A Jefa move to celebrate! Latina-led Fintech companies merge to help close the wealth gap. Today is an excellent day for Latinas in Tech and the broader Latina community. It has just been announced that SUMA Wealth, the category-creating financial technology company devoted to increasing prosperity, opportunity, and financial inclusion for young U.S. Latinos, has completed the acquisition of savings and personal finance platform, Reel. As part of the merger, Reel Co-Founder and CEO Daniela Corrente will become a part of SUMA’s executive suite as Chief of Strategy and Business Development. Dani ..read more

2022 was our busiest year with a total of 85 hosted events (61 virtual and 24 in-person and 2 in the metaverse). So many were filled with so many collaborations and topics that are of interest and need to our community. Keeping it short, these are the top 5 highest attended Latinas in Tech webinars from last year for you to catch it in case you missed it. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace In collaboration with Accenture and Sacramento Chapter Part of the “Brown Bag” education sessions, Accenture and the Sacramento Chapter assembled a panel of executive Latina leaders with diver ..read more

Last year still seems unreal, so much happened within our organization but if we had to choose one word to summarize our 2022 it would be GROWTH! As a Latina owned nonprofit, to see how much we have accomplished fills our heart, but to see how much our organization is needed still breaks my heart a little. I am for a world where Latinas in Tech nonprofit is no longer needed because that means that Latinas and women of color have equal opportunity and pay, seats at the table and are given the opportunity to innovate and lead. There is still so much to do to see this kind of change but we’re not ..read more

The last few months have been notable for massive U.S tech layoffs. Last year, more than 90,000 jobs were slashed from public and private tech companies, and in early 2023 already more than 16,000 workers at U.S.-based tech companies have been laid off, according to Crunchbase News. My LinkedIn feed has seen a lot of mention about the current layoffs – mostly from people engaging with the posts of those affected. This has triggered my memories, feelings, and trauma of the day that I got laid-off in 2015 for the first time in my career and from a company that I loved and considered to be “my dr ..read more

We had the opportunity to meet with Yesenia Rivera, Employee Experience Program Manager at SoFi, and she shared with us her career journey, what excites her about her role, and how the challenges she faced led her to her TRUE SELF. Could you tell us about your current role, and what you do at SoFi? I am an Employee Experience Program Manager here at SoFi. I help champion our diversity, equity, and inclusionary strategic work. This aligns with my passion to ensure that not only does everyone have a seat at the table, but a voice so that all can be able to bring their authentic and whole selves ..read more

Latina Equal Pay Day is Latina Equal Pay day of action. It is a moving date. This is not really a day for celebration, it is a day of awareness and to take action. Typically the date changes annually because it is determined by how much money a full-time, Latina worker was paid, on average, in the prior calendar year. In other words, the day would be observed on the date a Latina catches up to the wages made by a white, non-Hispanic man the year before.” Last year, in 2021, Latina Equal Pay Day was October 21. This 2022 it was December 8th. That is a regression, this means it took us, Latinas ..read more

Latinas in Tech is dedicated to bringing together the largest network of Latina women in the tech sector. Find your local chapter today!  If you’ve run a business for longer than a week, you know how many tasks are required to keep operations running smoothly. Managing inventory, maintaining a social media presence, and fielding phone calls are a few of the many tasks required in a typical day at the office. As essential as these responsibilities are to keeping a well-oiled machine, they can consume your time and distract you from doing what you do best: moving the big picture vision of y ..read more

1. Tell us about yourself. How did you get to where you are today?   ? Manuela:  I’ve always been fascinated with combining engineering with art because my dad is an engineer and my mom is an artist. My dad had encouraged me to start coding at a young age, and once I got to college, I naturally went into studying computer science. It wasn’t until my junior year that I took my first design course and thought, “Wow! This is an entire aspect of building that I had been missing” -- and I absolutely loved it. Within engineering, I started gearing more towards iOS. I really liked building ..read more

@Pamela T. Lujan is a Director and Corporate Legal Counsel at Oportun and our very own Board Member & Secretary at Latinas in Tech. Recently she was named as a “Top 40 Under 40" honoree by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. At Oportun, Pamela has been a true leader and an integral part of some of the company’s most important milestones, such as its successful IPO and its application for a national bank charter. Pamela has also demonstrated a solid commitment to creating a diverse workforce and is the Co-Chair of Oportun’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Council as well ..read more

Gina Bendel, a Dev Ops Software Engineering, Manager has been an associate at The Home Depot for three years. Gina specializes in Development Operations for The Home Depot – (Home Services organization) and is responsible for Production Support and SRE teams. She has 20 years of experience in Technology including working for several Fortune 500 companies like AMD and General Motors. Today, Gina resides in Austin, TX, and is a proud mother of three children. 1. Tell us about yourself. How did you get to where you are today? In college, I worked as a receptionist for an IT Consulting firm. Whene ..read more