Congratulations to the 2012 Technology Woman of the Year Nominees!
Elizabeth Amato Fleck |
Cheryl M. Carney |
 Jessica DeGroote Nelson Optimax Systems, Inc. Research & Development Manager Read Jessica’s Bio |
 Dawn DePerrior U of R Medical Center Sr. Director of Enterprise Clinical Systems Read Dawn’s Bio |
 Uma Gupta PlanetGPA CEO and Founder Read Uma’s Bio |
Jennifer Indovina |
 Jennifer Kruschwitz University of Rochester Adjunct Professor, Principal Engineer, JK Consulting Read Jennifer’s Bio |
 Sally Loughry M5 Networks, Inc. Director of Customer Service Read Sally’s Bio |
 Robin Louvain Carestream Health, Inc. Software Program Manager Read Robin’s Bio |
 Cheryl Nelan CMIT Solutions of Monroe President & Owner Read Cheryl’s Bio |
 Jennifer Shanley Zwirlz.com CEO Read Jennifer’s Bio |
Elizabeth Amato Fleck
Manager of Health Information Technology
Innovative Solutions
When Elizabeth Amato Fleck came to Innovative Solutions Health IT in 2010, the company struggled finding a job title that accurately reflected her education, experience and passion for the medical profession. Co-workers refer to her as the company “Healthcare Czar,” an accurate designation given her unique understanding of how EHR technology interfaces with real world medical practices. She brings to the industry hands-on knowledge of healthcare work flow processes, having served as administrator for a large OB-GYN practice. At Innovative Solutions Health IT, she applies this experience to develop and adapt clinical optimization services that are customized to meet the specific needs and expectations of her healthcare clients.
Elizabeth’s academic career includes a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education and Psychology from St. John Fisher College and as Master of Science in Healthcare Administration from Roberts Wesleyan College where she received the Distinguished Leadership and Academic Achievement Award. Her experience as an educator and healthcare administrator allows her to put her personal stamp on healthcare organization by providing both strategic and tactical guidance related to the adoption of technology. She’s been published in Group Practice Journal and continues to expand her knowledge by attending regional conferences and seminars. Elizabeth is recognized as a trusted advisor by healthcare organizations by providing them with grant/subsidy alignment, federal and state initiative programs, work flow enhancement and EHR optimization tools.
In her spare time, Elizabeth is the proud mother of two sons and enjoys spending quiet moments with her family. She’s also an avid reader and loves traveling.
Cheryl Carney
NY Regional Director
Windstream Corporation
Cheryl Carney is the Rochester, NY Regional Director for Windstream Corporation. Cheryl is responsible for the company’s enterprise business sales. This role encompasses primary go-to-market strategy with focus on advanced telecommunication solutions; overall responsibility for market financials; sales team development/coaching; and customer satisfaction. Windstream Corporation is an S&P 500 company with over $6 billion in revenues. Windstream’s core focus is offering enterprise accounts advanced network solutions, with focus on wide area network solutions; cloud computing; managed services; and customer premise equipment. Cheryl has over 16 years of telecommunication and sales experience and has been with PAETEC/Windstream organization since 2000.
Cheryl has been consistently recognized as a top performer with PAETEC/Windstream by attaining Chairman’s Club for 8 consecutive years. Since advancing to the Regional Director’s role in 2007, Cheryl and her team have exceeded quota every quarter and achieved double digit revenue growth every year.
Prior to joining Windstream Corporation Cheryl held a Major Account Executive position with Global Crossing. Primary concentration was development of voice/data solutions for medium to large size commercial accounts.
Cheryl earned her Bachelor’s degree from St. John Fisher College and her MBA from Le Moyne College. She is actively involved in the Central NY Chapter of Autism Society of America.
Jessica DeGroote Nelson
Research and Development Manager
Optimax Systems, Inc.
Jessica DeGroote Nelson is the Research and Development Manager of Optimax Systems, Inc., an optical components manufacturer dedicated to small volume, high quality and quick delivery. She joined Optimax in 2007 after graduating from the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics with Ph.D. in Optics where she also earned first a bachelor degree then masters degree in the same field of study. She is also an adjunct faculty at The Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester teaching a course on Optical Fabrication and Testing.
