Profiles of Women in IT Profiles of Women in IT Copyright 2012 by Ruth Guthrie Profiles of Women in IT This book is dedicated to the exceptional women who shared their personal and IT career experiences with us. Profiles of Women in IT Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 1. Profiles of Women in IT ................................................................................................. 7 Sarah Granger, Founder & CEO, Public Edge .............................................................................. 7 Marci Payne, Project Management Officer, California State University, Fullerton .................. 11 Denise Yamaguchi, Business Administration Analyst, Information Systems, Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc. ........................................................................................................................... 15 Jennifer Mellor, Dancer, Choreographer and Technologist & Principal Network Systems Engineer, LifeSize ...................................................................................................................... 21 Lulu Fou, Commercial Director, Accenture .............................................................................. 25 Zenobia L. Bomani, Sr. SW QA Analyst - Test Engineer, Strategic Link Consulting, Inc., Adjunct Instructor, ITT Technical Institute ............................................................................... 28 Valeria Silvestri, Digital Media and Communication Manager ................................................ 35 Dawn Chaffin, Principal Program Manager, Oracle Corporation ............................................. 38 Connie Tuck, Senior QA Engineer, Exelis Visual Information Solutions ................................... 44 Rose-Marie Gonzalez, Manager Systems Engineering, Raytheon Corporation ...................... 50 Cecile Guerra, Program Manager, The Capital Group Companies, Inc. .................................. 53 Jeanose Lexima, Graduate Student & IT Consultant ................................................................ 57 Mimi Thai-Chen, Strategic Program Leader, Managed Care Strategy and Execution, Apria HealthCare, Inc. ......................................................................................................................... 60 Gabrielle Capolupo, Sr. Director, Juniper Networks ................................................................ 65 Christina C. Wade, Web Developer, Freelance Consultant...................................................... 70 Stephanie Smith, Director, Ravenhaven Media ....................................................................... 74 Jacqueline Dilberian, Web Presence Manager......................................................................... 77 Maricel S. Camacho, IT Executive | Consultant| Entrepreneur ............................................... 80 Ruth Guthrie, Professor of Computer Information Systems, Cal Poly Pomona University ..... 84 Louise Soe, Professor, Computer Information Systems, Cal Poly Pomona.............................. 87 Chapter 2. Women in the IT Industry ........................................................................................... 92 Chapter 3. Advice for Women in IT ............................................................................................ 101 Profiles of Women in IT Introduction In the Computer Information Systems department at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, we have seen the numbers of women students dwindle since the dot com bust of 2000. While we have about 500 undergraduate majors, the numbers of women has declined to less than 10%. Yet, the alumna that return to us, describe rewarding careers, happy families, and networks of support from colleagues, friends and family. In our capstone course, student teams do a software development project for an industry client. When there is a woman on the team, she sometimes takes the role of producing the documentation for the project. This is not because of a lack of technical expertise. It is because people do not like documenting their work and the woman often gets assigned the lower value task. Women are reliable and you can count on them to go to meeting on time and meet their deadlines. More recently, women on these teams have moved into roles as project leaders. They are organized, can communicate effectively with clients and are diligent about keeping track of team members and making sure that deadlines are met. They are highly successful because they care deeply about doing quality work, getting praise from the client and respect from their team members. In a project team last year, a woman project team leader, had a client who did not know her name and did not really understand her contribution to the team. In the client’s perception of software development, there was no model for women technology leaders. At the final presentations, she introduced herself to the client politely and stated, “My name is_____ and I want you to know I was the project leader for your project and I was really responsible for all the work that made this happen.” In some ways, her story reflects attitudes about women in technological work. People (in this country) do not think of women as having technical skill and women often lack the voice to explain that they do. In Profiles of Women in IT, professional women share their experiences with technology from childhood to a technology career. They discuss what attracted them to an IT career, difficulties that they faced along the way and share advice on life and success with the reader. We hope you find their stories compelling and inspiring. In reading this book, you will find women that come from many different industries, have different levels of experience and worked with many different types of technology. Through their own words, you will see how these women built their careers in a variety of different industries. They are risk takers and adventurers, willing to jump towards different opportunities that came their way. They have remarkably positive and open attitudes, even Profiles of Women in IT when their work was difficult or the times were hard. They give sound practical advice that is great for any young person seeking a job, not only women and not only in technology fields. While the careers of these women are technological, the stories are really about having strength of character and curiosity in one’s approach to life. It is a collection of biographies that tells the human side of success in the technology industry. With this, we hope it shows: Many careers are available in IT for all kinds of people. You may find yourself drawn to something that you had not considered as a career before. Working in IT does not mean that you will sit behind a computer all day. IT careers require you to work with people and think creatively. You don’t always need an IT degree to work in IT. Many women from different background find that they are great with technology and then move into IT careers. Elaine Yakura, Louise Soe and I (Ruth Guthrie), have been studying women in information technology (IT) jobs for eight years. Our interest began in finding what characteristics women identified in themselves that made them successful. We also looked at different industries, support structures that help to retain women in the workforce and cultural issues of the work place. Looking back, we met some amazing women, each with a unique story about their journey through the IT workplace. Their stories inspired us to create this book. In so doing, we hope to inspire more women to consider IT careers. Profiles of Women in IT Chapter 1. Profiles of Women in IT Sarah Granger, Founder & CEO, Public Edge “Through this crazy journey, I realized that while I may not be the best programmer and I’ll never be a senior engineer, I do excel at communicating complex technical concepts to non-technical people, consolidating the important points, and explaining why they’re important.” Education B.G.S., “Technology & Society,” University of Michigan Background I remember distinctly the day my dad brought home our first computer. It was 1982, I was nine years old, and it was an Apple II+. He told me, “this is the future and you need to learn it.” So I did. And I loved it. He enrolled me in a BASIC programming class and I learned to write my own word game programs in no time. The computer also came with a 300 baud modem. I only used it at the time for calling my friend and typing to her, or checking the local movie theater listings, but that was the beginning of my exploration of what would soon become the Internet as we know it. In junior high, I learned to type, and I became a bit more adept at writing programs. During high school, I ran my own bulletin board system (BBS) on my Amiga computer. I had a tutor who taught me how to program in C and LiSP. I essentially became an online publisher at age 14 without realizing it, with my Titanic themed BBS, networking with local users. One of my BBS friends was arrested for phreaking, which led to my interest in computer security. Since my dad was an attorney, he asked me to help him with making computer graphics for his legal briefs, including one for the Supreme Court. These things set the stage for my career later. By the time I entered college, I knew I wanted to do something with high-tech, but I wasn’t sure what. I took more programming courses, but realized I