Judith Spitz Email Address

Founding Program Director: Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship in New York

Cornell is a community of scholars, known for intellectual rigor and engaged in deep and broad research, teaching tomorrow’s thought leaders to think otherwise, care for others, and create and disseminate knowledge with a public purpose. Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States.

I’m on a mission: to create a world where women not only gain access to the technology field, but also feel a sense of belonging once they’re there. As a Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Verizon, and in a series of senior roles at the company before that, I became known for my straight-up, driven-by-passion, leadership style, and for cultivating the next generation of female leaders. In 2016, I decided that it was time to devote myself fully to helping women break into tech. Soon after, WiTNY, or the Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship in New York Initiative, was born, and we saw a 94 percent increase in the number of women graduating with computer science degrees from CUNY (City University of New York), our academic partner. In 2020, I founded Break Through Tech, which is building on WiTNY’s success in cities around the country, starting with Chicago. I’m passionate about rewriting the story of what it looks like to succeed in tech. This means innovating new pathways into the industry for women and other underrepresented groups, and it also means equipping these former outsiders to succeed once they’re on the inside. At Break Through Tech, we’re pioneering novel approaches to achieving each of these objectives. By activating and aligning both sides of a city’s supply chain—universities and businesses—we create ecosystems that span classrooms, workplaces, and the community; we provide not just technical training but also professional experiences and connections that together fuel success. I speak frequently on topics like the urgent need for more women in technology, the rise in gender-based and other types of algorithmic bias, and the future of work in an AI-enabled, digital world. Crain’s named me to their 2019 list of Notable Women in Tech, and NY Business Journal listed me as a 2018 Woman of Influence. I’m a member of the women.nyc Advisory Council as well as a member of the Women’s Forum of New York, and am also an advisor to an AI company called ASAPP. The people who make our technology, make our world; more equality in tech means more equality for all of us. Learn more at breakthroughtech.org.