WITI Hall of Fame
Join Us for the 2011 WITI Hall of Fame Dinner and Awards Ceremony!
Key leaders in science and technology will be honored at the 16th Annual WITI Hall of Fame Awards Dinner on Monday, October 3, 2011 in conjunction with WITI's Annual Summit.
The WITI Hall of Fame was established in 1996 by WITI to recognize, honor, and promote the outstanding contributions women make to the scientific and technological communities that improve and evolve our society. Click Here for Bios and Videos of Previous Inductees!
2011 WITI Hall of Fame Inductees
Alicia Abella, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Innovative Services Research, AT&T LabsDr. Alicia Abella is Executive Director of the Innovative Services Research Department at AT&T Labs Research, where she manages a group of multi-disciplinary technical staff specializing in data mining, user interfaces, IPTV, mobile services, and SIP/VoIP technology, and also chairs the AT&T Labs Fellowship program. As well, Dr. Abella is Executive Vice President for the Young Science Achievers Program, where she encourages high school-aged women and minority students to pursue careers in science and engineering. Dr. Abella has been recognized as one of the Top Five Women of the Year by Hispanic Business Magazine and was the recipient of the Pioneer Award from the Women of Color STEM Conference and the Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association Leadership of the Year Award. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute also recognized her for her contributions in the area of green technology. Dr. Abella holds a B.S. degree from New York University, and an M.S., M.Phil, and Ph.D. from Columbia University. In May 2011, she was appointed by Barack Obama to the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.
Evelyn Berezin
Management Consultant, Brookhaven Science AssociatesEvelyn Berezin founded the first word-processor company, Redactron Corporation, in 1969. She has been an independent director and management consultant to technology-based companies since 1988, following a 35-year career in computer design and development. She was President of Greenhouse Management Company, the General Partner of a group of venture capital funds totaling $20 million and dedicated to early stage, high technology companies. She began her career as a logic designer, and holds a number of patents in the field of computer hardware design. Ms. Berezin received a B.A. and did graduate work at New York University in physics and held an Atomic Energy Commission Fellowship. She has received honorary doctorates from Adelphi University and Eastern Michigan University, and has served on the Boards of CIGNA, Standard MEMS, Koppers, and Datapoint. Ms. Berezin currently works as a management consultant for Brookhaven Science Associates, which manages and operates the Brookhaven National Laboratory. She serves on the board of directors of Sion Power and the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research. She is a recipient of the Long Island Distinguished Leadership Award and has been featured in BusinessWeek's list of Top 100 Business Women in the United States.
Diane Pozefsky, Ph.D.
Research Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of North CarolinaIn the 25 years Diane Pozefsky was with IBM, her work on networking architectures and development earned eight formal Achievement Awards; she was named both an IBM Fellow and an IBM Master Inventor, and was elected to the IBM Academy of Technology. Dr. Pozefsky's early work, driven by the introduction of personal computers and enhanced capabilities allowing the addition and movement of data, transformed networking technology to allow networks to change and adapt more easily. These efforts enabled SNA networks to grow with customer needs and provide immediate connectivity when new users and machines were added. In the early '90s, as corporations moved toward TCP/IP networks, Dr. Pozefsky's team developed the barrier-breaking AnyNet technology: programs designed for one type of network could work on the other and users could build networks that employed either or both technologies. In the late '90s, Dr. Pozefsky further applied her knowledge to a real-world environment, and was responsible for the network design for the 1998 Olympics. She also worked in mobile computing, storage networking, and with Lotus before returning to her alma mater as a visiting research professor in the Computer Science Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; her teaching and research interests include software engineering, user interfaces, the use of technology in entrepreneurships, and the social impacts of technology. Dr. Pozefsky is heavily involved in the IBM Academy of Technology, an organization comprised of technical leaders in IBM. She actively promotes National Engineers Week and Women in Technology conferences for the corporation and in North Carolina.
Sophie Vandebroek, Ph.D.
Chief Technology Officer and President, Xerox Innovation Group, Xerox CorporationSophie Vandebroek has been Xerox's Chief Technology Officer and the President of the Xerox Innovation Group since January 2006. She is responsible for overseeing Xerox's research centers in Europe, Asia, Canada and US as well as the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC Inc.). Previously, Dr. Vandebroek was Chief Engineer of Xerox Corporation and Vice President of the Xerox Engineering Center, technical advisor to Xerox's chief operating officer and Director of the Xerox Research Centre of Canada. A Fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, a Fulbright Fellow, and a Fellow of the Belgian-American Educational Foundation, Dr. Vandebroek holds 12 US patents. She has received awards from Xerox, IBM, HP, Monsanto, the Belgium National Science Foundation, Semiconductor Research Corporation, IEEE, and Cornell University. Dr. Vandebroek is a member of the Board of Directors of Analogic Corporation, of Nypro Corporation, and is a member of The US National Academies Committee on Science, Technology & Law. She is a trustee of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and also serves on the advisory council of the deans of Engineering at Cornell University and at MIT. Born in Leuven, Belgium, Dr. Vandebroek earned a master's degree in electro-mechanical engineering from Katholieke Universiteit, and her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University. She and her husband enjoy spending time with their six teenage children.
Lynda Weinman
Co-Founder and Executive Chair, lynda.comLynda Weinman is co-founder and executive chair of lynda.com, one of the pioneering companies in online education. Through a comprehensive library of high quality, instructional videos taught by recognized industry experts, lynda.com teaches technology and design skills to over one million individual, corporate, academic and government subscribers. Lynda is a self-taught computer expert, author, educator, and entrepreneur. A Web graphics and design veteran and author of dozens of best-selling books, Lynda wrote the very first industry book on Web design, Designing Web Graphics, in 1995. Before launching lynda.com, she was a faculty member at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and worked as an animator and motion graphics director in the film special effects industry. Lynda has also been a consultant for Adobe, Macromedia, and Microsoft, and has conducted workshops at those organizations in addition to Disney. She, along with her husband and co-founder Bruce Heavin, evolved lynda.com from its original conception as a free web resource for her students, to the site for her books on Web design, to the registration hub for physical classrooms and conferences, to a highly successful online training library. Considered one of the top leaders in the field of online education and paid subscription services, Lynda Weinman is a long-time champion of standing strong and visible as a successful woman to show others that creating your own path is not only possible, but achievable.
