Technology Archives - Page 36 of 39

September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

E-commerce Site for Black Businesses Wins National Black MBA Innovation Challenge

The creators of an e-commerce site dedicated specifically to African-American-focused businesses and products took home the grand prize of $10,000 at the 2014 National Black MBA Innovation Whiteboard Challenge.

PurchaseBlack.com gives consumers an online source of products and businesses that are geared toward African-American consumers or created by Black business owners.

The innovative new platform was enough to wow judges and allow the e-commerce site to soar above the other nine national semifinalists in a preliminary round.

After three finalists were selected, the business owners presented their company ideas and goals in front of a group of executives, directors and other well-established African-American professionals.

With an outstanding presentation and a groundbreaking concept, PurchaseBlack.com was deemed the winner.

“It’s hard to express my gratitude and joy at the support I received at the National Black MBA conference,” said Brian Williams, the founder and CEO of PurchaseBlack.com according to BlackNews.com. “It’s easy to get nervous before an audience like that, yet, I tried to channel it into enthusiasm for my business.”

The victory in this competition means more to Williams than just a monetary grand prize.

According to BlackNews.com, Williams hopes to use this success to boost the number of products and businesses that consumers have access to via PurchaseBlack.com.

“We have already gone from a few web stores to over 50 businesses and about 1,000 Black-owned or Black-focused products on PurchaseBlack.com today,” he said. “With the connections from the conference, we may be able to get thousands more products soon. We are going in the right direction, and we want to accelerate our growth.”

Due to Williams’ background, expanding the business won’t be too great of a challenge.

The innovative entrepreneur studied African-American business while earning his Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Texas.

Since then he has been on many panels to serve as a voice for African-Americans in the technology industry – an industry where Blacks are still severely underrepresented.

As PurchaseBlack.com continues to grow, Williams is hoping to use crowdsourcing to fund that growth.

He has already launched a GoFundMe Campaign for the company so that financial woes won’t serve as a problem for the e-commerce platform.

Fortunately, there have been pushes made all across the country for Blacks to focus their spending efforts on Black-owned businesses, which has helped garner a lot of support for a platform like PurchaseBlack.com.

“A lot of people believe in what we are trying to do, which is to become the home for African-American online shopping, and create a simple way to support Black-owned or Black-servicing businesses,” he said. “We hope that people will support our campaign to strengthen our cause and community. We are in this together.”

September 23, 2014September 23, 2014

Jesse Jackson Reveals Next Steps to Increase Diversity, Inclusion in Silicon Valley

Now that major tech companies like Facebook and Google have released their diversity statistics to the public, the Rev. Jesse Jackson is ready to launch the next phase of his plan to increase diversity in Silicon Valley.

Jackson announced the next phase of his plan on The Guardian over the weekend and bashed Silicon Valley for its “shameful” record on equality.

Through his social justice organization Rainbow Push, Jackson urged the hi-tech giants to release statistics about the demographics of their workforce.

With many tech giants having African-Americans making up less than 2 percent of their workforce and almost none in executive positions, Jackson stated that these companies “must put a real plan in place.”

“Treat inclusion and diversity just as you would any serious business line of a company and measure them,” Jackson wrote.

Representatives from the companies have already publicly criticized the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley, but some believe that the companies have not followed up with an efficient response to the problem at hand.

Jackson stated that the “face of technology” needs to change, and he believes Rainbow Push has the plan to do it.

According to the civil rights activist, the organization will be working hard over the next few months to “review the performance and causes that have perpetuated the lack of diversity and inclusion in technology,” get corporate leaders involved in implementing the necessary changes, and “identify strategies and solutions” that could actually help “change the face of technology companies to mirror the consumer and demographic base of the community.”

According to Jackson, African-Americans “consume more technology” than the average American although they are vastly “underrepresented in the boardrooms.”

The blueprint for Rainbow Push’s next plan of action also lists several other objectives for the coming months.

The organization will aim to create an annual diversity report that will keep track of diversity and inclusion in Silicon Valley.

Other goals for the plan include launching a pledge commitment and 2020 digital inclusion and diversity vision and creating an advisory committee that will be dedicated solely to coming up with the best practices to help nurture diversity in the tech space.

Jackson went on to say that the next phase in Rainbow Push’s plan will continue the fight for equality for minorities.

