so important. And it's so, at WIDS it's so palpable. I mean I literally walk in the door, every WIDS I've done, I think I've been doing them for theCUBE since 2017. theCUBE has been here since the beginning in 2015 with our co-founders. But you walk in, you get this sense of belonging. And this sense of I can do anything, why not? Why not me? Look at her up there, and now look at you speaking in the technical talk today on theCUBE. So inspiring. One of the things that I always think is you can't be what you can't see. We need to be able to see more people that look like you and sound like you and like me and like you as well. And WIDS gives us that opportunity, which is fantastic, but it's also helping to move the needle, really. And I was looking at some of the Anitab.org stats just yesterday about 2022. And they're showing, you know, the percentage of females in technical roles has been hovering around 25% for a while. It's a little higher now. I think it's 27.6 according to any to Anitab. We're seeing more women hired in roles. But what are the challenges, and I would love to get your advice on this, for those that might be in this situation is attrition, women who are leaving roles. What would your advice be to a woman who might be trying to navigate family and work and career ladder to stay in that role and keep pushing forward? >> I'll go back to the community. If you don't have a community around you, it's so hard to navigate. >> That's a great point. >> You are lonely. There is no one that you can bounce ideas off, that you can share what you are feeling or like that you can learn as well. So sometimes you feel like you are the only person that is going through that problem or like, you maybe have a family or you are planning to have a family and you have to make a decision. But you've never seen anyone going through this. So when you have a community, you see people like you, right. So that's where we were saying about having different people and people like you so they can share as well. And you feel like, oh yeah, so they went through this, they succeed. I can also go through this and succeed. So I think the attrition problem is still big problem. And I'm sure will be worse now with everything that is happening in Tech with layoffs. >> Yes and the great resignation. >> Yeah. >> We are going back, you know, a few steps, like a lot of like advancements that we did. I feel like we are going back unfortunately, but I always tell this, make sure that you have a community. Make sure that you have a mentor. Make sure that you have someone or some people, not only one mentor, different mentors, that can support you through this trajectory. Because it's not easy. But there are a lot of us out there. >> There really are. And that's a great point. I love everything about the community. It's all about that network effect and feeling like you belong- >> That's all WIDS is about. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Absolutely. >> Like coming over here, it's like seeing the old friends again. It's like I'm so glad that I'm coming because I'm all my old friends that I only see like maybe once a year. >> Tracy: Reunion. >> Yeah, exactly. And I feel like that our tank get, you know- >> Lisa: Replenished. >> Exactly. For the rest of the year. >> Yes. >> Oh, that's precious. >> I love that. >> I agree with that. I think one of the things that when I say, you know, you can't see, I think, well, how many females in technology would I be able to recognize? And of course you can be female technology working in the healthcare sector or working in finance or manufacturing, but, you know, we need to be able to have more that we can see and identify. And one of the things that I recently found out, I was telling Tracy this earlier that I geeked out about was finding out that the CTO of Open AI, ChatGPT, is a female. I'm like, (gasps) why aren't we talking about this more? She was profiled on Fast Company. I've seen a few pieces on her, Mira Murati. But we're hearing so much about ChatJTP being... ChatGPT, I always get that wrong, about being like, likening it to the launch of the iPhone, which revolutionized mobile and connectivity. And here we have a female in the technical role. Let's put her on a pedestal because that is hugely inspiring. >> Exactly, like let's bring everybody to the front. >> Yes. >> Right. >> And let's have them talk to us because like, you didn't know. I didn't know probably about this, right. You didn't know. Like, we don't know about this. It's kind of like we are hidden. We need to give them the spotlight. Every woman to give the spotlight, so they can keep aspiring the new generation. >> Or Susan Wojcicki who ran, how long does she run YouTube? All the YouTube influencers that probably have no idea who are influential for whatever they're doing on YouTube in different social platforms that don't realize, do you realize there was a female behind the helm that for a long time that turned it into what it is today? That's outstanding. Why aren't we talking about this more? >> How about Megan Smith, was the first CTO on the Obama administration. >> That's right. I knew it had to do with Obama. Couldn't remember. Yes. Let's let's find more pedestals. But organizations like WIDS, your involvement as a speaker, showing more people you can be this because you can see it, >> Yeah, exactly. is the right direction that will help hopefully bring us back to some of the pre-pandemic levels, and keep moving forward because there's so much potential with data science that can impact everyone's lives. I always think, you know, we have this expectation that we have our mobile phone and we can get whatever we want wherever we are in the world and whatever time of day it is. And that's all data driven. The regular average person that's not in tech thinks about data as a, well I'm paying for it. What's all these data charges? But it's powering the world. It's powering those experiences that we all want as consumers or in our business lives or we expect to be able to do a transaction, whether it's something in a CRM system or an Uber transaction like that, and have the app respond, maybe even know me a little bit better than I know myself. And that's all data. So I think we're just at the precipice of the massive impact that data science will make in our lives. And luckily we have leaders like you who can help navigate us along this path. >> Thank you. >> What advice for, last question for you is advice for those in the audience who might be nervous or maybe lack a little bit of confidence to go I really like data science, or I really like engineering, but I don't see a lot of me out there. What would you say to them? >> Especially for people who are from like a non-linear track where like going onto that track. >> Yeah, I would say keep going. Keep going. I don't think it's easy. It's not easy. But keep going because the more you go the more, again, you advance and there are opportunities out there. Sometimes it takes a little bit, but just keep going. Keep going and following your dreams, that you get there, right. So again, data science, such a broad field that doesn't require you to come from a specific background. And I think the beauty of data science exactly is this is like the combination, the most successful data science teams are the teams that have all these different backgrounds. So if you think that we as data scientists, we started programming when we were nine, that's not true, right. You can be 30, 40, shifting careers, starting to program right now. It doesn't matter. Like you get there no matter how old you are. And no matter what's your background. >> There's no limit. >> There was no limits. >> I love that, Gabriela, >> Thank so much. for inspiring. I know you inspired me. I'm pretty sure you probably inspired Tracy with your story. And sometimes like what you just said, you have to be your own mentor and that's okay. Because eventually you're going to turn into a mentor for many, many others and sounds like you're already paving that path and we so appreciate it. You are now officially a CUBE alumni. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Yay. We've loved having you. Thank you so much for your time. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> For our guest and for Tracy's Yuan, this is Lisa Martin. We are live at WIDS 23, the eighth annual Women in Data Science Conference at Stanford. Stick around. Our next guest joins us in just a few minutes. (upbeat music)