STEM'ing the Underrepresentation of Women and BIPOC in IT Departments

Ana is the Senior Specialist on the Inclusion, Diversity & Belonging Team at Relativity.

Joan Holman, the Chief Information Officer at Clark Hill PLC, has been in the legal industry since 2013. Joan is responsible for all strategic and operational aspects of Information Technology and the Legal Library for the firm. Clark Hill is a multidisciplinary international law firm with over 650 attorneys.

Prior to her time in the legal industry, Joan spent over 2 years at Sigma-Aldrich, a leading global life sciences company, as the Senior Director of Portfolio Management, Customer Service and eBusiness. Joan has over 20 years of experience leading Information Technology, Strategy, Development and Operations for several public and private companies in the Legal, Environmental Services, and Telecommunications and Financial Services industries.

Outside of the workplace, Joan spends her time promoting STEM initiatives and giving back to her industry and community through her efforts as a member of the national Board for the Society of Information Management and SIM DFW Chapter Board. Joan is a founding member of Dallas CIO and an Executive Host for the DFW Technology Ball. She is active involvement in the Dallas Executive Women’s Roundtable and previously served in a number of leadership roles in the Dallas chapter of the Association of Women Executives.

Joan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Texas at Dallas. In August 2016, Joan was recognized by the Dallas Business Journal as one of its 2016 “Women in Technology.” for her contributions to the technology community both professionally and philanthropically. Joan was also a finalist for the 2017 CIO of the year for DallasCIO. Joan has been named as one of the Girstart's 2017 Gamechanger Women in STEM honorees.

Charles’ experience in technology and operations ranges from having assisted hundreds of customers across multiple industries in their migration to the cloud while working for a large enterprise software company to building strategic plans as chief operating officer for the New York State Economic Development Corporation.

Charles also has broad-based experience working on regulatory matters in US federal, state, and local government, including having previously served as a senior advisor for the White House Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force and counselor in the Office of the Administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Charles previously worked as an associate in the litigation practice of a national law firm. He co-authored two amicus briefs for voting rights cases involving strict voter ID laws, in association with the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, and maintained an active pro bono practice.

Dennis Garcia is an Assistant General Counsel for Microsoft Corporation based in Chicago. He practices at the intersection of law and technology and provides a wide range of legal support to Microsoft’s Sales, Marketing and Operations teams across the United States.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Dennis worked as an in-house counsel for Accenture and IBM.

Dennis received his B.A. in Political Science from Binghamton University and his J.D. from Columbia Law School. He is admitted to practice in New York, Connecticut and Illinois (House Counsel). Dennis is a Fellow of Information Privacy, a Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States and a Certified Information Privacy Technologist with the International Association of Privacy Professionals. He serves on the Board of Directors of Illinois Legal Aid Online, the Minority In-House Counsel Association and the Association of Corporate Counsel – Chicago Chapter. Dennis is also a member of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Future of Legal Services.