Exploring Your Life Mission
On the Web, Thursday, January 26, 2012 - Thursday, February 16, 2012
DESIGN Your Ideal Life! – Five Simple Steps to Live and Work with Purpose and Passion
On the Web, Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Security For Women (Rescheduled Due to Illness)
On the Web, Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Exploring Your Life Mission
On the Web, Wednesday, February 29, 2012 - Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Transforming IT: Security Risk Management for the Coming Decade
On the Web, Thursday, March 1, 2012
Power Your Career through Personal Branding
On the Web, Tuesday, March 20, 2012
There are no partner events currently scheduled in South Florida. Please check back soon.
South Florida Network's Mission:
Our mission is to provide members with access to the people, resources, and opportunities that women need to achieve their professional goals. We do this by providing a local IT community of women that facilitates education, leadership and mentoring as well as networking opportunities. The South Florida WITI Network is building new opportunities with every event!
Be a part of it and grow with us!
Our WITI South Florida Network Leaders are committed to bring our members the most rewarding events and to create a powerful network of professional women and students throughout South Florida. Our goal is not only to provide practical, useful information to our members, but also to provide opportunities for business connections and peer mentorship through our Networking sessions.
We know that every woman is busy trying to strike a balance between work and a personal life. We want you to get the most out of the time you spend with WITI. That's why our events are carefully planned with your needs in mind. Our SMART Connections networking events give you more than a handful of business cards to bring home; they give you techniques for networking and more deep connections to the people you meet than you typically find at most networking events. Our educational and professional development events feature insightful speakers and the latest technical information to help you grow in your careers, whether you are just starting out or you are an IT veteran!
We offer a warm and welcoming environment for women in technology to learn, meet and exchange ideas, issues, practices, and experiences. Won't you join us and experience the benefits first-hand?
Jackye Clayton
Regional Network Coordinator
Jackye serves as Technical Advisory board member for DeVry University, Mentor for the Leukemia and Lymphoma's Team in training program, and 2008 University Coordinator of the Americas for Junior Chamber International. Most recently, she was recognized by the South Florida Business Journal as an Up & Comer, an award bestowed on outstanding businesspeople under age 40.
Jackye has served as President of Hollywood Junior Chamber, and Regional Director and Business Vice President for the Florida Jaycees. Jackye was named the Most Outstanding Chapter President by the Florida Jaycees and recognized by the United States Jaycees as one of the best chapter presidents in the nation.
Jackye studied economics at Brookhaven College and University of North Texas. She resides in Hollywood, Florida, with her husbandTodd and two young children, Hannah, and Todd Jr.
Tamara Spalding
Network Coordinator
Tamara Spalding has spent over 15 years focused on the customer. Tamara is the Senior Director of Technical Support Operations at ScriptLogic Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quest Software. Her responsibility is to lead, coach, mentor and motivate her team and ensure they have the technical skills needed to provide the best possible service to customers. Before coming to ScriptLogic, Tamara was the Director of Customer Service and Training at ChoicePoint, Inc. Tamara holds a bachelor's degree in Business Management from University of Phoenix and has earned her HDI Support Center Director Certification. She also serves on the leadership team of the South Florida chapter of WITI (Women in Technology International).
Kelly Boyle
Strategic Alliance Chairperson
Financial Advisor and Business Financial Advisor, Burie, D'Augelli and Associates
Kelly has a technical background. Formally, she was a Database Developer for the Florida Museum of Natural History as well as President of NK Productions, Inc., a web-programming company based in Gainesville, FL. She joined Ameriprise Financial in 2005, and then in November of 2009, merged her practice with Burie, D'Augelli and Associates.
She has made several contributions through Women Referring Women, a unique women's networking group in South Florida focused on developing referral relationships. As President & Founder, Kelly has helped hundreds of business women grow their businesses, as well as provide an environment for women to learn best business practices from their peers and other prominent professionals in the community. Her community service includes being a member of the Rotary Club of Boca Raton and American Health Association, Boca Raton, FL. Kelly has her Bachelor's Degree in Finance from the University of Florida.
Yvette LaMar
West Palm Beach Program Chairperson
Yvette LaMar is the North American Marketing manager for IBM's Server and Technology Group. A graduate of University of Southern California, with a BS in MIS, and Masters in Marketing from Regis University. Yvette has over 20 years in the technology industry with technical and marketing experience in hardware, software, and services.
Alice M. Alverez
Miami Program Chairperson
Alice Alvarez currently works for Miami-Dade County Miami-Dade County in the Enterprise Technology Services Department, Identity and Access Management division, the largest local government in the Southeast USA. She is responsible to oversee the design, testing, and implementation of Identity and Access Management (IAM) infrastructure that supports over 40,000 employees for user provisioning, Single-Sign On and Web Access Management solutions. In this role, She approves all technical decisions and implementations for the IAM project to ensure enterprise compliance; including working with county departments to gather and document business function requirements such as security roles and rights. In addition, she manages the county's enterprise PKI infrastructure; policies for PCI Compliance, and serves as a backup for vulnerability management and web application security assessment.