“In our journey from freedom to equality, we’ve used all of the tools and resources: we vote; we legislate; we litigate; we advocate; we leverage,” he wrote. “And with a mission stepped in our faith to seek justice, fairness and equality, we will fight and win.”

September 17, 2014September 17, 2014

Young Entrepreneurs Revolutionize Education in Africa by Moving It Online

A group of five recent graduates, each from a different African country, are revolutionizing education on the continent by moving classes online.

With all the entrepreneurs being under the age of 25, they have all grown up in the digital era and now they are putting that background to incredible use.

Together, they have launched Funda, which is an online training platform that has been teaming up with universities in South Africa to provide e-courses for users.

“At Funda, we develop learning management systems and provide content development services to higher institutions to take their courses online so that the general public can access them at a cheaper price,” one of Funda’s founders, Kolawole Olajide, explained, according to CNN.

The group of millennials understood that in today’s world, it can be hard for students to make the time to attend classes.

Budding entrepreneurs may have unusual hours as they strive to launch their own startups. Others may have already obtained managerial positions that don’t give them the free time to attend classes on a daily basis. Then there are many cases where family emergencies and special circumstances rob would-be students out of furthering their education.

Moving courses online could resolve these issues, and the founders of Funda want to be a part of charting the way for that to happen in Africa.

“Our major goal is to be a major education technology provider in Africa,” Olajide added. “So we’re just trying to strategically position ourselves, so when Africa is ready we would also be ready.”

Whether or not certain countries in Africa are “ready” has been a major obstacle for the group of founders.

Kennedy Kitheka from Kenya, Jason Muloongo from Zambia, Sameer Rawjee from South Africa and Kumbirai Gundani from Zimbabwe are the other four founders and each of them brought important perspectives about technological issues that still exist in different African countries.

“I was aware of user experience because user experience of technology in Nigeria was not very good,” Olajide said. “One of the other partners was keen on developing the mobile application because he said in his area of the world, there are more mobile users. So we are bringing together solutions made by the problems we’ve faced in Africa.”

While Funda has managed to go mobile, Olajide added that it is very limited for now.

“At the moment, [mobile] is very limited,” he said. “Mobile phones are good for getting your results, educations checking attendance reports and all that stuff. But the real core experience is from the desktop machine.”

While Funda’s headquarters is in South Africa, the founders hope to continue to expand across the continent and make education more accessible.

“The future of the continent lies in how educated people are,” he said. “All the major problems can be solved with education – education is the key to the future.”

Funda was launched in 2009 and since then has earned recognition from the United Nations Development Program and the World Economic Forum.

September 15, 2014September 16, 2014

Marshall Graduate Launches American Dream Movement to Give Black Male Students a ‘Sense of Hope’

Marshall University alumnus Charles C. Meyers Jr. has launched a new initiative in West Virginia called the American Dream Movement, which he hopes will give Black male students “a sense of hope and direction” when they need it the most.

Meyers believes that there are many times that a student just needs a positive push or better guidance to be able to succeed in life.

The new program will welcome 12 students from eighth grade through 12th grade.

Thomas Jones, the only eighth-grader being accepted into the program, attends Huntington Middle School while all the other students attend Huntington High School.

While the press release for the American Dream Movement did not give many specifics on what the program will entail, it did clearly state that the initiative’s objective is to help young Black male students reach their full potential.

“In order for African American males to reach their full potential in life, they must be encouraged to achieve their dreams and to take the proper steps to success,” Meyers said, according to a press release for the new initiative. “An investment in the lives of African American male students in the Huntington community is needed, in order to change the trajectory of their lives in a positive direction.”

He explained that it is important for the entire community to be an active, positive part of the children’s lives.

“When members of the community take the time to provide the students with wisdom and guidance, the students have a much better chance of becoming motivated to succeed and to dream of a better life for themselves,” Meyers said, according to the press release. “I developed the American Dream Movement because I know the power of influence. When you take the time to invest in someone’s future, the impact that you can make on someone’s life is worth the investment.”

Meyers also explained why he wanted to call the initiative the American Dream Movement.

“In today’s society, the dedication and encouragement to achieve the ‘American Dream’ has dissipated in the hearts of many African American males in Huntington, West Virginia,” he said. “The motivation to pursue happiness and success has been truncated to fulfilling desires with short-term thinking leading to long-term consequences. Now, more than ever, it is critical for African American males growing up in society to understand the importance of faith, family, education and having a career.”

