WITI Honors 5 Top Women at 15th Annual WITI Hall of Fame Awards

SAN JOSE, CA--(MARKETWIRE - MAY 10, 2010) – WITI - Women In Technology International announced today the recipients of the 15th Annual WITI Hall of Fame Awards to be honored on the evening of September 13, 2010 during the three day Annual WITI Women and Technology Summit in San Jose, California September 12-14. The WITI Hall of Fame Awards, sponsored by the WITI Foundation, are considered one of the most prestigious honors for women in science and technology.

Katherine Boehret of the Wall Street Journal will serve as Master of Ceremonies, while many of the industry's top executives and professionals will introduce the honorees.

"Historically, too many notable achievements by women have gone unrecognized. The WITI Hall of Fame Awards was founded to provide a platform to recognize women whose contributions to technology and science and commitment to advancing women can be celebrated and recorded. WITI Hall of Fame winners stand as role models to inspire future generations to pursue groundbreaking solutions in technology and science," says Carolyn Leighton, WITI Founder and Chairwoman.

The 2010 WITI Hall of Fame Awards Banquet and Induction ceremony will mark WITI's 15th year of honoring women for their significant contributions to science and technology. The women chosen for induction lead exceptional careers in their respective fields, make incredible contributions to society while also mentoring, inspiring and empowering other women and girls to pursue careers in science and technology.

The 2010 WITI Hall of Fame Honorees include:

Sandy Carter

Sandy Carter is currently Vice President, IBM Software Group Business Partners. She was one of the first technology industry executives to recognize the value of social media and how it can be applied to business. She is a leading SOA industry expert and has led IBM to its market share leadership in this space. Her work enabled social media to become mainstream, assisting hundreds of companies to use Web 2.0 technology to drive business results. She is the first woman in the industry to write a book on a social media framework (ANGELS) and has taught social media and Web 2.0 skills to more than 50 universities. She founded the IBM Super Women's Group, a networking and mentoring group for IBM women in technology. In 2009, "Everything Channel" named Sandy Carter one of the most powerful 100 women in channels.

Dr. Ruth David

Dr. David is President and CEO of Analytic Services Inc., a not-for-profit corporation providing objective analyses to strengthen national and homeland security. Dr. David was elected into the National Academy of Engineering in 2002 for pioneering the use of digital information technologies for testing, simulations, information processing, and telecommunications for high-reliability applications. From 1995 to 1998, Dr. David was Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the Central Intelligence Agency. As technical advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence, she was responsible for research, development and deployment of technologies spanning the intelligence process. Upon departure from this position, she was awarded the CIA's Distinguished Intelligence Medal. Dr. David serves as a role model to all scientific and technical professionals through outreach via speaking engagements and her dedicated service to the Nation.

Dr. Adele Goldberg

Dr. Goldberg was a central participant in the invention of personal computing and pervasive networking at Xerox PARC, as one of the designers of the first completely object-oriented programming language and environment. As founding Chairman and CEO of ParcPlace Systems, Inc., she led the effort to commercialize this Xerox technology. Dr. Goldberg was president of the ACM from 1984 to 1986, and she won the 1987 ACM Software Systems Award with Alan Kay and Dan Ingalls. She has designed systems to author and deliver online courses as part of an educational company formed to enhance both equity and high achievement in secondary school math and science, to support collaboration among international neuroscientists and mental health experts, and to enhance strategic management of pharmaceutical drug development teams. She is an advisor to ViewPoints Research Institute and a long time Board Member of the SF Exploratorium.

Dr. Susie Wee

Dr. Wee is the CTO of Client Cloud Services at Hewlett-Packard. Dr. Wee is dedicated to improving the way we use and experience technology today, simplifying the user experience for personal, social, and cloud computing and creating immersive communication and collaboration experiences. She co-edited the JPSEC standard for JPEG-2000 image security, which provides security for scalable media. She developed technologies for digital television in the 1990s and mobile video for cell phone networks and immersive videoconferencing in the 2000s and is now developing client-cloud experiences and services. Dr. Wee spent 10 years at MIT, earning her bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. Dr. Wee also developed the "Researchers In Residence" Program, a unique residency program that gives MIT graduate students the chance to work in industry while tackling challenging, compelling problems alongside leading HP Labs researchers.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer

Everyone knows her as Dr. Ruth, the woman who survived the Holocaust orphaned only to become one of the most famous science educators in the world candidly relating to millions on all issues concerning human sexuality through mass media. The 82 yr. old grandmother still shares her expertise with humor to vast audiences and challenges the scientific and academic community to further serious research. Dr. Ruth opened up an entire field for women by serving as a role model to other women writing books and speaking publicly about sexual and reproductive freedom. She is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, Yale and Princeton Universities and a full Professor at NYU. She has twice been named "College Lecturer of the Year." She is currently serving as the Honorary President of the Council on Sexuality and Aging at the National Sexuality Resource Center.

The WITI Hall of Fame began as a U.S. based outreach initiative supported by the Clinton Administration. While the majority of the inductees to the WITI Hall of Fame come from the United States, honorees now include noteworthy women from France, Spain, China, Japan, the UK, Canada, Australia, and Israel. Please take time to review the amazing stories of all WITI Hall of Fame Awards recipients by visiting http://www.witi.com/halloffame

To register for the 2010 WITI Women and Technology Summit or purchase tickets for the WITI Hall of Fame Awards dinner, please visit: http://www.witi.com/summit

To sponsor the 2010 WITI Women and Technology Summit please contact: Michele Weisblatt, VP, Corporate Partnerships, WITI, 323-522-3125 / [email protected]

About WITI

WITI is the nation's leading trade association for professional, tech-savvy women committed to using technology, resources and connections to advance women worldwide. With a global network of smart, talented women and a market reach exceeding 2 million, WITI has established powerful strategic alliances and programs to provide connections, resources, and opportunities within a supportive environment of women committed to helping each other. WITI's mission is to inspire women to achieve unimagined possibilities and transformations through technology, leadership and economic prosperity. The WITI Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that endeavors to develop and support programs for young women and empower women through technology in underdeveloped countries.

For more information about WITI and the WITI Foundation, please click here.