Women Who Code Launches in Huntsville, Alabama
Written by WWCode HQ
Global Non-Profit's Newest Network to Provide Community With Training Events, Hack Nights, Coding Workshops and Leadership Opportunities
SAN FRANCISCO – December 12th, 2016 — Women Who Code (WWCode), an international 501c3 that works to support engineers in their professional goals, announces the launch of their latest local Network in Huntsville, Alabama. Led by Directors Erin Spiceland and Charlotte Ellett, this group will work to support engineers in and around the city by hosting educational and professional events designed to help them achieve their career goals.
Erin spoke about the importance of bringing Women Who Code to her home city saying, “Huntsville has been at the heart of the tech industry since World War II, and women have always been either uncredited or underrepresented in technology here. Huntsville's growing private sector and startup tech scene presents a great opportunity for the presence of women in the industry to increase very quickly. Women Who Code will allow us to work together to promote each other and ensure that Huntsville's tech industry moves away from the NASA monoculture that has been prominent in the past.”
The inaugural event for Women Who Code Huntsville was a Hack Night that took place on December 12th at the offices of local tech company Sharp Auction Engine. It included lively discussions on Python's terrible use in event-driven applications, JavaScript's callback hell, WordPress, and the job scene in Huntsville. Members also debugged a Django app and deployed a docker container to AWS EC2.
Women Who Code Global Leadership Director Joey Rosenberg expressed her enthusiasm for the launch, “We couldn’t be happier to have Erin and Charlotte on as Directors of WWCode Huntsville. I feel confident that they will develop a strong leadership team of talented engineers and a Network that can do a lot of good. I’m looking forward to working with them.”
Women Who Code Huntsville is currently made up of 110 members with 96% of them women and 4% being men. This includes a diverse mix of professional engineers, as well as students and non-career coders. They have a very active online presence, and the Network is planning their next series of events, with a Beginners JavaScript class already in the works.
Alaina Percival, the CEO and Board Chair of Women Who Code, “The launch of the Huntsville Network is a chance for us to have a direct impact on the city and its economy by empowering a diverse spectrum of tech talent to meet and exceed their goals. When innovators across the board are succeeding, everyone does better.”
About Women Who Code
Women Who Code (WWCode) is an international nonprofit dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers. WWCode is building a world where women are proportionally representative as technical leaders, executives, founders, VCs, board members and software engineers. The organization has executed more than 4,200 free events around the world, garnered a membership exceeding 80,000, and has a presence in 20 countries. Help empower even more women to advance in tech with the training and community they need to succeed by supporting WWCode WWCode. Learn more at womenwhocode.com.