ChickTech Austin Leaders

Nicole Engard

Director

Nicole C. Engard is a Content Strategist at Red Hat. She has been involved in open source communities for the last ten years and believes strongly in the power of community and openness. In addition to her daily responsibilities, Nicole volunteers as the documentation manager for the Koha ILS and as an author on opensource.com. Nicole is known for many different publications including her books on technology in libraries including “Practical Open Source Software for Libraries”.

Dana DeFebbo

Assistant Director

Dana is the Web Services Librarian at the Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas School of Law where she is responsible for managing all aspects of the the library’s website presence. She values excellent customer service, treating people with respect and getting the job done thoroughly and correctly.  Growing up, Dana was always interested in technology but had few female mentors to share this interest with.  She is excited to be involved with ChickTech because she loves helping young women realize their potential in the tech industry.

Manika Sharma

Co-Mentor Program Manager

Manika graduated from Missouri University of Science and Technology with a Bachelors of Science in Nuclear Engineering.  Currently, she is a Nuclear/Mechanical engineer for the Texas Commission on Environmental quality. Throughout her heavy technical career, her volunteer involvement has been with local high schools to encouraged young women to enter to the STEM fields. She loves to be involved with the community, especially one as amazing as Austin!  In her free time, she is checking out the best place for tacos, reading anything by Leo Tolstoy, or binge-watching Netflix originals.

Geeta Shukla

Co-Mentor Program Manager
Geeta has been working in management consulting for over 7 years, focused primarily on software implementations for companies in the healthcare, government, technology, and non-profit sectors. She has a personal passion for increasing access to resources for women and children in the areas of healthcare and education. In addition to working with ChickTech, Geeta serves on the board of a local non-profit called Circle of Health International whose focus is to provide safe healthcare options to moms and babies in rural or undeserved communities impacted by disaster.
She is currently focusing on complimenting her professional experience with courses in the areas of User Experience Design and Mobile App Development. In her spare time, Geeta can be found trotting around town with her two favorite pups and favorite human in tow, trying new food trucks, or spending hours at a time watching Game of Thrones or Parenthood.

Kathy Garin

Co-Fundraising/Development Manager
Kathy provides a consultative approach as a software sales professional for NetSuite (NYSE:N), helping companies leverage cloud-based platforms for their businesses. She utilizes her experience in SaaS sales to increase opportunities for women in tech and is committed to helping decrease the gender gap in the industry. In her spare time, she is a mentor for Big Brother Big Sister of Central Texas, and strives to be a role model for high-school girls who enjoy technology and want to build a successful career.
In addition to ChickTech, she spends her time as an active TableTop board game enthusiast, live-music fanatic, or preparing delicious home-cooked meals for her loved ones.

Ashley Estacion

Co-Fundraising/Development Manager

Ashley began her professional life as a dancer and choreographer in the Houston area for nine years. She has performed and choreographed for various competitive dance teams as well as the Houston Comets and Rockets. She then earned a degree in Interactive Media Design from the Art Institute of Houston and ran her own multimedia company for two years before joining the interactive agency, SixFoot, in 2008 as a UI engineer. Ashley moved to Austin in 2011 to join HomeAway and has since worked on various global payment functionalities and vacation property owner experiences as a Staff UI engineer. She’s now digging into Java to expand her knowledge and abilities for future opportunities.

Ana Acosta

High School Communication Manager

Ana has worked in the education sector for the past 14 years and is a fierce advocate of school choice. She firmly believes that ALL youth should have access to a high-quality, well-rounded education regardless of economic background, gender or race. Ana is committed to bringing educational opportunities to underserved youth and wants to make sure young girls have the opportunity to explore careers in Science and Technology. She is not what you would call a “technology expert” (there weren’t any organization like ChickTech when she was young) but wants to empower girls to fulfill their potential and make a positive impact in her community. When she is not too busy yelling at her computer, you might find her taking dance classes or drinking coffee in a local coffee shop.

Brandie Meister

Co-Volunteer Manager

Brandie works as a Team Lead at an IT company in Austin while also volunteering with local organizations. Much of the volunteer work is focused around youth and building opportunities for them to succeed past all obstacles. Brandie has volunteered abroad and is pursuing a career with worldwide Nonprofit organization. Outside of her busy schedule, Brandie enjoys finding new hang out spots in Austin. Hiking, shopping for old books, and traveling all fit into her fast paced lifestyle.

Julie Jarzemsky

Co-Volunteer Manager
Julie is a UI Software Engineer at HomeAway, working on improving the user experience and coding A/B tests for the search page.  She studied computer science at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she became involved with teaching kids computer science concepts and programming using Scratch.  Passionate about closing the gender gap in tech, Julie was eager to start working with ChickTech as soon as the Austin chapter opened, and helped organize their first event.  She also mentors people looking to enter the tech field and is exploring web design through personal projects.  Julie loves the Austin music scene and goes to shows regularly.  She also likes to travel, seeking out places to spend time outside and hike.

Stacy Hackenberg

Marketing Manager

Stacy Hackenberg is a Texas native who’s lived in the Austin area for 35 years. She received a Bachelors of Journalism from the University of Texas.. She was a Girl Scout leader for 13 years, seven of which she was the Service Unit Director managing adult leaders. After raising her daughters, she worked in marketing for over 5 years, first with IMS Research and then with IHS, now IHS-Markit. She earned a Masters in Communication, emphasis in Internet Marketing and New Media, from Southern New Hampshire University in 2016. She currently works as a freelance editor and social media marketer. 

Christina Sudderth

Co-Logistics Manager

Christina is the Presenter Relations and Logistics Senior Manager for Tales of the Cocktail, the premiere cocktail festival based in New Orleans. Christina moved to Austin in 2013 and works from home managing the logistics for seminars and presenters for each of the events held each year. In addition, she works on organizing and calculating the cocktail recipes and orders for all the events. Through her work she has become a self taught techie and worked with web designers, recipe developers and app builders on a variety of projects. She is excited to join the ChickTech Team and inspire women and girls to pursue careers in technology!

ChickTech Austin Board Members

Margaret Lewis

Margaret Lewis is a technology consultant with extensive experience developing leading-edge software and hardware products for innovative technology organizations. Her background includes Director of Software Planning at AMD, where she developed strategic software plans for AMD’s 64-bit server processors and managed relationships with key software partners. Prior to that she was an Associate Director at the Maui High Performance Computing Center, where she focused on developing and maintaining a user base for their Top500 computer. She also served as a Senior Software Program Manager for Novell, managing a broad range of software development tools for their operating environment. Margaret has a degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

 

Iffat Mushtaq

Iffat Mushtaq is a seasoned strategist with Big 4 firms and has more than 17 years of experience serving technology clients in the sales, customer, and marketing strategy space. She spent a few years at AMD leading their worldwide business management team and developed a further appreciation for the challenges women technologist encounter in the predominantly male industry. Iffat has also led a global strategy department at a boutique consulting where she had the opportunity to drive thought leadership and build brand eminence through speaking roles at conferences.

Iffat is a strong supporter of education and advancement for women. She has previously served on the Board of Directors of Girls Scout of Central Texas for two terms, and has co-led culture initiative in one of her corporate roles.

Iffat holds an MBA from University of Texas at Austin, and a second MBA from a Wharton affiliate university in Asia.

ChickTech is a registered 501(c)3.