This month, Mozilla Learning and the Mozilla Science Lab joined community calls to explore current opportunities and supports for women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) around the world in celebration of Ada Lovelace Day. Lovelace lived in the mid-1800’s and was an English mathematician and writer, considered today to be the first computer programmer. A lot has changed since Ada’s time, but we continue her legacy as we rally and connect leaders who want to advance the promise of the Internet for learning in a networked world. Here is a snapshot of the leaders that we brought together to share their inspiring work:

• Kirstie Whitaker, Mozilla Science Lab 2016 Fellow, is the lead on the STEMM Role Models project. Currently, women and other underrepresented groups are less likely to be invited to speak at conferences. The goal of this project is to ensure that conference organisers are able to access a diverse and representative group of the most exciting researchers in their field from around the world.
• Zannah Marsh, Curriculum Strategist with the Mozilla Science Lab, hosted an Ada Lovelace Day curriculum design workshop with Libre Learn Lab. The goal of the workshop was to work collaboratively to quickly conceptualize and design engaging, varied, user-centered learning experiences for an inclusive audience of learners.
• Srushtika Neelakantam, Mozilla Club Captain in Bangalore, India, teaches the web to her community in Bangalore, India by focusing on web literacy, an open web, and digital equity to make the web a better place for all, but especially for women.
• Meghan Murphy, American Association for the Advanced of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellow at National Science Foundation, works to support national initiatives such as:
  • CSforAll, a collaborative project to ensure Computer Science education is available to all students across the U.S.
  • Smart Cities, an effort to improve U.S. city and community functioning and quality of life within through innovations in computing, engineering, information and physical sciences, social and learning sciences.
  • Cristol Kapp, School Librarian, provides students with access to resources for making, tinkering and experimenting while giving them the freedom to choose what they wish to explore. Specifically, she has founded I/O, a program to provide multi-handicap classes with access to these makerspace tools and resources.

Watch the recording of the call below to dive in deeper. What resources, inspiring leaders and inspiration would you add to the discussion? Do so on the call’s etherpad.

Continuing the conversation, the Mozilla Science Lab is kicking off the first session of its new book club! To kick off the open discussion, co-hosts @MozLearn and @MozillaScience will be using the book Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World as a jumping off point to encourage, motivate and discuss women in science and technology to make an impact on the digital world. Join the hour-long conversation by following #TTWchat on October 19 at 9am PT/12pm ET/4pm UTC.