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.

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.

Pillars of our Program

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.

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.

Meet the Team

Dedication. Expertise. Passion.

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.

Marissa Kearns Zander

Placement Coordinator

After hearing about Tech-Moms when their first cohort launched, Marissa applied and started in the Spring of 2022. She learned a lot about technology and it gave her new career goals to push herself towards. She has always been passionate about diversity in the workplace, and wanted to be a part of an organization pushing for the same goals that she has. Marissa has multiple years of experience in tech as well as business consulting. In her free time, she enjoys camping, cooking, crafting, and spending time with her husband Zach and their dog Olive.

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.

Sarah Baca

Resume and Interview Coach

Sarah is a big mountain snowboarder, road/gravel/mountain biking mama, pianist, writer, WSU graduate and a yurt enthusiast. She came to Tech-Moms through a good friend who valued the network and community found here. For her final project, she built her website to display her writing from over the years. She loved the way you could incorporate creativity and design, with complex skills in tech. Since graduating TMs she has started a Junior Software Development course, piloted the Resume and Interview program, and updated/redesigned the site you are looking at now.

Dev-Moms

Del and Ally met during the first Tech-Moms cohort and maintained their friendship during their continued education in a Web Development program. They teamed up to create a website for a client and realized that they could help other women learn the same skills and build their own portfolios. According to RizeNext, women “only make up about 15% of the state’s tech workforce,” and Dev-Moms is helping the next generation of women to close that gap.

Dev-Moms Co-Founder

Del Yarisantos

Del is a first-generation immigrant who served in the Utah Army National Guard and spent over six years in B2B sales. Del started in tech working for a blockchain start-up a year before being laid off amidst the pandemic. During that time, she found Tech-Moms and her journey blossomed as a Full-Stack scholarship recipient, Hackathon winner, Co-Founder of Dev-Moms and graduate with her Masters in IT Management. Del now mentors Tech-Mom graduates with her Dev-Moms program on how to build and deploy websites with small business owners.

Dev-Moms Co-Founder

Ally Nickell

Ally began her career as a teacher but was looking for a better work-life balance once she had her son. She began Tech-Moms having never written a line of code before. Less than two years later, she is now a Software Engineer and also the Co-founder of Dev-Moms where she leads Design and Development. She loves that she can give back to the program by helping other Tech-Moms learn new skills and apply them for small businesses by designing and making websites. In her free time you can find Ally enjoying the outdoors with her family.