Balancing the Genders in STEM

This month’s blog posting is an excerpt from the Diversity Best Practices newsletter.

Balancing the Genders in STEM
By Lindsey Clark, Member Research Analyst, Diversity Best Practices
Publication Date: May 24, 2016

Women and minorities comprise 70 percent of college students but less than 45 percent of STEM degrees. Further, women make up only 26 percent of the computing workforce.

Where are the women in STEM fields? According to the National Girls Collaborative Project this is what the STEM landscape looks like for recent female graduates:

• 39% of chemists and material scientists are women
• 27.9% of environmental scientists and geoscientists are women
• 15.6% of chemical engineers are women
• 12.1% of civil engineers are women
• 8.3% of electrical and electronics engineers are women
• 17.2% of industrial engineers are women
• 7.2% of mechanical engineers are women

What is the cause of this imbalance of gender in STEM and how can it be solved?

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) identified three major causes - social and environmental factors shaping girls’ achievements and interest in math and science; the college environment; and the continuing importance of bias, often operating at an unconscious level.

It will take an effort from society as a whole to stop the negative stereotypes about girls “innate” ability or lack thereof in mathematics and science. AAUW also reported that even a subtle reference to gender stereotypes has been shown to adversely affect girls’ math test performance.

Many DBP members have a commitment to changing the STEM demographics. For instance, Capital One hosts an annual Future Leaders Forum for Young Women. Capital One is also creating a pipeline of diverse talent through the community initiative called "Future Edge" which will invest $150 million over five years to build human capital via education and job skills training. Another DBP member, Cisco, has made major efforts in recruiting college age women by introducing visit days at corporate offices around the world and partnering with Green Light for Girls. This partnership gives young girls the opportunity to participate in free, hands-on workshops learning about programming and electronics. The women’s networks at both of these companies are leading these initiatives.

Some companies, such as Atlassian and Pinterest, are turning to internships to help change the gender geography of their industry and tap into the collegiate pipeline.

Atlassian focused on generating awareness of its internship opportunities among female applicants, ensuring that hiring panels for interns were gender diverse and providing unconscious bias training for all employees involved in the hiring process. The company was able to recruit an engineering intern class of 27 students, 44 percent of whom are women. Slight changes have had major results.

The Pinterest intern class is  53 percent women this year, up from 32 percent in 2015. What changes helped this shift? Decisions such as removing the names of candidates’ schools and prior companies from notes given to engineers throughout the interview process and adding reminders throughout the recruiting process about the importance of keeping an open mind.

Tweaking the hiring process does change the numbers. One could argue, why does it matter having more women in STEM fields? Besides the obvious benefit of diversity in the workplace, STEM jobs are among the highest paying.

The average salary for a tech professional is $96,370 annually.  Dice (a career site for technology professionals) recently reported on the top paying tech hubs. Besides Silicon Valley, the top regions are Baltimore/Washington, D.C with $102,873 (5% increase in average salary from 2015), Minneapolis with $100,379 (9% increase in average salary from 2015) and Portland, Oregon with $100,309 (10% increase in average salary from 2015).

By 2020, there will be 1.4 million computer science jobs available in the US according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Using the 2016 average salary – that means over $134 billion will be paid to members of the technology industry. If the status of women remains unchanged, women will be get only $35 billion of that figure.

According to the UN Women, at the current pace of change, it will take more than 80 years to achieve gender parity in economic participation. To help the industry that has the biggest strides to make, there needs to be a focus on increasing women in STEM from the start of their careers.

Welcome to the WIT Women’s Business Owners Special Interest Group (WBO SIG) blog!

We had an impressive turn out for the Women Business Owner’s first Spring into Action session "Communicating, Writing, and Winning: An Insider's Guide to the Proposal Process" on April 26th at Venable with Tim Gibson as the speaker. Our series this Spring is focused on adding resources and information to your business owner toolbox that will help you to grow and protect your ideas and venture.

