The 2026 WIT Awards: A Night That Changes Careers

by Leave a Comment

A large crowd attends the WIT Awards 2023 ceremony in a spacious, modern hall with blue lighting, decorated tables, a stage with speakers, and an aquarium visible on the right wall.

The WIT Awards puts a spotlight on women who are shaping the future of technology, and that spotlight does more than light up a room for one night. It tells the woman on stage and the thousands of women watching her story unfold that their work is valued, and that staying in tech is worth it.

That’s the real impact of the WIT Awards. It’s more than a gala. It’s visibility, and visibility leads to retention.

Why This Night Matters

Women in Technology (WIT) exists to encourage, retain, and elevate women and girls across all industries and at any stage in their tech careers. The WIT Awards is where that mission becomes tangible. When a woman’s name is called, when her company fills a table to celebrate her, when her peers share her story, that recognition becomes part of her career momentum.

The data behind this is simple: Women don’t leave tech because they lack ambition or talent. They leave when the systems around them stall their growth and make their contributions invisible. The WIT Awards interrupt that pattern.By honoring the women who are building, leading, and staying in tech, the WIT Awards give them the recognition they deserve and remind companies why their success is worth investing in.

The women we recognize aren’t exceptions. They represent thousands of others just as capable and just as driven, who are simply less seen. When we put one woman’s name on a stage, we’re telling every woman in that room that she belongs there too.

What to Expect

This year’s celebration will be held at the Georgia Aquarium on October 22 from 5:30 pm to 9 pm ET, bringing together more than 600 executives, senior leaders, and innovators from across Georgia’s tech community.

The evening opens with an exclusive VIP reception from 5 pm to 6 pm, designed for deeper conversation and connection with honorees, partners, and executives before the main program begins. From there, guests will enjoy a seated dinner created by Wolfgang Puck’s culinary team, set against the backdrop of the Georgia Aquarium.

The night builds toward the awards ceremony itself, the true highlight of the evening, where this year’s honorees, finalists, and winners across categories from Woman of the Year to the Emerging Executive Award will be celebrated in front of the full room.

It’s a room full of people who want to see each other win. Tables are available now for companies ready to celebrate their team members and stand with the broader community of women building the future of tech in Georgia.

The Power of Partnership

None of this happens without the companies who invest in it. WIT’s high-visibility partnership opportunities, including Presenting Partner, VIP Reception Partner, and Awards Spotlight Partner, put your company at the center of a night built around recognition, community, and momentum for women in tech.

Partnership with WIT is more than a sponsorship line item. It’s a strategic investment in the talent your company already has, and a direct line to the women shaping Georgia’s tech community. Partners are featured throughout the campaign leading up to the event and recognized live at the ceremony.

Interested in partnering with WIT for the 2026 WIT Awards? Contact partnerships@mywit.org to learn more about available opportunities.

Thank You to Our Partners

The 2026 WIT Awards would not be possible without the companies who invest in making women in tech visible. We are grateful to the organizations showing up for this community.

Presenting Partner

The top tier. Your company’s logo on signage, the stage, and all promotions will visibly demonstrate your leadership in supporting women in tech careers, making your brand stand out in the community. If your company is committed to advancing women in tech, we would love to talk. Contact partnerships@mywit.org to learn more.

VIP Reception Partner

Your brand welcomes this year’s WIT Award finalists, past winners, program judges, and tech leaders from across Georgia’s business and tech community into an intimate, energizing space for incredible conversations and community building. If this sounds like the right room for your company, contact partnerships@mywit.org.

Awards Spotlight Parnters

Red CDW text in bold capital letters with a red swoosh encircling the letters on a white background.
State Farm logo with three interlocking red ovals on the left and the words State Farm in red bold letters to the right.
The Home Depot logo featuring the company name in bold, white stencil-style letters on an orange square background, aligned diagonally.

CDW, State Farm, and The Home Depot are proud Awards Spotlight Partners of the 2026 WIT Awards. 

Join these companies and present an award on stage, watching 600 leaders celebrate her and creating a meaningful impact that resonates beyond the night. Three more Awards Spotlight Partner opportunities remain. Contact partnerships@mywit.org to learn more.

Additional Partners

Registration Partner

Your brand is the first thing every guest sees, with premier placement at check-in as the night begins.

Spirits Partner

Your brand behind the bars all night, plus a signature cocktail created in your name. Your brand with the drink 600+ guests raise to toast this year’s winners.

Photobooth Partner

Zebra Technologies logo with a stylized zebra head made of black stripes on the left and the word ZEBRA in bold black letters on the right.

Impact Partner

The image shows the Cox Enterprises logo with COX in large blue letters above ENTERPRISES in smaller blue letters.
The Fiserv logo with the company name in bold, lowercase orange letters and a period at the end on a white background.

Interested in joining this list? Reach out to partnerships@mywit.org.