Meyers promises that the program will allow the students to have a better chance at succeeding in life by offering the young men “positive reinforcement, education and guidance.”

This is only the latest initiative that Meyers has launched.

Other initiatives by Meyers include Future Investment Day, A Gift to Remember in December and the Words of Reflection Writing Contest.

Meyers plans to hold a ceremony called “Gathering of Dreamers” later this month to celebrate the new members of the American Dream Movement.

September 12, 2014September 16, 2014

Black Film Visionary and Media Entrepreneur Makes History at UCLA

Black valedictorian at UCLA makes history

Graduating summa cum laude is a massive honor for any college student, but for Artel J. Great, that was just the beginning of his success story.

Great has made history at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), by becoming the first Black valedictorian of the university’s School of Theater, Film and Television.

During his interview with BlackEnterprise.com, Great revealed that he didn’t even set out to become the school’s valedictorian. He simply wanted to do his best.

“The funny thing is I never set out to be valedictorian,” he said. “I was just determined to do my best and work to the highest of my ability.”

He also added that although he appreciates the awards and honors, they are still not the most important things to him.

“I focus on doing my work,” he said. “Making a positive contribution, that’s what I think about. What can I give of myself to make a contribution to our culture? If I’m blessed to win more awards I’d be grateful to accept them in the spirit of the ancestors who sacrificed so much for me to even have an opportunity.”

In addition to making history with his performance in the classroom, Great also has made incredible strides outside of his studies.

Great was the 2014 recipient of the Cinema Research Institute Fellowship for Innovation, BlackEnterprise.com reports.

“The CRI fellowship means that executives in a film think-tank believe my ideas are cutting-edge and promising enough to nurture,” he told BlackEnterprise.com. “It also means that I have financial support for one year to test an innovative model in the market, which will help procure long-term funding to secure the company’s growth.”

The recent graduate is also quite the emerging entrepreneur.

He is the founder of Project Catalyst and has recently launched the Project Catalyst App.

According to BlackEnterprise.com, Project Catalyst is a transmedia organization that combines creative community-building practices with cinema, visual art, music and technology.

Great is currently touring major cities in the U.S. to continue promoting the app’s launch.

“We’ve successfully organized live events and presentations in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles to introduce our new film and music app to the world,” he told BlackEnterprise.com. “We now have users in 11 countries across Europe, Asia, North and South America, the Caribbean and the Middle East.”

Great explained that the app “offers a progressive voice to multicultural communities with fresh, insightful entertainment that empowers and illuminates.”

Great plans to finish his Ph.D. at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and said that finishing his Ph.D. will be done in honor of his two role models – Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“They inspired me to earn my doctorate – that will be my greatest achievement,” he said.

It is no surprise that Great named these two historical figures as his role models.

The self-proclaimed historian said it is a “deep sense of responsibility” that drives him to work as hard as he does.

“I understand the sacrifice of so many dynamic figures in our culture that gave so much for us to have a chance,” Great said.

September 12, 2014September 16, 2014

7 Minority-Led Investment Firms Every Black Tech Startup Should Know

645 Ventures

Location: New York, New York

Led By: Nnamdi Okike

Portfolio: Poshly, Admittedly, Keaton Row, AbbeyPost, Rifiniti and Hire an Esquire.

About: 645 Ventures is a seed and early-stage venture capital firm specializing in software and Internet companies. The firm invests in companies in the following sectors: SaaS software, application software, e-commerce, data analytics, online marketplaces and Internet-enabled services.

Base Ventures

Location: Berkeley Hills, California

Led By: Erik Moore

Companies Invested In: SocialCam, Swapbox, Virool and many more

About: Base Ventures, founded by Erik Moore, is a seed-stage fund investing in technology companies. Successful exits include Socialcam (acquired by Autodesk), and Appstores (acquired by InMobi).

Bronze Investments

Location: San Francisco, California

Led By: Stephen DeBerry

Portfolio: University Now, LendUp and Better Finance

About: Bronze Investments is a financial investment advisory firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. The firm manages 1 account totaling an estimated $25 million of assets under management.

EchoVC Partners

Location: San Francisco, California

Portfolio: Stipple, Dekko, GraphScience, Life360º and more

About: EchoVC Partners is a seed and early stage venture capital firm focused on financing and cross-pollinating leading technologies, teams, business models and knowledge across North America, Africa and southeast Asia. Average investment size ranges from $25,000 to several million dollars depending on the stage of opportunity and capital needs of the business.

