WIT Newsletter April 2026

Hello Data Platform WIT & Allies –

Nothing inspires us more than being able to celebrate all of the women who inspire us. That’s why highlighting these women was so important to us over the past month. Hopefully, you followed along on Bluesky and/or LinkedIn as members in our community shared thoughts, quotes, and inspiration.

Thanks to everyone who participated:

• Mala Mahadevan
• Gilda Alvarez
• Ginger Grant
• Haripriya Naidu
• Akshata Revankar
• Dr Victoria Holt
• Sue Bayes
• Deepthi Goguri
• Blythe Morrow
• Kristyna Ferris
• Surbhi Pokharna
• Meagan Longoria
• Courtney Woolum
• Monica Morehouse
• Jess Pomfret
• Pam Lahoud
• Kellyn Gorman
• Leslie Andrews
• Mri Pandit
• Josephine Bush
• Tracy Boggiano
• Deborah Melkin
• Kristina Mishra

And here’s to some of the women, specifically in our community, who were highlighted throughout the month:

• Amy Abel
• Rie Merritt
• Shubhangi Goyal
• Wangui McKelvey
• Erin Stellato
• Priya Sathy
• Karen Thorson (Swiat), MBA
• Chrissy LeMaire
• Maraki Ketema
• Jes Chapman
• Elena Drakulevska

Want to catch up and read them all? You can find them on Bluesky by searching #datawit (https://bsky.app/hashtag/datawit) or going to our profile (https://bsky.app/profile/data-wit.bsky.social). You can also join our LinkedIn page and see the posts there. (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9026680/)

Other Highlights of March:

We had two major highlights. The first was our monthly meetup with Sheena Yap Chen. Her presentation, “Breaking Barriers: Empowering Women in AI, Embedded Vision, and Tech Leadership,” was filled with inspiration from Sheena’s own story and how we can make our own goals happen. If you missed it, you can catch it on our YouTube channel.

The second was our meetup at FABCON/SQLCON where we got to meet with some of you in the community lounge. While we love connecting with you all virtually, we loved seeing you in person!

What’s Coming Up Next:

We’re super excited for our next event on Tuesday, April 14th. Traci Sewell will be presenting her session, “When the firehose causes the Burnout”. There is nothing more important than taking care of our mental health, and there’s none better than Traci to learn from. We hope you’ll join us by RSVPing here.

Now that we’re in April, we know the work isn’t done. March just highlights our issue, and now the real work begins. The biggest question we get asked is how can you help us? It’s helping to highlight and amplify each other. Like and share our posts along with others who are doing the things we should all know about. We look forward to highlighting all the amazing things that you do as Data Platform WIT and celebrating you throughout the year.

Deborah, Tracy, and Kristy