 

The feedback for Tim’s session was great, and we appreciate him taking the time to share his insights about how to win Government funding to help grow your business.  We asked him for a summary of his presentation. He sent a few tips for proposal writing and included some additional information at the links below. First the tips:

• Proposal writing is much like taking a written exam.  First, read the question.  If necessary reread it several times.  Answer the question (proposal), clearly, precisely, understandably, completely, and with as much detail as required.
• The goal is for the readers to understand what you propose to do with as little time/difficulty on their part as possible.  A hard to understand proposal … is a hard to fund proposal. 
• The proposal should flow logically from one concept to another.  Explain each concept “clearly, precisely, and understandably.”  If several concept/ideas/products will be put together into a component or deliverable, explain how this “integrating” will be done after explaining the individual parts. 
• If there are technical or programmatic risks to what you are doing, address how you will deal with those risks to minimize the Government’s risk.  Ideally, move any risk reduction forward in the schedule; this avoids cataclysmic problems at the end.  Do not try to hide the risk or hope the customer “will not see it.” 
• Never underestimate the power of a figure or diagram to explain something better than a page of text.  Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.
• Facts work better than hyperbole.  If your company is great or your employees are more highly trained, explain why this is true, don’t just claim it. 
• Tailor your past performance section on every proposal, don’t just pull that section from the last proposal and recycle it. 
• Write in “one voice.”  Even if several people are collaborating, have one person go through and make everything read like one person wrote it because a “one voice” proposal is easier to read and looks far more professional. 
• Pay special attention to the Executive Summary. It is your “elevator speech” to get them interested and keep them reading.  If you wrote it early in the process, edit it last to ensure it reflects your final proposal and that it is as clear and compelling as possible.
• Plan your time; avoid the dreaded weekender or all-nighter; and above all, good luck!

If you have questions, Tim would love to hear from you at tgibson@parasangsolutions.com.  His web site is www.parasangsolutions.com.  He also shared a shorter version of his presentation, which is available at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sx308qwkm3jpbwi/AADe9WpYwgxLUZUVOV56EqrWa?dl=0

 

We look forward to seeing you at Session 2 of our WBO SIG Spring into Action series, Protecting Your Business: The Nuts and Bolts of Navigating Contracts & Beyond, on May 31st!

 

Arti and Robin

 

Arti Varanasi, Chair, WBO SIG

Robin McDougal, Vice Chair, WBO SIG

 

 

Suzanne Campbell, Director, Federal Systems Engineering, VMware Public Sector

Suzanne Campbell is a recognized business and technology leader in the Federal IT community. Her 20+ years of experience span tenures at VMware, EMC, IBM and her own consulting practice. Suzanne has accomplished a strong track record of success with over 14 years in leadership positions. Suzanne has led teams ranging from 10 to 100+ employees, exceeding business growth objectives and delivering successful customer business and IT outcomes. Suzanne thrives leading and growing high performing solutions and engineering sales teams, supporting team and individual development, and cultivating collaborative partnerships internally and with clients and solution providers across the Federal ecosystem. Her background includes expertise in software development, systems engineering, program management, pre-sales systems and solutions engineering, business and financial operations. Suzanne holds a B.S in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and is a certified Project Management Professional.

YP team met with Suzanne for a short interview to get to know her, here is a summary.

Describe, anonymously or not, the best manager you know, and why they are so good at it.
Suzanne thinks that the key characteristic of highly skilled managers are being a listener, not a teller and an enabler without micromanaging so that one can bring the best out of employees.

What music are you grooving on?
Suzanne is currently listening lots of pop as that’s what her 13 year old and 15 year old are into in addition to GarageBand. She enjoys 80s, 90s music.

Any tips on staying energized when the going gets tough?
Reframe the situation. Listen to the inside message because chaos is opportunity and solving means growth.

What are some of your favorite vacation spots?
Suzanne has a couple. SF for its innovation and beauty, DC for being the most powerful city, Italy is her favorite vacation spot and she also enjoys diving in Maui. She used to be a scuba diver!

Maria Sasinowski, Microsoft

Maria Sasinowski started at Microsoft less than three years ago as their first Federal Sales college hire in the pre-sales engineering role.  She has since been a key player in Microsoft’s first cloud deals for the intelligence community and lead the Windows 10 migration sales strategy for DoD. In November, she became an Account Executive on the Army team managing 350,000 users across give major commands. She will be the chapter lead for Girls in Technology NoVa next year and has been a guest speaker for girls in STEM at high schools in Metro DC.

YP team met with Maria for a short interview to get to know her, here is a summary.

What music are you grooving on?
Maria is so into Brian Adams' new rock/pop album and is a big fan of Sia.

Describe, anonymously or not, the best manager you know, and why they are so good at it.
Maria had 3 managers within 4 years whom she is grateful for different aspects of their managerial skills.  She had a hardworking technical manager who would fight for the team, another sharp one with great diplomacy and political skills, one who is big on recognition and awards and finally one who would treat the team with fairness.

Any tips on staying energized when the going gets tough?
Maria calls her favorite customer to cheer up and get some positive energy. However, she suggests to remind ourselves what gets us excited and employ that.

