Silicon Valley Board of Directors

Maria Olson

President

Maria Olson is an experienced Silicon Valley executive who is a champion of STEM initiatives. Her extensive background in the high-tech industry across enterprise software, cloud, storage, telecommunications, and consumer products has taught her that we excel when we team with others who add value and share in our core beliefs of innovation, customer service, and integrity.

Throughout her career, she is fortunate to have been mentored by some of the finest leaders. In turn, she enjoys being a mentor and advocate for others. In particular, her interest in spearheading and supporting initiatives that are aligned to Women in Leadership.

Cheryl James

Chair, Volunteer

Cheryl serves on the board of directors of High-Tech High Heels because of her passion for STEM. She is a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and specializes in helping families, professionals, and small business owners achieve their dream lifestyles and goals. Prior to working in financial services, she used her engineering expertise working in defense and intelligence communities and later in the high-tech industry and several startup companies in Silicon Valley.

She is passionate about promoting STEM for young women to inspire tomorrow’s creative and innovative thinkers who will become the next generation of movers and shakers that have the potential to change the world.

Venkat Avasarala

Treasurer

Archana Gopal

Chair, Academic Relations

Hope Bovenzi

Chair, Communications

Mohit Arora

Board Member

Sarah D’Souza

Board Member

Sarah has served on various committees with HTHH-SV since 2019. She leads strategic business development at Axiom Global Technologies, where she established a Diversity-focused staffing practice. Sarah works in collaboration with DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) and Talent Acquisition decision-makers, and is devoted to crafting industry-leading teams while developing award-winning inclusive company cultures for Axiom’s clients. In her free time, Sarah enjoys teaching girls how to golf and surf, and is passionate about breaking the barriers to entry in these male-dominated sports.

Darcy Huston

Board Member

Darcy has a passion for mentoring girls. Her involvement with Big Brothers Big Sisters, first as a Big Sister, then led to joining their Board of Directors in order to help with their Community projects and Fund Raising efforts. As a mother of three daughters, Darcy has lead multiple Girl Scout troops and held Girl Scout Service Unit Leadership positions in Program Management. Leader Support and as Cookie Chair.

Darcy is one of the newest board members of High-Tech High Heels and is looking to focus on Fund Raising for programs to help more girls discover an interest in STEM fields.

Andrea Lim

Board Member

Olivia Thomas

Board Member

Olivia started her career in the oil & gas industry after getting her B.S. in Chemical Engineering. After working for 4 years, she completed her MBA and transitioned into a Leadership Development Program at Western Digital doing a variety of roles. She now works in Strategic Planning in the Flash Business Unit at Western Digital primarily focusing on pricing, market analysis, and competitive insights.

Olivia has volunteered with multiple organizations in the Bay Area focused on bringing STEM to schools. She is passionate about educating girls and young women about STEM and what opportunities exist within STEM fields.

Ravi Poddar

Board Member

Ravi Poddar is an accomplished engineering leader with a passion for STEM. He has a love for science and mathematics and enjoys teaching and exciting young minds about what is possible through STEM education. Through his work at Amazon and other leading technology companies, he has a view into the latest technology trends and what employers will be looking for in their future technology oriented workforce.

Ravi is looking forward to bringing these learnings to High Tech High Heels and working with organizations to bring these skills to our next generation of leaders.

Kathleen Mason

Board Member

Kathleen Mason is an accomplished sales leader with a decade-long track record in driving business success through cutting-edge cloud solutions. As a Sales Leader for Storage Services at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kathleen spearheads a team of diverse, top-tier sales executives, empowering businesses with innovative cloud technologies.  Kathleen has held several leadership roles in both global enterprise companies and startups in Silicon Valley.

She is passionate about nurturing future talent through mentorship and internship programs, aiming to inspire and guide individuals towards successful career paths in STEM.  She is committed to bridging the gap in women and underrepresented groups in STEM by advocating for equal access to education and promoting mentorship programs.

Dhara Vaishnav

Chair, Governance

Dhara Vaishnav is an experienced technology leader with over 15+ years of experience in High Tech/Consumer Electronics with focus on Digital Transformations, Data Engineering/Data Science, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning.  She is driven to inspire, empower, and motivate  girls/women to pursue a career in STEM and challenge the status quo for themselves and generations to come. She is passionate about building  “high-impact” teams by embracing the collective experiences and diverse perspective of individuals to bring equity in STEM education, workforce, and executive leadership.

Kousalya Nagakarthick

Board Member

Kousalya Nagakarthick is an experienced SOC digital designer with adept knowledge in implementing and executing digital/mixed-signal SOCs across telecommunication,

networking, wireless connectivity and IOT product lines as well as leading predictive execution, power integrity and implementation across cross-functional units.

She has been the head of a number of initiatives and is member of the Leadership team of WIT (WomenInTechnology, EmployeeResourceGroup) at Renesas. She successfully lead the expansion of Renesas-HTHH SnapCircuits School program within Renesas, Europe and across the globe. 

 

Kousalya is an advocate of STEM initiatives for schools and universities as well as a speaker, influencer, and mentor.