It’s Member Monday! We are so grateful for our members! This week we are highlighting Lunavi . Lunavi takes pride in personalizing their approach to meet you wherever you are on your digital transformation journey and prioritizes a hands-on approach.
Here are the ways Lunavi partners with the community
Project Alignment & Planning: Our teams strategize side by side with you to create customized solutions and discover areas of improvement.
Culture & Leadership: We aim to create lasting transformational benefits by helping delivery teams build an agile mindset and approach.
Exceptional Service & Support: Passionate Global Service Center and project delivery team members have your back.
Delivery Team: Each engagement brings a delivery manager with the ideal mix of cloud and software engineers, architects, and developers.
Focused On Value: Project success proven through transparent status reports and incremental value delivery along each step of engagement.
Lunavi invests in their employees, partners, and communities because they believe people can — and do — make the difference. AIM is grateful to have members that are also committed to excellence as an organization for all that we serve!
#AIM #GetIntoTech #Lunavi
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“What types of changes happen over time with no effort?” she asked rhetorically, setting herself up to answer with an insight that was amplified by its understatement: “I can’t really think of any.”
Page describes herself as a “STEMinist”—an advocate for increased diversity, equity and inclusion in the traditionally male-dominated disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math. She encourages companies to reimagine innovation as more than the domain of new products and processes, but as a sustained, ambitious, collective effort of imagination inextricably linked to the advancement of society.
“(Innovation is) about looking for that unheard of or outlandish idea that, when adopted, could spur meaningful and radical change,” she said.
Page is no stranger to change. In an interview with SPN last week, she said she’s always been an early adopter of new technology.
As a tenth grader, the future entrepreneur landed a position at a small insurance office. A few days into her first-ever job, the company bought a fax machine (it was 1984). However, Page’s boss did not want to read the enormous operation manual that came with it. So, he asked her to figure it out—and then to teach him.
She would go on to become the de facto troubleshooter for the rest of the office whenever her employer would purchase new hardware or software. In college and grad school, she worked in restaurants and hotels and began wondering how new technologies, structures and systems impacted people.
“(For instance,) how does the new ordering system impact the dishwasher? Oh, nobody even thought it could impact the dishwasher, because you think it just affects the waitress who’s taking the order or the chef who’s fixing it,” she said.
This interest in the intersection between people and tech laid the foundation for a robust career that has led her to roles in various companies, ranging from web developer to organizational change manager. She describes the latter as someone who positions teams and companies for success so that change “doesn’t suck.”
Her most recent role at payment-processing giant Paypal allowed her to develop a connection with Omaha that continues into the current phase of her journey as entrepreneur.
“What I’ve always liked is the integration of technology into business,” she said. “You really can’t separate the two.”
In 2020, as the pandemic ramped up and widespread protests over violence against Black people dominated headlines, Page launched Radical Change, a startup focused on learning, coaching and advisory services.
“Technology can be intimidating, especially for young girls and women—even nowadays—because it’s still such a male-dominated profession, (especially) the highly technical jobs like engineering, where we haven’t increased the number of women in those roles in the last 20 years we’ve been keeping statistics on it,” she said.
In fact, the Society of Women Engineers has found that only 30% of women who earn an engineering degree are still working in the profession 20 years later. While multiple reasons could account for that—such as motherhood, a change in interests or opportunities, retirement and so on—at least 30% of women who did leave the profession cited organizational climate as the reason.
Page offered a possible explanation for the gender disparity in highly technical roles: “It’s a communication thing, and it’s a style.”
She noted that a lot of men working in technology tend to enjoy focusing really hard on one specific technical skill. This leads them not to have as many interactions with different people, whereas she believes women enjoy working more with others.
“A lot of women nowadays are in roles such as product manager, program manager and other roles where you’re not just focused on the technology, but you have to have a complete and total view, and having that total view is more impactful when you’re…trying to do a big effort or a large body of work.”
Granted, she said, women do have to deal with things that men don’t, such as being judged on appearance, tone of voice and other superficialities. But, she added, sometimes this can actually be an advantage.
“You really have to bring your voice to the table because you don’t have as many opportunities to talk,” she said. “You have to listen, understand, and add value relatively quickly.”
That said, Page singled out the AIM Institute and Prairie STEM for “looking at the bigger picture” and working to strengthen and diversify the IT workforce, something she’s long been interested in as a mentor to young women and people of color in technology.
“Throughout my career, being a Black woman, I’m always the only one, and so I always have gravitated towards mentoring young people (and helping them to understand that) even though there’s not a lot of people that look like you, you still belong here,” she said. “Everybody belongs in tech.”
To view Page’s Infotec 2021 keynote address, please visit the AIM Institute YouTube channel.
Last Friday, AIM held a virtual graduation ceremony in celebration of the latest cohort to complete Advanced Tech Leaders Academy, AIM’s intensive leadership development program for tech professionals.
Thirty-four participants from 14 companies completed this an annual management course for tech professionals, the goal of which is to enhance leadership skills essential for current and upcoming managers in the tech industry.
The event was led by Todd Campbell, application development senior manager at TD Ameritrade and chair of the AIM Leadership Academy steering committee. In addition to his dayjob, Campbell teaches leadership development in both the Emerging and Advanced Tech Leaders Academies. (A skilled Jazz guitarist and songwriter, Campbell kicked off the ceremony by playing a snippet of one of his originals at the request of some attendees.)
Each attendee was given a moment to share what they had gained from the program. Testimonials were overwhelmingly positive.