You win the lottery for $10 million. What do you do?
Maria would invest it and would not tell anyone! She also added that a vacation would be another way to spend the money yet it’s not enough to quit her job.

Sonya Jain, Founder and President, eGlobalTech

Founder and President of eGlobalTech, Sonya Jain, a PMI certified individual, has 20 years of Information Technology (IT) and management-consulting experience working primarily in the Federal Government sector.  She founded eGlobalTech in 2004 with a vision of creating a family-friendly company based upon principles of the book Fish!: Bring a positive attitude to the job; be present; have fun; and make someone’s day! After more than a decade as a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, Sonya left to start eGlobalTech; determined to create a company that could be successful in providing management consulting services and be responsive to client needs.

 YP team met with Sonya for a short interview to get to know her, here is a summary.

What are some of your favorite vacation spots?
Sonya enjoys her vacation time in India especially Bangalore and Mumbai and Eastern Europe. She loves Croatia as well.

Any tips on staying energized when the going gets tough?
Sonya gets her energy and determination from her work. Whatever comes to her way, she remembers that she has a team to lead and run her telecommunications company and moves on.
 
Which of your special projects or undertakings are you most proud of?
Sonya is an out of the box thinker who spends time with brainstorming with people. One of her key accomplishments was when she prepared the federal government CIO for fedramp from planning to implementation.

Annelise Dubrovsky, Senior Manager, Product Development, Appian

Annelise Dubrovsky is a Senior Manager of Product Management at Appian, the world's leading Business Process Management company. Annelise has spent over ten years shaping, building, and delivering Appian’s product vision to more than 4 million users worldwide. She is the leader of a portfolio comprising five development teams, a co-author of Appian's patent-pending SAIL technology, and a frequent speaker to customers and prospects. 

Annelise is a long-standing champion of Appian corporate culture and an ambassador for women employees, serving as a mentor and board member of Appian's Women's Leadership Program.  She has a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and lives in Herndon with her husband and daughter where she enjoys cooking in her free time.

YP team met with Annelise for a short interview to get to know her, here is a summary.

Which of your special projects or undertakings are you most proud of?
Building software that serves people to make life easier for us! She gets her satisfaction from making an impact through software design. She's passionate about creating tools that would make people focus on their work.

What music are you grooving on?
Not so much music but lots of NPR.

Any tips on staying energized when the going gets tough?
Annelise acknowledges that there is always something challenging; stepping back, putting things into perspective as well as feeding off other people's enthusiasm is key.

Describe one of your favorite travel adventures.
Annelise wisely told us that any place could be an amazing vacation spot as long as you have good company. Well, she grew up at Indian Ocean, not much that can beat the precious Island, Mauritius!

Sophia Paros – Finding a Career by Recognizing Your Strengths

Sophia Paros is the Cyber Technical & Development Support Team Lead of the Cyber Security Workforce Technical Programs Branch supporting the Cyber Workforce Development Division of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). In this role, she provides oversight and guidance to both government civilian and contract personnel to manage to cost, schedule and performance of the Information Assurance Support Environment (IASE) ‐ DoD’s primary source for Information Assurance training, policy & guidance, and Cyber Defender ‐ DISA’s continual cybersecurity awareness program. Sophia earned a dual‐Bachelors in Business and Information Systems from the Notre Dame of Maryland University, and a Masters of Science in Engineering Management from George Washington University. She enjoys spending time with her Big Fat Greek Family, traveling, and crafting.

On sexism in the workplace:
I actually started off as a software engineer, so that’s really male dominated, and I was often the token female in the room or on the project or in the development phase, and it was hard to gain the same level of respect that my male counterparts did.

Sometimes it’s not even about being smarter, but it’s definitely about being better, whether that’s being a better briefer or a better presenter or correspondent. A lot of government work requires a paper trail, so if you can’t be clear in your written correspondence, which a lot of people aren’t no matter what their gender is, that sets you a level above. How clear and concise can you be in the shortest amount of time? I’m sometimes a bit wordy because I’m trying to be clear, especially because a lot of the time I’m not in the office to field questions.

On charting a path in IT:
I kind of fell into IT by accident and I learned a lot about myself and the way I learn in undergrad. I went in pre-law because I’m a great debater but it was too much reading and I learned that I don’t have great reading comprehension. And I’m fluent in Greek so I was also going to major in Spanish thinking I could work at an embassy or something. And then I took a computer class and just kind of fell in love with it. And I excelled at it because all of my work in undergrad was very project oriented, so in order for me to get a grade I had to do something. It wasn’t just reading and taking a test, I actually had to punch out code. I’m very detail-oriented and it was very practical so it was a natural fit for me. I wrote code for 13 years but gradually started to get out of it because once you’re good at it, it’s hard to grow, aside from team leader. I had to veer from development to do more project management. But without having the baseline knowledge of some of the IT systems, I don’t think I’d be as successful as a project manager because I can still guide my team and understand the technicalities. I often joke that I can translate “geek speak” to English. So to the non-tech person, I can translate requirements and analysis, and then back to the team of which piece of code or which tool.

