Advocating Women in Engineering Award

Claudia Galván, Ed.D., is a director of technical program management at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, leading a global team developing core cloud services to support global expansion. Dr. Galván has been a technical leader in Silicon Valley, leading global software development teams at Oracle, Adobe, and Microsoft, as well as many startups advancing technology platforms to provide multicultural and multilingual access to billions of people around the world. In this capacity, she has often been the most senior Latina engineering leader, holding roles from engineering lead to engineering manager, director, and senior director.

Some of Dr. Galván’s contributions include leading the development of the technology used to support the Adobe Updater and the euro symbol in Oracle products, and expanding Windows Live to support 48 languages in 165 markets. Her patent — US Patent 8,438,007 B1 Software user interface human language translation — was one of the early examples of end-to-end software localization.

Dr. Galván’s journey began in Mexico City, where she earned a B.Sc. in computer science at Universidad Anáhuac, and then worked as a software developer to support her studies. Shortly after her graduation, she moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where she developed educational software for the U.S. Department of Defense Dependent Schools around the world. Dr. Galván has published articles, presented at international conferences worldwide, and received coverage by national and local media.

Dr. Galván was relocated by her then employer, McGraw-Hill, to Monterey, California, where she advanced from engineering lead to senior management engineering positions responsible for end-to-end development of educational software products. While in Monterey, she completed an M.S. in program and project management at Golden State University. She earned a doctorate in educational leadership and management in 2020 at Drexel University.

Dr. Galván is a dedicated volunteer and has worked on causes supporting women and Latinos for the past 20 years. After holding several positions in the SWE Santa Clara Valley Section, she became president of the section, the largest in Region A. As its treasurer, she led the region’s dissolution efforts and, for the last four years, she led the SWE affinity groups and chaired the curriculum committee. To support girls in STEM, Dr. Galván joined the boards of Notre Dame High School and Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, advising them on STEM initiatives.

For the last 15 years, she has volunteered to teach introduction to engineering, introduction to computer science, scholarship, and parent workshops at local organizations. And for the last decade, she has mentored emerging leaders at the U.S. Department of State’s TechWomen initiative, working with women from the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia. Her involvement in her companies’ employee resource groups resulted in several awards, including the SWE Star, 100 Women of Influence in Silicon Valley, and Microsoft Women’s Empowerment Award.

In her spare time, Dr. Galván is an avid hiker, reader, and self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie who loves spending time with family and friends.