During the past five years at Optimax, Jessica has not only expanded and improved the internal optical manufacturing processes, but has also won five Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards and is leading the research on these initiatives, as well as authoring more than 20 white papers on her findings.
Jessica is also an active member and presenter with the Optical Society of America (OSA), SPIE (the international society for optics and photonics), American Ceramic Society (ACerS) and the American Society of Precision Engineers (ASPE). Her involvement also includes participating on conference organizing committees; she is currently one of the co-chairs for the Optical Fabrication and Testing topical meeting.
Jessica feels strongly about educational outreach and encouraging young people to get involved in technology specifically through the Optics Suitcase program. She served as the educational outreach chair in graduate school and through this helped to encourage young girls to get involved in science through secret code nail polish, utilizing circular polarizers and birefringent tape. She is also active in the local section of the Optical Society of America – Rochester Section where she currently serves on the council as treasurer.
Dawn DePerrior
Sr. Director of Enterprise Clinical Systems
U of R Medical Center
Dawn DePerrior leads a 100+ person team at the University of Rochester Medical Center responsible for transforming the way over 10,000 clinicians deliver care in two hospitals and across 162 ambulatory clinics with the implementation of eRecord, an integrated electronic health record. The primary goal of the 4-year, $80 million project is to support URMC’s mission of improving patient safety and quality of care, and with eRecord in operation at URMC’s two hospitals, the project is already delivering on its goal. More than 10,000 clinicians have successfully transitioned from a paper chart to an electronic medical record. In fact, the eRecord team was recently awarded two of the University’s highest honors for its accomplishments: URMC’s Board Quality Award and the University’s Meliora award.
Prior to URMC, DePerrior was a management consultant focusing on implementing operational and technology strategies for organizations across a range of industries. Her expertise includes strategic planning, vendor selection, implementation project management and process redesign. DePerrior played a leadership role in the startup of the Greater Rochester RHIO, our region’s health information exchange. She also was a co-founder of an internet-based search and registration engine, where she led business development, capital funding, and technology design and deployment.
DePerrior is a regular guest lecturer at The Simon School of Business, and takes pride in frequently mentoring students and assisting colleagues during career transitions. She was a speaker at the eHealth Initiative’s HIT Summit regarding Vendor Selection Best Practices and at Monroe County Medical Society’s technology day. She is a past big sister for Hillside Children’s Center, teacher for First Baptists’ Sunday and vacation bible schools, and church Deacon. She was actively involved in her three children’s public school education as room mother and serving on several planning committees. She was the registrar and board member for Twelve Corners Nursery School.
DePerrior received her undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University in 1980 and an M.B.A. in Quantitative Analysis from the University of Cincinnati.
Uma Gupta
President and CEO
PlanetGPA
Dr. Gupta is the Founding President and CEO of PlanetGPA, a leader in assisting campus internationalization of U.S colleges and universities and international student recruitment. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of STEM-SMART, an online community dedicated to increasing the pipeline of US students pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees and careers.
Dr. Gupta brings more than two decades of distinguished experience in higher education as President of the State University of New York at Alfred, New York and Senior Advisor to the SUNY Chancellor for Women in Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics (STEM), Dean of the College of Technology at the University of Houston, Texas, and Endowed Chair of Information Technology at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. She earned her MBA and PhD from the University of Central Florida. She has authored two text books and more than sixty refereed publications and is a sought after speaker.
Dr. Gupta has dedicated her professional life to the advancement of girls, women and minorities. While at Creighton University, she rallied the corporate and educational sector to help her launch the first Women in Technology group and the first conference for Women in Technology. Fifteen years later, this organization still continues to grow and thrive. As Dean at the University of Houston, Dr. Gupta worked tirelessly to build bridges between educational institutions and the corporate sector and for her efforts was recognized as the Top Ten Women in Technology in Houston. Today the non-profit she founded works closely with the Rochester City School District and Latinas Unidas to build a steady pipeline of educated citizens. “Gender is not the issue,” she says. “Instead our inability to capture the full potential of all human beings is our greatest challenge.”
