Microsoft Research and The America21 Project Partnering to Put Urban Focus on STEM, Technology

On Feb. 20, Microsoft Research, in conjunction with The America21 Project, announced the three pilot cities for the Activate Local Communities Across America Initiative (ALC): Chicago, Portland, Ore. and Cambridge, Mass. The ALC, which grew out of a challenge last summer from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and was featured Jan. 31 during the White House Tech Inclusion Summit, focuses on making America’s cities vibrant, inclusive centers of urban innovation and entrepreneurship that can connect talent from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students in diverse communities to the economic opportunities of the 21st century. Watch the “Bridging the Gender Gap” videoLearn more about Women in Computing on MS Research’s new website

Jenny Lay-Flurrie: Microsoft's Voice of Accessibility

Think Beyond the LabelSpeaking to Jenny Lay-Flurrie, you’d never know she has been deaf almost all of her life. Even through her charming British accent, Lay-Flurrie speaks sparklingly clear—like a television news anchor. Her job is senior director for Microsoft’s Accessibility Customer Experience, a demanding role that requires meetings, both in person and worldwide, with customers and co-workers for as many as nine hours a day. That’s a lot of listening and communicating for anyone. But Lay-Flurrie takes it all in stride—and says she always has. As a toddler, Lay-Flurrie developed deafness as a result of measles, and her hearing has progressively declined since. Her sister has congenital hearing loss and her father has mild hearing loss as well. “It was a noisy home,” she joked. But she credits her parents, both school principals, for being acutely aware of her and her sister’s needs.

Microsoft Named Top Organization for Multicultural Business Opportunities

DiversityBusiness.com recently announced the “Top 50 Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities.” Over 1,300,000 diversity business owners participated in an online election to determine the “Top” fifty organizations and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. was named the #1 company for providing business opportunities to diverse business owners throughout the United States.  Microsoft ranked #40 on the list.