GIRL
GEEKS
ARE
GREAT!
We want to raise the profile of women in technology and encourage more of you to speak, teach and be visible to the women on their way up. We need more role models and yes – you are one!
We invite you to become a member of Girl Geek Academy so we can say: “Here’s what Girl Geeks look like and here is what they do”.
For $99 we will give you first access to our events, which usually sell out in 24 hours, showcase your profile in the Girl Geek Academy member directory and invite you to try our online courses when we launch in 2017.
Help us reach 1000 women and let’s continue to create #SheHacks, #SheMakes and #SheMakes_Games and also help us launch new initiatives the Girl Geek way.
We have plenty more up our sleeve and we need your help to make it happen. If you’re up for helping us get to one million girl geeks become a member today!
MEET OUR MEMBERS
Katie Sonder
Currently studying UX design
Katie is a UX designer with a photography and graphic design background. She started my UX journey with General Assembly's User Experience Design immersive course in Melbourne. She loves interface design, interaction design, user testing, prototyping and user research. Her passion is finding problems and solving them in creative ways. Katie enjoys the experience of collaboration - bouncing ideas off one another to create something completely unique. She is still learning but thoroughly enjoy front-end web development, meaning she is able to take an idea through the end to end UX process, include visual design aesthetics, and then create a fully functioning website or prototype with html, css and basic javascript. She is also interested in design for accessibility and cognitive psychology.
Rohan Squirchuk
Principal Lawyer & Change Agent
Rohan is a Principal Lawyer & Change Agent at Rohan Squirchuk & Associates Pty Ltd. She is a specialist in employment practices with a focus on respect and reciprocity delivering the best outcomes for businesses and individuals. Experienced legal member of NSW Mental Health Review Tribunal with a focus on resilience, recovery and growth. Rohan is a Thought Leader Mentor with expertise and passion in diversity. Having her in any meeting holds people to account. Her steadfast focus on what is really going on is exceptional. She stands for diversity, respect and the inherent goodness in all.
Nicole Stark
Director
Nicole Stark is the proud owner of the inaugural ANZ Women in Games Award for Creative Inspiration. She's held senior positions on a variety of shipped game titles with project sizes ranging from triple A console to indie mobile. She's had her surfing animations praised by an Australian champion surfer and her Barbie costume designs praised by Mattel. In 2012, Nicole formed Disparity Games with her husband and four daughters. Based in the heart of paradise, Noosa, they make serious games with silly names.
Lara Stephenson
Design Emissary
I like working with computers, making people online homes. Websites that make you happy when you think about them. Ones you can create with & love seeing your own words and pictures on. Places you are excited to share with your Gran & your crush, cause they’re so you. I like problem solving & doing technical things cleverly. Finding shortcuts & hacks to get technology to work better, quicker, easier or cheaper. Outsmarting computer programs & conventions is one of my valued hobbies. Using adblocker to customise content on sites I visit is immensely satisfying (goodbye forever, pop-ups). I like to help people be themselves and gather technology around them to make a cosy nest in the uncharted wilds of the internet. Right now I help creative people with Websites and Branding & Identity.
Jennifer Strover
Organiser of Information and Maker of Things
I'm a qualified Library Technician, and an amateur Maker at Connected Community Hackerspace. I love making, growing, learning about and tinkering with things, working across a diverse range of fields from the traditionally feminine (crafts, cooking, gardening) to the traditionally masculine (DIY electronics, CNC, metal fabrication and machining). I'm especially interested in the intersection of these skill sets, through disciplines such as wearable tech, and the surprisingly delicate technique of TIG welding. I believe that lifelong learning and acquiring new skills can be incredibly empowering, promoting self-confidence and self-sufficiency, and a greater understanding of the world around us and how it works.