On contracting versus government work first:
It’s definitely helpful to do contractor work first because you get to see a different side of the government. From a contractor’s point-of-view, you get assigned the work but you don’t have that much of a voice, depending on your government lead. But you’re so deep within what you have to do to accomplish the mission that you get that level of experience and you understand the contractor’s perspective. I transitioned directly into a project manager role when I moved to the government, so I had a very good understanding of how to manage the contract side, the FTEs, the hours and the labor – the billing aspect of it. But I actually had a voice being on the government side.

On advice to women graduating from college, what work to look for and what to do in those positions:
I still tell my family that I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up. I have just always chosen opportunities for myself that I felt comfortable in, so I always liked what I was doing. So if your undergrad is in one area and you end up finding a job in another, fall into something you enjoy doing or enjoy learning from, because every experience should be a learning experience for your next position.

On problem-solving:
You can’t take things personally. And as you get higher up, your problems shift and a lot of the problems become communication in general. I always try to tell myself and my team that you have to listen with the intent to understand, not with the intent to reply. When you understand what’s going on and everyone feels heard, you can collaborate better.

What advice would you give to women graduating from college, what work to look for and what to do in those positions:
If you’re in technology, young women should stay as technical as possible for as long as possible. Look at the technology first, the technological opportunity, instead of the money. Do something that is going to enrich your career opportunities because women are still frequently attracted to non-technical roles. The more technical your chops are, the better you can understand things. Those building blocks are so important for later in your career.

How do you face problems in the workplace?
Don’t get emotional, that’s the first thing I’d say. Understand that everyone’s there to get a job done and no one wants to see you fail. Try to solve the problem yourself first and then turn to someone else for help. But there are some things that you may just have to figure out yourself, and the nice thing nowadays is that you can google almost anything, so even if you work in a one-person shop, you can search for a solution.

Lisa Wolford – Cruising Through Male-Dominated Fields and Becoming a Female CEO

An inspiring leader and Marine Corps veteran, Lisa Wolford, President and CEO, founded Constellation West in 1997 as a single mom needing a career that could help her better support her family, including a son with severe disabilities. A dynamic, financially savvy executive, she built Constellation West into a place “where extraordinary works” ‐‐ becoming one of the country’s fastest‐growing service‐disabled veteran‐owned, women‐owned, small disadvantaged businesses – attracting top talent, winning contracts ‘where no woman‐owned business’ had gone before, and delivering top cyber security, agile development, and IT systems solutions to help federal agencies tackle their toughest challenges.

What was the process like of starting your own company? Did you know other female CEOs?
Well scary. I had done an Entrepreneurship class in college along with others that really set me up well to run my own company, and I had a contract before I started the company (18.5 years ago) where I was an architect for client-server technology, which was really hot stuff back then.
I didn’t know any other female CEOs. I knew of one in the community. I didn’t perceive any barriers. I’ve spent my entire life in male-dominated fields. I was in the Marine Corps, which back then was one to two percent female and now it’s up to seven percent. I work in technology, a lot of DOD, and that’s 90% male, so that is my normal.

What would you tell a young woman who’s starting out in those fields?
To go for it! They pay is better in a male-dominated field so you should go for that. If money doesn’t matter to you, then I suppose that’s not an issue. But whatever hobbies you have cost you the same no matter how much you make.

What’s an overrated piece of advice that people have tried to give you?
People will frequently try to tell others not to speak their mind, and this is my perception of a gender bias, that because of my gender, people expect me to be less outspoken. But that is my basic nature and I’ve found people either like it or they don’t. You should be true to yourself, and obviously treat other people well, but I think being authentic is highly valued.

For young people starting out, what attributes do you value in them?
I was at a women in government contracting event recently and they were talking about millenials (under 30), and it wasn’t very positive, though I actually don’t agree with that. People come in all different flavors so I don’t think you can generalize like that. What they were saying was that millenials aren’t loyal, that you have to retain them differently, that they don’t want to work hard, and that’s just not been my experience. The millenials I’ve worked with are loyal, and I think relationships are important even when you’re dealing with millenials. I think people like to be valued and known. They like to hear “You did a great job with that” or “I really like how you handled x, y and z”. That’s more valuable than money most days.

