ATTENTION – This is a MORNING EVENT!
NY Tech Alliance invites you to take part in a new initiative being launched by our board member, Yvonne De La Pena: NY Tech Latinas, a program aimed at highlighting the incredible work that Latinas are doing in the NYC Tech ecosystem!
NY Tech Latina’s first program is Latina Luminaries, a bi-monthly fireside chat featuring Latina leaders and executives doing amazing work in the Tech ecosystem. The series will be hosted on NY Tech Meetup’s Instagram Live feed and moderated by Yvonne!
This edition’s guest speaker will be Vanessa Pestritto, Director of Partner Programs at Agoric, a safe smart contracts framework for an open, global economy.
To join the fireside chat, follow NY Tech Alliance on Instagram at @nytechmeetup and tune into IG Live at 8:30am on June 30th!
About Vanessa Pestritto (@vanessadice – Twitter)
Vanessa believes in ecosystem collaboration for the advancement and adoption of new technology. She has worked in growing and supporting networks in venture as well as blockchain and crypto. She is currently Director of Partner Programs at Agoric, a safe smart contracts framework for an open, global economy.
Previously, as Director of Strategic Growth at Ripple, Vanessa built a significant investment portfolio of tech companies with novel use cases in protocol development, ecosystem tools, and smart contracts. She has also actively invested and worked with entrepreneurs through her venture fund, Lattice Ventures.
Vanessa began her career in technology consulting working on fintech and government projects. As Executive Director at New York Angels, Vanessa managed product and marketing to run a live marketplace of investors and investments. Vanessa has advised corporations on their accelerator programs, such as Chobani and eBay.
Vanessa actively advocates for increasing awareness of diversity in the workplace and the advancement of women and Latinos. She studied Economics and International Business at NYU Stern School of Business. After being stranded in Barbados with her husband and two kids during Covid quarantine, she is now a New Jersey resident.
About Yvonne De La Peña (@latinxprincesa – Instagram)
Yvonne is passionate about creating educational opportunities to encourage youth from under-represented groups to become designers and inventors with technology. She graduated with a B.S. in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin and her own experience as a Latina in computing motivated her to pursue a PhD in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles. Yvonne has over 10 years experience developing and launching educational programs and digital products in both the for-profit and non-profit space. She is currently the Director of BridgeUP: STEM at the American Museum of Natural History. BridgeUP: STEM is AMNH’s newest education program for young women, focused on the intersection of computer science and scientific research, and is generously funded by the Helen Gurley Brown Revocable Trust and the Pussycat Foundation.