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If you missed this inspiring event or would like to watch the recordings, all the sessions are live on our Women in AI Ethics YouTube channel!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) touches all our lives but decisions about the future of AI are concentrated in the hands of a privileged few. The explosion of coding camps, some of which are predatory, and with media amplifying select voices from elite institutions has created a false perception that the male-dominated AI tech space is only open to those with programming skills, engineering degree, or a PhD.

Join us on June 8th for Women in AI Ethics (WAIE) mid-year summit for a timely discussion about diverse career pathways, funding, and role of philanthropy in build a more ethical and equitable tech future.

WHO IS HOSTING THIS EVENT?

This event is hosted by Women in AI Ethics™ (WAIE), a fiscally sponsored project of Social Good Fund (Tax Id: 46-1323531), a California nonprofit corporation and registered 501(c)(3) organization, with a mission to increase recognition, representation, and empowerment of brilliant women in this space who are working hard to save humanity from the dark side of AI.

**You can support our activities by donating here! **

All our activities are funded by donations and ticket sales. Donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law and used to fund mission-aligned activities, which includes but is not limited to providing free AI Ethics career resources, hosting community events, and funding other initiatives to support women in this space.

Our Sponsors

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VOICES

Our Speakers

Team member
Dr. Safiya Noble
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Michelle Shevin
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Michele Jawando
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Renee Wittemyer
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Jessica Yrani
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Hessie Jones
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Ebitie Amughan
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Mia Shah-Dand
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Patricia Thaine
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Jodi Masters-Gonzales
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Ioanna Bouri
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Teemu Roos
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Tulsi Parida
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Amy Chou
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Jennifer Jordan

WHAT TO EXPECT

Agenda

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 2022

Note: Timings are in U.S. Pacific Time. Use this free tool to find your local time.

8:00a - 8:05a PST : Kick off

Speaker/s : Amy Chou
Duration   : 05 mins

Session Description : Summit Opening

Speaker Bio : “Amy Chou is currently a Senior Vice President, Account Executive at Aon. She is a seasoned client services executive with experience in the financial services, tech, and education sectors. Prior to her work at Aon, she was the founding Corporate Partnerships Manager at AI4ALL, a nonprofit committed to increasing diversity in the field of artificial intelligence. She has also managed enterprise customers and led a growing support team at Clever, a digital learning platform for K12 schools. Amy studied at University of California — Berkeley, where she earned a B.A. in Sociology, B.S. in Business Administration, and an M.B.A. Outside her work at Aon, she plays a key role on the Women in AI Ethics™ Advisory Board and serves as a client success advisor to Summery, an AI-powered startup focused on ESG. “

8:10a - 8:25a PST : Opening Remarks

Speaker/s : Mia Shah-Dand
Duration   : 15 mins

Session Description : Opening Remarks

Speaker Bio : Mia Shah-Dand is the CEO and founder of Lighthouse3 who advises global organizations on responsible innovation at scale with emerging technologies. Mia is also the founder of Women in AI Ethics™ global community dedicated to increasing recognition, representation, and empowerment of talented women in this space. She created the first ‘100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics list in 2018, which is now published annually, and funded an online directory as a helpful resource for hiring managers and AI conference organizers to recruit more diverse talent. For over a decade, Mia has hosted 100+ virtual and in-person tech events to democratize and expand access to new technologies for folks outside of the big tech-academia bubble. She hosts educational events and informative Twitter chats (@MiaD) to raise awareness about ethical issues in AI and highlight the work of BIPOC experts in this space. Mia is on the Selection Committee for Anita Borg ABIE Social Impact award committee and on the Advisory Board for Carnegie Council’s Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative.

8:30a - 8:40a PST : Making AI Inclusive and Accessible for All

Speaker/s : Teemu Roos, Ioanna Bouri
Duration   : 10 mins

Session Description : WAIE Board Member, University of Helsinki Professor, and creator of Elements of AI – the internationally renowned free online course – Teemu Roos and AI Researcher, Ioanna Bouri will share the vision for WAIE-FCAI collaboration to make AI more diverse, inclusive, and accessible to all. As a special treat, you will also get a chance to join them on a virtual tour of their beautiful campus.

Speaker Bio :

Teemu Roos is the lead instructor of the Elements of AI online course that has a pivotal role in Finland’s unique, inclusive AI strategy. He is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki, and leads the AI Education program at the Finnish Center for AI. Teemu has been a member of the Women in AI Ethics Board of Advisors since 2020.

