We are pleased to lift the curtain and announce the first-ever Women in Drupal Awards winners initiated and hosted by JAKALA (formerly FFW). Taking place on Thursday, the 22nd of September, in Prague during DrupalCon Europe 2022, award trophies were handed by panel members led by Kitt Ralkov, Head of HR & Experience EU at JAKALA (formerly FFW).
The awards aim to honour and spotlight women in tech and pave the way for younger females through role models in the industry. It’s no secret that female representation is lacking at all levels in the IT business, backed up by global statistics that state women continue to be underrepresented in the tech industry: As of 2022, between 25%-30% females work in the IT sector.’
That’s why, together with the Drupal Association, we created the Women in Drupal Awards to highlight female talent and raise awareness. We believe that women should be a vital part of the Drupal community and hope to bridge the gap between genders in the tech industry by celebrating the remarkable achievements of innovative women in Drupal.
The event celebrated female talent contributing to Drupal across three categories:
- Define: Everyone who works on defining an innovative Drupal project, be it a strategist, a designer, a founder or any other changemaker.
- Build: Builders and makers have their place here, including developers, architects, or HR specialists recruiting talents to build an innovative Drupal agency. Community members who help create a thriving Drupal community can also be nominated.
- Scale: Everyone involved in scaling platforms or businesses could be a candidate for the Scale award. It’s a category for developers as well as sales talents or consultants.
This year’s award winners are:
- Cristina Chumillas (Define category)
- Surabhi Gokte (Build category)
- Stella Power (Scale category)
Nominations were open to the Drupal community from the beginning of August to September, and we received around thirty nominations for women with multiple achievements related to Drupal. An esteemed panel of judges selected the winners based on the abovementioned categories. The jury consisted of members of the Drupal Association: Baddy Sonja Breidert, CEO and Co-Founder of 1xINTERNET; Rachel Lawson, Senior Manager, Community Strategy at Digital Impact Alliance; Zsófi Major, Hackathon Manager at Parity Technologies, as well as Michael Drejer, Head of JAKALA Germany, UK & Nordics.
We are so proud to host an award series that showcases the efforts and contributions of outstanding females in tech, and we look forward to many more DrupalCons!