Join Us

Tables are available now. Whether you’re celebrating a team member, building connections with Georgia’s tech leaders, or investing in the community helping women explore, pursue, persist, and lead in technology careers, this is the night to be in the room.

Reserve your table today here: https://e.givesmart.com/events/OOr/

The Leaders Who Changed the Equation

by Leave a Comment

November WIT Forum | November 18, 2026 | 7:30–9:00 AM ET | Maggiano’s Buckhead

Register now

Every leader in the room on November 18 has a story. A moment when the path forward wasn’t clear. A relationship that changed everything. A decision that felt like a risk and turned out to be the best one they ever made.

The 2026 WIT Awards winners are being recognized not just for what they’ve achieved, but for what they changed, in their organizations, in their fields, and in the conditions around them. This Forum puts them on stage not to celebrate their titles, but to learn from their turning points.

What does it actually take to lead in technology? What do women who’ve reached the highest levels of the field know that they wish they’d known sooner? And once they had the power to change something, what did they do with it?

This WIT Forum closes out the year with both a celebration and a masterclass. The winners are the content. Their recognition is the occasion. And the conversation belongs to everyone in the room.

What This WIT Forum Is About

The winners of the 2026 WIT Awards didn’t just reach senior leadership. They used what they found there to open doors for the people coming up behind them. This Forum brings that experience to the stage.

Through candid panel discussion and interactive table conversation, you’ll hear directly from women who navigated real gaps between their potential and their opportunity, who built things that didn’t exist before them, and who chose, again and again, to stay and change a system from within. The conversation covers what it took to get there, what changed once they arrived, and what they did with the influence they built.

This is a close-up look at how leadership actually happens.

Who Should Attend

This WIT Forum is for women in technology careers at every level, along with the leaders and allies who champion them.

Whether you’re early in your career and starting to think about what leadership could look like for you, mid-career and weighing your next move, or already leading and looking for what to do with the influence you’ve earned, there’s a version of this conversation waiting for you.

What You Will Walk Away With

Attendees can expect to leave with:

A real picture of what leadership takes. Not the highlight reel, but the actual decisions, risks, and relationships that shaped these leaders’ paths.

A model for using influence well. The panel doesn’t stop at “how I got here.” It gets into what each leader did once she had real organizational power, for herself and for others.

A personal commitment to carry forward. Table conversations and a take-home reflection guide will help you turn what you hear into a concrete next step, whether that’s an action for your own path or a change you make possible for someone else.

As one WIT community member shared, “You get confidence from being around people who want to see you win and thrive.” That’s the spirit of this WIT Forum.

Join Us on November 18

This WIT Forum is in person and open to women and allies across industries. Come for the recognition, and leave with a model for what to do with your own influence, wherever you are in your career.

One hour and thirty minutes. Real conversation. The kind of insight that stays with you long after you leave the room.

Register now

Meet the Panelists

The November panel is made up of the 2026 WIT Awards winners, women whose paths reflect a range of journeys: the executive who changed the conditions around her, the founder who built something new, the leader who stayed and transformed an institution from within, and a leader earlier in her executive journey showing what’s possible right now. Full panelist profiles will be announced once winners are confirmed.

Thank You to Our Partners

This WIT Forum is made possible by the generous support of our partners.

A special thank you to our Presenting Partner, Tier4 Group, for their commitment to advancing women in technology and making conversations like this one possible.

The TIER4 GROUP logo with gray text and a blue abstract symbol resembling a person next to the number 4.

We also extend our gratitude to our WIT Forum Partners:

A grid of 21 company logos, including Adapture, Cargill, CDW, Cox, Home Depot, Salesforce, State Farm, Truist, Coca-Cola, Synchrony, and others on a white background.

Women in Technology (WIT) creates possibilities for more women to explore, pursue, persist, and lead in technology. Learn more at mywit.org.

The Retention Equation: Personal Investment + Organizational Responsibility

by Leave a Comment

September WIT Forum | Wednesday, September 16, 2026 | 7:30–9:00 AM ET | Maggiano’s Buckhead

Register now

Some people stay in a technology career because the conditions are right. Others leave, quietly, for the same reason. On September 16, we’re bringing both sides of that story into the same room, and we can’t wait.

The retention conversation in tech usually gets told from one angle: individuals need to be more resilient, more strategic, more patient. But ask anyone who’s actually stayed, or left, or come back, and the story is rarely that simple. It’s a two-sided equation. What people choose to own about their own career trajectory, and what organizations choose to build around them. Neither side gets it right by accident, and that’s exactly what makes this conversation worth having.

This WIT Forum brings senior technology and HR leaders together to talk about what retention actually requires, not just what most organizations assume it requires.