Ioanna Bouri is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, specializing in theoretical Machine Learning with applications in Earth and Space Sciences (ML in ESS). She has been teaching at UH for the last five years and is an instructor at the Elements of AI MOOCs. Ioanna is passionate about science education, and an active advocate for AI literacy, ethics, diversity and women in STEM.

8:40a - 9:35a PST : Funding the AI Revolution

Speaker/s : Michelle Shevin (Ford Foundation), Michele Jawando (Omidyar Network), Renee Wittemyer (Pivotal Ventures)
Duration   : 55 mins

Session Description : There is a disturbing trend in the AI space as critical societal issues are being overshadowed by hype projects favored by the techno-elites. Meet the philanthropic leaders supporting much-needed racial justice and diversity work by organizations like Algorithmic Justice League, DAIR, Women in AI Ethics among many others. We’ll hear their thoughts on the power imbalance in tech industry, role of philanthropy in building the tech we want, and their ongoing efforts to ensure a more ethical and equitable AI/tech future for all.

Speaker Bio :

Michelle Shevin is Senior Program Manager of the Public Interest Technology Catalyst Fund at the Ford Foundation. In the spirit of public interest law, the fund aims to build and sustain public-centered institutions, diverse career pathways, and robust networks of aligned organizations expanding the space for justice and accountability. She believes that default business logics of austerity, efficiency, and inequity cannot be allowed to dictate our technological futures absent even public debate. The public interest must be prioritized as we hurtle toward digitized and datafied planning and decision-making structures. In doing this work, she stands on the shoulders of giants: women who have been warning, trailblazing, and reimagining for many years. Michelle also teaches critical futures thinking methodologies at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

A regular commentator for international and US TV, print and radio, Michele Jawando is an author, serial entrepreneur and afro-tech futurist who believes across our differences we can create and build the future we desire. As Omidyar Network’s first Senior Vice President of Programs, Jawando oversees the global mission of the program teams of its three Impact Themes: Responsible Technology, Reimagining Capitalism, and Pluralism as Omidyar Network attempts to tackle the biggest, most intractable challenges facing the planet in the decades ahead. Before joining Omidyar Network, Michele Jawando was the Head of US Strategic Engagement and Public Policy Partnerships at Google as an executive leader and senior member of their Public Policy team. Prior to Google, Michele Jawando served as Vice President at the Center for American Progress, a think tank dedicated to improving the lives of Americans building on progressive ideas and actions from pioneers such as Teddy Roosevelt and Martin Luther King. Michele has also served as General Counsel and Senior Advisor to United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and House Foreign Relations Chair, Congressman Gregory Meeks.

“Dr. Renee Wittemyer is the Director of Program Strategy and Investments for Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company created by Melinda Gates to advance social progress for women and families in the United States. Renee leads the development and execution of innovation-focused investments and partnerships in areas ranging from women and tech, caregiving solutions, to adolescent mental health. Prior to joining Pivotal Ventures, Renee held multiple leadership positions at Intel, including her roles as Director of Social Innovation and Director of Strategy and Research, spearheading the company’s $300 million Global Diversity and Inclusion effort and Director of Social Innovation. Renee also worked as a research scientist in Intel Research Labs and Microsoft Research Labs. For her work on gender and technology, Renee has been awarded the “GemTech Global Achiever Award” by UN Women. Renee holds a PhD in development studies from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. “

9:40a - 09:55a PST : Here's the Next Hot Opportunity in Responsible AI

Speaker/s : Jodi Masters-Gonzales
Duration   : 15 mins

Session Description : Join this session to listen, consider, and thoughtfully discuss the global economic opportunity for practitioners of Independent Audit of AI Systems (#IAAIS), the wide range of opportunities—from the highly-technical to non-technical—the public good organizations blazing the path of gold-standard certification, how to get involved—now, why regulators are adopting a systems-thinking approach to digital policy for AI risk and algorithmic bias mitigation, and the many opportunities for first-movers to contribute to an ecosystem that ends AI harms.

