About Us

The Latinas in Computing (LiC) community was established after a Birds of a Feather session at the 2006 Grace Hopper Conference entitled Latinas in Engineering. There, a group of energized Latinas from industry, government labs and academia discussed the strengths of this growing community and the misconceptions affecting its members.  They talked about their experiences as double minorities, including the self-limiting beliefs that can interfere with their ability to excel and establish themselves as leaders in computational fields. Given the common experiences discovered by participants in this initial event, Latinas in Computing established as its first goal to define key strategies to promote leadership and professional development among the current and next generations of Latinas in technology.

The community was originally founded by Gilda Garretón, Patty Lopez, Raquel Romano, Dilma Da Silva, Cecilia Aragón, and Claris Castillo, most of whom are still active Board members.  They had the support of AnitaB.org (formerly known as Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology ABI) and became one of the Systers Communities.  

Since then, the LiC community has grown to upwards of 850 members and continually attracts new members via conferences and workshops (e.g.,  Grace Hopper,  CAHSI,  CRA-W) as well as its presence on LinkedIn , Facebook and Twitter, and through professional and community relationships. The community has a strong student membership and a number of   distinguished members who have gained recognition for their technical and community contributions.

Latinas in Computing has increased their participation at the Grace Hopper Celebration in recent years. We went from one Birds of a Feather session in 2006, to having several presentations led by LiC members and an annual “Latinas in Technical Roles” networking celebration that has been a full capacity for the past 4 years.