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September 11, 2014September 15, 2014

Mobile App Showcases Books Written by and Featuring People of Color

As a mother of a 4-year-old brown boy who loves to read, I try to make his library as fruitful as possible. His dad and I try to set the proper tone early. It’s important for him to recognize and relate to characters during story time. Literature gets the imagination flowing, it takes us to faraway lands and expands our minds in ways only a reader knows.

When Kaya Thomas informed me that she designed and developed a mobile app, called “We Read Too,” which includes over 300 books written by people of color, featuring characters of color, I had to help spread the word. The app allows one to browse different genres, search by author or title, view details of every book, suggest books to be added, and view books on the Web through Safari.

I had a brief chat with Kaya, and here is what she had to say:

Blerd Quiessence: What made you create ‘We Read Too’?

Kaya: I’ve always been an avid reader and came up with the idea back in high school. My parents went to great lengths to find me books that included people of different cultures. As a teenager, I loved young adult fiction but I found myself wondering why all the character were described with blond hair and blue eyes, and why there weren’t any characters of color? I would scour Barnes and Noble reading book after book, but to no avail. I continued to read these books because they were popular at that time, but asked myself why aren’t there any resources for finding books which included us? I also realized that books written by African Americans or people of other descents were always listed as sub-categories. That baffled me.

Blerd Quiessence: Why do you think it is important for people to relate to characters in books?

Kaya: Without it, it lacks representation. If all the books you read don’t include anyone like you, it makes you feel like an outcast. Especially for youth, it may have an impact on their self-esteem, and other areas of their development.

Books allow you to escape, it’s like traveling within. When one reads literature on people of other nationalities, cultures, and lifestyles, it allows them to empathize. Many people have no empathy because they don’t understand others.

Blerd Quiessence: Is this your first mobile app? What was your experience like designing and developing the app?

Kaya: Yes. Well, it is the first mobile app that I’ve officially launched. Once I started studying CS (Computer Science) and obtaining the skills required to create a resource that I thought was needed, I began to take it more seriously. I researched and compiled names of books written by and included people of color. But when I attended the Black Girls Code hackathon in New Orleans and saw how excited the girls were when they built their apps, I really got a boost of encouragement. I started with small tutorials to really understand how apps work then slowly started building my own. During my internship at Time, Inc., I served on the mobile application development team, which also gave me further insight into the development world. I immerse myself in understanding technical documentation, which I found is really important. Developing this app taught me to be disciplined and set strict deadlines for myself.

Blerd Quiessence: How was your experience with regards to scope?

Kaya: [laughing] I had to re-scope quite a bit. My initial idea was grand, and once I got into it, I knew I needed to scale back. This whole process taught me about scaling, which is super important in the development cycle. I already have ideas for new features and looking to iterate soon, but I’m glad I released the MVP (minimum viable product) because it gave me instant feedback. I now know what additional features users would like, what they don’t care about, etc.

[Note: Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a strategy used for fast market testing of a product to gain quantitative or qualitative feedback. It is used in the “build-measure-learn” feedback loop]

Blerd Quiessence: How long did it take you to complete the app from ideation to completion?

[Note: Ideation is the creative process of brainstorming and communicating new ideas. It is an essential part of the design process.]

Kaya: The research took about three weeks, but I had done that beforehand. The application development took about 2.5 months. My app was originally rejected by the App Store due to in-app restrictions. That was a humbling experience. It helped me look at the app from a different perspective and actually led me to find other features that I thought should be fixed.

Blerd Quiessence: Can you describe the feedback thus far?

Kaya: The feedback thus far has been great. The app has over 550 downloads in under one week. The feedback from parents, educators, and avid readers has been highly supportive. I’ve connected with socialites and activists, and they’ve expressed interests in sharing the app with their networks, so I am excited about that.

Blerd Quiessence: Do you have plans to create anymore apps?

Kaya: I don’t have any strong ideas for another app at this time. But I want to continue building out “We Read Too.” I really want to use my technical skills to meet a need that I see in communities.

Blerd Quiessence: If you could offer one piece of advice to individuals looking to get into mobile app development or any other type of development, what would it be?

Kaya: “Just do it” — If you are interested in it, Google everything. Start really simple and just keep building.

