DCFemTech honors 52 ‘Powerful’ women in programming and design

DCFemTech, the coalition group of women-in-tech organizations, announced the winners of their second annual “Powerful Women Programmers” and “Powerful Women Designers” awards on Wednesday. The awards were expanded to include a design category this year because of “overwhelming response” last year.
After calling for submissions back in February, the organization received 190 total suggestions. With the help of a committee of female engineers, designers and executives, DCFemTech narrowed the list down to 52 — 26 powerful programmers and 26 powerful designers.
The criteria for picking winners aligned with last year’s — Submissions were judged based on their impact on the organization they work for, the complexity of the issue they addressed with code or design and their “impact on the community,” or contributions to the greater women in tech space. If you were at last year’s celebration, you’ll probably recognize a few names.
Without further delay here’s who’s being honored in 2016:
Powerful Women Programmers:

• Alexandra Ulsh, information security, platform and DevOps at Mapbox
• Alison Rowland, back-end developer at Commerce Data Service
• Aliya Rahman, self employed
• Allison McMillan, engineer at General Assembly
• Ally Palanzi, front-end engineer at Vox Media
• Amanda Hewitt, front-end developer at 540.co
• Annie J Wang, director of analytics at the Analyst Institute
• Annyce Davis, andriod developer at Off Grid Electric
• Ashley Holtz, sevice tech ops at CrowdStrike
• Carol Hansen, developer at Mapbox
• Clare Politano Hutchings, software engineer at Social Tables
• Gem Barrett, open web fellow at Open Technology Institute
• Jacqueline Kazil, technical fellow at Capital One
• Jessica Bell, developer at RepEquity
• Jessica Dommes, iOS developer at WeddingWire
• Jessica Ng, software engineer at AOL.
• Kat Kuhl, director of technology at CHIEF
• Katie Cunningham, director of technology at SpeakAgent
• Veni Kunche, software engineer at Blasterra and US Geological Survey
• Lindsay Young, developer at 18F
• Lisa Chung, software developer at The Motley Fool
• Lizzie Ellis, data manager for direct marketing at the Democratic National Committee
• Pamela Vong, “tech wizard” at InfernoRed Technology
• Rakia Finley, cheif strategy officer at Surge Assembly and FIN. Digital
• Tammy Perrin, software engineer at Attunity
• Vera Lyalko, developer at JBS International, Inc.

Powerful Women Designers:

• Acacia Betancourt, senior graphic designer at GlobalGiving
• Alesha Randolph, senior designer at Vox Media
• Alexis Dominick, creative director at CircleBack
• Ashleigh Axios, creative director at The White House
• Ashleigh Liggett, senior designer at Siteworx
• Behnaz Babazadeh, creative director at AddThis
• Brooke Jordan, product UI designer at Aquicore
• Crystal C. Yan, product designer and UX researcher at FiscalNote
• Daniela Montalvo Shuffler, UX design lead at WeddingWire
• Elisabeth Warren, UX and design at Clearly Innovative
• Georgia Cowley, design director at Vox Media
• JoAnna Hunt, accessibility manager at Blackboard
• Kara DeFrias, senior advisor at 18F
• Karelia Jo Moore, experience lead at Huge
• Libby Bawcombe, senior visual product designer at NPR
• Maggie Gaudaen, art director at iStrategyLabs
• Mariesa Dale, senior product designer at Pivotal Labs
• Melanie Charlton, cofounder and creative director at Brilliant
• Mollie Bates, designer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Mollie Ruskin, designer and founding member at U.S. Digital Services
• Ngan Hoang, front-end designer at Vox Media
• Olivia Cheng, creative technologist at iStrategyLabs
• Radhika Bhatt, graphic designer at the Department of Commerce
• Ramla Mahmood, senior product designer at Vox Media
• Sarah Brooks, director, insight and design at Veterans Affairs
• Sibyl Edwards, freelance digital art director

An awards reception will be held April 13 at Social Tables HQ downtown — an evening of appetizers and drinks will feature an address by the new District CTO, Archana Vemulapalli.
“I am proud to take part in the recognition of this impressive group of women who are making a difference within their organizations and making their mark on the city’s rapidly growing technology footprint,” Vemulapalli said in a statement.
Go join in to celebrate D.C.’s women-in-tech community.