Author: jdmorgan@illinois.edu

What do you do? 

I am the service owner for Classroom Technologies at Technology Services. I provide day to day support for the technology in the general assignment classrooms. In addition, I am involved in the planning for those spaces along with promoting our services. Internally I work closely with the Help Desk, the Classroom and Conference Media Engineering (CCME) engineers and technicians, Audiovisual Planners, Networking, and the Communications Team. Externally I interface with the Registrar’s office, Facilities & Services, the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL), and other Departments/Colleges on behalf of Technology Services as it relates to the classrooms. We work to ensure the student experience in the classroom is not disrupted by the technology. Ideally, their experience is enhanced by the technology and associated support.

What do you do? 

I am a collaborator, educator, and innovator. Currently, I serve as the Director of IT Partners at the College of Applied Health Sciences, providing leadership and oversight for the college’s information technology services. 

In addition to leading the IT group at AHS, I am very involved in campus and community initiatives. At the University of Illinois, I serve on the leadership team for the Black Faculty and Professionals Alliance and Women in Technology group, a Racial Justice Ally facilitator, ITLW facilitator, and Chair of the IT Council Steering Committee.

What led you to this career? 

During undergrad, I started majoring in computer science and was very skilled at programming. However, while I was an undergrad at U of I and during graduate school, I was a  student employee in IT for multiple units in CCSO (now referred to as Technology Services) and had a fabulous experience. As a student employee, I worked at the Help Desk providing phone support and On-Site consulting, doing in-person tech support to faculty, staff, and multiple departments. However, my most rewarding student position was managing the computer labs on campus alongside other student employees. Even before entering college, my high school internships focused on technology support and communication skills. So, I wanted my career to involve talking with and helping people and exploring new emerging technologies. 

What is something interesting that you enjoy doing outside of work that may surprise your colleagues? 

I’ve been training in Taekwondo for over 20 years, and I teach Taekwondo on campus. So people often run into me at the ARC in the Combat Room, kicking and shouting in Korean. Also, I recently enrolled in a local Korean cultural language school to learn and improve my Korean speaking. I’m not fluent, but I can have basic conversations. Since I consume a lot of Korean media, music, and culture, I want to be fluent someday.  As I type this response, I’m thinking about how much of this I could say in Korean. 계속 공부해야 할 것 같아요.

What song or type of music you listen to puts you in the best mood and why? 

My favorite genres of music are Broadway musicals, 90s R&B, K-Pop, K-R&B, and anything Disney. I’m smiling right now, thinking about this playlist. Most colleagues who join online meetings with me know that I listen to music frequently to boost my mood, so they usually get a taste of my music preferences. I love singing karaoke and performing musical parodies; sometimes, I even record it for strangers to watch and sing along online.  

Women in Technology is proud to highlight Ja Nelle Pleasure in this month’s member profile.

What do you do?

I am an Associate IT Specialist. What that entails at present is assisting our users with day-to-day issues involving networks, hardware, and even software issues. Sometimes it just being a listening ear for those who need it at the time.

What led you to this career?

A Stroke, followed by Divorce, and then Covid. Talk about a triple whammy. I needed to find a way to support my family. I was a stay-a-home mom while married so my life consisted of my children and my husband. I taught dance, I also made clothing as a side thing to make spending money. But the stroke took my ability to do those things and I needed something that did not require a lot of physical input but that could still allow me to support myself and my children. I investigated the SWFT program at Parkland College, and they offered the Google IT program. I took that course and got my certificate. Which led to a job at the help desk at Parkland and that turned into an internship here at the U of I. which allowed me to get picked up at the College of ACES as an Associate IT Specialist.

What behavior or personality trait do you most attribute your success to, and why? 

Stubbornness Lol! I think that my inability to give up when life gives me lemons is my greatest attribute. It allows me to push myself past my comfort zone and try things that in essence led me to a lot of successes. A trait that scared me at first, but I am grateful for it.

What’s a song or type of music you listen to puts you in the best mood and why?

Celia Cruz song La Negra Tiene Tumbao. Whenever I get down on myself or need a pick me up I melt into Celia’s words. This song empowers me to look at the beautiful black woman that I see in the mirror everyday and tell myself that despite all I am great, I am loved, I am smart, and nothing can stop me from achieving my goals.

What is something interesting that you enjoy doing outside of work that may surprise your colleagues?

Besides writing, running, singing, painting, cooking, I love learning to play the bass even though it is hard to do. But I like a challenge.

If you had a whole day to do anything you wanted, what would you do?

I would go to the ocean and dance for the whole day.

If you could have two wishes, what would they be?

That is a great question, my first wish would be to own some land that I can build my dream school on and my home. Second, to travel more.

What makes someone a good leader?

I strongly believe that what makes a good leader is someone that can see both the strengths and weaknesses in their people and strives to find ways for all to win as a unit by playing to those strengths and leading assistance when they are weak. Never leaving anyone behind and being able to teach as well as to learn. This trait to me is extremely important and something I see missing a lot from our society.

What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment so far?

Besides my children, not giving up after facing adversity.

Where do you have the most impact?

To be honest I am not sure where I have the most impact. I would love to say I have a good impact on my family and home life but also in my community. I strive to see the best in folks and help where I can.

The Women in Technology Member Profile this month is of Kelly Delahanty. While you might know her best as the host of our monthly roundtables, we think you’ll love getting to know more about what led her to become a User Experience Designer as well as her outside-of-work activities.

