Rebecca Miller-Webster, Author at Write/Speak/Code

May 10, 2016 By Rebecca Miller-Webster Leave a Comment

Announcing the 2016 Keynote speakers!

We are thrilled to announce the keynote speakers for the 2016 Conference!

First year and new Alumna track. Check out the schedule.

June 15-18, 2016

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology
325 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60654

Wed, Thurs, & Fri 9:00am-6:30pm
Sat 11:00am-4:00pm

Buy your tickets now!

Naomi Ceder

Naomi Ceder has been learning, teaching, using, and talking about Python since 2001. She is the author of the Quick Python Book, 2nd edition, the sprints organizer for PyCon, and the co-founder of Trans*Code, a UK based hack day focussing on trans issues. Having worked as an organizer in various communities for almost 20 years, Naomi is a member of the board of directors of the Python Software Foundation for 2015/2016. She speaks about her own experiences of marginalization with the hope of making the communities she loves more diverse and welcoming. In her spare time she enjoys knitting and deep philosophical conversations with her dogs.

Annyce Davis

Annyce is an Android Google Developer Expert. She has been in the tech industry for over a decade and has spent the past 5 years developing applications for the Android ecosystem across multiple form factors. She is also a international conference speaker and author, sharing her knowledge of Android development with others. In addition, Annyce is active in the Washington, DC tech scene and assists with running a local meetup focused on Android development and design.

Buy your tickets now!

Julianna Rusakiewicz

Actor turned designer turned developer, I am a bootcamp graduate trying to make my way in an ever-changing and growing field. I grew up in New England and became an adult in New York City, so I yearn for the city and the woods. I primarily develop in Ruby on Rails and AngualrJS, though I am often asked to update WordPress sites. After 15 years in the Theater scene, I accepted a position at a creative agency in Midtown Manhattan. I am constantly learning and trying new things!

Alex Qin

Alex Qin is a Brooklyn based engineer and educator. She spends a lot of time thinking about how to make programming accessible to all. During work hours, she writes code at Skillshare. In her spare time, she enjoys teaching children and adults to code with ScriptEd, Technovation, and giving talks about code, community, and accessibility. She also loves food, and spent part of last summer building a vegetable farm in Brooklyn where the Domino Sugar Factory used to be.

Buy your tickets now!

Fureigh

Fureigh is an Oakland-based software architect who believes technology should be kind to humans and so should the state. After their 2014 Code for America fellowshipreducing repeat 911 calls in Long Beach, Calif., they joined 18F, a digital strategy team transforming the federal government from the inside out. Fureigh started New York City’s Drupal Ladder skill-building meetups, has taught United Nations employees how to use Git, and has spoken at conferences ranging from Open Source Bridge toCreating Change.

Coraline Ada Ehmke

Coraline Ada Ehmke is a speaker, writer, teacher, open source advocate and technologist with 20 years of experience in developing apps for the web. As a founding member of Open Source 4 Women and Contributor Covenant, she works diligently to promote diversity and inclusivity in open source. Her current interests include refactoring, code analytics and artificial intelligence.

Write/Speak/Code 2016 Conference for women coders

June 15-18, 2016

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology
325 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60654

Wed, Thurs, & Fri 9:00am-6:30pm
Sat 11:00am-4:00pm

Buy your tickets now!

Accessibility, Inclusion, & Intersectionality
Free childcare
Mothers/lactation room
Wheelchair accessible venue
CART transcription
Ramadan accomodations

March 2, 2015 By Rebecca Miller-Webster Leave a Comment

Why We Offer Childcare

Whenever I meet any of my mom’s old co-workers, I have a funny experience. Their eyes light up and they get a gigantic smile on their face.

I remember you when you were a baby!

When my mom, a research scientist who got her Ph.D. in 1975, got pregnant, no one knew what to do about it — there was no maternity leave policy, because they’d never had a woman who got pregnant and wanted to come back.

My mom used to carry me around her lab as an infant while preparing here assays. She set up a crib in her office.
In many ways, my mom was lucky — the nature of her research allowed her to have me around when I was really young. That said, I was in infant daycare at 6 months old. In fact, I recently had dinner with another kid in that infant daycare whose mom was a professor. We were reminiscing about childhood — about her calling me “Ca” because she couldn’t say my name and about the tiny bread her mom used to make grilled cheese sandwiches out of. (For the record, we are well-adjusted, socially adept, successful adults)

When we had school off for national holidays, especially the less common ones — Columbus Day, Martin Luther King Day, Casmir Pulaski Day, etc — my sister and I often spent the day at one of my parents workplaces. (I know you are jealous that you didn’t get Casmir Pulaski Day off!) I have fond memories of hospital cafeterias from spending time at my Dad’s work. While my husband was in the hospital recently, I discovered these latent memories and an instinctual aptitude in navigating hospital hallways with their colored stripes and winding ways.

I still remember one time when my friend Kadima came to work with me and my mom, because her single, police officer dad had to work. We had some good times doing Mariah Carey impressions in the med school classrooms.

Me and my sister sometime in grade school.

Later on, when my grandmother, who had Parkinson’s disease for 30 years, needed more care, the family moved her near us. It was a wonderful and upsetting experience to spend a lot of time with my grandmother at the end of her life. She was an amazing women who, after being told by her father that girls couldn’t be lawyers, got her Ph.D. at 55.

At Write/Speak/Code we know that if we really want to empower existing women engineers, we need to acknowledge the reality of our lives. The fact is that the time when women have the greatest opportunity for visibility and leadership, they are also most likely to be starting a family. Women (and marginalized groups in general) are more likely to be caregivers — for children or other adult family members. Ignoring these facts would directly contradict the mission of Write/Speak/Code – we cannot increase the visibility and leadership of woman software developers without accomodating the needs of mothers and caregivers.

While we would love to have more resources (people and financial) to support mothers and women caregivers, we are doing what we can now. That is: