To see Deborah Berebichez, Ph.D. (pictured) passionately address a room of tech industry leaders, you may be surprised to learn there was a time in her life when the scientist, educator and first Mexican woman to earn her Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University feared she may never have the opportunity to pursue her dream of working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM.

Berebichez, chief data scientist at Kaplan Inc. (DBA Metis), tells a moving story about breaking down in tears to a fellow student as they walked through Harvard Square, desperate for the chance to study physics. Her dream flew in the face of gender misconceptions, cultural expectations, academic prejudices and her own family’s wishes. “I was told from a very young age that physics was for geniuses and that I had better pick a more feminine path. … When I confessed to my mom in high school that I loved physics and math, she said, ‘Don’t tell the boys, because you’ll intimidate them, and you may not be able to get married,’” Berebichez said.

Berebichez recently spoke with Rebecca Knight (@knightrm) and Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the recent Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing event in Orlando, Florida.

The biases Berebichez encountered throughout her professional journey failed to deter her. In fact, the overt nature of the biases only served to embolden Berebichez and made her opposition far easier to pinpoint — and fight. This experience inspired her life’s mission: to help create academic and professional opportunities for marginalized groups in STEM.

“Think deeply, be bold, and help others,” she urged of her audience during her keynote address at the Grace Hopper Celebration.

This week, theCUBE spotlights Dr. Deborah Berebichez in our Women in Tech feature.

Forging a path on a secret, lonely journey

Berebichez grew up in a conservative community that discouraged girls from pursuing careers in the hard sciences. While she appeared to acquiesce to social standards by pursuing a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at a local university, Berebichez was unable to ignore her fascination with math and physics and studied hard sciences in secret. Isolated and driven only by her hunger for knowledge, she sought placement in a university in the U.S.

“At least I’ll have my numbers to keep me company,” Berebichez recalled thinking as she applied to schools without telling her family.

It wasn’t until she was admitted into Brandeis University in Massachusetts that Berebichez had the courage to take her first official science course, an astronomy class. It was here that she met the graduate student who supported her through a private mentorship, enabling Berebichez to take on a physics major with none of the prerequisites.

“[He] decided to mentor me and tutor me 10 hours a day for eight weeks,” she said. Their combined efforts paid off, and Berebichez began her academic career in STEM.

Berebichez expresses her gratitude for the guidance she’s received by paying it forward. “That’s how my mission in life started: to inspire, encourage and help others — especially women — but minorities who, like myself, want a career in STEM but for some reason, whether it be financial or social, feel that they cannot achieve their dreams,” she said.

Her personal mission is not only to improve diversity and inclusion by the numbers, but to transform the industry fundamentally changing the objectives of those who work within it. “Becoming a technologically savvy person is not just about learning how to code. It’s about learning how to think. … In our enthusiasm to quickly get more women to code, I’m afraid that we are not emphasizing … critical thinking,” Berebichez said.

Turning information into knowledge

To make her vision for the future of tech a reality, Berebichez works from the ground up, leading programs that nurture the future careers and leadership opportunities for young girls. In partnership with The Moody’s Foundation and Girls Inc., Berebichez developed the first data science education program for high school girls. She’s worked as global ambassador for Technovation Challenge, a tech competition for young women that helps to teach underserved girls coding skills. And, she’s served on the boards for professional women’s organizations, such as The Scientista Foundation and MENTE, which she founded after proposing it in her 2013 TED Costa Rica speech. Her television show, “Outrageous Acts of Science,” is yet another of her efforts to engage the masses in hard science through accessible, enjoyable outreach.

Berebichez’s mission is more critical now than ever. A recent Gallup poll shows that female students are 13 percent less likely to be aware of computer science learning opportunities in schools, and have half the confidence of their male peers when it comes to studying the subject. Political and professional opponents to her cause are vocal and, sometimes, unyielding.

“There’s no doubt that a career in physics or computing can be a lonely journey for a woman,” Berebichez stated.

Her commitment to making that journey a less isolated one is not only for the sake of these sidelined groups, but the future of tech as a whole. “In the professional world there are even more important questions. … How will your code impact … the world at large? Is your algorithm biased? … Can you achieve your goal in a way that will benefit society?” she said.

Technology directs society’s progress as a community, and a lack of diversity in the industry means the creation of products, services and ideas that don’t necessarily serve everyone in that community, Berebichez explained. “We’re entering an era in which technology should be guided by our values as much as our ingenuity,” she added, quoting Stanford professor and Google Cloud’s Chief Scientist of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Fei-Fei Li, who was a keynoter at the Grace Hopper event.

‘I am a strong woman; deal with it’

Despite the dispiriting statistics and substantial work ahead, Berebichez is nothing but confident and grateful for the progress she and the industry have made so far. “With perseverance and hard work, the world is yours,” she said.

Throughout her journey, Berebichez has remained true to herself, rightfully refusing to acknowledge a disparity between her identities as a woman and a scientist. The video that kickstarted her career in science communications, The Physics of High Heels, cheekily taunts those detractors who warned she would not find her place as a woman in science.

The roadblocks Berebichez encountered along her journey in tech and science were vital to her ultimate successes, as she forged new paths forward. “The people who get to the end of the line and succeed in life are not the ones that simply persevere and get everything right. They’re the ones who keep getting up. … It’s the courage to get to the end and persevere even when failure exists,” she said.

Berebichez closed her keynote at this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration with an inspiring sentiment. “I am a strong woman; deal with it,” she concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

Photo: SiliconANGLE