She crafted her life’s motto to read: Do Good. Be Happy. Rest is fluff.
Jennifer Kruschwitz
University of Rochester Adjunct Professor
Principal Engineer
JK Consulting
Encouraging women to enter the physical sciences has been a passion for Jennifer Kruschwitz for over 20 years. Jennifer has her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Optics from the University of Rochester and is currently studying for her PhD in Color Science at RIT.
She has worked in Rochester since 1992 starting at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics and then Bausch and Lomb. After her first child was born she became an independent consultant in optical interference coatings and is the only woman in the US who consults in this field. She is a Senior Member of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and a member of the International Society of Optical Engineers. Jennifer has published more than fifteen journal articles, seven magazine articles, holds two patents and two patents pending in the areas of laser cinema display and color.
She is currently an adjunct assistant professor to the University of Rochester and the University of Arizona. She has been on the International OSA Board of Directors as well as President of the Rochester local chapter. She was Chair of the Women of the OSA where she profiled several “up-and-coming” female graduate students for the WOSA newsletter.
She works with MCC (where she sits on the Optical Technology Advisory Board) and East High School in organizing the “Summer Sizzler” to introduce optics to teens in their senior year. Since its inception, the Sizzler has doubled in size where many of the participants are young women.
Jennifer serves on the Board of The New Agenda, a national 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home.
Jennifer is a certified 3rd degree black belt in Taekwondo and is married with two children.
Sally Loughry
Director of Customer Service
M5 Networks Inc.
My name is Sally Loughry, and I am currently the Director of Customer Service at M5 – The Cloud Division of ShoreTel. I have the privilege to promote the Talent Factory concept as we actively hire the best talent to support our cutting edge cloud-based unified communications technology. The vision is to internally source other departments from within the support team.
I have always had a passion for leadership and early in my career I obtained a Masters of Strategic Leadership from Roberts Wesleyan College and received the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award. The cohort I was in included several very strong female leaders that spanned significantly different backgrounds and professions and this diversity of thought and experiences was very instrumental in my personal growth. This educational background coupled with my progressive leadership roles spanning supervisor, manager and director positions enabled me to refine my strengths and continue to grow, learn and mentor others along the way.
I was also very fortunate to have an outstanding leader whom I reported to for numerous years while working at Eastman Kodak Company, and she helped mentor me through the opportunities offered to me. Sue Godshall helped teach me how to be a strong leader while maintaining your values and staying true to who you are by the example she set.
I strive to do the same both personally and professionally. Juggling a demanding career while raising children and keeping your husband happy is a never-ending journey! Much of my community service activities tie to the Avon community where we live and is emulated now with the level of involvement my children volunteer.
I have been very blessed to be able to recruit, provide opportunities and watch many female employees grow within the technology field, most recently in VoIP Telecommunications. It is so gratifying to see these young women step up and volunteer for extra responsibilities that enable them to stretch beyond their current roles, be recognized for their leadership and have more possibilities open up before them.
I am very honored for being nominated for this prestigious award. Thank you!
Robin Louvain
Software Program Manager
Carestream Health, Inc.
Once planning to become a high school math teacher, Robin Louvain enrolled in her first computer class and decided that was the career for her. With more than 30 years of experience in the computer field, Robin has held numerous positions including software developer, software engineering manager, service engineering manager, and most recently as a Software Program Manager for Carestream Health.
In this role, Robin is responsible for all software development associated with digital X-ray detectors, a core component of Carestream’s groundbreaking DRX product portfolio. Robin has also led commercialization teams for the last two major software releases for DRX products, which has further enabled the worldwide success of this product family.
Prior to her commercialization work, Robin helped establish Carestream’s Service Center of Excellence for healthcare IT in Rochester, including hiring, training and developing new personnel.
When Robin was offered an adjunct faculty position at RIT, she jumped at the chance. This helped her to fulfill a deep desire to teach and enabled her to pass along her vast industry experiences to her students.
Throughout her career, Robin has had great role models that have helped her along the way. Robin has returned that benefit by helping other woman with similar work and home life challenges, and she has had the opportunity to coach other woman, particularly in skill development and career advancement.
