Jacqueline Gibson '15

Jacqueline’s time at Ursuline was bookmarked by her involvement in several clubs including leading the Ambassadors, serving as president of Sewing for Others, participating in the travel Model UN team, and playing piano for 4 years in the string orchestra. She credits her time spent participating in UA’s global relationships programs (notably Junior World Affairs Council) with igniting her love for travel and international impact. And it was in her e-Serviam and web design class that her love for web technology was born, leading her to her current career. She graduated Summa Cum Laude and was selected as the recipient of the Sedes Sapientiae award.

She was awarded a Forty Acres Scholarship, the premier full ride scholarship to The University of Texas at Austin, and was the first Computer Science student selected in the program’s history. She served as a student leader in the Senate of College Councils and the President’s Student Advisory Council. She was a member of two of UT’s oldest honor societies: Texas Orange Jackets and the Friar Society. Additionally, she founded and led the Association of Black Computer Scientists, was initiated as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and was an autonomous robotics researcher in the Learning Agents Research group. Jacqueline graduated with a BSA in Computer Science and a BA in African and African Diaspora Studies with Special Honors. She was the recipient of prestigious awards including Distinguished Graduate for the College of Natural Sciences, the President’s Leadership Award, and selection as a university wide commencement speaker.

After UT, she moved to the Seattle area to begin her career on Microsoft’s accessibility tooling team. She conducted internal and external training for thousands, helping engineers across the world learn how to build technology with accessibility in mind. She set aside time to give back, through mentorship of young engineers, management of the intern program, and volunteering to lead the professional/personal development program for Early in Career employees across the US, LATAM, and EMEA regions. While working, she completed her Master’s in Computer Science at Columbia University, where she specialized in accessibility interventions for blind and low vision individuals. Her last research collaboration was selected for publication at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), the top venue for social computing research.

Jacqueline currently works as a Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft and resides in DFW. She keeps busy with travel, volunteering, and trying to stay ahead of the shenanigans of her dog, Watson.