Recap: 2022 Winter Soiree & Awards Ceremony
Our 2022 Winter Soiree & Awards Ceremony was one of our most exciting events of the year! Hosted at Autodesk, we had fabulous raffle prizes, raised over a thousand dollars as part of our Give!Guide fundraiser, and revealed our 2022 awardees.
PDXWIT Speaker Awards
“I’m so honored and excited to be in a community of forward thinkers that are committed to making the future of work more equitable, more community oriented, and more inclusive.” - Amina Moreau
This year, we wanted to find ways to celebrate as many community members as possible, and to amplify our impact to other nonprofit organizations during the season of giving. With this in mind, we expanded the number of speaker award categories from three to five and included honorable mentions. Winners in each category had $250 donated in their name to an organization of their choice, and honorable mentions each had $125 donated in their name.
Our 2022 speaker awardees and honorable mentions were selected from 59 lightning speakers, panelists, moderators, and facilitators from 33 events held over the past year.
Speaker Category: Lightning Speaker
Honorable Mentions: Aja Marsh, Emery Thanathiti
Awardee: Amina Moreau
Amina is the CEO of Radious.pro, and a self-described chronic entrepreneur who is passionate about the future of work. Amina was a lightning speaker at our April 2022 Happy Hour focused on equity in the workplace.
Speaker Category: Panelist
Honorable Mentions: Salome Chimuku, DeAngelo Crane
Awardee: Shaughnessy Speirs
Shaughnessy is a Senior Product Manager at Webex. She was a panelist on PDXWIT’s Career Growth in Product Management.
Speaker Category: Moderator
Awardee: Zhou Fang
Zhou is the founder & EDI practitioner of Intersectional Group LLC, as well as co-founder of PDXWIT’s AAPI in Tech affinity group. During Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month, Zhou moderated the panel AAPI in Tech: Leadership through Collaboration.
Speaker Category: Facilitator
Awardee: Erin Grace
Erin is a senior technical writer who founded PDXWIT’s Native Americans in Tech affinity group as a way to help Indigenous tech professionals to foster relationships. In April 2022, she facilitated the Native Americans in Tech mixer.
PDXWIT Community Changemaker Award
Just a reminder that our work is not going anywhere.
Formerly known as the “Best Contributor Award,” this award is given to someone who was selected by the PDXWIT members at large. The awardee had $500 donated in their name to an organization of their choice.
Honorable mentions: Crystal Sincoff, Florence Z. Mao, Zhou Fang, Judy Katz, Kelsey Miller, Cai Avila, Ashley Martinez
Awardee: Lindsey T.H. Jackson
Lindsey is a self-described empowered Black mother, storyteller, social scientist, DEI facilitator, and Lead Executive Officer of LTHJ Global. Her Unlearning Series puts you in conversation with a community of leaders dedicated to authenticity and breaking through barriers. She’s covered topics from white complicity and ableism, to cancel culture and fear of conflict.
Lindsey accepted the award on behalf of “DEI leaders, changemakers, activists here tonight and the world over.”
She also took a moment to acknowledge the state of the tech industry, “I’d love to take this moment just to remind all of us that despite what the news might be threatening us with, the idea that our work is somehow going to disappear as the threat of economic downturn looms over the horizon...Just a reminder that our work is not going anywhere.”
Cheers to another year of changemaking in the tech community
Thank you to those of you who took the time to recognize the accomplishments of others in our community! As we at PDXWIT advances our mission to create access, dismantle inequities, and fuel belonging in tech, we’ll continue to draw inspiration from all of these phenomenal awardees.
Be part of our awards process for 2023! By attending PDXWIT events and filling out our after-event surveys, you’ll have a chance to nominate speakers all year long. And by subscribing to our newsletter, you’ll be alerted when it’s time to submit your nomination for the 2023 Community Changemaker Award.