In the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic this spring, entrepreneurs Rebecca Cahua and Vivian Qu joined forces, skills, and teams to create and bring to production a reuseable nanofiltration mask that combines a high level of filtration with breathability and comfort. The E-Commerce Times spoke with Cahua and Qu to hear the story behind their new mask.

IBM's outgoing CEO Ginni Rometty gave a compelling talk at IBM Think last week on how the company is fighting strategically for diversity. I know of only one other company, Cisco, that is taking a genuinely holistic, strategic view of the problem, resulting in a broad positive impact. The reason I can name only two companies is that most are taking a tactical approach.

Some of the troubling reports of corporate responses to COVID-19 include forced work in unsafe areas, not enough -- or any -- protection gear, massive layoffs and furloughs, and the sense that a critical mass of well-paid CEOs and politicians don't get that many people live paycheck to paycheck. There are exceptions though, and HP stands out, thanks to HR VP Tracy Keogh and CEO Enrique Lores.

The prison workforce development program run by Televerde delivers significant economic and cultural value, concludes a study recently conducted at Arizona State University's Seidman Research Institute. Televerde trains and employs incarcerated women, and it offers many of them employment when they leave prison. Televerde CSRO Michelle Cirocco spoke about the study and about the long-term benefits of Televerde's program.

ISACA, a global nonprofit organization focused on the development, adoption and use of globally accepted, industry-leading knowledge and practices for information systems, recently released "Tech Workforce 2020: The Age and Gender Perception Gap." Based on a survey of 3,587 ISACA members in 126 countries, this report examines the work experiences and perceptions of workers in tech fields.

Mae Jemison recently shared some illuminating recollections of her astronaut experiences, but they were neither the starting point nor the ending point of our conversation. This extraordinary woman's career is too packed with present and future endeavors to dwell very long on her stellar past. She currently leads 100 Year Starship, which aims to make interstellar travel a reality within a century.

Theresa Payton, CEO of Fortalice Solutions, is one of the most influential experts on cybersecurity and IT strategy in the United States. She is an authority on Internet security, data breaches and fraud mitigation. She served as the first female chief information officer at the White House, overseeing IT operations for President George W. Bush and his staff.

For much of this year, technology companies have been showcased in a very poor light. Several firms have been moving aggressively to buck this trend, however. HP's latest effort, in conjunction with the Clooney Foundation for Justice, is an impressive initiative to supply and fund schools in places like war-torn Syria. HP also has provided substantial support to the Girl Rising movement.

"Mobile advertising and location-based marketing are getting more and more data-driven, both in targeting and analyzing results," said UberMedia CEO Gladys Kong. "Advertisers are trying to understand more about the consumer's journey. They want any insights they can get their hands on in order to understand the consumer. Location measurement is becoming a much more important part of advertising."

"If you think about Internet threats like phishing and botnets and malware -- all of those start with a DNS -- a domain name system. And so every kind of nefarious act leaves footprints and fingerprints in the DNS. That's something that cannot be faked," said Farsight Security COO Alexa Raad. For example, "a lot of the new domain names that are registered are typically registered with bad intent."

"Everybody's using technologies like artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, marketing automation tools, search engine marketing and lead analytics tools," said Michelle Cirocco, head of global marketing for Televerde. "We're using all these tools and technologies to identify who we should communicate with, and we use them to set the stage for our marketing and demand-generation efforts."

"By using gender-neutral terms, we might change people's minds about what jobs they're qualified for and have a chance of getting. Getting rid of gender-biased terms helps level the playing field," said Heather Reed, VP of business development for G2 Crowd. "There are different phrases that we use and don't even think about it," she said, "like 'right-hand man,' or 'manning up,' or 'chatty Kathy.'

"It's only a few times in the history of the U.S. and in specific domains do you have the opportunity to make decisions and have a lasting effect on that domain," said Circadence VP Keenan Skelly. "In terms of information cybersecurity, we're right in the middle of it right now. We're just figuring out what global norms should be."

I recently attended Dell Technology World, which shone a light on one of Michael Dell's passions: addressing the lack of gender diversity in the tech industry. Some time back he asked the most powerful woman at Dell, CCO Karen Quintos, to spearhead an effort to fix the problem. One of the leading experts on the problem, Howard Ross of Cook Ross, indicated it was getting worse -- not better.

"People have a fear that if they show any type of vulnerability, that's a bad thing," said Palo Alto Networks Sales VP Amy Slater. "But I've learned over time that people want to work with and learn from humans. I've modified the way that I was leading, and in doing so I've become more approachable. Instead of being stiff and by-the-book, I started to create my own brand of being human."

