Meet the Speaker — Pragya Purohit
Pragya Purohit is a Migration Leader at Amazon. She is leading a session at WITS MidAtlantic titled, Accelerating your cloud transformation with early focus on operations and security, and is part of the panel, How to Build a Diverse and Inclusive Technical Organization.
Why is speaking at WITS important to you?
Just as much as technology matters, representation matters as well. As someone who went through their early years as an under grad and grad student studying Electrical Engg , with very few in the room that identified as women like me, I am determined to change the experience for our future girls and women in tech. I want young women considering careers in tech to know that anything is possible and share my experience. Being your authentic self, having an obsession to solve your customer’s challenges and diving deep to understand new technology has helped me so far . I would love to leverage the WITS platform to share that with others as well as learn from women in tech and foster this amazing and inspiring community. As a mother of a young girl, I am more driven to being part of the dialogue , making sure am listening and making my voice heard. I am most excited about meeting other speakers and leaders in my local community in Washington DC! Learn what they’re passionate about, learn how they overcome challenges and thrive in the world of tech.
What or who inspires you?
I am inspired by women around me, leaders , individual contributors , entrepreneurs like my neighbor, who are raising the bar. The work they present is flawless and inspiring but they are not shy about authentically sharing what it takes in the background to deliver those results. They are successful, complete rock stars but they also tell it how it is and that makes the art of the possible tangible for all of us.
One of my fav lines — The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
Most useful article you’ve read in the last month
When you were a kid what was your dream job?
Astronaut
Tell us something about your session
It is a session about operating in the cloud , securely. Cloud adoption is inevitable. It is a passion of mine, because I often engage with organizations that are trying to figure out “operations” in the cloud , but it is treated as an “after thought” . The focus will be to share with others why considering “how you will operate” what you have built or migrated to the cloud, needs early consideration and how that ties directly to your business goals like end customer experience, agility and cost. Operations and Security are not a one time activity, they are living aspects of your business and you should iterate on these aspects to continue realizing business value from cloud transformation. I am co-presenting with Danielle, who is a tenured leader in cloud security who I deeply respect, this is the first time I get to present with her, and so excited about that opportunity as well! Lastly, my session is my opportunity to share with women considering a career in tech, that it is fun, it is challenging but also fulfilling and if I can do it, you can too!
What other sessions or speakers are you most excited to see?
The sessions that am most excited about are:
- How to See the Big Picture
- Make Your Tech Talks Better — Bobbie Carlton
Hear from Pragya and the other amazing women in tech speaking at WITS MidAtlantic. Learn more and register at https://womenintechsummit.net/wits-midatlantic-2023/
