TechWomen Team Palestine Pitch Win

TechWomen Team Palestine, Seed Grant and Pitch win, 16 October 2023

As a TechWomen Professional Mentor and country Impact Coach for many years, I have been honored and impressed with TechWomen’s Team Palestine 2023. Each year, every one of the 100+ women in 22 country teams invited by the U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs from the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia works hard to create a project that will improve their home when they return from working and learning in America. Team Palestine has worked especially hard under the horrific circumstances of their homeland being at war, starting two weeks into their six week program. Their compassion, dedication, and intelligent leadership has inspired the entire TechWomen community. Working with my sister mentors, we coached the team in developing a project to support STEM education among primary school students in Palestine. On 16 October in San Francisco, they gave their three minute pitch, and on 20 October, Team Palestine was one of five teams that won an award and seed funding! I am so proud that Team Palestine will help children at home learn science, technology, engineering, and math as part of recovering from the trauma of war.

Linked here are the Project Aspiration presentation slides from Pitch Day, and TechWomen Team Palestine’s Executive Summary. Please follow us on Facebook!

TechWomen Team Palestine pitch win, 16 Oct 2023

Page Updated 3 February 2024

Images Copyright (c) 2023. If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home).

Welcoming TechWomen Team Palestine

Shagufta Ahmed, Nancy Hendrickson, Katy Dickinson – TechWomen Team Palestine Impact Coaches

Yesterday, my sister TechWomen Impact Coaches for 2023 Team Palestine and I had a lovely conversation starting to plan for the arrival of our new mentees. Looking forward to learning from Shagufta Ahmed and Nancy Hendrickson! The 104 TechWomen mentees from 21 countries arrive in San Francisco soon and we are very excited to meet them.

I am thinking of my dear friends and colleagues among the Palestine TechWomen Fellows of cohorts-past, and asking them to support the incoming team. I am also thinking of my journeys in Palestine and hoping that I will learn as much during the next six weeks. My first trip to Palestine was in 1979 after I was graduated from U.C. Berkeley, my second was in 2006 to create a Sun Microsystems mentoring program between technical groups in St. Petersburg (Russia) and Hertzliya (Israel), and the third was an (unofficial) delegation of five TechWomen mentors to Gaza City in 2016, as guests of Mercy Corps and Gaza Sky Geeks. I very much look forward to traveling there again.

I was honored to be the 2010-2011 Process Architect for the U.S. State Department – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ TechWomen mentoring program and am very proud to continue my service as a citizen diplomat. In 2022, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expanded TechWomen (based in the San Francisco Bay Area 2010-2022) to include a cohort in Chicago. My daughter, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, is a mentor for 2023’s Team Nigeria, based in Chicago. Jessica was one of the mentors who went with me to Palestine in 2016 and she has been an Impact Coach for Team Palestine in prior TechWomen years.

About TechWomen: “TechWomen empowers, connects and supports the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) from Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East by providing them the access and opportunity needed to advance their careers, pursue their dreams, and inspire women and girls in their communities. Through mentorship and exchange, TechWomen strengthens participants’ professional capacity, increases mutual understanding between key networks of professionals, and expands girls’ interest in STEM careers by exposing them to female role models.” There are 1,153 TechWomen Emerging Leaders and Fellows in 22 Countries. More than 150 companies have hosted TechWomen Emerging Leaders.

Katy standing in the Dead Sea 2006

Gaza City Vase 2016

TechWomen arrive in Gaza, Feb 2016

Gaza Sky Geeks with TechWomen 2016

Katy Dickinson and TechWomen presenting, Gaza City 2016

Selfies with Eileen Brewer at Gaza City harbor, Feb 2016

Images Copyright (c) 2006-2023 Katy Dickinson. If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home).

Busy End of Year

Katy Dickinson, Lee Satterfield, TechWomen 10 Year Honor, 20 October 2022

As 2022 is ending, I have been reflecting on how busy these last few months have been. In October, I mentored the remarkable and inspiring TechWomen Team Tunisia, and was one of the 21 mentors honored by the U.S. State Department – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for ten years’ service to the TechWomen program. (I was the TechWomen Process Architect 2010-2011, and have been a mentor each year since.) Also that month, my husband John Plocher said a fond goodbye to Apple, and started a new job at Ford Greenfield Labs.