Robin has spent the last 17 years volunteering with the Boy Scouts of America. With two Eagle Scout sons, she has held many different roles from den leader to day camp program director to district chairman. Robin currently serves as Vice President for Iroquois Trail Council overseeing membership in a five county area.
Robin has a BA in Mathematics from SUNY Geneseo; an MS in Product Development from RIT; and is a certified Project Management Professional.
Cheryl Nelan
President
CMIT Solutions of Monroe
After spending over 20 years driving growth in highly competitive markets for large, global corporations in the Rochester area, Cheryl Nelan decided to focus her energy on the local market and started her own business. Today, she is the President and Owner of CMIT Solutions of Monroe where she specializes on helping Rochester-area businesses make good technology decisions that enable them to achieve their business goals.
Nelan has always been at the forefront of technology. In 1996, she not only developed a business plan to leverage the internet for Kodak’s Office Imaging business, she took HTML classes and coded it herself. From there, she led her marketing team to take risks and continuously look for ways technology could better support the sales and marketing of their business – from building a sales channel portal to designing eCommerce sites that focused on delivering customer value. She even won a Telly Award for the development of Kodak’s MarketMover website.
Nelan has always worked to support and mentor other professional women. From speaking to RIT’s female students in their “You Go Girl” series to personally hiring, developing and promoting women in the various organizations she’s supported, Nelan is always looking for opportunities to help other women grow. She’s always had an open door and is eager to help wherever she can. This is one of the reasons she chose to invest in the CMIT Solutions business. She wanted an avenue to work more closely with women, technology and businesses in the local, Rochester community.
Nelan currently lives in Webster with her 10 year old son, Royce. She supports many local organizations, including the Make-a-Wish Foundation, the Child Care Council, and the Young Entrepreneurs Academy. She is also a board member for Executive Women’s Golf Association and an active member of the Rochester Business Alliance, Webster Chamber of Commerce, Digital Rochester, and several other organizations. She holds a M.B.A. from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a B.S. Degree from the State University of New York at Geneseo.
Jennifer Shanley
CEO and founder
Zwirlz, Inc.
Zwirlz, Inc., is an entertainment software company that creates video games for young girls, has a background in video game marketing, design, and the psychology of play.
Jen started Zwirlz, Inc. to make games that are social, active, positive, fun, and embrace technology in a new way. Zwirlz, the clapping, jumping, get-up-and-go, mobile application game for girls, is a girl-power, active, social play experience. Young girls get to be game designers by using a mobile device as a tool for design, customization, instruction, content, and scoring. Zwirlz encourages girls to be active and social with technology; collaboratively, players create their own routines, stand up, and perform the real world physical dancing game with friends.
Jen believes that girls, who are introduced to technology at an early age, will incorporate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in their learning, living, and careers. For this reason, Jen chose to create a video game that would appeal to young girls. Technology can be an integral part of play and learning in all areas, including music, art, writing, and sports. Students at the Rochester City School District’s, Flower City School # 54, and area young community members participated in the design of Zwirlz’ premiere product while learning about the field of game development.
Committed to supporting the plethora of talented individuals in our community, for the development of Zwirlz, Jen gathered a group of Rochester area professionals including, game development Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) graduates, an accomplished artist and graduate of Nazareth College, a Doctoral Pianist, and a soprano opera singer from the Eastman School of Music.
Jen is an active member of AppRochester, a local application development community. She advises other developers and business owners on how to leverage social media to develop and market their products. Believing that technology should not be a barrier to success, she also helps individuals and businesses, through mentoring and instruction, learn about new technology and adapt their current business models to today’s technological marketplace. Jen provides marketing support for application developers all over the world, through writing press releases that help speakers of other languages market their technology products in the United States.
Jen is a wife and the mother of two children. She is an active volunteer with the Fairport School District’s PTSA, the Fairport Red Raider Robotics Team, and the Dignity for All Students Act Committee. Jen is passionate about improving the lives of children and families and is a mentor for parents on Autism Spectrum Disorders and Special Education.
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