Geek Girl Rising

HEATHER CABOT is an award-winning journalist, adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, angel investor and contributor to Women@Forbes. She is a former ABC News correspondent and anchor of World News Now/World News This Morning. Cabot jumped into the digital revolution when she was hired to serve as the Web Life Editor for Yahoo! in 2007. During her tenure, she reported on how the Internet was transforming everyday lives as a regular guest on Today, GMA, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, nationally syndicated talk shows and dozens of local TV and radio stations across the U.S. and Canada. She advises several women-led startups and is a managing director of Golden Seeds and member of Pipeline Angels and Plum Alley. Cabot first started investigating the gender gap in tech as a researcher on the 1995 PBS documentary “Minerva’s Machine: Women and Computing,” which profiled female tech pioneers, including U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. Cabot resides in the New York City area with her husband, tween twins and their goldendoodle named Midnight.

SAMANTHA WALRAVENS is an award-winning journalist, work-life expert and author/editor of the best-selling anthology, TORN: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood, lauded by the New York Times as a book "filled with the voices of women trying to solve an impossible equation, all doing the best they can" and hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a welcome addition to the body of work of books about the work/life balance." Samantha writes for Women@Forbes, the Huffington Post, Disney Interactive and Modern Mom, and is a sought-after speaker on the topic of women, career and work-life success. She has spoken nationwide at organizations including Google, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Deloitte, Princeton University and the Society of Women Engineers, has been interviewed on Today, Good Morning America and NPR. Samantha began her career as a technology reporter for PC World magazine and led marketing communications for Tumbleweed Software, a Silicon Valley software security company. She is a member of Pipeline Angels, an angel network that invests in early-stage, women-led startups, and serves on the Alumni Schools Committee for Princeton University. Samantha resides in Marin County, California with her husband and four children.