Speaker Bio : Jodi Masters-Gonzales is a #ForHumanity Certified Auditor of AI, algorithmic and autonomous systems. She is among the first Independent Auditors of AI Systems certified for both the EU & UK #GDPR and #UKChildrensCode and is co-leading the effort to draft and map audit criteria for and between leading comprehensive privacy laws in the U.S., including CA/CO/VA—and others as they come online. She is Chief QAI Risk Awareness Officer at Saq.ai, where her practice and Ph.D. research focuses on proactive—rather than reactive—quantum-AI-META situational awareness preparation, education, and organizational-systems change. Her operating principles include whole #systems-thinking that contributes to increasing the capacity of our #collectiveintelligence and #techculture toward #humanetechnology and #responsibleinnovation with #actionablecritique enabling #digitalpolicy capable of embracing the complexities of a #digitaleconomy shaped for sustained #publicgood.

10:00a - 10:30a PST : Landing Your First Responsible AI/ML role

Speaker/s : Ebitie Amughan, Jessica Yrani, Tulsi Parida
Duration   : 30 mins

Session Description : Ready for a career in Responsible AI/ML? Join this session to learn about the diverse jobs available in corporate and academia, get tips from experienced recruiters on how to land your dream job, pivot from your current non-AI role, transition from academia to corporate sector, and how to assess your potential work environment.

Speaker Bio :

Ebitie Amughan is the Senior Recruiting Operations Program Manager for Inclusive Hiring at Pinterest. She brings her unique talent solutions to business partners and hiring teams through her creative and strategic workflows. With her recruiting expertise, she has managed and launched programs and processes that optimize and simplify the hiring process to ensure the organizations meet their goals and plan. Prior to her promotion to a Senior Program Manager role, she was a Technical Recruiter for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence at Pinterest in charge of recruiting senior engineers in building a discovery engine. Ebitie’s deep knowledge of recruiting has led her to work with distinguished companies like Microsoft and the National Board of Advisors for the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona as a newly inducted board member.

“Jessica is a lead technical recruiter focusing on Analytics and ML hiring at Roblox. Before joining Roblox, she was a lead recruiter at Pinterest, partnering with engineering leadership to build Machine Learning teams within the Core and Monetization organization. Throughout Jessica’s decade of experience, she has partnered with technical teams to create inclusive hiring strategies. “

“Tulsi Parida is the Global Director of Government Data Solutions at Visa. Her work is at the intersection of payments data and government and she develops innovative data solutions for governments looking to use spend insights to inform their policy making and decisions. She brings a decade of experience at the intersection of tech, society, and business, with a commitment to reducing digital inequality and promoting responsible and inclusive technology. Prior to Visa, she led teams at various startups working to bridge digial divides in literacy education both in the US and in India. Tulsi holds a BSc in Education & Social Policy, Economics from Northwestern University and a dual degree MSc /MBA in Tech & Society from the University of Oxford. Recently, Tulsi has won the global 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics and Tech Women 100 awards in the UK.”

10:30a - 11:00a PST : Responsible AI/tech Startup Journey & Funding

Speaker/s : Hessie Jones, Jennifer Jordan, Patricia Thaine
Duration   : 30 mins

Session Description : Do you have the entrepreneurial spirit? This inspiring session is full of insights on the start up journey from founders building the future of responsible AI and VCs funding an ethical AI future. Get tips on fundraising for your vision and get a close look at the challenges specific to underrepresented founders. Also, learn what it’s like to work for a startup and the opportunities in this space.

Speaker Bio :

“Hessie Jones is a Privacy Technologist, Venture Partner, Strategist, Journalist and Author and is currently working at MATR Ventures. As a seasoned digital and privacy strategist, she advocates for human-centred AI, education and the ethical distribution of AI in this era of transformation. She is an active contributor/writer for Forbes, Editor, Towards Data Science, an Innovations Lead at Altitude Accelerator, and a founding member of MyData Canada. Hessie previously founded her own business ArCompany, a transformation and research consultancy that aimed to leverage data intelligence in an increasingly digital world. “

