GHC 2026
The Ally Audit: Are You Building Ladders or Maintaining Walls?
Welcome, GHC Attendees!
Thanks for joining us at the Grace Hopper Celebration 2026. This page collects everything you need for our session in one place — the abstract, your facilitators, the skills you'll walk away with, and the downloadable resources. Check back, as materials will be added around the event.
The Ally Audit: Are You Building Ladders or Maintaining Walls?
"I had to fight for everything I earned — why should it be easier for them?"
This mindset, often unconscious, perpetuates the very barriers that held us back. As women who've succeeded in tech through grit and resilience, we face a critical choice: do we smooth the path for those behind us, or do we unconsciously maintain the walls we had to climb?
In this interactive workshop, you'll conduct an honest "Ally Audit" of your own leadership behaviors. Through structured self-assessment, peer dialogue, and real-world scenario analysis, you'll identify unconscious gatekeeping patterns and develop concrete strategies to shift from "earning it the hard way" to "lifting as we climb." You'll leave with a personalized action plan for inclusive leadership that breaks cycles rather than perpetuates them.
This isn't about guilt — it's about awareness, growth, and consciously choosing to be the leader you needed when you were starting out.
🎙️ Your Facilitators
Brittany Wolfrom
Technology leader focused on strategic customer solutions, digital transformation, and championing women in tech. Leads the session's opening framing, overall facilitation, and closing resources.
Connect on LinkedIn →
Patricia Cabral‑Mercado
Patricia Cabral‑Mercado leads strategic engineering initiatives that strengthen system stability, accelerate platform modernization, and drive alignment with the organization's technology vision. With 25 years of enterprise experience — and as an entrepreneur, cancer survivor, and triathlete — she brings resilience, authenticity, and purpose to her leadership, and is a passionate advocate for diversity in technology and building inclusive communities.
Connect on LinkedIn →
Allyson Bubb
Coaches leaders to be more authentic in an artificial age so they can deliver awesome results, building sustainable habits for clarity, calm, and long-term effectiveness. A woman in cybersecurity who walks the talk, she holds an MBA, is a HeartMath certified coach, and is a keynote speaker and author. Founder of a coaching practice delivering transformational programs to leaders and teams.
Connect on LinkedIn →🧭 What You'll Walk Away With
- Completed Ally Audit — a personal assessment identifying your strengths and growth areas in inclusive leadership.
- Pattern recognition skills — the ability to spot unconscious gatekeeping behaviors in yourself and others.
- Personalized action plan — specific, measurable commitments with 30/60/90-day milestones.
- Accountability partnership — a peer connection for ongoing support and honest feedback.
- Scenario response framework — tools for making inclusive decisions in real-time leadership moments.
- Resource library — curated readings, tools, and apps for continued growth (below).
- Brave space facilitation skills — techniques for having difficult conversations about bias and barriers.
- Leadership legacy clarity — an articulated vision for the impact you want to have on the next generation.
📋 Downloadable Resources
The Ally Audit Self-Assessment
The five-dimension self-assessment from the session — mentorship patterns, opportunity distribution, feedback delivery, advocacy behaviors, and gatekeeping signals. Score yourself and spot your blind spots.
Inclusive Leadership Action Plan
The structured 30/60/90-day template for turning your audit into commitments — immediate start/stop/continue behaviors, mentorship investments, opportunities to open, and accountability mechanisms.
Accountability Partner Guide
A simple guide for keeping the momentum going with the partner you met in the room — check-in prompts, cadence suggestions, and honest questions to keep each other lifting as you climb.
Gatekeeping Scenario Response Framework
The real-world scenarios from the workshop with reframes — turning "she needs to prove herself first" or "she's too junior for that" into inclusive, in-the-moment leadership decisions.
Curated Resource Library
The readings, podcasts, and tools referenced in the session for continued growth in allyship and inclusive leadership — the destination behind the QR code we shared on screen.
Let's Stay Connected
Enjoyed The Ally Audit at GHC? We'd love to hear your takeaways and continue the conversation — connect with your facilitators above.