What This WIT Forum Is About

Through candid panel discussion and interactive table conversation, you’ll hear from technology and people-strategy executives who’ve sat on both sides of the stay-or-go decision. Some have had to advocate for what kept them in the field. Others have had to build the kind of environment that keeps people around.

The conversation moves through what individuals can evaluate and act on right now, where well-intentioned organizations invest in retention and still lose great people, and what it really takes, structurally and culturally, to close that gap. This isn’t a session about perseverance. It’s a warm, honest look at what’s working, what isn’t, and what’s in each person’s power to change.

Who Should Attend

This WIT Forum is for women in technology careers at every level, along with the leaders and allies who shape the environments around them.

Whether you’ve been navigating the stay-or-go question for years, stepped away and found your way back, or are just beginning to ask it, there’s a place for you in this conversation. And if you’re the one building the culture others are deciding whether to stay in, this one’s for you too.

What You Will Walk Away With

Attendees can expect to leave with:

A clearer read on your own career trajectory. You’ll hear what separates the people who build lasting technology careers from those who stall out or leave, and what that means for the decisions in front of you right now.

A model for what organizational commitment actually looks like. Candid insight from leaders on what retention requires structurally and culturally, beyond the programs that look good on paper.

Specific, personal next steps. Table conversations and a take-home reflection guide will help you name one action for your own career sustainability and one action to make your workplace a place people choose to stay.

As one WIT community member put it, “You get confidence from being around people who want to see you win and thrive.” That’s the kind of room we’re building on September 16.

Join Us on September 16

This WIT Forum is in person and open to women in technology at every career stage, along with the leaders and allies who champion them.

One hour and thirty minutes together. A conversation that treats retention as a shared responsibility, not a personal failing. The kind of insight you’ll actually carry with you.

Register now

Meet the Panelists

Michael Park, Chief Information Officer at Infor, joins the panel to speak to what organizational commitment to retention looks like from the inside, and what leaders can take back to their own teams.

Sallie Graves, Chief Operating Officer at MagMutual, brings a senior operating leader’s view of what it takes to build a culture people choose to stay in.

Oneka Cornelius, Senior Director of Human Resources for Digital Technology & Data and Atlanta Hub HR Lead at Cargill, speaks to the structural and cultural levers that actually move the needle on retention.

Thank You to Our Partners

This WIT Forum is made possible by the generous support of our partners.

A special thank you to our Presenting Partner, Tier4 Group, for their commitment to advancing women in technology and making conversations like this one possible.

Tier4 Group logo with TIER 4 GROUP in gray text and a blue abstract symbol resembling a person forming the 4 in the top right section.

We also extend our gratitude to our WIT Forum Partners:

A grid of 21 company logos, including ADapture, Cargill, CDW, Cox, Google Cloud, Salesforce, State Farm, The Home Depot, and The Coca-Cola Company, displayed on a white background.

Women in Technology (WIT) creates possibilities for more women to explore, pursue, persist, and lead in technology. Learn more at mywit.org.

Find Your Path: WIT Campus Career Exploration Day

by Leave a Comment

A woman hands a microphone to a smiling attendee in a conference room while others watch. The attendees have name badges, trays, and coffee cups on their desks.

This September, WIT Campus Career Exploration Day will give 100 college students the chance to see what working in tech really looks like. 

At host companies across the Atlanta metro area, they’ll get a firsthand look at the day-to-day experience of working in technology roles across industries. That kind of immersion is one of the best ways to help women at the beginning of their careers build confidence, understand their options, and see real evidence that they belong. Our confirmed host companies include: Cox Enterprises, Fiserv, Norfolk Southern, Salesforce, State Farm, and The Coca-Cola Company.

What to Look Forward to

The full-day experience includes:

  • Hands-on problem solving: A chance to work together on a real-world challenge and present their findings and ideas.
  • Office and lab tours: A behind-the-scenes look at the spaces where tech innovation happens and the teams and processes that make it possible.
  • Inspiring conversations: Time to talk with and learn from women from all stages of the tech career journey.
  • Career guidance and insight: Valuable discussions about internships, skill-building, career paths, and workplace culture.

Details

September 25, 2026

8:30 a.m – 2 pm

Locations of host companies: Cox Enterprises, Fiserv, Norfolk Southern, Salesforce, State Farm, and The Coca-Cola Company

Attendees are responsible for their own transportation

How to Apply

WIT Campus Career Exploration Day is open to women currently attending colleges and universities in Georgia with an interest in pursuing tech careers. It’s a great way to connect with other women in tech, potential employers, and the broader WIT Community. 

Fill out our interest form or send it to any college students you know who may be interested! Eligible participants will then be invited to apply.

Introducing the 2026 WIT Awards Honoree Class

by Leave a Comment

A collage of diverse women in professional attire on a purple background, with WIT Awards 2024 logo at the bottom left.

We’re thrilled to introduce the women who make up the 2026 WIT Awards honoree class! 