Starting a new online service "was a great business opportunity to combine nutrition with technology," said Jackie Elnahar, CEO of TelaDIetitian. "I'm also very passionate about making nutrition information mainstream. I don't think seeing a registered dietitian should be a luxury. Anyone who needs to see a dietitian should see one, and it should be easy to."

FutureProof Retail aims to redefine the in-store checkout experience. "From the consumer point of view, when you go shopping you have people who help you and service you, and you walk away happy," said President Di Di Chan. "What we're doing is bringing the online offline, to centralize that service. It's not just the top VIP shopper who can enjoy that experience -- everyone can."

After addressing the topic of sexual harassment and misconduct in Silicon Valley last month, I finally got my hands on a copy of Brotopia, an eye-opening new book, and a lot of executives should be happy I did not pursue my career in law enforcement. Otherwise I would be working my butt off to get them off the streets behind bars. Everyone connected to tech should read this book.

"Human capital management is the idea that your humans are your capital, and so you should be investing in them and managing them, making sure that you're giving your talent opportunities to grow, and that they have purpose in their work," said HighGround CEO Andee Harris. "Human resources is more about HR benefits and core HR systems," she noted, while HCM "is more about people systems."

In the data science field today, "the big problem is that the industry does not have official data science training," observed Vivian Zhang, CTO of the NYC Data Science Academy. "Their majors don't teach them anything in the industry. We've become a natural transition funnel to bring those people in. Companies know that data science is important, but they don't know how to do it."

"Girls in Tech is a global nonprofit. We focus on engagement, education, and empowerment of girls and women in technology," said Ishita Mandhan, a software engineer at LSQ and program director for Girls in Tech. "It's important to provide the support network to help women to develop their careers in STEM fields. Girls in Tech's Global Classroom "teaches girls and women around the world."

"I was always interested in analyzing the data," said LogicHub Chief Product Officer Monica Jain. "I was introduced to a company that was a pioneer in the market, and that's where my career in security started. I fell in love with security because it's all about finding and analyzing the data, and about crunching the data. That's how I started with security. I've never left it since then."

"Coding is one of the most in-demand skills. There's a myth out there that you need to have this skill only if you work with computers, but as society develops, you're going to see coding in every field. This is a skill that's needed in all job sectors," said Rachel Décoste, director of the Congressional App Challenge. "The jobs of tomorrow will require, if not coding, at least an understanding of how it works."

"I care about helping more women get into technology, so I spend a lot of time teaching girls from sixth grade to high school so that they're more educated about STEM fields," said Heather Wilde, CTO of ROCeteer and TWIP. "I'm also chair of the engineering school's advisory board at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to help steer the school toward new directions."

Analytics is "about having a sense of curiosity -- the ability to look at data and say, 'what is it telling me?'" said Olivia Duane Adams, chief customer officer at Alteryx. "I define analytics as 'the ability to ingest any and all relevant sources of data that might help answer a question being asked.' Analytics is the ability to use all the data you have to answer a question."

"My team has always, from day one, been 70 percent female," said Trustify President Jennifer Mellon. "You know, we're not a flower delivery service -- we're doing private investigation. It's not a space women often lead in, so I'm really proud of that. ... Over 45 percent of my team identified with a protected minority population -- including LGBT, race, ethnic and religious minorities."

Uber Technologies on Monday lost its second-most-important executive in a shakeup stemming from an internal investigation into sexual harassment charges. The changes at the top reportedly could include the temporary loss of Uber's founder and chief executive, Travis Kalanick. Emil Michael -- who served as the company's senior vice president of business and a key lieutenant to Kalanick -- is out.

"I've helped shape the conversation," said Debbie Berebichez, chief data scientist at Metis. "It's empowered me to mentor young women and also to shape policy. At Metis, we offer a scholarship to women and minorities, so we do things actively to bring women in. I also try to recruit and hire women. Even though it's a tech company, over 60 percent of the employees at Metis are women."

"We saw that there was a lack of kindness, a lack of empathy ... and we thought it would be nice if we could use technology to do something about it," said MarySue Hansell, president of A Better World. "We thought Facebook offered a wonderful opportunity to use a large technical platform to create a virtual world that would have a big impact, with a game that emphasizes positive thinking."

Gender bias affects contributions to the open source community, according to a paper published Monday. Female programmers' suggestions for code changes in open source projects -- called "pull requests" -- were accepted more often than those of their male counterparts when gender was unspecified. However, that changed when the gender of a pull request's author could be identified.