Girlstart Executive Director Tamara Hudgins Named SXSW’s 2015 Interactive Hall of Fame Inductee

Girlstart Executive Director Tamara Hudgins Named SXSW’s 2015 Interactive Hall of Fame Inductee

(AUSTIN) – Today,SXSW has announced that Girlstart Executive Director Tamara Hudgins has been named its Interactive Hall of Fame Inductee for 2015.

Hudgins, who has been with Girlstart since 2009, is being honored for work in helping to expand and develop the Austin-based non-profit organization. Girlstart, founded in 1997, is the only community-based informal STEM education nonprofit in the nation specifically dedicated to empowering and equipping girls in STEM, through year-round programming that promotes girls’ early engagement and academic success in STEM, encourages girls’ aspirations and persistence in STEM education and careers, and incubates a talented and diverse STEM workforce.

Specifically, since 2009, Girlstart’s impact has grown from reaching 1,500 girls, teachers, and family members each year to over 15,000. Additionally, the Girlstart After School has grown from 4 to 45 programs, has been recognized as the most robust program of its kind in the nation, and is now replicating regionally. Girlstart Summer Camp, the second core program, has expanded from 8 to 22 week-long programs each summer, with replication outside Austin as well as in six states nationwide. Both Girlstart After School and Girlstart Summer Camp have been recognized by Change the Equation in the STEMWorks database, with Girlstart Summer Camp further recognized as one of four “exemplary” and “highly scalable” STEM education programs in America.

More recently, the organization has expanded beyond its Central Texas roots to offer programming in the Bay Area, Seattle, Chicago, and other urban centers with sizable STEM professional communities, and has partnered with the likes of Dell, AMD, Freescale, Google, Motorola Solutions, National Instruments, and 3M to develop STEM education programs that are helping to address the gender inequity still prevalent in the nation’s STEM professional community.

“This is an honor that reflects the work of the entire Girlstart team, and shows the importance of programming that inspires girls to pursue STEM fields of study and STEM careers,” Hudgins said. “While we’ve come a long way as an organization in our first 18 years, we’re setting our sights on making even more of a difference in the years to come.”

The award ceremony will be held on Tuesday, March 17 as part of this year’s SXSW Interactive Conference, and will include an announcement regarding Girlstart’s plans for 2015 and beyond. Since the Hall of Fame was established in 2012, honorees include web design master and entrepreneur Jeffery Zeldman, social media expert and researcher danah boyd, and MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito.

SXSW’s official announcement is viewable on the official SXSW website, at sxsw.com/interactive/news/2015/2015-interactive-hall-fame-inductee-tamara-hudgins-girlstart.