Corey Leigh Latislaw: co-founder of Android Alliance and advocate for women in technology

As Corey Leigh Latislaw sat at a table in a small coffee shop near Rittenhouse Square surrounded by her laptop, phone and tablet, it was evident that technology plays a huge part in her everyday life.
Latislaw is not only a Mobile Software Engineer for Comcast Interactive Media, but is also the co-founder of Android Alliance, a meetup geared toward getting local Android developers to gather together and share ideas.
“[I] realized the need for a meetup in the area,” said Latislaw, a Tallahassee, Fla. native who moved to Philadelphia with her husband after working for Cisco Systems in Knoxville, Tenn. for two and a half years. “This emerging market didn’t really have anywhere for people to collaborate, to share, to make new apps together.”

Android Alliance started in March as a casual meetup to “drink and hang out,” Latislaw said. From there, the group started meeting once a month in the Comcast Center to talk about technology topics, and continues to do so.
“It’s completely crowdsourced, so whoever in the organization says ‘I want to talk about this’ then we let them talk about that,” Latislaw said.
Latislaw will be speaking with her team about a private app they are working on at this month’s meeting tonight at 6 p.m. on the 45th floor of the Comcast Building. Latislaw plans to put together a workshop this spring to help people learn about the Android platform, and hopes to hold a few follow-up workshops, advancing the participants’ knowledge of Android programming.
Aside from her work with Android Alliance, Latislaw has also been making efforts to aid in helping the involvement of women in technology grow.
“I’m not officially part of girl development programs, but I go and volunteer at these events and help out where I can,” Latislaw said.
As a member of the 2011 Board for Women in Cable Telecommunication, Latislaw knows the importance of the female presence in technology. While Latislaw said being one of the only women in the field can be stressful, it is nice to work closely with other women.
“I think [women] should be considering it as a career. It really enables you to be independent and work on the coolest cutting edge technologies,” Latislaw said.
Although Latislaw said the number of women working in the field of technology has fluctuated greatly over the past 30 years, she believes there is hope for the future of the industry.
“I’m hoping that with the increased focus on it and cool things people are doing in the community and reaching out to youth, we’ll be able to bring that number back up again,” Latislaw said.