45% of the people in my office is female. I had to collect those statistics recently because I don’t hire people based on gender. But I think what happens is that women know that it’s ok to be a smart woman in my organization. Your gender is irrelevant to me. I don’t mind the fact that you’re female; females typically are able to multitask and think in multiple directions, and they solution differently stereotypically than males. So having a blend of the genders actually gives you a blend of solutions.
 
What I tell young women is that when you get challenged with sexism, and you will, you should beat them and enjoy it. Be smarter, be better, work harder, and don’t back down.

Sheryl Lemma – How to Stay Focused on Solving the Right Problems with Technology

Sheryl Lemma has over 20 years of experience in higher education technology and has been with Ellucian for almost 16 years. She currently serves as Director of Product Management, with responsibility for Ellucian’s document management solutions, Ellucian Mobile, and Ellucian Reporting, powered by Ellucian Ethos.

Prior to this role, she served as product owner on new product development teams in areas such as reporting, Ellucian Portal, ILP, and most recently, Ellucian Mobile. Before joining Ellucian, she worked as a Colleague and Unix system administrator at Lebanon Valley College. Sheryl is passionate about creating unique and exciting applications that solve people's business problems, and is looking forward to engaging in new areas.

You’re at a 48-hour hackathon. What would you love to create?
It’s funny you should say that because my company just participated in hackathon at William and Mary College. Ellucian makes software for colleges and universities, so there’s a good chance that you may have used our software! We have 154 products and one of the products I’m responsible for is mobile. So when I look at a hackathon, I would love to be able to sit with college students and ask them, “What do you want?” What problems are they having that their device could solve for them? Those are the things I really want to build.

I’ve spoken about technologies in search of a problem rather than problems that can be solved with technology. One of the things we’re thinking about as an arrow in our quiver is location-based technologies. We know where you’re sitting right now – what can we do with that? What problems can we solve? We’re looking for example at attendance tracking instead of faculty members taking attendance, which they’re required to do by state law and federal law – there’s actually federal student dollars attached to that so they have to take attendance. What could we do so that they don’t have to do that and can teach and spend more time in the classroom? I would love to see how students can solve that because I know students will have a very different approach to that from administrators who have to collect that information.

Speaking of problem-solving, what advice would you give to someone facing challenges in the workplace? How do you stay energized when you inevitably encounter problems in any kind of working process?
Particularly when you’re younger – and I went through all of this as a younger person, especially when you’re female – the way people interpret how you  react to those problems can be vastly different. We’re doing a whole cultural transformation at my company, and one of the behaviors we identified was assume positive intent. And this is something I wish I had known when I was younger, I’ve used it with my kids and my spouse. Most people are trying to do they best they can with the information that they have. So when they come to you and it sometimes may feel negative, assume the best, assume they’re trying to move forward. They may not always be, but you certainly feel better and approach it differently.

I think one of the traps that technologists in general and perhaps women fall into is the stress or strain of trying to be the smartest person in the room. In general, in technology, that’s been the biggest barrier to success that most people have had. You don't have to have all the answers, and if you can be confident enough to say, “Can we stop and back up, can we reframe this a little bit” – another one of our values at our company is pause, assess, restart: let’s bring this back to the problem we’re trying to solve – being confident enough to say, “I’ve not encountered this before, can we back up and talk about it?” is really powerful and takes a lot of confidence. You have to grow into confidence a bit, but I think most people who are starting out now have more confidence than we did when we were their age. 

Do you think that’s a particular problem for women in the workplace, trying to be the smartest person in the room?
I think developers in particular, and I’ve seen it in the hot-shot male developers, think they don’t need business people and that they can solve all the problems when you don’t…and that’s ok. Part of it is that in technology in particular, we don’t value brawn, we value brains and knowledge, so you feel like you have to have all the answers from the start is hard. It’s hard on the people and leads to incomplete decisions and it’s very fast-paced. In fact it’s seen as a barrier to raise your hand and ask to stop for a second. Let’s just make sure we’re solving the right problems.

What advice would you give women who are graduating from college, both those who really understand where they want to go and then those who don’t? What are the first jobs they should go after and what should they make sure to do when they get those first positions? What’s your advice of how to utilize and to really pay attention to their early 20s?
Well first of all, don’t spiral downwards! It’s a very scary time and it wasn’t a pleasant time for me, and I think it’s because you go through school and do well, you’re a superstar, and then you get into the workforce…and you’re not. Or maybe you hit a plateau and you wonder what life has to offer you. I don’t work in the field I studied, I took a very left turn – I actually wanted to be in broadcast news but the great thing is that if you stay open to learning and recognize the things you’re good at, the things that are truly strengths for you actually cross entire disciplines.