What do you do?

I’m a User Experience Designer with Administrative Information Technology Services (AITS), where I help create enterprise applications used across the university system. In addition to doing UX work, I also take on a lot of the UI and front end development work for these projects. Outside of AITS, I am part of the WIT leadership team and the IT Caffeine Break planning committee.

What led you to this career?

I first became interested in web design in high school because I was a big webcomic nerd. I wanted to share my own comics and art online, and at the time the best way to do that was to create your own site. I never did get my site off the ground because I was cheap and didn’t want to pay for hosting, but I did start learning HTML and CSS. Between that and some coding classes I was able to take, I decided I really wanted to do something that combined computers and art, like web design, video game design, or animation. I ended up getting my undergraduate degree in New Media from UIUC, where I got very interested in interactive stories and design, specifically with how the actual interface through which people interacted with something could influence their experience of the information or story itself.

During and after school I worked at various jobs doing design, communications, and marketing work. I found that I really preferred designing things like websites, infographics, and even guidebooks over things like posters and marketing graphics, because I cared way more about the usability of the design than the aesthetics. I discovered the field of UX Design while trying to find ways to improve the websites I was managing for work. I joined a local UX meetup group and I started taking classes online for both UX and front end development. I started applying what I learned in my current role as well as through volunteer opportunities I found through sites like Taproot Foundation and Catchafire as a way to build up my portfolio. After that I was hired as a UX Designer at AITS, where I’ve been ever since!

What is something interesting that you enjoy doing outside of work that may surprise your colleagues?

I still do a lot of art-related activities in my free time, although lately I’ve been doing more DIY projects than drawing. I’m currently in the process of building a console table and some custom doors for an IKEA wardrobe. I also enjoy doing aerial arts (my favorite is the lyra or aerial hoop, but I’ve also done trapeze and aerial silks) as well as ice skating. Finally, I spend a fair amount of time trying to schedule Dungeon and Dragon sessions with a bunch of other busy adults.

What behavior or personality trait do you most attribute your success to, and why? 

If I had to pick a singular trait, I’d say curiosity. Curiosity has lead me to learning the skills and information initially required to do my job and continues to guide my professional development. When working on any given project, I try to approach it with curiosity – I want to learn about the processes already in place, how the people who will be using the application think and operate, and what their goals are. When I test my designs with users and they uncover issues, I look at it as an opportunity to learn and improve.

What’s a song or type of music you listen to puts you in the best mood and why?

I think I have pretty eclectic taste in music and it really depends on what I’m feeling at the time. To get put in a good mood my go-tos are folk, pop, hip hop, and musicals. Recently Spotify has been recommending me “goblincore” playlists (which I’ve seen described as “cottagecore, but feral”) with a lots of semi-angry folk music that I’ve really been enjoying.

Women in Technology is pleased to kick off a new series featuring some of our members. First up in the spotlight is Cordelia Geiken, who is not only a manager at Tech Services, but also a recent recipient of a Chancellor’s Staff Excellence Award!

What do you do?

I manage the Quality Assurance and Web Hosting Teams at Technology Services. The Web Hosting team runs the campus level web hosting services, cPanel, Publish.Illinois.edu and the Illinois Wiki. The QA Team evaluates any software that is purchased or developed by Tech Services to make sure that it is Accessible for all and also performs traditional QA testing on everything Tech Services develops.

I am also part of the Illinois WIT Leadership team and I Co-Chair the Illinois Web Implementation Guidelines Group, a group that is working to create accessible, secure and on brand templates for the Campus Web Community.

I serve as a Mentor for both the WIT and Tech services mentorship programs and participate as a coach and Facilitator for the IT Leadership Workshop.

What led you to this career?

I started working at NCSA as an undergrad in 1987. I was hired to do photography and computer animation and eventually I started working as an online video editor for them. When I graduated from the U of I in 1990 with a degree in Cinema Studies, NCSA hired me full time as a Media Specialist. For the next few years I worked doing video production and editing for NCSA and maintained their media library. Then, they invented MOSAIC, and once it was able to support images, I thought I should move our media library online. I taught myself HTML using VI and a Sun Spark Station computer. Eventually, I became the first person to hold the title of Webmaster on Campus. After working at NCSA for 12 years, I left the University for a year and worked at a computer based training company. I decided corporate life was not for me, and came back to the University, this time at the College of ACES. From ACES I moved to Tech Services (then known as CITES) and I’ve been with Tech Services for the last 21 years.

What is something interesting that you enjoy doing outside of work that may surprise your colleagues?

I really enjoy playing board games, especially resource management games (CATAN, Carcassonne, Splendor, Azul and the like). I also enjoy camping, historical re-enacting (14th Century and American Rev War) and trap shooting.

What makes someone a good leader?

I think a good leader is someone who listens to others and who really wants to do something to make things better for others (be that people or an organization). Managing and leading are two different things, and I think once people figure that out they become much better leaders. A person can lead from anywhere, you don’t need a title to be a leader, you just need a good idea and the gumption to move it forward.

What’s a song or type of music you listen to puts you in the best mood and why?

I like a lot of different kinds of music, but SKA always puts me in a good mood. It’s so upbeat and peppy, you just can’t help but want to move. The English Beat and The Specials are two of my favorite SKA bands. In general I like 80’s Alternative and Punk ( I am a child of the 80’s after all), but I also enjoy music from groups like The Band, Allison Kraus and Union Station, The Killers, Flogging Molly etc.