About Tech-Moms

Tech-Moms was created by three independent and inspiring people who wanted to open doors for Utah women to gain economic freedom through flexible careers in tech.

Trina Limpert had a 25 year career in Utah’s tech industry, and faced the frustration of always being the only woman in the room and never having enough female applicants to consider when she was building her own teams. Trina got connected with Mikel Blake who had followed the Tech-Moms pathway herself (becoming a software developer after taking a career break) and wanted to share this opportunity with others. Robbyn Scribner had spent her career researching and writing about women’s issues, but her passion had always been women’s career development, so she joined Trina and Mikel and Tech-Moms was born.

Since launching the first cohorts in September of 2020, Tech-Moms has helped hundreds of women to recognize that you can have a rewarding career and still make it to your kids’ soccer games. This program has provided hope and inspiration to many women who couldn’t see a path forward. By giving women confidence in their abilities through education, professional development, and a supportive network, Tech-Moms is creating the change they want to see in the world.

Technical Training

Each class is lead by an expert technical trainer. The instructors teach the coding curriculum (HTML, CSS, and intro to JavaScript) as well as helping the students build their personal websites throughout the course of the program.

Pillars of our Program

Career Exploration

Our guest speakers are professionals working in their respective fields. They provide students with an understanding of what skills are required to be successful, as well as the pathways to gaining those skills and getting the job.

Supportive Community

The key to long term career success is a feeling of belonging. Tech-Moms is building a lasting community of support with resources such as on-going coaching, supplemental classes, events, social media groups, and more.

Meet the Co-Founders

Vison. Innovation. Leadership.

Mikel Blake

Executive Director

Mikel Blake’s mission is to empower women and make tech careers accessible to all. She is a mother of three and chose to parent full-time when her first child was born. After almost a decade out of the workforce, she was interested in restarting her career, and was drawn to technology and software development.

Initially, she taught herself how to code using online courses and resources. But hungry for community and additional support, she enrolled in a full-time developer bootcamp, where she was one of three women and the only mother in the program. She spent five years as a developer at Degreed before leaving to co-found Tech-Moms.

Mikel has been honored with a “40 Under 40” Award from Utah Business Magazine and a WIN100 award from the Wasatch Innovation Network. Mikel has a long history as a personal investor in a number of Tech startups.

Mikel Blake Tech-Moms Executive Director

Trina Limpert

Director of Operations

A passionate business leader known for constructing strategic vision to achieve business goals, Trina Limpert is CEO of RizeNext, and an expert in strategic diversity experience execution. In her prior role as President of Women@eBay (overseeing 1500 members across 17 countries and 22 sites), Trina led diversity and inclusion initiatives across the company.

Her work with eBay’s Women in Technology organization earned her the Women Tech Council Impact Award in 2015. Trina was also a finalist for the Women Tech Council awards in 2017, she has been recognized by the National Women in IT, New York awards for Rise Up Leadership as “Diversity Program of the Year” in 2020, and Trina was chosen as one of Utah Business Magazine’s “30 Women to Watch” in 2020.

Robbyn Scribner

Director of Outreach

Robbyn Scribner is a women's labor force expert, consultant, and career coach. Robbyn is also a regular keynote speaker and presenter focusing on women’s professional development. As a prolific researcher and writer on women’s issues, she has published more than 50 reports, articles, or snapshots on topics including labor force participation, the gender wage gap, male allies, workplace flexibility, and women’s careers. She is also the creator of an in-depth online course designed to help women re-enter the workforce after a career break.

Robbyn holds Master’s and Bachelor degrees from Brigham Young University, and she is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach. She has a special interest in researching and writing about women’s work life integration, highlighting the challenges women face in trying to balance work and family responsibilities, while advocating for creative solutions to advance women’s professional wellbeing. A mother of six rowdy kids, Robbyn loves to play volleyball, sing, and hike in the beautiful Utah mountains.

Robbyn Scribner Tech-Moms Director of Outreach

Meet the Team

Dedication. Expertise. Passion.

Sarah Baca

Professional Career Development

Sarah is a big mountain snowboarder, road, gravel, and mountain biking mama, pianist, writer, Weber State University graduate, and a yurt enthusiast. Being a part of Tech-Moms has allowed her to meet countless incredible women, hear their stories and help them draft a professional narrative they can be proud of. The network and community found in this organization are unmatched. Since graduating from Tech-Moms, she has piloted the Resume and Interview Program, completed a Junior Front-end Engineering Certificate and designed and built the website you are looking at now.

Merianne Gates

Program Manager

Merianne is often the first face someone sees when they apply to Tech-Moms. She graduated from the program in the spring of 2022 and was thrilled to the join the team to assist others in making the same investment in their future. Merianne has continued her web development education in hopes that she will eventually be ready to transition into a career in development. She is most proud of having earned her Bachelor's Degree, run a "bucket list" marathon, and survived potty training her 3 children while gaining all the negotiation skills associated with that experience.

