Aniza Brown is the CEO of the Rosie Project, a program Brown founded with Beth Rhoades to remove barriers for military spouses.
“Military spouses serve alongside our service members through every permanent change of station, deployment and temporary duty assignment,” the program’s website reads. “The Rosie Project acknowledges the sacrifices made by military spouses and has implemented educational programs to empower them to advance their careers into mission-critical positions within the Department of Defense, parallel to their spouse’s military career.”
In practice, this looks like providing training in portable skills and offering daycare and laptops to military spouses to support their learning.
Brown attended Northern Arizona University and pursued electrical engineering with a software background. She went on to become a software developer for Raytheon Missiles & Defense. She then continued her career at Hill Air Force Base in Utah with the 309th Software Engineering Group and was appointed as chief of corporate transportation. She led the initiative to deploy innovation centers across Utah, aimed at promoting a culture shift toward cross-functional teams, increasing employment opportunities, and transforming software development and automation.
Brown pioneered the creation of a collaborative ecosystem where industry, academia, small businesses, workforce training programs, entrepreneurs, startups and venture capitalists intersect with Utah’s aerospace and defense industry.
“I believe I was always destined to be an engineer. As a child, I would take apart my dad’s radios to figure out what was broken and try to fix it or build clocks from scratch,” Brown says. “My interest in innovation and technology was nurtured by my parents, who allowed me to break things and attempt to put them back together. Today, my passion for technology and innovation drives me to create ecosystems that support our military members and their families. From adopting technology faster than our adversaries to filling mission-critical positions, I have expanded my interest in technology and innovation in ways I never imagined.”
Today, Brown serves on several boards aimed at access to entry for women in technology, including the Women Tech Council, 47G and Silicon Slopes. She hosts a podcast called “Motherhackers,” which explores the stories of mothers and women in the tech industry.
“Above everything I do in tech, I am a mom of two banshee children who not only attend my events but are as much a part of Rosie Project as I am,” Brown says. To Main Page