#LeadershipTuesdays--Leshell Hatley: Hello World. Hello Robot. Hello Me.

"The question is not whether we can afford to invest in every child; it is whether we can afford not to."

--Marian Wright Edelman

http://www.upliftdc.org

Every other Tuesday, WOMEN AT LIBERTY  provides a platform for a variety of voices and resources to develop, encourage and strengthen women leaders. The technology industry has been in the press a lot lately for its lack of diversity and its steps (or lack thereof) to increase the representation of women and minorities. I recently heard a statistics from Vann Jones that the industry will have 1.4 million new tech jobs in the next 10 years. He's one of the advocates bringing attention to the need for more diversity in the tech industry. Current forecasts suggest that the U.S. will only be able to supply 400K of these jobs.

Leshell Hatley, an engineer, educator, researcher, and entrepreneur based in the Washington, D.C. area, is preparing a diverse population of youth to be ready for the future jobs in technology. For more than ten years, she has been teaching children the "how to's" of technology. Leshell has developed unique programs that expose youth to Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics, and Computer Science and she has documented best practices for how to teach technology to African American youth.

Through her non-profit foundation, Uplift, Inc. and as a teacher in public and private schools, Leshell teaches K-12 students how to create mobile apps, build robots, and design gaming systems. Earlier this year she spoke to an audience in the Nation's Capital on the power of creativity in using programming and robots in education. Her work has been recognized by companies like Microsoft, the MacArthur Foundation, and Google.

Leshell is currently finishing up her PhD (2016) in Learning Technologies Design Research at George Mason University (Virginia). She is also on the staff of Howard University (Washington, D.C.) managing a National Science Foundation grant that supports women STEM faculty members.

To find out more about how Leshell is preparing today's youth for tomorrow's opportunities in technology and science, see below. For more information on Leadership Tuesdays or WOMEN AT LIBERTY, click here.

--Nona O., Founder, womenatliberty.com