I wanted to be in broadcast news because I’m good at talking, and if you can find a way to do those things every day, your job almost doesn’t matter. Find something that’s interesting to you, recognize that you may move around and it’s ok, be confident in what you’re good at and really think about what you’re good at – you will have confidence in that. I’m not good at coding, but as I got into the product side, I was able to jump around and take disparate pieces of information together, assemble them into something new and hand it off to someone else. I have a developer who is very detail-oriented, loves to code; I’m much more big-picture, so when we partner, something amazing comes out of it. So if you can partner with someone who has the strengths that you don’t have, it almost doesn’t what you’re working on because great things will happen.

When it comes to data, how do you teach kids about this nebulous, intangible thing that drives everyone’s lives – how do you actually understand and visualize data?
I think we do a pretty good job with people who are interested in STEM and are naturally talented at that. The thing that’s important that I don’t know that we do enough of is for people who aren’t necessarily interested in coding or the data or the infrastructure, because we still need those people. You have to have this basic understanding of these really complex pieces of information. It took me a long time to give myself credit for being good at communicating, and people like me are so needed to bridge the gap between the technical and the non-technical. There’s definitely a need for people who are in most art-based areas to be those communicators and translators of ideas.

Erin M. Thorpe – Breaking Through the Jargon; Communications Break Through

Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) Erin Thorpe is assigned to USCG Command, Control & Communications Engineering Center (C3CEN) in Portsmouth, VA. Her responsibility is to oversee the security and accreditation of IT systems supported by the Communications Area Master Station Product Line.  Her USCG assignments include three USCG Cutters, an Aviation Training Center, a Sector Command Center (Search and Rescue Controller), and a District Telecommunications Office.  CWO Thorpe consistently seeks opportunities to mentor fellow Coast Guardsmen.  She is an active member of her community, volunteer tutor at a local elementary school and participates in various local charity events.  CWO Thorpe is the proud mother of three amazing, high energy kids.

Which skills or attributes do you value most in coworkers that are just starting their careers?
Communications: being able to take complex information and translate it into something that anyone can understand, ability to make subjects approachable and not sound so scary. People in tech use dense language with a lot of jargon; especially in the military, acronyms are everywhere. I value being able to break away from buzzwords or terms that only your small work community can understand

Describe a decision you made early in your career that has had a big impact for you.
When starting in the technical field in the coast guard, you used to get a choice between operations or IT. I chose operations. It gave me a diverse skillset and experience as the end user of IT products. I have since looped back around into the IT side so I design and maintain systems for the operations folks to use. With that experience as an end user, I design better products. I also know the questions to ask when designing a new product.

If you completely changed courses today, what would your new life look like?
I would be an elementary school guidance counselor. I love talking about future endeavors and I like the age range. I now tutor special needs students at my local school. The moment when the kids “get” a concept for the first time is so exciting.

Cyber Trends and English Lit – An Interview with Sara Abiusi

Sara Abiusi is a Managing Director with Accenture Federal Services. She is the Civilian Portfolio Technology lead and leads Technology for the US Postal Service account. She founded the Accenture DC Women in Technology program. Sara serves on the DC Board of Ascend – the largest PanAsian Professional Development nonprofit in the US and the board of the JHU Women in Business affinity group. Sara graduated in 1996 from Johns Hopkins with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Sara is married with two children: an eight year old daughter and a four year old son.

Which of your special projects or undertakings are you most proud of?
I helped launch a Women In Tech group at Accenture. We have a leadership series, we monitor cyber trends, and do other activities to ensure that we as a company can stay relevant.

You win the lottery for $10 million. What do you do?
I would call my husband and relatives! And then I would retire way early. I do have a passion for women and girls in technology, and so my work in those two spheres would definitely continue. I’m also active in the Asian-Pacific Islander community—I’m associated with Ascend, an APA professional development organization, and would devote more time to that area. And, you know what, I studied mechanical engineering in college, and have been in tech my whole career. I’d love to devote time to English Literature, to enjoy and to feed the soul.

What’s an overrated piece of advice that people give and why doesn’t it ring true for you?
People always say, “network all you can.” Really, it’s a bit more nuanced than this. It’s more than just having the biggest stack of business cards in your wallet or LinkedIn contacts. It’s about finding people you feel really connected to. There’s no substitute for good work that will leave people with a concrete positive memory of you.

