Carina C. Zona

I'm Carina C. Zona; a developer, advocate, and certified sex educator. I spend a lot of time thinking about the unexpected cultural effects of our decisions as programmers.

I'm the founder of CallbackWomen, which I've been running since 2013. My mission for CallbackWomen is to radically increase gender diversity at the podium of professional programmers’ conferences.

As founder of  CallbackWomen, since 2012 I've been creating and expanding opportunities for women and gender nonbinary people to be recognized for their expertise as programmers, and for their varied perspectives.I advocate, coach, inform, and promote. I connect 1300 conferences with 6500 speakers. I help them be successful at serving diverse audiences, and at moving the industry forward with exceptional content. I show conference organizers  ways to create events that are accessible and inspiring, and I spotlight conferences that lead the way in implementing new strategies.

Since 2012 I've been giving  talks—frequently keynotes—at programmers conferences around the world. My talks typically explore how programming decisions cause significant impacts on individuals and cultural; particularly by how we collect, store, interpret, and apply social data. My best-known talks are "Schemas for the Real World" and "Consequences of an Insightful Algorithm.

I'm a moderator of We So Crafty, a community of techies who support each other's crafting in all sorts of wildly varied methods and mediums. My own crafts include original crochet design projects, long-exposure photography, developing gluten free baking recipies, and the delightful creativity of writing and staging conference talks. Many members of our community have given technical talks that connect the world of crafting with the world of programming. These have a lot more overlap than one might think.

Among other things, I've been: a core team member of RailsBridge; an organizer and core team member of Women Who Code; RailsGirls coach; PyLadies speaker and teacher; Girl Develop It speaker and teacher; Black Girls Code mentor; and DevChix events organizer.

By financially supporting me, you're giving appreciation (this make a difference!) for the meaningful value of the thousands of hours I've given to these, plus you're making it financially viable for me to keep on investing significant time into helping women and gender non-binary people to develop their careers, get raises and recognition, and become significant influences on our industry.