About…

…Me

Hi, I’m Raquel Vélez, and I am an American technologist and community leader with a global perspective. I got my BS in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and worked as a roboticist for 8 years. I have worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Duisburg-Essen, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the University of Genoa, and Applied Minds. I have lived in 4 countries and speak 5 languages. Before developing the web, I was the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Escúchame, Inc., where I oversaw the company’s virtual community of Smart Latinas. I am a passionate advocate for technology, education, and leadership: I am an alumna of Leadership Charlotte Class 33, and a former board member of both the Latin American Coalition and Hackerspace Charlotte.

I currently work as a Developer at Skookum Digital Works, hands down the best dev shop in Charlotte, NC.

I can generally be found speaking at conferences, telling stories, writing for a variety of groups including Escúchame or Charlotte Viewpoint Magazine, learning new languages, or baking.

…this Site

At the end of 2011, I had a vision for the future of the Internet. Knowing that I wanted to be a part of that vision, I decided to get started before someone else beats me to it and leaves me behind!

Unfortunately, my skillset for developing the Internet was, as of January 2012, suboptimal. So I started at the beginning, and the beginning was this website.

Since starting this website, I have gone from near-zero to writing my first app to getting an internship in web development, to getting a full-time position as a web app developer! Don’t worry – I haven’t slowed down any, though I don’t have nearly as much time to post my random learnings.  I’m going to try really hard to get better at that though, so I encourage you to continue to follow my progress on this here blog!

Thanks for all your support