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Non-profit organizations that offer volunteers opportunities to serve on committees empower members to take ownership within the organization, fostering leadership and growth within the collective body. Building diversity and inclusion on a committee yields many key benefits for Women & Hi Tech including learning from diverse opinions, building sustainability through knowledge specialization and transfer, improving organizational efficiency through task division, and enhancing accountability.
In this ClickSide Chat, learn where members can get more involved to grow their confidence, skills, and professional network while also helping Women & Hi Tech expand its reach. Each of our committee chairs will give a brief presentation on their committee and current needs and goals.
Engaging in committee work allows the volunteer to gain a comprehensive understanding of the organization and the industries it serves, forge valuable business connections, and cultivate personal friendships. Moreover, participants acquire hands-on experience in various aspects of organizational management, thereby elevating brand awareness through active involvement. Additionally, committee involvement enables volunteers to address challenges and realize opportunities pertinent to them and their community, company, or industry.
Founded in 1999, Women & Hi Tech exists to change the landscape of women represented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) to be equally inclusive to all. To achieve our goal, we work to mentor, advance, recognize, and connect female STEM students and professionals with each other and our community in Indiana. Our members and sponsors represent a wide array of STEM fields, including life sciences, accounting, engineering, psychology, statistics, and information technology.
Women & Hi Tech is run by an all-volunteer, working Board of Directors and driven by the hard work and dedication of a small but mighty committee coalition of our 1500 members. We are passionate about our organization and the meaningful work we do and are always looking for like-minded individuals to join in the cause.
The event is FREE and exclusive to Women & Hi Tech members! Space is extremely limited, and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Once registration is filled, no wait list will be initiated. Registration for ClickSide Chat is required in order to provide you with the final login instructions.
Sahara Williams is an attorney focused on data privacy and cybersecurity law as well as general commercial transactions. Previously, she operated her own engineering and construction management firm for nine years and served as the executive director of a nonprofit equestrian learning center for youth for five years.
Sahara earned her J.D. from the IU McKinney School of Law. She graduated with a BS in Civil Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University and earned a MS in Civil Engineering from Purdue University. She is an alumnus of the Stanley K. Lacy Executive Leadership Series (Class XXXVII), the Richard G. Lugar Excellence in Public Service Series and the IBJ 2013 Forty Under 40 Class as well as a Soror of Alpha Kappa Alpha.
Tori Harper-Mercado joined the Women & Hi-Tech organization in October 2022 and has worked in the data and analytics consulting space for the past two years. She has previous experience in civil engineering and sports & entertainment working in a variety of marketing and sales type roles. Currently, she works as an Account Executive for CSpring, a local data and analytics consultancy, that specializes in helping business leaders make better, faster business decisions through data analytics/business intelligence solutions designed to be easily adopted by business' teams.
Tori participates and involves herself in areas where she feels she can give back to her community such as coaching and mentoring athletes of her high school track and field and middle school volleyball teams and being an active committee member for Rebuilding Together Indianapolis.
In her spare time, she is a new experience fanatic that thrives off of fun adventures, connectivity, and the love of animals (especially dogs).
**By registering for this event, you acknowledge that you may be photographed, videotaped, and/or audio-taped during the course of this event and hereby give permission for your image, and/or voice to be used in education, training, promotion, advertisement, and/or trade and communications media by Women & Hi Tech in any and all media outlets throughout the world, without restriction as to frequency or duration of usage.**
***PLEASE NOTE: W & HT event registration is non-transferable. ***