Describe a decision you made early in your career that has had a big impact for you.
Early on in my career as a technical architect, I was pretty introverted. I learned a lot in my first year, but I kept to myself most of the time. I was adding limited value to the company because I had things to say and wasn’t saying them. I was afraid to be wrong or disagreed with. That was a big learning curve – that it’s okay not to be 100% right all the time. It’s okay to create some tension when it ultimately leads to a better product.

Founding, Managing, and Growing a Company – an Interview with Rebecca Andino

Ms. Rebecca Andino, founder and CEO of Highlight Technologies, LLC has supported Federal agencies as an IT professional, program manager, and business owner for more than 15 years. She got her start working as a database developer for the Department of State, and led technology projects for national security missions after 9/11. In the last 8 years, she has led Highlight Technologies to achieve steady, profitable growth, currently managing 14 prime contracts across a dozen federal agencies. Ms. Andino is passionate about creating a customer and team-oriented environment that takes chances on talented and hard-working individuals, invests in employees’ careers, and provides opportunities for professional growth.

What inspired you to found Highlight Technologies?
Coming up, I had some really positive experiences working with small companies. You can have a lot of impact, you can learn a lot and own your growth. The small company for which I was working ended up growing, but I wanted to use the skills I had learned to recreate that environment. I hire a lot of talented junior level employees, and mentor them in the world of government contracting, providing them with lots of opportunities to grow.

You win the lottery for $10 million. What do you do?
Oh, wow. I would save some of it, pay for my house, my kids’ college, travel around the world a little bit. I like to concentrate on a couple of key areas rather than have a lot of small fires going, which can sometimes be ineffectual. I would spend time and money to reduce homelessness, especially among populations with families and children. I really would like that. Now you’ve got me thinking.

You’re at a 48-hour hackathon. What would you love to create?
I would love to be a coder! But speaking from the business side of things, I would create something very user-centric. I work in the government sector, so I’m always thinking about solutions to help customer-facing agencies. It would be so useful to help people that need information from a particular agency to access what they need.

What music are you grooving on recently?
In my head is Meghan Trainor’s “No”; my daughter is always playing it and it’s really catchy! I don’t have a lot of chance to listen to my own music, but I get a great variety listening secondhand to what my family has playing.

Volunteer of the Year – An Interview with Michelle Richards

by Laura Harcourt

Michelle Richards leads the Mobility Solutions sales team dedicated to the National Security and Public Safety sectors of Global Business - Public Sector Solutions. An accomplished team leader, Michelle Richards holds key roles in WIT and Women of AT&T (WOA), currently: President, WOA MD; Chair, WIT Maryland Leadership Lunch; and Coach, Mt. deSales CyberPatriot Girls, where she engages students to explore STEM careers.  Michelle champions the WIT/WOA collaboration, launching the Maryland Executive Leadership Lunches, which she has chaired for the last three years, and supporting expansion to Virginia.  She launched the WOA cell phone drive to fund WOA MD Scholarships and expanded it to WIT to support GIT programs.  

Michelle received the prestigious 2016 POTUS Volunteer Service Award, and holds a BS in Business Administration and an MS in Human Resources Development.

Which of your special projects or undertakings are you most proud of?

Being President of Women of AT&T, Maryland chapter. It’s a combination of tenured/senior women and young professionals hoping to get into tech. Lots of collaboration. We have a luncheon series featuring amazing speakers, and we bring tech programs to Maryland youth.

Phyllis Kolmus and I launched CyberPatriots: we send all-girl teams to the national competition sponsored by the US Air Force. We now have eleven participating high schools, and last year, made it to the regional finals The students are now interested in IT, looking for cyberattacks, and getting hands-on technical skills. Plus, it’s a lot of fun for us and for the girls!

Describe, anonymously or not, the best manager you know, and why they are so good at it.

Good managers believe in you more than you believe in yourself, sometimes. They see something you may not see. My best manager had an extremely positive attitude and led by example.

If you completely changed courses today, what would your new life look like?

I would continue my volunteer work. I like kids, so might work with middle or high school girls. They know how to make any task fun!

Prosthetic Limbs and Caribbean Port Calls – An Interview with Amy Grable

Commander Amy Grable is currently serving as Product Line Manager for the Coast Guard’s Enterprise Information Systems Infrastructure. In this position she is responsible for delivering IT services to 42,000 men and women supporting every Coast Guard mission. Previous assignments include Commanding Officer of Electronic Systems Support Unit (ESU) Boston and other positions held at the Coast Guard Personnel Service Center, ESU Seattle, Acquisition Directorate, Research & Development Center, and CGC SPENCER (WMEC 905). CDR Grable holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Coast Guard Academy and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island.

