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Women in Technology Honored at Harvard Education School Conference

The Harvard Graduate School of Education's Women in Technology (WIT) group will present two awards at its second annual conference, "Broadening the Bandwith," to be held on Wednesday, May 1, 1996, from 5:30 -8:30 p.m. at the Gutman Conference Center on Appian Way in Cambridge.

WIT will present the first "Woman of the Year Award" to Barbara O'Leary, founder of Virtual Sisterhood, a global network and website which facilitates women's activism. O'Leary created the site in 1995 to educate women about electronic information and to advance women's rights and social justice. Her site contains tools for activists such as a global directory of women's organizations and electronic communications, an on-line discussion group, and an electronic conference and mailing list.

WIT will also give its first "Lifetime Achievement Award" to Antonia Stone. Stone established the nation's first inner-city public access technology learning center, "Playing To Win" (PTW), in a Harlem storefront in 1980. A 1992 grant from the National Science Foundation allowed Stone to exapnd PTW into a national network of community-based technology centers with more than 30 locations. In 1988, Stone moved to Massachusetts and founded the Somerville Community Computing Center, where she continues to advocate for the technologically disenfranchised.

The WIT conference features a panel discussion with WHDH Meteorologist Mishelle Michaels and other HGSE graduates speaking on new directions, career options and life experiences in technology. Women students in the School's Technology, Innovation, and Education program will also demonstrate their projects.

The conference and the awards ceremony are free and open to the public.

For More Information

Contact Ariadne Valsamis at 617-495-0740