Unbound: Reconnect to Your First Spark

Below we feature Brenda Darden Wilkerson’s opening remarks from Grace Hopper Celebration 2025. 

Good afternoon. It is an honor to be here with you, in this city of grit and grand vision. 

We’re gathered in a place built on resilience and bold dreams. I’m reminded of a truth that reshaped my understanding of purpose: something a wise friend once told me that changed how I see the world: the Sahara Desert feeds the Amazon Rainforest. A place of seeming emptiness sustains the most vibrant ecosystem on Earth. 

Counterintuitive? I think it’s humbling and a perfect metaphor for our time. 

Because let’s be honest: the ground beneath us feels more like shifting sand than solid footing. Technology is sprinting while humanity is still tying its shoes. We’re building intelligence without wisdom, and speed without direction. The result is a widening chasm between possibility and preparedness, between what can be done…and what should be done. This is our crucible. 

And if you need a model for how to face a crucible, look at the city we’re in. Chicago wasn’t built because it was easy. It was built on grit. It burned to the ground and rose from the ashes with a new blueprint, stronger, more innovative, unafraid of the future. It’s a city that has always understood that identity is a foundation you build upon, even when the ground feels unstable. 

This moment is commanding us not just to adapt, but to evolve. And I think we can all agree; that takes courage. The courage to be present in a world of distraction. The courage to be vulnerable in spaces that reward performativity. The courage to lead with humanity in systems that reward cold efficiency. 

That evolution starts not with building something new, but with remembering something old. Something essential. 

You. 

Before you became a title, a function, a resource on a spreadsheet, you were a creator. You were a problem-solver. Something on the inside of you was ablaze. You held a ‘First Spark.’ Can you remember yours? 

Maybe it was the sheer wonder of making a machine obey your will—that first moment when your code compiled clean, and something came to life on the screen. The satisfaction of an elegant solution, where complexity melted into clarity and you felt, just for a moment, like a magician. 

Or maybe for you, as for me, it was something deeper. A quiet but persistent desire to connect people across distance and difference. To heal what’s broken: in systems, in communities, sometimes even in ourselves. To empower someone: to speak, to move, to learn, to be seen. 

Maybe it was watching your grandmother navigate a touchscreen for the first time and realizing that technology could be a bridge. Or the pride of seeing a tool you built help a small business thrive. Maybe it was the late-night conversations about ethics and equity, or the dream of building something that outlasts you. 

Whatever it was—wonder, purpose, love—it brought us here. And – it – still – matters. 

But let’s be honest. 

That original, unbounded version of you—the one who saw systems as playgrounds and problems as invitations—doesn’t always make it past the mock interview, or resume screener. The leader who once reimagined an org chart to unlock cross-functional innovation, or who turned a budget constraint into a catalyst for strategic reinvention, often gets flattened into bullet points and buzzwords. The executive who challenged legacy metrics to surface what actually drives impact might now be coached to “stick to the script.”   

Over time, that version gets conditioned. It gets polished for presentations, trimmed to fit timelines, softened to avoid conflict. It learns to speak in acronyms and smile through ambiguity. It gets diluted by consensus, boxed in by job descriptions, consumed by the pressures of leadership, and often, buried under layers of “what’s realistic,” especially in these times. 

The ‘you’ that shows up to most meetings is a compressed, corporate-safe version of that brilliant, original creator. The one who once built things just to see if they could exist. The one who asked “why not?” before that leadership role demanded you ask, “what’s the ROI?” 

And it’s not your fault. The system rewards predictability. It favors the familiar. From our school days, it taught us to trade boldness for belonging, originality for alignment. 

But here’s the thing: that wild, imaginative, slightly rebellious version of you—the one who colors outside the lines and questions the premise—is still in there. Waiting. Watching. Whispering. Maybe for such a time as this. 

Today is the day we allow them to speak again. And this is the place. I give you permission. 

Because the world doesn’t need more polished personas. It needs your spark, your full self, your flame—the messy, brilliant, curious, courageous, different self. The one who dares to dream, dares to disrupt, dares to build what hasn’t been built yet. Dares to protect who hasn’t been protected yet. 

It’s time to stop editing ourselves out of our own story. Let’s bring that original creator back into the room. 