I encourage youth and the parents to take advantage of an app like “We Read Too.” It provides a central source for readers who’d like to expand their libraries to include more works from various cultures. It also provides an outlet for authors to reach a wider audience.

Download the app for free on iTunes! Like the Facebook page where she posts author spotlights, series to watch, and book of the day features, all from the 300+ books that are included in the app. Follow the Twitter page to be a part of the conversation regarding the importance of diverse books, give any questions/feedback about the app or any suggestions for books that should be added!

Quiessence is an Information Security Professional with over seven years of experience. She is also the Curriculum Development Lead for Black Girls CODE NY, creator of the Girltechie Campaign, and a workshop called “Securing Your Web”. Quiessence gravitated to technology at an early age and has been captivated ever since.

September 10, 2014September 10, 2014

A Conversation with Danielle Hester, Digital Editor of ArtInFact Magazine

Q: Where are you from originally?
Chicago

Q: What is AIF? What does it represent?
AIF is a content and community platform for people doing creative things in New York City outside of the traditional 9-to-5 work structure. We cover a range of entrepreneurs and startups, independent artists like filmmakers, fashion designers and musicians, and local community projects.

But we also cover mainstream topics from an underground perspective. While the Internet is buzzing about the new Trey Songz album, we’re more interested in the person who shot the photography. What’s his story? And more than likely it’s a freelance photographer who would appreciate the press coverage.

Our goal is to bring the behind-the-scenes creative process to the forefront. We’re fascinated with telling the stories of people you wouldn’t necessarily hear about in mainstream media. AIF represents the millennial who has taken action to pursue their creative endeavors. The brand represents us, its creators, who started a brand because we wanted to produce quality content about topics we care about. This concept is how we came up with the name ArtInFact magazine. We believe there’s always an art element to the facts you know about, and some facts to the artistic work you see.

Q: What inspired this idea for AIF?
I run AIF with three amazing editors who I met during our time at Columbia J-School. The initial idea to start an independent magazine came from our managing editor Semmi W. She approached me, Ashley and Angel with the idea, and the overall concept of AIF was conceived collectively.

We were all recent graduates working as freelance writers, copy editors and fact checkers, but were somewhat unhappy with the kinds of stories we were asked to do over and over again. We were battling with having to produce overly saturated, SEO-driven content.

We would get together and find ourselves obsessively talking about the types of stories we wanted to write and the influencers we loved to follow on social media who we wanted to know more about. So, we decided to create our own magazine and tell the stories we wanted to tell and that we felt were interesting and important.

We wanted to give people the facts behind the art (creative person) they loved. At first, AIF was just a passion project. We had no business plan, no real direction for the site. We ran the site very independently. Each editor would publish whatever we wanted, whenever we felt like it, kind of like a blog. But it was very important to us early on not to look like a blog site. We wanted the site and our work to reflect the technical training we had received at Columbia.

But that required so much. We were putting in a lot of time interviewing and writing stories while working full-time jobs. After a while, the process started to feel pointless without any real editorial or business direction.

Around this time, Semmi W. and I got invited to attend a business development workshop in the Hamptons that was hosted by Dell. While there, we listened to entrepreneurs talk about their successes and failures. One of their biggest concerns was that there was a disconnect between entrepreneurs and their access to quality media coverage; that it was hard for them to get media coverage about their startups and creative projects.

That’s when we made the pivot to focus on the projects and creative processes of entrepreneurs, indie artists and influencers living in NYC. It became our goal to feature these unknown people and package the content in the same way you would see it in New York Magazine or Vanity Fair.

Q: What do you believe makes AIF different from other online publications?
AIF has such a unique focus in which we serve to fill a need for a specific group of people who work hard to make their passion projects come to life, but feel ignored by mainstream media outlets. There’s a loyalty that comes with our content because we, too, are in the same boat as the people we cover.

So, when we write an in-depth profile about a startup and promote it on our social media pages, they appreciate it, and in return will help to promote AIF, too. We’re not a news-breaking website. That’s not our purpose. What makes AIF different, in a sense, is that we are building long-lasting relationships with our subjects. We want to help them build their press coverage. It’s all about using our skill sets to help a fellow creative reach their goal, and they’ll use their resources to help ours.

Q: Choose three words to describe your professional journey and why?
1. Progressive: I’m not the same writer or editor I was five years ago, or three years ago, or even a year ago. I am always trying to progress and build my skill sets. I am always looking for new things to learn about my craft. I’m so far away from my initial dream of being a magazine editor. Now, I’m on the digital production side, and I love it!