Katy Dickinson, TechWomen 10 Year Honor, 20 October 2022

Katy Dickinson, TechWomen Honor, 20 October 2022

Katy Dickinson, Tunisia TechWomen, 16 October 2022

John Plocher with Ford Mach-E

In November, John and I became grandparents with the birth of baby Alex to our daughter, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, and son-in-law, Matthew Holmes.

Jessica, Matthew, Baby Alex, 19 November 2022

I helped our son Paul D. Goodman manage two successful craft sales in December 2022. Yesterday, I turned in the final paper for the Fall term of my Berkeley School of Technology – Doctor of Ministry program. Also yesterday, as part of the Saint Joan’s Chapel and Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy team, I gave holy communion to 92 Elmwood jail inmates. Our team gave communion to 198 prisoners in three visits, starting on Christmas Day. The guys inside were happy to sing and dance with us to the tune of “Feliz Navidad.”

Looking forward to my next adventure!

Paul D. Goodman, 17 Dec 2022

If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home). Images Copyright 2022 by Katy Dickinson.

Last Day of Beatles Year

The lyrics of “When I’m Sixty-Four” by Paul McCartney of The Beatles start, “When I get older losing my hair, Many years from now, Will you still be sending me a Valentine, Birthday greetings bottle of wine. If I’d been out till quarter to three, Would you lock the door? Will you still need me, will you still feed me When I’m sixty-four?” Tonight, I end my Beatles Year!

I start my new half-decade tomorrow. Such a delightful adventure!

Katy Dickinson 1957

Katy Dickinson 1961

Katy Dickinson 1967

Wade, Eleanor, Mark, Peter, Katy Dickinson, Bachelor of Arts Commencement, University of California at Berkeley, 1979

Katy Dickinson 1980

Wade, Eleanor, Katy Dickinson with baby Jessica 1989

Jessica and Paul, Nut Tree Railroad, 1995

Katy Dickinson, John Plocher, Wedding 2000

Jessica and Matthew wedding 2011

Jessica and Katy, Beirut, Lebanon, 2013

Katy Dickinson, John Plocher, Lalibela, Ethiopia 2014

Katy and Jessica, Sierra Leone 2019

Katy and Jessica, Horseshoe Bend, Arizona 2019

Paul D Goodman and Katy Dickinson, Cielo Lodge, Golfito, Costa Rica, August 2021

Graduate Theological Union, Master of Theology Commencement, 7 May 2022

John Plocher, Katy Dickinson, Loon Lake, Wisconsin June 2022

If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home). Images Copyright 1957-2022 by Katy Dickinson.

TechWomen in Yosemite

TechWomen at Yosemite Falls, CA, 27 Mar 2022

I am proud of my daughter Jessica whose annual Yosemite camping trip for her Palestinian mentees has evolved into a TechWomen tradition. This year, there were enough mentors and mentees for two weekends. I was a driver last weekend, joining about thirty others – many of them camping for the first time. We stopped over in Columbia for lunch on the way to our campsite at Tuttletown. We had a lovely time getting to know each other, figuring out how to raise a tent, singing pop songs, and eating s’mores – and Safa of Libya got to touch a river for the first time ever!

TechWomen going camping, 26 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Kate’s tea, Columbia, CA, 26 Mar 2022

TechWomen Jessica and Samantha, Columbia, CA, 26 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Columbia, CA, 26 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Columbia, CA, 26 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Columbia, CA, 26 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Tuttletown camp, CA, 26 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Tuttletown camp, CA, 26 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Tuttletown camp, CA, 26 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Tuttletown camp, CA, 26 Mar 2022

sunset at Tuttletown camp, CA, 26 Mar 2022

sunrise at Tuttletown camp, CA, 27 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Tuttletown camp, CA, 27 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Tuttletown camp, CA, 27 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Yosemite, CA, 27 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Yosemite, CA, 27 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Yosemite, CA, 27 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Yosemite Falls, CA, 27 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Yosemite Falls, CA, 27 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Yosemite Falls, CA, 27 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Yosemite Falls, CA, 27 Mar 2022

TechWomen at Yosemite Falls, CA, 27 Mar 2022

TechWomen brings emerging women leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) from Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East together with their professional counterparts in the United States for a mentorship and exchange program. I have been working with TechWomen since I helped to design it in 2010. Launched in 2011, TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and is managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home). Images Copyright 2022 by Katy Dickinson.

