Furthering its Women Empowered and Women in Digital Initiatives, Cognizant has become a sponsoring partner of MAKERS, a feminist media brand that tells the stories of today's trailblazing women to inspire the changeMAKERS of tomorrow.

Cognizant representatives this week participated in MAKERS’ annual conference, held Feb. 5-7 in Los Angeles. Donna Tuths, Senior Vice President and Global Leader, Interactive, Cognizant Digital Business, led the Cognizant delegation, accepting a 2018 appointment to the MAKERS board of directors. Tuths took the main stage on Feb. 7 with more than 40 other MAKERS board members as they publicly announced respective company pledges to advancing gender equality in the workplace. 

Cognizant’s 2018 pledge is:

To help close the gender gap in tech by getting more girls into STEM and by equipping 12,000 Cognizant women across North America in 2018 with the critical digital skills needed to advance at all stages of their careers.

To fulfill the pledge, Cognizant will leverage programs offered through Cognizant Academy, the Company’s internal skills-development center, Cognizant’s Making the Future STEM education initiative, and various public-private partnerships it has activated across the country to promote workforce development and digital skills training.

Representing Cognizant, in addition to Tuths, at this year’s MAKERS conference were:  Diana Buxton, Chief Marketing Officer, Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance; Shameka Young, Vice President, Communications and Technology Consulting; Poornima Ramaswarmy, Vice President, AI and Analytics, Cognizant Digital Business; and Lester Lam, Vice President, Digital Strategy, Cognizant Digital Business. 

Tuths said, "Our participation in MAKERS gives us an opportunity to lend our voice to the dialogue around gender diversity and join some of the world's most admired companies in making a difference.”

MAKERS, established in 2012, was launched to empower women to ‘break every ceiling’ by providing a ‘storytelling platform for the trailblazing women of today and tomorrow.’ Original MAKERS include Gloria Steinem, Ellen DeGeneres, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Madeleine Albright.  The organizations’ annual conference is a gathering of influential women from around the US while its website features thousands of interviews highlighting female leaders such as media mogul Oprah Winfrey, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandburg, and more.

Click here to read more about MAKERS and the 2018 MAKERS Conference.