2. Goal-driven: I always set goals. I tend to focus more on short-term goals because I am the type of person who is always open to trying new things, and long-term goals feel like they box me into one idea. Nevertheless, I’ve always had some sort of goal, whether it was to grow a certain skill set or start a passion project with three friends. I think this has definitely helped me in my professional development because I am able to identify what I want to gain from a project or job position.

3. Patience: I came out of undergrad in 2008 when the economy was in really bad shape. The publishing industry still struggles with not having enough resources to hire full-time staffers with reasonable pay and health coverage. I’ve had to be very patient with my career. I’ve had to take many contract jobs and freelance positions, even after I got my master’s in journalism. But I’ve met and worked with some amazing writers and editors along the way who gave me opportunities I am so blessed to have had.

September 9, 2014September 9, 2014

A Conversation with Rakia Finley, CEO of Surge Assembly

Rakia Finley is the founder and CEO of Surge Assembly, a technology firm. Surge Assembly is not your average tech firm. It is a company that believes in more than just providing solutions. The goal is also to promote growth. When Finley is not spending her time running a business, she can be found working to support women in the community. She recently started an event called Pastries and Champagne, where professional women come and share the challenges and triumphs of being a woman in the male-dominated tech industry. Finley took some time out to share with Blerds what it’s like being a female CEO in the tech world.

Q: Where are you from originally?

I’m originally from Portland, Oregon. I moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, when I was 16.

Q: Where did you go for your undergraduate/graduate degrees?

I attended Hampton University, where I received my bachelor’s in sociology. I received an MBA from Howard University.

Q: How long have you been working in the technology field?

I started doing tech when I was still in undergrad. I built my first website near the end of my freshman year. My brother is a web designer, and I just thought anything my brother did I wanted to do. So I taught myself HTML, simply to just bug my brother. I learned that I really liked it a lot. I got really interested in technology, but I was very scared of changing majors. So during the summer, I took program classes at American University and received a web design certification.

Q: Essentially, you had a tech background before getting your MBA?

I did, but I didn’t know it at the time. I knew I wanted to help nonprofits use their resources to help their development. I didn’t know that tech would play a huge part in that.

Q: How did Surge Assembly start?

My business actually started in 2003, but it wasn’t until 2004 that my brother and I realized there was something here and we could make some money and pay for college. We worked with small nonprofit organizations in the Washington, D.C., metro area. I was working on a contract with a nonprofit called Break the Cycle, a domestic violence prevention organization for teens. I was implementing technology solutions into their development, such as website design and redeveloping email marketing structure. This was during a time where technology existed but everybody was scared of it, especially nonprofit organizations. It was cool to people, but when you’re trying to implement those strategies into actual organizations people are very scared.

Q: Where do you think the fear came from?

I think the fear comes from them not knowing. Whenever we went to nonprofits and told them we were going to build them a whole new website, they thought we were going to steal their intellectual property. The coolest thing at that time was downloading white papers. So the fear was their white papers could be stolen. The intellectual property then was just writing and thoughts.

Q: How did you know there was a need for the work you’re doing?

I attribute this to my mother. My brother and I were always two individuals who thought adults were doing it wrong. I carried that with me in work life. My thought was this could be done so much better. So in regard to the work I do, the need wasn’t there. I would suggest to clients the value of implementing tools, online donations portal, instant messenger, etc. It wasn’t because they needed it; they thought it was a waste of time. It was more about there being a more efficient way to do this. I love that technology allows you to do things in a more efficient manner.

Q: Choose three words to describe your professional journey and why?

Progression: We started with Microsoft Tools, Microsoft Access and Instant Messaging. We had to progress, so now we do Mobile Apps, CRM systems and more intricate technology solutions.

Education: I have never been allowed to base my experience off something I learned 10 years ago. I’m constantly learning and being open to what technology is.

Understanding: I keep saying we’re leaving people behind. Our client profile tends to be older organizations and businesses being run by older people who aren’t a part of the tech boom and don’t necessarily care about it. We as boomers or millennials have a responsibility not to leave the rest of society behind in technology.

Q: What are your thoughts on women of color in STEM fields?

I think there are amazing women in STEM, but I would love for our voices to be a little stronger, a little bigger.