Nadiyah Johnson and Benjamin Juarez are on a mission to create more Black and Brown tech professionals and entrepreneurs in Milwaukee.
Johnson is the founder and CEO of The Milky Way Tech Hub, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting racial diversity in the tech industry.
Juarez is co-founder of Latinos in Tech, a nonprofit that aims to uplift Latino tech talent through resource-sharing events and professional development, according to its website.
For Johnson and Juarez, Wisconsin Tech Month, also known as WI Tech Month, provides the ideal platform to talk about equity in the tech industry and the need to create more access for Black and Brown professionals and entrepreneurs in the state’s growing tech industry.
While Wisconsin Tech Month is put on for all tech professionals, the two leaders of the initiative – Johnson and Juarez – shared their journeys into tech to highlight the need for more diverse representation in the industry.
Equity in tech
Juarez, a software professional with over 12 years of experience, started his professional career working in public policy. It was only after a project working with coding that uncovered his interest in tech.
“Nobody told me anything about this,” he said. “You know, I had to discover this at like 30 on my own, you know. So that’s when I decided to really get in on this.”
Johnson’s journey was different but similar to Juarez’s; it’s her experience in tech that makes her want to spread the word.
She said by the time that she entered the field of technology, she was surrounded by white peers who had been seemingly programming since they were in middle school.
“And I was just trying to differentiate the job of programming language from a hot cup of coffee, so I didn’t know up from down, and that was one of the reasons why I realized really quickly there should be more of us in this space,” said Johnson, who wants to make Milwaukee a city known for producing Black-led AI companies and Black millionaires in technology.
Working in tech
Blanca Gonzales, the executive director of i.c.stars, a technology based workforce development program, said tech is an ever-growing industry and because of that, new minds are necessary.
“Technology is always growing, adapting and changing so there is no way a school’s curriculum can keep up with the industry,” Gonzalez said. “So what we do is take people who have shown some level of interest and resilience and teach them the trade and support them so that they can be among the best.”
Tech professionals like Johnson and Juarez emphasize that working in tech spans various fields.
“Tech can mean working with data, making video games, or even in nursing,” Juarez said.
One thing that is clear is that tech is emerging in both Wisconsin and the region.
Earlier this year, Wisconsin was named a tech hub by Gov. Tony Evers, projected to bring over 30,000 jobs and $9 billion in economic development in the next decade.
“It’s important for people to see Wisconsin Tech Month as an economic driver, specifically to start to spearhead the innovation and emerging technology space,” said Johnson.
For more information
You can visit Wisconsin Tech Month for a list of events, locations and more information. You can also visit Milky Way Tech Hub and Latinos in Tech to follow groups doing this work.