Not just for ourselves, but for everyone who’s waiting on what only we can make. 

This is your wake-up call! The times call for it. 

The world does not need the compressed version of you. It needs the “unbound” you. 

The one who leads with empathy, who builds with intuition, who endures with a resilience that you got from your experiences. The one who pushes back on the statement, “But we’ve always done it this way!” That is the you we need this week. That is the you the world is waiting for, whether they realize it or not. The you that drives toward the bigger purpose. 

That drive to create with purpose is etched into this city’s DNA. This is the city that reversed a river; not for a small project, but for a grand vision of public health. It’s the city where Dr. Jesse Eugene Russell pioneered the invention of the cell phone, Motorola built it here—not just to make calls, but to redefine human connection. That’s what happens when a spark is fueled by a vision for the collective. 

The world doesn’t need another version of brilliance optimized for approval. It needs the unbound you. The one with perspective and resilience. These aren’t soft skills; they are your sharpest tools. And no algorithm can outmatch their strength when we are in community. 

We live in a world architected for fragmentation, where legacy systems default to division. But we are not here to patch the old cracks. 

Our mission is to overwrite that code. 

It is time to re-member—to bring the members back together. GHC is the perfect place to start.  

Our purpose is to pour a new foundation for tomorrow; one where the core principle is connection. 

To re-member is not to look backward, but to assemble a new, more whole world from the pieces. This is the work. And it starts with us. And you’re in just the right place at GHC 25 to make a difference. 

We are here to consciously assemble the future. 

Your ‘First Spark’ is a vital ‘member’ of this whole. When you unleash your unbound, authentic self here, you are offering an essential piece necessary to expand our collective body. You become limitless. When you, limit, less! 

We cannot and should not build alone. The future of tech that works will not be built by technologists in silos. It must be built by coalitions. 

It will be built when an engineer, an ethicist, and an educator decide to solve one problem, together. When a designer, a lawyer, and an artist choose to imagine one new reality, together. 

These other disciplines are Sahara nutrients. What seems peripheral is essential. But dust is passive. Do not wait for the wind. Become the force that sets the wind in motion. 

This city, my city, is the ‘City of Big Shoulders.’ That’s not just a poetic line; it’s an operating system—a recognition that progress is carried collectively. Chicago is not only a city of strength; it is a global city, a living example of invention and the ingenuity born at intersections. It shows the world what an inclusive future can look like. That’s the legacy we step into this week: to be a new generation of big shoulders, not just to carry weight, but to lift each other up. 

This is the legacy of the AnitaB.org community. We celebrate 25 years of GHC, where the manifested vision of pioneers like Grace Hopper and our visionary co-founders, Anita Borg and Telle Whitney, have bridged worlds:  

machine and human,  

logic and imagination,  

discipline and disruption.  

We’ve built coalitions across academia, industry, and government to challenge norms and reimagine what leadership looks like.  

From launching mentorship networks that span continents, to partnering with companies, from startups to the Fortune 500 to reshape hiring practices, to co-creating inclusive curricula with universities that center equity in the technical sciences—our collaborations have been bold, intentional, and transformative.  

The impact is evident every time a technologist refuses to wait for permission to innovate, or questions a bias baked into a system, or rewrites the rules to make space for others. We remember that inclusion is not charity, it’s foundational. It’s the very architecture of innovation itself. 

Well, who bears the responsibility for what comes next? It doesn’t belong to the machines. It belongs to you. You are the cavalry. 

And a tip about the cavalry: it only works where it is present. So, where are you? Are you here performing your title? Or are you here emanating your spark?  

This is the mandate for this week. Your one mission: Reconnect to Your First Spark, so you can help us re-member our collective future. 

In every session, in every conversation this week, let that be your guide. Offer your spark generously. And then fan the sparks you see in others. 

Bound was the narrative of who you were; who we were. Unbound are all the possibilities of who you, and all of us, are meant to be. Unbound is how we build tech in a world that works for everybody. It is the very reason we must build, now. To build not for a predictable world, but for a resilient one. A world where our technologies are sustained by human connection, and our communities are sustained by the tools we build. 

Let’s remember who we are. Let’s build from that place. And let’s see what world we can light up, together. 

Thank you and welcome to Grace Hopper Celebration 2025! 

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