Aracelis Nass Senior Business Program Manager with more than 15 years of experience in the Tech industry. During her career at SAP, Nokia, and Microsoft, Ara has helped customers to leverage most of the latest technology developments, including Cloud computing. She is also a key player in the Microsoft partner Ecosystem.

Ara graduated as an International Relations Major and completed a Master’s in international business at FIU. She then completed her Executive MBA at Hult International Business School in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Internationalist by profession, Ara has lived in many countries and cities and has developed broad cultural awareness, with experiences in Caracas, Miami, Dubai, Seattle, and Lisbon. Either by mentoring, coaching or in speaking engagements, Ara has a passion for empowering women and the next generation to achieve more in business. She is also a Sofi Financial Institution Ambassador, focusing on fostering financial awareness and personal financial planning for the next generation of professionals. In her personal time, she enjoys running and has completed a couple of Half Marathons, including the last one, the Lisboa EDP Half Marathon in Portugal.

Julissa Judd currently serves as a Principal PM Manager at Microsoft for the Digital Security Resilience organization. She has been in technology for over 20 years in various roles in business, program and engineering. She began her career at Lockheed Martin in software engineering and program management. Later moving into leadership roles in increasing scope and complexity supporting federal, commercial, and international markets. As of currently she has been working in the Cyber Security in the Emerging Security Product Team. Julissa is a graduate of the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems. She also has an MBA in Technology Management and a Masters in Science in Engineering Management. Outside of work, Julissa is involved in many community activities, with a passion for STEM. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC) Foundation, where she serves as the Chair for the Mentoring Program. Julissa and her husband live in beautiful Orlando, Florida with their son Gavin, a Junior in High School, also interested in a technology career path.

Miri Rodriguez is a globally recognized Storyteller, and bestselling author of Brand Storytelling. She is a creative journalist and content strategist, evangelizing brand narrative and showcasing how thought leaders can leverage storytelling techniques for culture activation and influence in the digital age. Miri has earned several awards in digital marketing and customer experience and is ranked as top in-demand speaker at leading industry conferences around the world. Miri brings 15+ years of expertise, valuable industry and consulting insights matched with a lighthearted and connected delivery approach. Her social advocacy and philanthropic work include volunteering to train social enterprise leaders in Africa, coaching students at Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship in the U.S., and mentoring men and women to build their personal brand with empathy, passion and purpose. She currently works at Microsoft as Senior Storyteller for Future of Work.

Website: Mirirod.com ::: LinkedIn: Miri Rodriguez ::: Instagram: MiriRod

Jhoanna Machado
Principal Program Manager, AI Strategy & Commercialization
Partner Enablement Lead

Jhoanna Machado is a Microsoft Program Manager for Azure Machine Learning and cognitive services that has been working with partners and Digital Natives for over 20 years and with Microsoft technologies for 5 years. She focuses on driving Azure AI adoption in the Partners ecosystem via enablement and readiness, nurturing partners to successfully scale and differentiate their business with innovative AI use cases to transform customer business scenarios.

Silvia Soto Avella is a Change Manager for the Customer Service and Support organization at Microsoft. Her passion is to help organizations leverage evolving technology to foster innovation, collaboration and provide enhanced capabilities for customers. Silvia started her career as a Software Engineer, then moved on to Technical Project Management, and in her search of helping businesses make better use of their technology investments, she moved to Organizational Change Management – an area in which she gets to influence strategic business and technology programs.

Silvia obtained her Bachelor of Science from the University of South Florida and her Master of Science in Information Systems from Florida International University.

Silvia lives in Miami with her husband and son. She likes to spend time with her family walking and discovering new places in the sunshine state.

Silvia Soto Avella | LinkedIn

Ali Segovia is a cybersecurity professional with nearly a decade of experience that ranges from security monitoring to ethical hacking. Between serving in the US Navy to working at Microsoft, Ali has worked with clients of all sizes and has also served as her family’s very own personal tech help. Most recently, Ali is assisting DoD contractors with reaching newly mandated federal cybersecurity requirements. Ali has experience working with several different industries, such as education and financial institutions, and accommodating to their various levels of cybersecurity needs. She is passionate about relaying the importance of good cybersecurity practices to both large enterprises and individuals within their personal lives. As a local Miamian and an alumna of Florida International University, Ali enjoys giving back to the local community and share her expertise in the field of cybersecurity.

Ishel Zain is a junior at FIU doing her bachelor's in Business Administration and Information Systems. She is also the Vice President of Women in Technology for the AIS student Chapter at FIU. Being a woman of color, Ishel wants to work for women's representation in the tech field. She has performed and is part of a few projects and competitions of a similar nature.