Marion Lang
Miami Project Coordinator
Marion Lang has been in the field of information security for over 10 years specializing in privacy and incident response and currently working as a Lead Data Security Analyst at Automatic Data Processing in their newly formed Global Security Office. Over the years she has attained the industry standards in certifications for security, audit and privacy; CISSP, CISA and CIPP. She is also active outside work. She joined Toastmasters International in 2004 and started taking on leadership roles in 2007. For 2009 Ð 2010 Toastmaster year she took on the challenge of area governor for all the Toastmaster clubs from South Dade to Key West. Under her leadership her clubs achieved President's Distinguished Area, the highest distinction possible. Marion is looking forward to new and different challenges now that she has joined the South Florida leadership team for Women in Technology.
Patricia Monica Ojeda
PR and Marketing Chair
Patricia is a consummate and highly dynamic professional with extensive experience as an IT executive as well as a Program and Project Management Consultant. In her current role she is developing solutions to drive growth and profitability in challenging and competitive markets. As the latest addition to the South Florida Women in Technology International leadership team, she will be driving growth for WITI. She has worked with Microsoft, IBM and Reynox to name a few.
Patricia has her Under graduate degree in Electrical Engineering and her Masters in Strategic planning.
Sheila Ravindran
Director of JM Family
Sheila Ravindran is currently a Director in the Project Management Office at JM Family Enterprises, a diversified automotive corporation. She supports the World Omni Financial division .
In addition to her experience with JM Family, Ms. Ravindran was a Director of Information Technology at AutoNation, where she worked for 10 years. AutoNation is America's largest automotive retailer and a Fortune 100 company, employing 31,000 people.
Prior to AutoNation Sheila worked as a Senior Business Consultant for Arthur Andersen LLP. At Andersen, she provided management consulting, strategy formulation and implementation, business systems implementation, and business processes. Before joining Arthur Andersen, she worked as a consultant for 5 years for Financial Data Planning (FDP) doing system implementations, training, programming, and support.
Sheila holds a Bachelor degree in Economics from the University of Miami and her Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Florida International University. She also earned a degree in English Literature from the University of Miami.
Sheila was a Board Member for the Girl Scouts of Broward County from 2001-2008, serving as First Vice President for 2 years. She is also an alumni of Leadership Broward Class of XXI. She is married and has two daughters.
Robin Hensley
CTO and VP Engineering, Tyco Retail Solutions
Robin is responsible for driving the development of compelling, global products and solutions for both the Loss Prevention Solutions and Store Performance Solutions portfolios of TRS. As a member of the TRS leadership team, Robin and her team will ensure delivery of innovative products with speed, quality, and cost competitiveness consistent with TRS growth strategies.
Robin joins TRS from Hewlett-Packard, where she held executive roles in general management, hardware and software engineering, marketing, quality, and customer satisfaction. Her key accomplishments during her tenure with HP include more than doubling the entry storage business to $1B, improving server and storage product quality while reducing costs by over $350M, and launching a worldwide partner program.
Robin earned a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering from Tulane University and an MBA in Technology Management from the University of Phoenix. Robin holds five patents and held past board roles as a member of the Tulane School of Engineering advisors board and a member of the DCW Architects board.
Sandra Finn
President, Cross Country Homes
Sandra Finn, was ranked #2 in the 2011 Top-50 Women-Led Businesses in Florida by The Commonwealth Institute and the University of Miami School of Business.
Ms. Finn joined the Cross Country Home Services in October, 1999 as Executive Vice President and was promoted to President in November 2001.
Ms. Finn was honored by the American Business Woman's Association with the Spirit of Excellence Award. Ms. Finn holds a B.A. from Brown University and a M.B.A. from New York University.
Laura Klein
Chief Information Officer, eDiets
Laura Klein joined eDiets in 2008 as its Chief Information Officer and took on the additional role of running the Corporate Services Division in early 2010. Prior to joining eDiets, Ms. Klein served as the Chief Information Officer, VP of IT and Security Officer at Sheridan Healthcare, a leading outsourcing provider of healthcare services for hospitals and medical facilities. Between 2001 and 2002, she was President of Elencee, a marketing and website development company located in Fort Lauderdale. Ms. Klein holds an Executive Program MBA degree with a concentration in healthcare from the University of Miami, as well as a MS degree in Food and Nutrition from the University of Georgia and a BS degree in Biology from North Carolina State University.