Analeia George

Outreach Coordinator

Analeia recently graduated with her bachelor’s in strategic management, emphasizing corporate social strategy, negotiations, and advocacy. During undergrad, she found meaning as a research assistant, interviewing female founders about their stories of struggle and success. In her career exploration process, she met Trina Limpert who became an important mentor through unexpected life changes. Analeia considers in an honor and privilege to work for Tech-Moms. In her free time, she fights healthcare inequities and then finds joy in the outdoors, dogs, music, writing, painting, yoga, and sunsets.

Katie Kearns Swenson

Social Media Marketing Manager

After leaving her full-time job to raise her children, Katie came across a Tech-Moms ad; she applied, completed the course and graduated in April 2021. She loved the community so much that she wanted to be involved and get a front-row seat watching lives change! Katie is a Tech-Mom of four and she loves spending time with her family in the great outdoors. Fun facts about Katie: She played D1 College Softball, is a dedicated foodie, and can often be found being the “loud mom” at her kids' sporting events.

Tech-Moms Advisory Board

Wisdom. Guidance. Experience.

Natalie Birrell

Senior Vice President of Product Engineering at AMH, brings over two decades of leadership experience across diverse organizations, from startups to multinational corporations. She focused on shaping AMH's product engineering into a global powerhouse, overseeing Product Management, Software Development, Quality Engineering, Design, Business Intelligence, and Data Engineering. Beyond her professional achievements, Natalie is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in tech, serving on local women-focused organization boards. She holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Utah and is a proud mother of five.

Alison Lutjemeier

Allison is the Head of Global Customer Feedback Programs for the Experience Cloud at Adobe. She has been managing Customer Feedback Programs for twenty years and has worked with thousands of global enterprise companies, bringing new innovations to enhance digital marketing solutions. Alison was one of the founding members of the Adobe for All council, where she engaged Adobe’s diverse community of employees to scale and accelerate company growth and drive high-performing teams. During her tenure, she had the privilege to work with many nonprofits throughout Utah. Currently she sits on the Advisory Board for Women Tech Council and was a finalist for the Women in Tech award in 2017.

Nubia Pena, Senior Advisor on Equity and Opportunity to Governor Spencer J. Cox

Nubia Peña

Ms. Nubia Peña is the Senior Advisor on Equity and Opportunity to Governor Spencer J. Cox and the Director for the Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs, where their mission is to promote an inclusive climate for Utah's growing diverse community through training, outreach, policy and research efforts, and youth leadership development. She is also a 2023 Presidential Leaders Scholar. During the past 20 years, she has worked as a community organizer, ally for underrepresented populations, and policy advocate. Ms. Peña has the great opportunity to facilitate dialogues amongst local and national leaders on complex topics of inclusion and justice working to create access for historically underserved communities.

Dr. Kyle A. Reyes

Is a tenured Associate Professor of Education at UVU and has taught courses in Multicultural Education, Family and Community Partnerships, and Arts-based Integration. His research focuses on arts-based student empowerment, leadership for equity and access, and institution-wide inclusion and diversity strategic planning. He has given more than 550 presentations over the past 17 years on issues of diversity, inclusion, art, cultural competence, voice, identity, multiculturalism, and leadership. He is currently finishing a 4-year book project entitled, Lenses of Humanity. Kyle received his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Utah and was the recipient of the Bennion Morgan Fellowship.

Sam Gardiner

A partner in the Salt Lake City office of Mayer Brown and a member of the Emerging Companies & Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Capital Markets practices. Sam is also part of the Life Sciences and Technology industry groups. For over 24 years, he has been a trusted advisor to his clients in a full range of transactional matters. His M&A experience includes counseling buyers or sellers in financial or strategic transactions involving private or public companies in a wide variety of industries. In just the last decade, Sam has assisted clients in more than 100 mergers and acquisitions, financings, or similar transactions. Clients value Sam’s counsel on corporate governance, securities regulation and other issues.

Gonzalo Peña

An innovative thought leader and storyteller. Gonzalo started INNOLATINO PODCAST & NEWSLETTER to inspire communities to adopt attitudes and mindsets that will help them succeed and grow in strength. He’s had roles in the international arena and his experience covers everything from Wall Street to the FBI, to the Utah Opera. In addition, Gonzalo is a super connector who believes in the power of community and culture to help its people grow and prosper. He treasures his Latin American heritage as something from which he can draw strength and knowledge, and help others find strength in their roots. He relies on values, history, heroes and culture in his content, so organizations can draw power from it and be successful.

Danette Pulley

A passionate community builder that connects people and causes for powerful outcomes to make a difference. After 20 years as a marketing and operations consultant, she turned her past experience as a champion for community into a career and works as the Vice President of Community Growth at MarketStar and the Executive Director of the MarketStar Foundation. In this role, Danette connects resources to create growth that strengthens communities through collaborative impact programs that expand education, empower self-reliance, and build communities. As a Mom of two daughters, the most important work is the daily empowerment of potential through education, extracurricular, social and family activities.