This year’s honorees represent every stage of the career journey, from rising leaders just starting to make their mark to executives shaping strategy at the highest level. They have inspired their teams, innovated new products and services, and opened up new possibilities for other women in their field. 

Nominated by others and by themselves alike, each is being celebrated for the impact they’ve already made in their community.

Meet the 2026 Honorees

Woman of the Year

This is WIT’s highest honor. The award recognizes executive-level leaders who are accountable for significant, measurable outcomes, and whose leadership has created change that extends well beyond themselves.  

Emerging Executive Impact

For executives who are early in their executive leadership journey but are already delivering results that significantly exceed what would be expected at their tenure level. 

Organizational Executive Impact

For executives driving meaningful, measurable transformation within their organization, regardless of company size. 

Enterprise Executive Impact

For executives who have delivered sustained, large-scale impact within a major or highly complex organization. 

  • Stephanie Arnette, Principal, Deloitte
  • Arati Chavan, Vice President, Cyber Security, Mckesson
  • Julie Elmore, SVP, Technology, Inspire Brands
  • Sharay Erskine, Chief Information Officer, National Multiple Sclerosis Society 
  • Jenny Fotia, VP, Digital & Data, North America, The Coca-Cola Company
  • Dianne Kokotoff, Executive Director, Enterprise Solutions and Automation, Wellstar Health Systems
  • Naomi Lariviere, Chief Product Owner, VP Product Management, ADP
  • Missy Lawson, SVP, Technology; Cyber, Risk, & Business Operations, Fiserv
  • Wandia Mbuvi, Senior Vice President, Head of Strategic Risk & Remediation and Interim Head of CSBB Business Management Office, Truist
  • Ashlea Mitchell, Global Technology Leader – Engineering, Infrastructure, Operations, Revinate

Woman to Watch

This award recognizes a mid-career leader in technology who has already delivered measurable results beyond her formal role, expanded her scope of influence over time, and made a deliberate, visible investment in advancing others.

Early Career Excellence Award

This award recognizes an early-career professional in technology whose initiative, creativity, and investment in others significantly exceed what is typical at her stage.

SMP Excellence Award

Recognizes a graduate of WIT’s Single Mothers’ Program who is thriving in her technology career, growing her skills, delivering real results, and showing what is possible when determination meets opportunity.

Why the WIT Awards Matter

The WIT Awards recognize women and girls whose leadership and achievements are shaping technology today. By making their stories visible, the event creates role models for the next generation to follow into tech careers.

Reserve Your Table

The 2026 WIT Awards take place October 22 at the Georgia Aquarium. If someone on this list is part of your team, this is your chance to celebrate with them in person. 

Reserve your table

Introducing WIT’s Careers in Action Summit

by Leave a Comment

Two women sit at a round table reviewing documents together. One reads a paper intently while the other gestures, with more people and a colorful EXCEL IN STEAM banner in the background.

On October 9th, we’re hosting the WIT Careers in Action Summit: a half-day program focused on professional development, community, and intentional career advancement at every stage.


What the Summit includes

Mainstage Panel opens the day. Executives, technologists, and talent leaders come together for a moderated conversation covering how AI and shifting workplace models are reshaping careers, what employers are actually looking for right now, and how women in tech can position themselves for what’s next. 

Coaching Corners give you dedicated, one-on-one time. Choose Resume & Storytelling for hands-on feedback on your resume and career narrative, or Communication & Interview Presence to sharpen how you communicate your accomplishments and goals.

Skill Sparks are short, practical breakout sessions focused on Visibility & Influence, Career Navigation, and Tools for Today. Two sessions run concurrently in each time slot, so you can choose what’s most useful to you in the moment.

Industry Insights are hosted by select WIT corporate partners. This isn’t your typical exhibit hall. It’s a chance to talk directly with companies actively investing in women in tech about career paths, the skills they value, and what growth actually looks like inside their organizations.

Who this is for

Whether you’re just starting, exploring a transition, returning to the field, or working toward a leadership role, WIT’s Careers in Action Summit was built for you. We designed it to serve women in tech across every career stage.


Why WIT built this program

The WIT Careers in Action Summit reflects a strategic shift in how WIT serves our professional community, particularly women in mid-career and those in transition. It’s grounded in data we’ve been gathering from our community and more than three decades of experience about what actually helps women in tech move forward. This half-day experience provides intentional, practical support for women in tech from the classroom to the boardroom.

WIT partner companies

A grid of nine company logos, including CDW, Fiserv, Georgia-Pacific, Infor, QTS, State Farm, The Coca-Cola Company, The Home Depot Careers, and Truist.

Join us October 9th

Space is limited. Register today to secure your spot and take advantage of early-bird pricing.

Early-Bird Pricing: $50 — ends August 26, 2026

Regular pricing: $125 — starting August 27, 2026

Register now