Dress for Success, Spring Career Styles, Wine and UnWind
Thursday, April 25, 2013

Change Intelligence: Empowering Women to Put the Power of CQ to Work in Their Teams and Careers
On the Web, Tuesday, April 9, 2013

The Growth Zone: How to Spot and Be Chosen to Lead Breakthrough Projects in Your Organization
On the Web, Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The New Feminine Principle
On the Web, Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Passionate CyberSecurity Professional & Hot Career Topics for Women in Technology
On the Web, Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Loving Your Job: Five Critical Success Strategies to Keep Your Career Thriving Instead of Just Surviving
On the Web, Tuesday, May 7, 2013

My Brain Made Me Do It: How to Avoid 6 Common Investing Mistakes
On the Web, Tuesday, May 14, 2013

LaVern Witherspoon
Regional Director

LaVern is a software engineer with over 15 years experience in telecommunications, data networking and applications development. She has held a series of software development positions at Tekelec, Racal-Datacom and IBM. Her expertise spans multiple system architectures and platforms including personal computers, modems and data communications products, and telecommunications equipment and services.

While at Tekelec she provided technical design support for large US and international telecommunications vendors fixed and mobile networks and served as a subject matter expert for IP signaling applications on the company's 3G session management platform.

LaVern is a graduate of Computer Science from Florida Atlantic University. She enjoys working with WITI because of the opportunities for personal development, connecting with other industry professionals and learning about current business and technology initiatives.

LaVern serves as the director for WITI's Research Triangle Park network, and lives in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. She volunteers with organizations that provide opportunities for academic enrichment and scholarships for students.

Melissa Kieffer
Regional Alliances Chair

Melissa is the Director and Quality Assurance & Performance (QAP) Practice Manager at the Advanced Technology Group (ATG). Melissa has over 15 years of experience in the Telecommunications industry and has held various consulting and full time roles with Start-ups, International, and Fortune 500 companies such as Director of Business Operations, Senior Billing Consultant, and Quality Assurance Manager with a focus on billing operations, billing systems, and quality assurance.

During her tenure at ATG, Melissa has worked with companies such as InterCall where she drove the scope definition for a Business Process Management pilot program, managed the Integration Testing initiative for a new billing system replacement, and led Automation/Load and Performance Testing at CenturyLink as part of the EMBARQ merger and system conversion. Most recently Melissa has played a critical role in defining, establishing, and managing the Quality Assurance Practice.

Melissa believes in the importance of networking to maintain technical excellence and to create lasting business relationships that are beneficial to all parties. Melissa resides in Cary, NC and enjoys spending time with her family in nearby Fayetteville, NC and Rockingham, NC.

Priya Marsonia
Membership Chair

Priya Marsonia is a VP of Delivery at the Advanced Technology Group. During her career, Priya has worked with over 25 companies of various sizes on high-tech product development, software development, billing systems integration, network deployment and process improvement programs. During her tenure with ATG, Priya has worked with major companies such as CenturyLink on managing IT conversion programs for the CenturyLink-Embarq merger, and has led work at Savvis to tune their operational efficiency. Prior to her position at ATG, she was a Customer Project Director at Nortel Networks, and was a Director in the Technology and Operations functions at Verisign. In these roles, Priya lead several large initiatives to create, define, integrate and deploy product, hosted IT, IT and communications solutions to Global 500 clients.

Priya plays leadership roles in community groups that promote technology, innovation, and effective project management, including the Membership Chair at WITI, Raleigh and the innovation@rtp Speaker Series. She is a graduate, with High Distinction, of Systems and Computer Engineering from Carleton University, a PMP and a Six Sigma Black Belt. She lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband and two young children.

Connie Harryman
Advisor

Connie Harryman is the founder of Applied Concepts Creativity and the US CEO for RobotLab - a Danish company that is a recognized as the global leader for training in creativity. Through Applied Concepts Creativity Connie represents internationally recognized experts on creativity and innovation while promoting the use of technology to spark creativity.

In her past corporate career, Connie managed multimillion dollar accounts for the market leader in telecommunications at the forefront of emerging technologies. She has also served as President of the American Creativity Association - Austin Global.

Connie is a winner of the International Women's Day Outstanding Service Award and has been interviewed numerous times on blogtalkradio. She co-authored the white paper "Mastering Creative Problem Solving within Teams," which was presented in Copenhagen, Denmark and published by the International Association of Science Parks 2011. Connie is also the author of numerous articles on creativity, innovation, and women in technology. She is an entrepreneur, lover of social networking and passionate about developing creative thinking as a competency.

You are invited to connect with Connie Harryman on LinkedIn, facebook, and Twitter.