|
I started attending CWIT when my son was an infant. He's turning 12 next week, and for him, it's normal that his mom is a developer and leader. That makes me happy. Thanks, CWIT, for all of your support over the years! |
Introduce yourself!
"I have been a software developer for over 20 years, and my current role is Senior Director of Engineering at Teachstone, a company headquartered in Charlottesville. Our mission is to change the lives of children by creating the best educators, and I lead engineering teams that allow us to provide the training and development services that make it possible to reach as many educators as possible."
"I have been a software developer for over 20 years, and my current role is Senior Director of Engineering at Teachstone, a company headquartered in Charlottesville. Our mission is to change the lives of children by creating the best educators, and I lead engineering teams that allow us to provide the training and development services that make it possible to reach as many educators as possible."
How do you work with technology today?
"Although I have many years of experience doing back-end software development, most of my time these days is spent developing teams and leading for successful business outcomes. My teams develop in Ruby on Rails and React, and we run on an AWS infrastructure. We use many services such as BigCommerce for our storefront, Canvas for a learning management system, Okta for user authentication, New Relic for monitoring, Canto for digital asset management, Jira for project tracking, Github for version control, and so much more. I am spending more time lately digging into AI to boost productivity and deliver our services in new and different ways."
"Although I have many years of experience doing back-end software development, most of my time these days is spent developing teams and leading for successful business outcomes. My teams develop in Ruby on Rails and React, and we run on an AWS infrastructure. We use many services such as BigCommerce for our storefront, Canvas for a learning management system, Okta for user authentication, New Relic for monitoring, Canto for digital asset management, Jira for project tracking, Github for version control, and so much more. I am spending more time lately digging into AI to boost productivity and deliver our services in new and different ways."
What drives your interest in technology?
"I derive joy from building things and making the world a better place. Technology is a sweet spot for me where I get to participate in creating things that are bigger and more impactful than what I can do on my own."
"I derive joy from building things and making the world a better place. Technology is a sweet spot for me where I get to participate in creating things that are bigger and more impactful than what I can do on my own."
What was your pathway to working in technology?
"I always intended to be a school teacher, and I spent my first year after college teaching 9th grade Latin in a public high school. Though I still love teaching in smaller doses, the introvert in me struggled. After leaving teaching, I became an instructor of in-person computer workshops at U.Va. While there, I was able to take classes from other instructors for free. Once I got a taste of programming, there was no going back. A language nerd at heart, I love patterns, grammar, syntax, and building, so the same things I loved as an undergraduate studying Latin were there in coding. I have stayed in the education technology space the whole time - a long stint at U.Va., a higher education tech company, a continuing medical education company, and now early childhood development. So whereas I no longer teach, education is still at the center of my work."
"I always intended to be a school teacher, and I spent my first year after college teaching 9th grade Latin in a public high school. Though I still love teaching in smaller doses, the introvert in me struggled. After leaving teaching, I became an instructor of in-person computer workshops at U.Va. While there, I was able to take classes from other instructors for free. Once I got a taste of programming, there was no going back. A language nerd at heart, I love patterns, grammar, syntax, and building, so the same things I loved as an undergraduate studying Latin were there in coding. I have stayed in the education technology space the whole time - a long stint at U.Va., a higher education tech company, a continuing medical education company, and now early childhood development. So whereas I no longer teach, education is still at the center of my work."
|
Why is it important to get more girls and women interested in technology?
"First, I will tell you a story. In the eighth grade, I was a very good student and did well in most subjects. I particularly loved science. Late in the school year, we did a unit on programming for a few weeks, and I was terrible at it. Based on my performance, my science teacher recommended that I go into a lower level of science in high school (my parents balked at that and enrolled me as they saw fit. Thanks, parents!) Based on that experience, I believed I was bad at programming, and I didn't attempt again until I stumbled across it as an adult." |
"In my 20+ years, I have worked on teams with a lot of men but not many women. It's a field that can be extremely fulfilling in that you can use your powers for good. Women can and should have a voice in this space, but they need support, because navigating a male-dominated field can be challenging." |
Who inspires you to pursue your passion? Why?
"My drive is the mission of making the world a better place. I have worked with many leaders over the years who have pushed me into my "brave zone" where I can use my voice to lead. I am extremely grateful to the woman who gave me my first developer job so many years ago, even though I wasn't remotely qualified on paper. She gave me an opportunity and then demonstrated time and again what supportive management looks like in a time when most managers I had experienced previously were more compliance-driven."
"My drive is the mission of making the world a better place. I have worked with many leaders over the years who have pushed me into my "brave zone" where I can use my voice to lead. I am extremely grateful to the woman who gave me my first developer job so many years ago, even though I wasn't remotely qualified on paper. She gave me an opportunity and then demonstrated time and again what supportive management looks like in a time when most managers I had experienced previously were more compliance-driven."
More stories coming soon!
