Once, women were technology’s architects - from Ada Lovelace’s first algorithm to Grace Hopper’s compilers and the NASA “computers” who calculated humanity into space. Yet by the 1980s, women’s representation in computer science had fallen from 37% to 18%, as marketing, media, and culture rewrote the story of who belonged in tech.
This 60-minute keynote and interactive discussion traces that hidden history and reveals how the gender gap was not inevitable - it was engineered. More importantly, it offers a roadmap for rewriting the code. In the age of artificial intelligence, we have a rare chance to design systems that reflect empathy, ethics, and inclusion - but only if women are at the table shaping the questions and leading the design.
Through storytelling, data, and reflection, this session empowers women in technology to reclaim their place as innovators, leaders, and architects of the digital future. Participants will leave with five actionable strategies to amplify their voice, influence AI development, and build a more inclusive architecture of intelligence.
Speaker and Facilitator: Tadia Rice
Tadia Rice is a distinguished business executive, author, filmmaker, and thought leader with extensive international experience. Her multifaceted career spans organizational dynamics, thought leadership, enterprise transformation, governance and ethics, cultural competence, indigenous resolution models, geo-political affairs, information security, social justice, gender equity, and the expressive arts. Rice is a contributing author to several books on social justice, spirituality, and global gender issues, including her most recent works, My Conversations With AI: 100 Questions and Artificial Intelligence & Human Consciousness: Crossing The Threshold, which have earned her recognition as a “warrior for AI literacy for the masses.”
As CEO of Blue Horizon Films, LLC, Rice is redefining the media landscape with projects that combine artistry and social impact. She is also an accomplished on-air broadcaster, media personality, keynote speaker, and performer, with appearances on television, radio, and in theatrical productions. Leveraging a global network of strategic alliances, Rice maintains international influence while remaining deeply committed to people and our shared world.
In 2023, Rice became an award-winning film producer for her debut documentary, BEYOND BARS: Prison Women Speak, which received honors at the Cannes International Film Festival Shorts Award and the Toronto International Women Film Festival. The observational film illuminates the lives of incarcerated women in America—a population often unseen, unheard, and misunderstood—and has been hailed as a beacon of hope for both currently incarcerated women and at-risk young female adults. The project exemplifies Rice’s enduring commitment to uplifting women and expanding societal understanding.
Since 2000, Rice has championed global women’s empowerment through the Tahirih Association, which she founded. The nonprofit has provided educational scholarships to twenty-two girls and women across six countries—including the United States, Liberia, Honduras, Namibia, South Africa, and the Lakota/ Oglala Nation—and supports prison re-entry programs for formerly incarcerated women as well as a safe house with food sustainability programs for women and families in underserved South African communities.
Rice serves on the Ethics Commission for the City and County of Honolulu, where she advances ethical governance and fosters public trust. She also sits on the boards of the Tahirih Association, the Princess of Africa Foundation(South Africa), and the Interfaith Alliance of Hawai’i, and serves as a Citizen Diplomat with the American Councils for International Education. She is an active member of the National Speakers Association, the Honolulu Museum of Art African-American Film Festival, the NAACP-Honolulu Branch, and other professional and cultural organizations.
Her leadership and humanitarian contributions have been widely recognized. Rice received the Stars of Oceania Leadership Award (University of Hawai‘i, 2022), the Medal of Honor from the Ellis Island Honors Society (2017), and was inducted as a Dame Knight of the Orthodox Order of Saint John (2016). She has also been honored by the United States Congress, California State Senate, Hawai‘i State Legislature, City of Atlanta, City and County of Honolulu, and the United Nations Association for her work promoting human rights, equality, and the empowerment of women and marginalized communities.
Brought to you by the AIIM Women in Information Management (WIIM) Group.