NCWIT is delighted to announce Dr. Marian Croak as the 2026 Pioneer in Tech Award recipient for her groundbreaking technical contributions, visionary leadership, and enduring impact on communications technology and responsible innovation.
Marian is best known for her foundational work in advancing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which allows voice and video communication to travel over the internet rather than traditional telephone lines. Her innovations helped make internet-based communication reliable and scalable at a time when internet calling and video communication were still in their infancy. Today, these technologies power tools such as video conferencing, telehealth, remote work, and countless forms of digital connection worldwide.
As a child in New York City, Marian was fascinated by the plumbers, electricians, and repair workers who came to her home to diagnose and fix problems. She was also encouraged by mentors such as her father, who built her a chemistry set that sparked her early interest in science, as well as math and science teachers who nurtured her talent. Marian went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a PhD in social psychology and quantitative analysis from the University of Southern California.
She began her career at Bell Labs in 1982, working in the Human Factors division and studying how technology could positively impact people’s lives. As digital networking evolved during the 1980s and 1990s, Marian became convinced that internet protocols could eventually replace traditional voice networks. She and her team helped pioneer the use of TCP/IP protocols to carry voice, data, and video together on unified networks. She later led efforts to improve the reliability, performance, and quality of VoIP systems, helping overcome early internet limitations such as dropped calls and poor audio quality.
While at Bell Labs and AT&T, Marian earned more than 200 patents, nearly half of which focused on VoIP technologies. Her inventions also extended beyond telecommunications infrastructure. Inspired partly by emerging large-scale SMS technologies, Marian and collaborator Hossein Eslambolchi developed text-to-donate technology that allowed charitable donations to be made through text messages and billed through mobile carriers. The technology first gained national attention following Hurricane Katrina and later helped raise more than $43 million for relief efforts after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
By the end of her AT&T career, Marian served as Senior Vice President of Applications and Services Infrastructure, overseeing more than 2,000 engineers and computer scientists and more than 500 programs supporting AT&T’s communications infrastructure. In 2014, she joined Google as Vice President of Engineering, where she has led initiatives to expand internet access in developing regions and support large-scale systems reliability for products used globally. She is currently Google’s Vice President of Responsible AI and Human Centered Technology. Throughout her career, Marian has consistently emphasized the importance of designing technology around human needs and social impact.
Marian has also been a longtime advocate for mentorship, engineering education, and expanding opportunities for women and underrepresented communities in computing and engineering. Her many honors include induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2022, she became one of the first Black women inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
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