Episode 37 – Black ComputeHER: Chicken Soup for the Soul

Hosts: Dr. Jeremy Waisome & Dr. Kyla McMullen

Guest: Dr. Jamika Burge

Twitter:
.@jdburge
@blackcomputeher

Episode Description: Dr. Jamika Burge joins us for her second appearance on the Modern Figures Podcast. She talks about the origin of the BlackComputeHER conference and how it focuses on the intersection of identity while providing space for community. What began as a conference now includes a Fellows program, and the citeHER publication program. Dr. Burge shares how her organization became a thought leader in changing the conversation on Black women in tech.

Jamika’s Bio – Jamika D. Burge, PhD, is Co-Founder and President of blackcomputeHER.org, INC., a non-profit (501(c)3) an organization dedicated to supporting computational thinking, design thinking, and workforce development for Black women and girls in computing+tech. blackcomputeHER.org, INC has raised and invested over $1 million in funded to supporting Black women in computing+tech, and has partnered with prominent and influential organizations for maximum impact. Dr. Burge is an authority in research and programming that investigates the intersectionality of Black women and girls in computing, and she is also a tech founder (and principal) of Design & Technology Concepts, LLC, a tech consultancy that provides computer science education & research and inclusive design. Jamika is also an executive leader in industry, serving as Head of Enterprise Design Research at Capital One, where she leads a team of researchers who develop human insights, at scale, including for Eno, Capital One’s conversational AI. She is also the Founder of Capital One’s Intersectional Symposium, which centers intersectionality as fundamental to exploring the dimensions of how our lived experiences matter in the products and experiences we create for each other and customers, Dr. Burge serves on the advisory board for the Center for Minorities and People with DIsabilities in IT (CMD-IT) (since 2015), the Virginia Tech Alumni Advisory Board for the Computer Science Department (since 2017); the Friends of Technology Advisory Board (Advisors to the President), at Grambling State University (since 2019); and the Center for Inclusive Computing, at Northeastern University (since 2020). She is a graduate of Fisk University and holds a PhD in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. In addition to serving as a research and industry practitioner, she has also been a computer science professor at several HBCU’s, including Spelman College, North Carolina A&T State University, and Howard University. In 2020, she began serving on the National Academy of Science Committee on Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women of Color in Tech.