Hannah Suarez
Technology Manager
After graduating from a Masters in Information Technology in Australia, I moved overseas to see where a relocation would take me. I am currently a Technology Manager for an open source software company in North America covering customer success in providing technical support for hardware and software issues as well as handling QA and testing support for the development and engineering teams. In 2015, I dabbled in learning more about finance by obtaining the Claritas Investment Certificate and studying for the CFA Level 1 exam. It led me to an interesting experience working as a contract Analyst for a private banking and wealth management market research firm based in Switzerland and focusing on digital/technology trends within this field. Previously, I focused on digital marketing. While based in London, I worked for a prestigious medical education and membership association and global health charity campaigning for women's health. In my home country of Australia, I was the digital marketing lead for a major events and festivals company and the founder of a creative industries startup. Outside of work, I am absolutely passionate about living and working globally. One of my major goals in life is the ability to live and work across the following regions of the world - Asia, Australia, North America, and Europe.
Justine Szalay
Social Media Strategist
Justine is a Social Media Strategist at The Coca-Cola Company. She has a keen interest in digital innovation and technology that encourages her to apply a new way of thinking to her every day work. As an experienced Social Media Strategist, she aspires to develop and create socially integrated campaigns to connect brands with their relevant communities. She describes herself as a digi-geek and culture freak.
Christie Tamas
Founder
A girl with a 3D printer can only produce something awesome and that's exactly what Christie is doing. She describes herself as a technophile, a commercial accountant, a mum, an entrepreneur and a passionate snowboarder. Aesthetic is her middle name and all her works are a work of art indeed. She is always developing some new ways and constantly moving the boundaries in her area of work due to her creativity and imagination.
Meagan Tan
Coordinator (but I see myself as a Cyborg Catwoman :))
Since 2015, Meagan Tan has been self-educating herself on HTML, CSS, and web design. In June 2016, Meagan began learning Ruby on Rails. In March, Meagan became Coordinator for the digital agency, Clever Starfish. In addition to her work with Clever Starfish, Meagan is also a member of the organising team for MixinConf, an inclusive web design and web development conference scheduled for October 2016, as well as an organising member for Perth Web Girls events. In her free time, Meagan enjoys attending yoga and dancehall class, and is an active member in her local dance community.
Kinjal Tanna
Service Delivery Manager
Kinjal is a Service Delivery Manager at Rackspace. During her work there she has shown great experience and was honored in 2015 Finalist for Fanatic of the Quarter. Not only she is great in her area of work but Kinjal has a lot of great qualities such as knowledge of foreign languages. You can easily speak with her in Gujarati, Japanese, Mandarin and German.
Indi Tansey
Community Development Manager
I’m the trigger in a pistol and the first one to jump off the cliff. This kamikaze creative urge has led to a life of incredible experiences and helped me build global tribes of amazing humans around projects I care about. I'm passionate about building and nurturing sustainable communities. I don’t differentiate between online and offline, the same principles apply. It’s all about nailing a shared vision that everyone can rally behind. Right now I’m building a creative entrepreneur ecosystem in Brisbane. In my past life, I worked with advertising heavyweights Ogilvy, Publicis and BBDO as an art director, copywriter and brand strategist. I created award winning work for a roster of clients from Guinness and Hyundai, to 7up and Qantas. On a mission to travel and share, in 2011 I quit my life and invented the first ‘choose your own adventure’ travel blog indianajune.com and my community of 20,000 supporters voted where I went around the world on a bicycle. In Buenos Aires I fell in love with the entrepreneurial lifestyle and co-founded OutTrippin, a community of travel experts who compete to design your vacation. Investment opportunities moved our team from Argentina to Chile then Melbourne where I graduated from the Angelcube accelerator and developed a healthy addiction to coworking. My lean startup and #failfast approach to marketing has earned me consulting, community building and mentoring opportunities with startups and established businesses alike. I get a buzz out of helping brands define their unique personality and then advising them how to share it with the world.In a virtual world, coworking connects me to the communities I build; from running Startup Weekends, to building instagram hashtag followings, I grow audiences relevant to the stories I tell.
Karen Teixeira
Gamedev
Hi, I'm Karen 🙂 Brazilian gone Nomad, I make games, toys and playful art.
Ali Terkelsen
Peopleware Engineer
Peopleware Engineer @ Prospress PhD Behavioural Economics WooCommerce Vancouver Meetup Organiser Gets fired up about making good things happen Tinkers with WordPress websites in 'downtime' A little bit fascinated by container ships
Rebecca Thexton
Community Manager
Bec Thexton is a community manager , food blogger, social media nerd and broccoli loyalist.