Advancement of Women in STEM Programs - Challenges & Opportunities



In corporate America, studies have shown women start to fall behind on day 1 and keep losing ground with every step. There continues to be a need for us to do more - as individuals and as organizations. We need commitments to more than just programs on gender and diversity. We need an awareness of the underlying causes and as importantly what steps can be taken to get us to the place where all women are equally represented.

At WITI our mission is to empower women to achieve unimagined possibilities and transformations through technology, leadership and economic prosperity. As part of an ongoing partnership, WITI, IDC and Randstad Technologies have joined together to conduct a survey on how gender viewpoints differ in the workplace. The survey touches on a variety of topics to better understand what factors have helped shape employees' careers and what challenges they face in the workplace. To better understand where gender might result in different points of view, the survey was fielded to both women and men. Come join WITI and Randstad Technologies as we present a panel of insightful, influential women to discuss the challenges and opportunities that exist in STEM fields. Some of the topics our panelists will cover based on our findings in this year's research: job security, influence of mentors, career advancement and Inhibitors, navigating different points of view and lessons learned.

Featured Speaker(s)

Moderator: Angela Harris is currently the Senior Vice President, Human Resources for Randstad US, with responsibility for talent management and development to advance organizational effectiveness for both the Randstad Technologies Group. Prior to being appointed to this role in 2014, Angela served as Vice President of Human Resources for Randstad US. Angela brings nearly two decades of experience and expertise holding leadership roles and advancing HR service delivery and excellence within some of the largest staffing companies in the industry. During her career, Angela has served as Director of HR for Spherion, Senior Director of HR for Todays Staffing from, and Vice President of Aurum Technology's HR Group for the six years prior.

In addition to her HR and staffing experience, Angela also served nearly 10 years in customer service and relations in the Banking and Auto industries. Her background includes establishing and centralizing customer call centers for banking operations, as well as holding leadership roles in Electronic Data Systems (EDS).

Angela has a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism and a master's degree in communications from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She lives in Dallas and is active in her community, where she is a member of Big Brothers/Big Sisters mentoring program.

Dan Frasco is not your stereotypical financial services technology leader. Comfortable partnering with C-level executives, board members, architects, vendor partners, product managers, finance teams and recent college graduates he collaborates with them all the same; on a personal level, finding a common ground and a common language to facilitate the discussion.

After spending well over a decade focused solely on technology and rebuilding teams, Dan put his financial degree to good use working to define a new portfolio management model. This required working across all the infrastructure areas to unify the product teams providing a valuable experience in collaboration, team unity, standardization and consolidation.

Dan left Fidelity for 2 years to help modernize the core distributed and end user compute facilities of the backbone to Wall St., DTCC, where they clear $1.7 quadrillion per year. He was able to reorganize and put automation programs in place to help DTCC begin to launch their next phase of rebuilding.

Currently in the Enterprise Cybersecurity organization, Dan continues to use his passion for seeing people reach beyond their potential by encouraging others to explore technology careers. Cybersecurity is the prime place to help facilitate the integration of people, innovation, and automation as software replaces infrastructure.

Dan married his hometown girlfriend Amy from Massachusetts in 2006. They moved with their 2 girls Maeve and Quinn (7 and 5) to Texas in 2012 and have lived in Lantana since. Dan loves to spend every spare moment with his family playing, swimming in their pool, or cooking for them.

Dan received his BA in both Computer Science and Economics from Williams College located in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Angela Venuk is the Vice President, IT Project Management and Governance for GameStop. Angela's current role is the culmination of over 20 years of experience in software development with roles spanning portfolio and project management, application development and support, and relationship management. She joined GameStop in early 2014 and is currently responsible for the PMO and Business Analysis. As an executive leader in technology, she has the opportunity to help the organization achieve strategic goals through technology enablement.

Core to Angela's leadership approach are three words: Coach, Change Agent, and Connector. She is passionately involved in the Women's Leadership Council as an opportunity to leverage these core traits to develop and advance leaders at GameStop. Angela is married with two active boys, ages 13 and 11. It is her passion to be a well-balanced leader who can focus on career, family, friends, and personal growth without sacrifice.

Angela received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University. When she is not at work, you might find her playing golf or tennis, reading a book club book, but most likely at a hockey rink cheering on one of her boys.

Janelle Dziuk (pronounced Juke) is focused on allowing USAA members to innovate and test new developments through usaalabs.com. Janelle previously led employee innovation programs including: challenge-based innovation, Volunteer Innovation Program (VIP), competitions, university partnerships, events and Innovation Certification Training. With over 94% employee participation, USAA can leverage the diversity and power of all employees to drive innovation. Together we have implemented over 4K employee innovation ideas to market.

Janelle is celebrating 20 years at USAA. Prior to her role in Innovation, Janelle led MSR Strategy for the desktop of the future. She managed major enterprise projects as a Lead Business Architect. She led Youth Marketing and Strategy where she was responsible for product development and marketing for all non-military members ages 26 and under. She began her USAA career in credit card marketing where she launched our first rewards program - Eagle Points and the Platinum Card.

Prior to working at USAA, Janelle was the public relations coordinator for KAMU-TV, the PBS affiliate in College Station, Texas. She also worked as a communications specialist for the Animal Science Department at Texas A&M University and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Janelle graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Journalism, with an emphasis in Marketing and Animal Science. She is a Six Sigma Black Belt, WOMEN's Unlimited Graduate and has completed Executive Innovation Certification with IC2, USAA Management Development School and Disney's Customer Experience University.

She is married to Chris, an Environmental Investigator for the state of Texas, and they have two wonderful daughters Katelyn and Lauren. Janelle serves as the Board of Directors Chair for Grants for the Falls City Education Foundation and has helped to donate over $500K for school technology and teacher grants. She is the Confirmation teacher and a choir member at Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Janelle's father served in the Air Force and is a Vietnam Veteran and her grandfather was a Pearl Harbor Survivor who retired from the Navy.

Keith Shinn is Senior Vice President, Head of Infrastructure of Caliber Home Loans, one of the fastest growing mortgage lenders in the United States. Mr. Shinn joined Caliber Home loans in June 2018 and his current responsibilities include End User Services, Help Desk, Access and Identity management, Network, Data Management, and Server Management offerings for Caliber's Technology platforms. Keith transition from Fidelity Investments where he had a 23yr career and was named a Fidelity Investments IT Fellow in 2013.

Mr. Shinn has over 25 years of experience in the IT.

Schedule of Events

5:30 pm - Registration, Networking, and Appetizers
6:30 pm - WITI Overview and Speaker Introduction
6:45 pm - Program and Discussion
8:15 pm - Raffle Prizes and Wrap Up
8:30 pm - Adjourn