Udacity To Host Premier Virtual Conference Empowering Women To Succeed In STEM

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Udacity, the online learning and talent transformation platform powering the careers of the future, today announced that its STEM Forward with Women virtual conference will take place on September 23, 2021 from 9:00 am - 12:30 pm PT. Kimberly Bryant, CEO and Founder, Black Girls CODE will deliver the opening keynote on how the pandemic upended the working woman's career path, and Ellen Pao, investor and former CEO of Reddit, and CEO and Founder of Project Include, will close the event addressing how companies can help women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) industries reach success in their careers.

Despite global discussion and actions taken to address gender inequality in STEM, women are still underrepresented, underpaid and often discriminated against in these fields. STEM Forward with Women aims to equip and empower women with the opportunity to learn in-demand tech skills and provide a platform to connect with female leaders in the industry.

"Changing the face of technology, especially during unprecedented times, is no easy task. STEM Forward with Women is the pep-talk all women need to take the leap forward and pursue a career that they deserve in the field of technology and computer science," stated Kimberly Bryant, CEO and Founder, Black Girls CODE.

Moderated by Kari Paul, Reporter, The Guardian and Robin Hauser, Filmmaker, "Code: Debugging the Gender Gap," the STEM Forward with Women conference features a phenomenal lineup of speakers, including thought leaders and trailblazers from the United States Air Force, PTC, and the National Center for Women & Information Technology, that will offer their unique, unfiltered insights about the challenges and opportunities facing women in STEM and the industries they work in. Business leaders and consumers alike will walk away from this conference with a deep understanding of how increasing representation in STEM fields is not the right thing to do, it's good for business.

"We are all well aware of the odds stacked against us as women in tech. Events like Udacity's STEM Forward with Women foster a strong, like-minded community that will positively impact our headway in the tech workforce," stated Ellen Pao, investor and former CEO of Reddit, and CEO and Founder, Project Include.

STEM Forward with Women will also showcase compelling and evocative stories of students in Udacity's Women in STEM Scholarship program who have successfully completed Nanodegree programs to advance in their careers. This program kicked off on April 1, 2021 with graduates completing their programs on August 31.

"We provided more than 400 scholarships to women across 30 of our enterprise customers through Udacity's Women in STEM scholarship program. Almost half of the women have already graduated with highly sought after tech skills in business analytics, programming, data science, and artificial intelligence. We are honored to be able to increase opportunities for women in technology," said Jennifer Dearman, Udacity's Senior Vice President, Global Customer Success and Operations.

More than 15,000 people have already registered to attend STEM Forward with Women and 50 attendees will be selected to receive a free Udacity Nanodegree program of their choice and the opportunity to give away free programs to 5 additional women of their choosing.

For more information or to register for STEM Forward with Women for free, visit: https://www.udacity.com/women-in-stem 

About Udacity
Udacity is a global, online training platform powering digital transformation and accelerated time-to-market initiatives for Fortune 500 and Global 2000 enterprises. Udacity programs provide industry-created practitioner skills through a series of "Nanodegree" programs consisting of online courses and real-world projects in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, autonomous systems, and cloud computing, among other disciplines. Udacity collaborates with expert instructors and over 200 global industry partners including AT&T, Google, Facebook, Mercedes-Benz, and NVIDIA to power technical education. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., the private company has operations in the United Kingdom, Egypt, Germany, India, and the United Arab Emirates. Udacity has raised $163 million in funding to date from investors including Bertelsmann, Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures, and Drive Capital. For more information, please visit www.udacity.com.

SOURCE Udacity