During Women's History Month 2026, Google announced it would honor Marian Rogers Croak in “The Art of Possible,” a new documentary highlighting her remarkable career.
According to Google, Dr. Croak is a trailblazer in STEM whose work underpins technologies used worldwide, from her pioneering Voice over IP (VoIP) patents to her leadership in Human Centered AI and Machine Learning at Google.
The documentary uses Google's AI tools, Veo3 and Nano Banana, accessed through Flow, to visualize parts of her story where historical footage is unavailable, preserving her legacy in a new format. Her story powerfully reminds us that “the way things are does not have to be the way things will be.”
Marian Croak received a standing ovation at the 2014 BEYA STEM Conference. She was honored with BEYA's Outstanding Technical Contribution in Industry award, presented by John Donovan, senior executive vice president of AT&T Technology and Network Operations.
“As much as Marian has influenced the telecommunications industry, she continues to make an even bigger impact in the community," observed Donovan at the 2014 BEYA Gala. "A tenacious advocate for the development of women within STEM careers, Marian works with female colleagues to ensure they don’t feel pressured to change their personality to fit their roles in the organization. To further help women advance, Marian sponsors several STEM-related employee resource groups to provide community and guidance, and works with female high school students pursuing math and science careers.”
BEYA recognizes inventors, innovators, scientists, engineers, managers, and executives who excel in private industry, government, and the military, demonstrating the value of expanding opportunities.
In 2022, Marian Croak was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The citation read:
She advanced Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies, enabling voice data to be transmitted as digital signals over the internet instead of traditional phone lines. Her contributions have made audio and video conferencing practical and widely accessible.
In 1982, Croak began her career at Bell Labs (later AT&T) in the Human Factors research division, focusing on how technology could improve lives. She later worked in network engineering, where she and her team envisioned handling both voice and internet data over the internet, rather than using separate systems. They prioritized making voice traffic reliable and high-quality. Today, VoIP technology is essential for remote work, conferencing, and personal communication.
Croak and her team developed a text-to-donate system for charitable organizations, first widely used after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, raising $130,000. Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the technology generated $43 million in donations. Croak joined Google in 2014, where she is now vice president of engineering and leads the Research Center for Responsible AI and Human-Centered Technology. She has also led efforts to expand broadband access in developing countries in Asia and Africa.
Croak earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and her doctorate from the University of Southern California, specializing in statistical analysis and social psychology. She holds over 200 patents, works on racial justice initiatives at Google, and continues to encourage women and girls to pursue engineering.
Dr. Croak’s work helped change the way we integrate communication capabilities. Dr. Croak’s work transformed how communication technologies are integrated into daily life. She enabled TV viewers to participate in reality show voting through text messaging.
The engineer envisioned an alternate use for this technology–one that would enable people to efficiently donate money for charitable groups responding to natural disasters. She thus developed the technology that enables us to text a designated number to donate to an organization such as the Red Cross.
After the 2010 earthquake hit Haiti, for example, the American Red Cross raised more than $32 million via individual $10 donations from people who texted the word “Haiti” to 90999.
“This is a great example of rapidly employing modern technology to support a vitally important foreign policy and humanitarian priority,” P. J. Crowley, assistant secretary for public affairs for the State Department, said in a Red Cross press release.