TechTalk
August 24th, 6-8pm
KCWiT presented panel of women in very different technology careers to discuss how they got into their career path, challenges they’ve faced, and to answer questions gathered via social media. WiSTEMM members were also invited to attend .
This is event was at ThinkBig Partners and sponsored by Triple-i
Lisa Johnson
Manager – Application Systems, Westar Energy
With more than 25 years in the technology industry, Lisa Johnson is an experienced technologist with an aptitude and attitude for innovation. Starting her career with Electronic Data Systems in St. Louis, Mo., Lisa’s skills have constantly evolved with technology to remain competitive amongst her peers. Early in her career, she learned the benefit of saying “yes” to transform her ideas into reality. This mindset helped her expand her role at Westar Energy from Oracle application development into database architecture design and she’s never looked back. Today, as the manager for Westar Energy’s Information Technology Middleware and Database Management Groups, Lisa oversees IT operations for the organization’s enterprise applications systems.
Anna Nelson
Enterprise Business Intelligence Sr. Team Lead, Cerner
Spending summers fixing cash registers at Six Flags-St. Louis, Anna Nelson was exposed to technology at a young age. With an early propensity for technology, Anna pursued a degree in Computer Information Systems at Missouri State University. After graduation, she served as a programmer/analyst at Payless Shoe Source in Topeka, Kan., to enhance its inventory management solutions. Following her time at Payless, Anna joined the BI team at Cerner. She quickly elevated her role, receiving Cerner’s prestigious Enterprise Solutions Excellence Award in 2007 and the Directors Award in 2008. Today, she manages the BI team, which has expanded to include a group in Bangalore, and includes projects in development, solution design and technical strategy.
Kim Van Dyke
Business Analyst, CommunityAmerica Credit Union
Kim Van Dyke joined CommunityAmerica Credit Union (CACU) 15 years ago as part of its sales force. However, her interest quickly expanded into back-end systems and technical operations. Eager to learn the technology, she completed courses at Johnson County Community College and learned on-the-job to become CACU’s business analyst. As a BA, she has implemented new testing techniques and successfully completed numerous technical projects including: systems conversions; software implementations; process improvements; and in-depth quality/testing. Because her career started in sales, Kim understands the finer points of project communication and the soft skills required to share information at various levels of the organization.