“Jennifer Jordan is a Venture Partner at iGlobe Partners. iGlobe has a 22 year track record of investing early in gamechangers such as Unity Software, Twist Bioscience, Ginkgo Bioworks, Matterport, and NerdWallet. Previously Jennifer served as Managing Director at Techstars for Barclays’ New York Accelerator and Female Founders First program, and as Vice President of MassVentures. She has always been a generalist. At MassVentures she led the firm’s investments in Ginkgo Bioworks (IPO 2022, SynBio), FairMarkIT (Series B, Enterprise Procurement), MachineMetrics (Series B, Manufacturing IoT), ClearGov (Acquired, GovTech), Curoverse (Acquired, Big Data Genomics). Her Techstars investments include companies such as Nossa Data (ESG reporting), Arch Finance (Bringing Passive Investment to Web3), and Gravity-AI (Marketplace for secure proven AI models). She is deeply interested in companies building data and tools that bring Trust & Transparency to AI, reflected in investments in Monitaur (AI Governance), Esme Learning (AI for Learning & EQ), and AlgoFace, Inc. (Responsible, privacy preserving Face Analysis). Finally, Jennifer is dedicated to ensuring: that female and diverse founders have access to the networks, advice, and capital they need to thrive; that women and diverse investors gain decision making authority in VC to close the Gap Table; and, that enterprises adopting AI to automate decisions benefit from its full potential because they have the data and tools available to make sure everyone is represented.”

Patricia Thaine is the Co-Founder & CEO of Private AI, a Microsoft-backed startup, is also a Computer Science PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto (on leave) and a Vector Institute alumna. Her R&D work is focused on privacy-preserving natural language processing, with a focus on applied cryptography and re-identification risk. Patricia is a recipient of the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship, the RBC Graduate Fellowship, the Beatrice “Trixie” Worsley Graduate Scholarship in Computer Science, and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship. She has ten years of research and software development experience, including at the McGill Language Development Lab, the University of Toronto’s Computational Linguistics Lab, the University of Toronto’s Department of Linguistics, and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

11:05a - 11:40a PST : Fireside chat with Dr.Safiya Noble

Speaker/s : Dr.Safiya Noble
Duration   : 35 mins

Session Description : Fireside chat with Dr.Safiya Noble

Speaker Bio : Dr. Safiya U. Noble is an internet studies scholar and Professor of Gender Studies and African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where she serves as the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2). She holds affiliations in the School of Education & Information Studies, and is a Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford where she is a Commissioner on the Oxford Commission on AI & Good Governance (OxCAIGG). In 2021, she was recognized as a MacArthur Foundation Fellow (also known as the “Genius Award”) for her ground-breaking work on algorithmic discrimination, which prompted her founding of a non-profit, Equity Engine, to accelerate investment in companies, education, and networks driven by women of color. She is the author of a best-selling book on racist and sexist algorithmic bias in commercial search engines, entitled Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (NYU Press), which has been widely-reviewed in scholarly and popular publications. She is the recipient of a Hellman Fellowship and the UCLA Early Career Award. In 2022, she was recognized as the inaugural NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award recipient.

11:45a - 11:55a PST : Closing remarks

Speaker/s : Mia Shah-Dand
Duration   : 10 mins

Session Description : Closing Remarks

Speaker Bio : Mia Shah-Dand is the CEO and founder of Lighthouse3 who advises global organizations on responsible innovation at scale with emerging technologies. Mia is also the founder of Women in AI Ethics™ global community dedicated to increasing recognition, representation, and empowerment of talented women in this space. She created the first ‘100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics list in 2018, which is now published annually, and funded an online directory as a helpful resource for hiring managers and AI conference organizers to recruit more diverse talent. For over a decade, Mia has hosted 100+ virtual and in-person tech events to democratize and expand access to new technologies for folks outside of the big tech-academia bubble. She hosts educational events and informative Twitter chats (@MiaD) to raise awareness about ethical issues in AI and highlight the work of BIPOC experts in this space. Mia is on the Selection Committee for Anita Borg ABIE Social Impact award committee and on the Advisory Board for Carnegie Council’s Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative.

11:55a - 12:00p PST : Event Close

Speaker/s : Amy Chou
Duration   : 05 mins

Session Description :Event Close

Speaker Bio : “Amy Chou is currently a Senior Vice President, Account Executive at Aon. She is a seasoned client services executive with experience in the financial services, tech, and education sectors. Prior to her work at Aon, she was the founding Corporate Partnerships Manager at AI4ALL, a nonprofit committed to increasing diversity in the field of artificial intelligence. She has also managed enterprise customers and led a growing support team at Clever, a digital learning platform for K12 schools. Amy studied at University of California — Berkeley, where she earned a B.A. in Sociology, B.S. in Business Administration, and an M.B.A. Outside her work at Aon, she plays a key role on the Women in AI Ethics™ Advisory Board and serves as a client success advisor to Summery, an AI-powered startup focused on ESG. “