Throughout Women's History Month, including International Women's Day, Women of Color Online will present the stories of award-winning women first featured in Women of Color magazine.

Career Communications Group has presented Women of Color magazine’s science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) conference since 1995. Women of Color magazine is designed for today’s career women. Its annual multicultural event has been the premier forum of choice for recognizing the significant contributions of women in the STEM fields.

Here at Women of Color Online, our mission is to share the stories of award-winning women of color in STEM daily. Women of Color STEM award winners reflect the diversity of the largest race and ethnicity groups in the United States—Whites, Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Other Pacific Islanders. Our magazine is committed to sharing the contribution of women of color in the STEM community through their career stories.

Irene Hernandez Roberts earned more than 50 IBM software patents. She retired as a program director in the IBM Software Group, Independent Software Vendors and Developer Relations.

In that position, she led a global team of over 150 IT architects and specialists with a budget of over $15 million, working across 40 IBM Innovation Centers. Hernandez Roberts traveled to key locations, such as Turkey, India, China, Ireland, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico, to influence the local community on innovative market planning, programs, processes, and tooling. The technology architects and specialists worked closely with vendors to help them integrate IBM products and technologies into their business solutions.

She was also responsible for IBM’s Virtual Innovation Center —the entry point for technical resources that help partners develop and enable apps.

She provided mentoring within IBM and mentored high school students through IBM’s Cascade Mentoring program. She was also active in integrating the IBM Academic Initiative program across the Hispanic Community through the Computing Alliance for Hispanic Serving Institutions and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).

Hernandez Roberts is a member of the advisory committee for Latinas in Computing and a lifetime Society of Professional Engineers member. She received her Bachelor’s in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin in 1981. Hernandez Roberts was honored with the Women of Color Technologist of the Year award in 2008 and recognized in 2009 with the HENAAC Luminary award for her work as a role model in the Hispanic community.