“I learned about myself and others, my own personal brand, how to improve in my current role and how to prepare for the next one,” said Mary Arko, Information Services Manager for Mutual of Omaha. “This has been an experience I will never forget.”
Change management, reality-based training, big idea thinking, servant leadership and identification of one’s personal strengths were consistently mentioned as some of graduates’ favorite aspects of Advanced Tech Leaders.
“Over the past few months, I’ve grown as a leader and have pushed myself to go outside my comfort zone, even though it can be really hard at times, especially with me being shy,” said Bryce Costanzo, software engineer at T.D. Ameritrade.
Costanzo’s colleague, Tracy McElwee, scrum master for T.D. Ameritrade, agreed, citing initial discomfort with a virtual learning format as a factor that ended up helping her succeed in the course. “Over the last six months, I’ve grown so much. And while we all work in IT departments, we all brought something different, and that was the beauty of it.”
The course’s focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in the tech workplace was especially appreciated.
“I just want to thank not only the AIM team, but the entire cohort, because I really felt seen and heard, not only in my capstone group, but overall—and for me, that’s a rare professional experience,” said Vonda Page, organizational change manager for PayPal. “Because of that, I feel like I’m more connected to the Silicon Prairie tech community.”
To learn more about AIM’s Tech Leadership programs, visit our website or contact Monika Philp.
Congratulations to all the graduates!
Stephanie Andresen, Blue Cross Blue Shield Nebraska
Mary Arko, Mutual of Omaha
Todd Briston, Team Software
Lynsey Byers, PayPal
Juan Chavez, Apple Inc.
Bernie Conway, Farm Credit Services of America
Bryan Costanzo, TD Ameritrade
Clinton Davis, BlueCross BlueShield of Nebraska
Charles Draper, Kiewit
Ken Duncan, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska
Chad Dzingle, CSG
Vladimir Georgiev, Mutual of Omaha
Inna Goldman, Omaha Public Power District
Chris Greer, Mutual of Omaha
Jorge Grimalado, Siena Francis House
Chequetta Jackson, Omaha Public Power District
Amanda Lane, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska
Tracy Masker, Gavilon, LLC
Tracy McElwee, TD Ameritrade
Sarah Muth, CSG
Vonda Page, PayPal
Seth Phillips, Team Software
Sindura Polavarapu, TD Ameritrade
John Ramsey, Mutual of Omaha
Samuel Requenez, Farm Credit Services of America
Jeris Rue, CSG
Ashley Schantell, Farm Credit Services of America
James Schneider, Mutual of Omaha
Brett Schultz, Kiewit Corporation
Naveen Rangasamy Velusamy, CSG
Alesha Walker, Omaha Public Power District
Maryanne Weinstine, Kiewit
Scott Westbrook, Tenaska
Nathan Wood, FNTS
Who says a virtual conference can’t be a good substitute for the real thing?
Who says a virtual conference isn’t the real thing in the first place?
Last week’s Infotec 2020 conference, hosted by the AIM Institute, proved the virtual conference is here to stay. The event offered a chance for the Silicon Prairie tech talent community to come together, network and learn new technologies and influential ideas they can bring back to their workplaces.
Introduced by AIM’s Maria Brady, Paul Jarrett of Bulu Group kicked off things with a morning keynote about the necessity of failure on the way to success.
After that, participants attended a variety of breakout sessions ranging from a primer on machine learning to a panel of women IT leaders discussing how to make the tech sector a more equitable place for women and non-men.
The Women in Tech panel discussion was one of the most well-attended sessions, receiving stellar praise from attendees. (Watch the full discussion embedded below.)
Moderated by Brady, Women in Tech panelists were Vonda Page, organizational change leader for PayPal; Michelle Wingard, co-founder & CEO of Dynamo; Addison Parker, project engineer for Union Pacific; and Jessica Barry, IT manager for Conagra Brands.
“(The Women in Tech panel) was amazing,” said Lucy Podany, a student at Metropolitan Community College.
TD Ameritrade’s Tracy McElwee agreed.
“All of the panelists were rock stars,” McElwee said. “I’ve attended a few virtual conferences over the last few months and the energy and content of this breakout session was by far the best!”
Dr. Pamela Boyers, associate vice chancellor for clinical simulation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s iEXCEL program, gave the afternoon keynote about UNMC’s new Davis Global Center. The Davis Global Center employs high-tech simulation and visualization technology to help train healthcare professionals in real-world scenarios before they ever see a patient, ensuring well-trained staff and improved medical outcomes.
More breakout sessions followed, including Werner Enterprises Associate Director of ITS Stacey Richter’s presentation about leading high-performing teams, and a session on the business value of diversity and inclusion presented by Shelton Banks, CEO of Chicago-based tech workforce development program re:work training.
Overall, Infotec 2020 featured informative, cutting-edge sessions around several key topic areas of today’s tech field: AI & Machine Learning, Cloud Technology, Data & Cybersecurity, Recruitment & Retention, and Leadership.
Many of the event’s 546 attendees enjoyed the diverse array of offerings, such as OPPD’s Alesha Walker.
“I jumped in and out of a few sessions, but all were very fascinating, from learning to fail successfully to being an empowered woman in the tech industry,” Walker said.
Missed the conference? Don’t worry. The full Infotec 2020 playlist is available on AIM’s YouTube channel. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share with your friends who are either working in the tech industry or considering technology as a future career choice.
