Women in Tech Panel

About this panel

OCSU is thrilled to host the Women in Tech panel. Join us in the Atrium (E-building) at the Okanagan College Kelowna Campus on March 23rd at 6:30pm.

The panel will be hosted by an OC Prof, Sarah Foss, and will bring local women together from diverse fields and positions to share their lived experiences, navigating the tech industry. They will also discuss the realities of a field that’s always changing, yet still has a large gender disparity.

Join us in listening to each panelist’s story and be inspired by their journey.

Meet Our Moderator

Sarah Foss
Is a technology enthusiast and a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in the field. From a young age, Sarah was captivated by the potential of technology to change the world, and she has since dedicated her career to exploring and teaching others to explore its capabilities.
Sarah holds a Bachelor of Computer Information Systems from Okanagan College and a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia, where she focused her research on computer science education and natural language processing. Now, as a professor of Computer Science at Okanagan College, she teaches programming and is deeply committed to making computer science accessible and inclusive for students of all backgrounds.

Meet Our Panelists

Lisa St. Laurent
Is currently the Director of Data and Software Architecture at QHR Technologies Inc., a Canadian Healthcare Technology Company, bringing innovation to the healthcare system for Providers and their Patients. She had her start in the Computer Information Systems program at OUC where her graduating project team she was a part of developed a prototype EMR “Accuro”. The team, along with other business partners, brought Accuro to market and was later acquired by QHR. Lisa has had a 20+ year career with experience in a variety of technical roles and specializing in Data. She has built and lead many teams focusing on mentoring and helping others to build their careers.

Lonnie Dower
Is currently the Director of Analytics at Pela, the creators of Pela Case and Lomi.  Prior to Pela I was the Director of Analytics at FreshGrade. I’ve been working in tech in the Okanagan for the past 7 years. I moved to Kelowna from Seattle where I worked for Boeing as a Data Scientist for 6 years after completing graduate school at Simon Fraser University in 2010.

Lorelei Guidos, EIT
Is a software engineer working for an industrial automation company, Raptor Integration Inc., out of Salmon Arm, BC. She was part of the inaugural graduating class of the Thompson Rivers University Bachelor of Engineering and graduated with co-op and distinction as valedictorian for the Faculty of Science. Lorelei has been with Raptor since 2019 when she started as a co-op student. She went on to complete five work terms there before returning as a full-time software engineer. She has led R&D projects, customer-driven projects, and participated in technology fairs and industry trade shows. Lorelei was the only female in her university program and is the only full-time technical female at the company she works for. She is passionate about helping other women to go into STEM and feels that building dialog about these opportunities is a key part in that.

Patricia Lasserre, PhD
For Patricia, computer Science is about supporting people to do what they need to do in the best way possible. She applies those values to both her research in computer vision and machine learning, as well as for teaching. Her projects ranges from developing tools for supporting learning (AR/VR), decision making (Machine Learning, AR/VR), or community (OCR for Cree documents). Patricia has completed her PhD on Vision for Autonomous Robots in Toulouse (France) in 1996. As Associate Professor at UBC Okanagan, she has received the Teaching Excellence and Innovation (2010), and was the Associate Dean (Student & Curriculum) from July 2011 till February 2016, and Associate Provost, Enrolment and Academic Programs from June 2016 till June 2019. Her experience in administration increased her urgency to support diversity, equity and inclusion, particularly of women and indigenous people in the computer science field. She is currently leading the redesigning the computer science major at UBC Okanagan to encourage under represented group to consider this career choice.