KEYNOTE SPEAKER | MODERATOR | TECH & WORKFORCE LEADER
Linda's superpower is connection.
She connects people to possibility, leaders to ideas, communities to opportunity, and technology to the human beings it is meant to serve. Across a career that has moved through technology, communications, law, education, workforce transformation, and social impact, Linda has built a reputation as a translator, strategist, convener, and catalyst for change.
Her path into tech is as unconventional as it is instructive. It began with a nudge from her sister, a helpdesk role at Dow Chemical, and a growing fascination with how technology moves people, organizations, and narratives. At Dow, Linda discovered her defining intersection: technology and communications. She led internet advocacy work researching how NGOs used the web to shape public narratives, then moved into global digital and mobile strategy at a company that understood, ahead of its time, that digital was not just IT. It was communications. It was influence. It was transformation.
Linda has lived at that edge ever since.
Her career has spanned global digital transformation at Stanley Black & Decker, coalition strategy and executive engagement at Reboot Representation, and technology education leadership at both Ivy Tech Community College and Western Governors University. At Reboot, she worked with Fortune 500 executives and partnered with McKinsey & Company to translate workforce research into enterprise action. At Ivy Tech and WGU, she led technology education strategy across IT, cybersecurity, cloud, AI, and workforce-aligned pathways, advocating for learners, employers, and the future of tech talent.
Linda is also the founder of Indiana Women IN Tech Week, the only statewide annual celebration in the United States dedicated to amplifying women and girls pursuing technology education and careers, officially proclaimed by former Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb.
Living a life of purpose and service.
Linda advises AI4ALL, the Indiana CIO Network, and Butler University’s School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and she has convened leading voices on algorithmic bias and responsible AI, including Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble, Dr. Cathy O’Neil, Bo Young Lee, Dona Sarkar, and Professor Renée Cummings. She has spoken on public stages including the AnitaB.org Grace Hopper Celebration, Women in Cybersecurity, AfroTech, and the inaugural Purdue and Google AI Summit, translating AI, cybersecurity, workforce transformation, leadership, and representation into language people can use.
Her leadership has been recognized with the 2022 ITSMF Technology Leader on the Rise Award, the 2023 InnoPower Black Innovator Award, the 2024 Women & Hi Tech Change the Landscape Award, 2024 December Edition of Hope Magazine, the 2025 A Seat at the Table Advocacy Award, and the 2025 Stevie® Award for Social Change Maker of the Year.
Linda's mantra is simple: When you see us, you can be us.
But for Linda, that is more than a phrase. It is a method. It is how she leads, mentors, speaks, builds, and shows up. She believes visibility creates possibility, networks create movement, and technology should open doors—not quietly guard them.
Linda is married to a fellow geek and D&D enthusiast she met while working at Dow. She is an avid Black Barbie Doll collector and creator of Decked Out Denim Jackets. She and her husband share their home in Utah with two puggles, Hugo and Luna.
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