15th Annual 2022 Women Tech Award Recipients
October 19, 2022
On September 22, 2022, the Women’s Tech Council announced eight award recipients from its twenty one finalists. Each woman was recognized for their various accomplishments and influence in the technology sector in Utah.
Following are profiles and highlights of the award recipients:
Tech Leadership Award: Dr. Pallavi Ranade-Kharkar, Intermountain Healthcare
Dr. Pallavi Ranade-Kharkar currently works as the Director of Research Informatics and Precision Health for Intermountain Healthcare. She has 25 years of experience in enabling high-quality, safe, cost-effective, and patient-centered healthcare.
Ranade-Kharkar has worked as a research investigator for multiple federal grants and has written over twenty peer-reviewed publications. She has presented her research at both national and international conferences. She currently serves as the Advocacy Director on the board of Utah Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Here she works on the urban-rural digital divide and equity of access. She is also a national advisor to the Department of Veteran Affairs, helping implement clinical research technology.
When asked to give advice for young women Ranade-Kharkar says, “Go for it. The path may be hard, but if you think you have the passion for it, just go for it. Take one day at a time when things get hard, and you can do it. You can absolutely do it.”
Trailblazing Innovator Award: Kirsten Timms, Myriad Genetics
Kristen Timms is the Senior Vice President of Biomarker Discovery at Myriad Genetics and has worked on several disease areas including diabetes, obesity, and autoimmune disease. For the last 12 years Timms has focused on cancer genetics. She leads a team of lab researchers who work on research projects or run production assays for patient samples and works with other stakeholders in the company to ensure processes make sense and are on the right track.
Timms received a bachelor’s degree with honors at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand and went on to get her PhD there, studying abroad in Berlin for a year as a German Academic Exchange Scholar. Timms did a post-doctoral study in Richard Gibbs lab at Baylor College of Medicine, where she worked on the early phases of the Human Genome Project.
“It was a huge honor to be included among this impressive group of individuals,” says Tims. ”Increasing the visibility of women in tech is extremely important as it provides students and younger women in STEM the opportunity to see role models, which helps to break down gender stereotypes in what has traditionally been a male-dominated field.”
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