TechWomen Volunteer Day in the Garden

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

Today was TechWomen Volunteer Day and twenty-three of us gathered at St. Stephen’s-in-the-Field Episcopal Church – Community Garden in San Jose, California, to work together. We divided into three groups: the Hunters (looking for oak seedlings to pot), the Killers (taking down an oleander hedge), and the Diggers (making an accessible path for elder gardeners). We included technical leaders from the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia, some of whom were novices and others who had deep gardening experience, as well as two regular community garden volunteers and four TechWomen mentors. My daughter, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, manages the community garden but she was managing another TechWomen volunteer group today, so I was in charge. It was a fun and productive day!

Launched in 2011, TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and is managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

Lizard, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

TechWomen Volunteer Day, St.Stephens-in-the-Fields, San Jose, California, 18 Mar 2022

If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home). Images Copyright 2022 by Katy Dickinson.

Helping the Holy Land

TechWomen at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, Gaza City, Feb 2016

During this violent time in the Holy Land, our family just made a large donation to Episcopal Relief & Development which supports the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City (which I visited with TechWomen mentors and mentees in 2016), and the Middle East. We have asked for a corporate match for our family donation. Please consider donating – and keep the Holy Land in your prayers. We also donated to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (as requested by Ryan Sturgill, Director of Gaza Sky Geeks).

I put this information on my own Facebook account but when I tried to re-post a version of it, Facebook blocked me. Apparently Facebook objects to posts about praying for Gaza and making charitable donations to the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. Please continue to pray and donate anyway.

Our 2016 visit was an unofficial TechWomen delegation by five senior mentors who wanted to visit their much-loved Gazan mentees. TechWomen is a program of the U.S. State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs – Exchange Programs, managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE). I am re-posting some of my pictures here from our trip to Gaza City so that you can see what it looked like before the current violence. You can read some of my 2016 posts with more photos, Traveling in Palestine, Three Border Walls, Where We Stayed in Palestine, and Understanding Gaza.

Facebook post rejection 20 May 2021

• 

  Gaza Sky Geeks with TechWomen, Feb 2016

• 

  TechWomen in Gaza, Feb 2016

• 

  Katy Dickinson and TechWomen presenting in Gaza City, Feb 2016

• 

  Jessica Dickinson Goodman and TechWomen presenting in Gaza City, Feb 2016

• 

  TechWomen at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, Gaza City, Feb 2016

• 

  Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, Gaza City, Feb 2016

• 

  Church of Saint Porphyrius, Orthodox Christian church of Gaza, Feb 2016

• 

  TechWomen at Church of Saint Porphyrius, Orthodox Christian church of Gaza, Feb 2016

• 

  Eileen Brewer at Gaza City harbor, Feb 2016

• 

  Gaza City beach, Feb 2016

• 

  Gaza City, Feb 2016

• 

  Gaza City, Feb 2016

• 

  Gaza City, Feb 2016

25 May 2021 Update:
In addition to donating to Episcopal Relief & Development which supports Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza (including the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City), here is the list of reputable first responder organizations recommended by Ryan Sturgill, Director of Gaza Sky Geeks:

Palestine Red Crescent Society, https://www.palestinercs.org/

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, https://www.pcrf.net/

Medical Aid for Palestinians, https://www.map.org.uk/

Doctors Without Borders, https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

UN Population Fund in Palestine, https://palestine.unfpa.org/

Thank you for your prayers and generous donations.

If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home). Images Copyright 2016 by Katy Dickinson and Jessica Dickinson Goodman.