Stephanie Lone
Vice President Shared Systems, CBS Interactive
Stephanie provides strategic leadership to the technological and business advancements of the enterprise data and business systems for Shared Services teams used by more than 30 mobile and online websites owned and operated by CBS Interactive as well as additional affiliate internet properties across CBS Broadcasting. These CBS Interactive business units, include CNET, CBS Sports, ZDNet, CBS.com, CBS News.com among others.
It is Stephanie who oversees the central Data Warehouse system and administration of the central Microstrategy BI & Reporting toolset,the internal Ad Serving system & services surrounding ad serving as well as the central registration, billing, email and alerting systems as well among other duties. She received her BA from North Carolina State University and has been with CBS since 1997.
Felicia Alvaro
Vice President of Finance, Ultimate Software
Felicia Alvaro joined Ultimate Software in 1998 as Vice President of Finance. Ultimate Software is a leading provider of unified human capital management (ÒHCMÓ) software-as-a-service (ÒSaaSÓ) solutions for global businesses. Ultimate Software is headquartered in Weston, Florida (with offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Newport Beach, California) and has over 1,200 employees throughout the United States and Canada. Felicia has over 24 years experience in financial management. At Ultimate Software, Felicia oversees financial planning, financial analyses, financial reporting, financial compliance (SOX), business operations analyses, accounting policies and procedures, mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning and technical accounting. Prior to joining Ultimate Software, Felicia served in a number of financial positions with several companies, including Director of Finance for over 6 years at Pueblo Xtra International (a grocery store chain headquartered in South Florida, with operations in Puerto Rico, and over 8,000 employees at the time) and Supervising Senior Accountant for over 3 years at KPMG in Miami (audit practice). Felicia is a Certified Public Accountant. She received her Bachelor's of Science in Accounting from Southeastern Louisiana University, where she graduated at the top of her graduating class. Felicia is a member of the FICPA and AICPA.
Alva Bullard
CIO, Experian Simmons
Alva is an expert at building and leading smart, independent, and enthusiastic technical teams. Before ascending the management ranks, Alva worked as a software developer on complex production and database application in roles at Birch Radio/Scarborough and Precision Response Corporation. Currently, she is the CIO for Experian Simmons. At a time when resources are scarce and demands are high, Alva is able to provide the vision and strategy as well as inspire enthusiasm in her staff to deliver upon commitments in an on-time, high quality fashion. Recently, her team launched a web-based analytics tool for mining Simmons large database of custom research and syndicated data. In recognition of that effort, she along with core team members received Experian's 2010 Product Launch of the Year Award Ð Marketing Services Division. Additionally, Alva's team and individual members consistently receive company-wide Spirit Awards for their contributions to product ideas, solutions and services. Alva continues to build strategies that increase performance of both her face-to-face and virtual teams. A highly respected senior team member, she is a frequently sought after contributor for providing insights on leveraging IT assets to meet company goals and business needs.
Personally, Alva is pursuing a PhD in Information Systems. Prior education includes a Bachelor of Science degree from Spelman College (Atlanta, GA) and a Master of Science degree in Management Information Systems from St. Thomas University (Miami, FL). Alva also manages a hectic family life that includes her husband and two middle school-age kids.
Michelle Bazargan
Director of Technology Services, JM Family Enterprises
Michelle Bazargan is a Director of Technology Services, at JM Family Enterprises, an automotive company.
Michelle joined JM Family in 2001 as part of the Technology Operations team and was promoted to Project Director responsible for systems replacement and implementation initiatives. In addition, Michelle has held other positions at JM Family including Director of Technology Planning and Director of Client Advocacy for the Portfolio Management Offices (PMOs).
Michelle holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and Marketing from Florida Atlantic University. She is also PMP certified and also holds other numerous technical and management certifications. Michelle has a strong passion and commitment for leadership, building effective teams and promoting and driving innovation.
Michelle is an avid athlete and participates in triathlons, adventure races, 100 mile century rides, and marathons to raise money for charitable organizations such as United Way, Big Brothers & Sisters, and American Red Cross. Michelle resides in Delray Beach.
Julieta Ross PhD.
CTO Latin America, Citi
Not only is Julieta the CTO Latin America at Citi, while doing her PhD and Masters she developed image processing algorithms for texture segmentation of medical images to detect cancer. She spent a significant amount of time with Radiologists learning to read mammograms, and later developed algorithms and wrote software to automatically interpret mammograms for the purpose of providing a second opinion to radiologists.
Your membership includes the following benefits:
- Peer Mentorship program participation
- The WITI Strategist - our electronic newsletter
- WITI 4Hire - our job database
- WITI listserve - our moderated electronic network to interact with other members worldwide
- Discounts to regional chapter meetings
- Discounts to our annual conference and regional conferences
- Learn more about all of the national WITI benefits