60 Seconds with WITS Southeast Speaker — Maria Liberovsky

Maria Liberovsky is a developer and educator at Duke University. Her workshop at WITS Southeast is “Flip the script: Testing JS to build better things”.

Why is speaking at WITS important to you?

I love that by speaking at the Women in Tech Summit I can not only connect with women who are making their way in tech, but also support an event whose proceeds are used to introduce young women to tech topics. I’ve been volunteering with Techgirlz for years, and I am impressed with how quickly the girls pick up the topics we teach, as well as the caliber of instruction and mentorship they receive. I didn’t have the opportunity to learn about technical topics at their age, and I’m honored to be able to give them earlier exposure, along with my amazing fellow volunteers, so that they don’t have to play catch-up later in life.

What inspires you?

I am inspired by doing work that makes a difference, surrounded by passionate, mission-driven people. Bonus points if I’m doing something that people think is impossible.

Most useful article you’ve read in the past month

How To Get Good At Things By Being Bad First by Erika Anderson

When you were a kid what was your dream job?

I don’t recall having a dream job as a kid, but I always knew that I wanted a creative career, and that I wanted to make a difference.

Quote about your session

Testing code is often viewed as an afterthought, especially when there are still urgent bugs to fix and deadlines looming. Sometimes even seasoned developers have no idea how to get started testing their code because they don’t have the time to do so. Come learn the basics of JavaScript testing to make your applications more robust.