Karen Worstell
Karen Worstell was shocked when she read the AAUW report showing that since the year she got her master’s in computer science, 1988, the percentage of women in computing occupations has dropped from a high of 35% of the workforce to a low of 23%. Karen’s career took her from a mom of toddlers to grad student to Silicon Valley CEO and to Microsoft CISO in the span of 20 years. Since leaving Microsoft, Karen consults on security and privacy, has authored several books including an Amazon best seller, and continues to speak on best practices. It was Karen’s love of computing, and appreciation for what a computing career did for her and her family that led Karen to study the question, “why are women leaving computing?” The answers she is hearing are not what you’d expect. Karen loves to share them and to hear the experiences and thoughts of others. Karen hopes to change this disturbing trend in her lifetime. Karen encourages all, “Let’s talk about it and figure out how.”