CDR Grable talked to the WIT Young Professionals about her achievements and career path. One of her proudest accomplishments, she said, wascompleting her training at the Coast Guard Academy. One of the country’s five prestigious federal military academies, the USCGA is extremely selective and well-established. Graduates of the Academy are obligated to serve five years in the U.S. Coast Guard. CDR Grable says her time there was physically and mentally difficult but she loved the challenge.

Following graduation, newly commissioned ensigns report for duty aboard cutters and at sector offices in ports nationwide, so CDR Grable shared some of her travel stories. On sea duty, she transited through the Panama Canal, earning the “Order of the Ditch” certificate. Says the publishing website, “The traditional version of this certificate features traditionally clad mermaids. [The] revised version is exactly the same, but features more modestly clad mermaids.” CDR Grable also recalls the first time she crossed the equator, a ceremonial occasion common for all sea-going U.S. military forces.

If she had to drop everything and start a completely new life, CDR Grable would favor one of her passions, the medical field. She is interested in biomedical research and improving its related IT systems. By making information more accessible and centralized, systems relating to medicine could be more effective at saving lives and improving quality of life. CDR Grable isn’t only interested in the back end of technology, however; she also sees herself designing and improving prosthetic limbs, ensuring that they bring as much lifelike ability to their wearers as possible.

Currently, as IT manager for the Coast Guard’s enterprise information services infrastructure, CDR Grable provides oversight to major programs for the Coast Guard and has been recognized consistently for improving efficiency and responding to emergencies such as Superstorm Sandy. She actively mentors junior officers through the inter-service Officer Women e-mentor program, as well as civilians under her jurisdiction. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to chat with CDR Grable and are inspired by her accomplishments and her approachability alike.

Risk Services and Rwanda - An Interview with Stacey Halota

Stacey Halota is the Vice President for Information Security and Privacy at Graham Holdings Company. Ms. Halota has more than 20 years of experience in the IT, security and privacy fields. Before joining The Washington Post Company in 2003, she served as the federal government and southeast region leader of Guardent Consulting Services (now part of Verisign), where she helped transform Guardent from a regional decentralized model into a national information security consulting organization recognized by Computerworld as a top 100 company to watch among IT companies. Prior to Guardent, she worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Technology Risk Services consulting practice where she helped grow the team serving the mid-Atlantic market and federal government from two consultants with no client base or revenue to 46 consultants and $9.3M in annual revenue in three years. She talks to the Young Professionals about her volunteer work and staying positive in the face of change.

Ms. Halota describes herself as a very optimistic and positive person, saying, “there is so much to be grateful here.” She cites an incident recently when she was in a taxi and the driver was from Afghanistan. He said, when you live in the U.S., you’ve hit the lottery. The sentiment rung true for Ms. Halota, as it does for us here on the Young Professionals committee.

Although Ms. Halota enjoys her work – and, as described above, is extremely successful at it—if she completely changed courses today, she would choose to be more active in missionary and volunteer work, expanding the work that she already does. One of her passions is The Mustard Seed Project (MSP), a non-profit which provides acts of mercy and acts of mission in east and central Africa. Ms. Halota is particularly active in Rwanda, leading mission trips there and ultimately joining the Board of Directors in 2013.

She has traveled extensively with the MSP, describing it as a land of 1,000 hills and lakes with unbelievable beauty. Ms. Halota also travels around as a consultant and as a speaker. For example, She was the CISO Spotlight featured speaker at last year’s Black Hat conference and spoke at the inaugural Privacy and Security Summit in October as well. Above and beyond these prestigious engagements, she reveres the Grand Canyon as an inspirational spot that she would recommend to any traveler.

Asked about which of her special projects or undertakings she is most proud of, Ms. Halota cited her work with the International Consortium of Minority Cyber Professionals (ICMCP). Launched in 2014 to bridge the cyber divide that results from the ongoing underrepresentation of minorities in the fast-growing field of cyber security, they will sponsor their first-ever National Conference of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals in March 2016. Once again, Ms. Halota will be a featured speaker.

Ms. Halota was named Secure Computing Magazine’s 2009 Chief Security Officer of the Year and was also named 2009 Mid-Atlantic Information Security Executive of the Year (Commercial Category) by the Executive Alliance. She has been featured in Secure Computing Magazine and is well-known around DC and in the cyber community generally. We were happy to be granted the gift of some of her time and— albeit unnecessarily—wish her luck in her upcoming appearances. We’ll be following you!