Women in Technology (WIT) and the March of Dimes today announced the finalists for the ninth annual Heroines in Technology® Awards.  The awards recognize women and women-run businesses for their exemplary commitment to community service.  The winners will be announced at a black-tie gala on November 13, 2009, at the Hyatt Regency Reston in Reston, Va.

The 2009 Heroines in Technology finalists include:

• Zalenda Cyrille, Systems Engineering Associate Manager, Lockheed Martin
• Dee Dean, Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton
• Patrice D’Eramo, Senior Director, public sector marketing, Cisco
• Colleen Galo, Regional Merchandising Consultant, Verizon Wireless
• Annette Gildea, President and CEO, Ollie Interactive
• Lydia Gizdavcic, Principal Information Systems Engineer, MITRE
• Sue Hoffman, Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton
• Marie Johns, Consultant, Leftwich and Ludaway
• Kathy Kleiman, Senior Internet Law and Policy Attorney, Internet Matters
• Shameka McCaskill, Systems Engineer, Lockheed Martin
• Vonda Rhodes, Engineering Manager, Lockheed Martin
• Michelle Tortolani, Senior Engineering Manager, Northrop Grumman
• Katy Warren, Associate Department Head, MITRE
• Elizabeth Wilmot, President and CEO, Turtle Wings Electronics Recycling
• Kerrie Wilson, CEO, Reston Interfaith, Inc.

Nominees were considered from all segments of the technology community in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia including government, not-for-profit and commercial organizations.

The keynote speaker will be Carol Evans, CEO and founder of Working Mother Media, which includes Working Mother magazine.  Event co-chairs are Sandy Scearce, business development director with Grant Thornton LLP, Reggie Kouba, principal at RMK Productions, and Elizabeth Shea, CEO and founder of SpeakerBox Communications

The event will include dinner, music, dancing, and live and silent auctions.  Proceeds from the event will support local March of Dimes programs of research, community services, education and advocacy to reduce the occurrence of birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. Since 2001, WIT and the March of Dimes have teamed together on this signature event and have raised more than $1 million to support the March of Dimes mission of saving babies.

In 2008, individual Heroines in Technology awards were presented to Robin Gardner, strategic account manager, GTSI; Susan Kearney, executive vice president, SmithGifford; and Lisa Moss, senior photo editor, AOL.  The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Elizabeth Lewis, partner, Cooley Godward Kronish.  The corporate Heroines in Technology award went to Barbara Mullenex, partner, OPX.
 
Media partners include Federal News Radio, Washington Life magazine, Smart CEO, Fairfax Woman and Working Mother magazine. Video production is being provided by Moondance Productions. Print production is being provided by Paras Productions, Inc.

For more information on Heroines in Technology, including sponsorship opportunities, please contact Kate Seaver at (703) 824-0111, ext. 21.

About Women in Technology

Women in Technology (WIT) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to offering women involved in all levels of the technology industry a wide range of professional development and networking opportunities. One of the organization's main goals is to create a forum where women in technology can be recognized and promoted as role models. WIT was founded in 1994 and has nearly 1,000 members. For more information, please visit WIT's web site, womenintechnology.org.

About the March of Dimes
The March of Dimes is the leading nonprofit organization for pregnancy and baby health. With chapters nationwide and its premier event, March for Babies, the March of Dimes works to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. For the latest resources and information, visit marchofdimes.com or nacersano.org.

###

2009 Heroines in Technology Bios

Zalenda Cyrille
Systems Engineering Associate Manager
Lockheed Martin

Zalenda Cyrille is a Systems Engineering Associate Manager at Lockheed Martin.  She is also the co-founder, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of IT’S TIME, an organization that teaches financial literacy, basic business principles and oratorical skills to fifth- and sixth-grade students in Washington, D.C.  The students create income statements and marketing brochures for fictitious companies, listen to guest speakers during Power Lunch sessions and recite famous poems and speeches to hone their presentation abilities.  Ms. Cyrille teaches during some of the sessions, recruits speakers for Power Lunch and writes the organization’s newsletter.  IT’S TIME is an acronym for Inspiring Thoughtful Students by Taking Initiative to Motivate.

Dee Dean
Associate
Booz Allen Hamilton

Dee Dean is an Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton.  Ms. Dean is a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician and ambulance driver for the Nokesville Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department.  She takes vacation time every November to attend the Virginia Emergency Medical Services Symposium.  She also serves as the Chief Operating Officer for IASK, an organization that supports African American women who are facing serious challenges in their careers and lives.  After successfully battling cancer twice, Ms. Dean initiated the first Relay for Life team at Booz Allen Hamilton’s Chantilly office.  She has led the team since 2002.  Ms. Dean organized a Choosing the Right Career workshop at her church after noticing a lack of faith in higher education among high school students in the congregation.  For the past three years she has judged the Centreville High School Science Fair and is a mentor at the school.

Patrice D’Eramo
Senior Director, Public Sector Marketing
Cisco

Patrice D’Eramo is Senior Director of Public Sector Marketing for Cisco. She serves as Vice Chair of the ACT-IAC Voyagers Program, a leadership development program for "rising stars" in both government and industry who have a high potential for future advancement. Ms. D’Eramo is the chair of the recently-formed Advisory Council for the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Fetal Care, a facility dedicated to the care of the fetal patient and the unborn baby’s family.  She has helped to raise more than $125,000 to support the center. Ms. D’Eramo also served as table sales chair for the 2009 AFCEA Bethesda Annual Charity Ball to Benefit the Children’s Inn at NIH. The event was a sellout and raised $400,000 for the Children’s Inn at NIH.  Ms. D’Eramo has also served as a volunteer with other organizations such as the Special Olympics, Junior Achievement and the Baltimore Homeless Shelter.

 
Colleen Galo
Regional Merchandising Consultant
Verizon Wireless

Colleen Galo is a Regional Merchandising Consultant with Verizon Wireless.  She is a long-time volunteer with the Verizon Wireless Invest in Yourself program, which helps disadvantaged women gain the job skills needed to forge new lives.  The skills are taught in workshops, which Ms. Galo helps to organize by securing speakers and partners (such as Suited for Change).  She also conducts a workshop on interviewing techniques.  As a volunteer with the Christmas in April organization, she repairs the homes of senior citizens who are physically challenged or have limited incomes.  In addition, she works with the Bea Gaddy Family Center, serving Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless in Baltimore’s Patterson Park.  Ms. Galo teaches her children the importance of community service by involving them in her volunteer activities.

Annette Gildea
President and CEO
Ollie Interactive

Annette Gildea is President and CEO of Ollie Interactive, a boutique Internet and marketing media company.  Ms. Gildea serves on the boards of directors of the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington and Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia. She and her team at Ollie Interactive also provide pro bono services to Habitat for Humanity.  Ms. Gildea has led marketing efforts for Habitat for Humanity initiatives and developed the new Web site for Habitat ReStore, which provides revenue generation and message delivery enhancements for the organization.  She also serves on the planning committee of Women Who Build and on the strategic advisory committee for the National Academy of Engineering’s “Engineer Girl!” initiative.  

Lydia Gizdavic
Principal Information Systems Engineer
MITRE

Lydia Gizdavic is Principal Information Systems Engineer for MITRE. She is the founder of the Evershine Foundation, which supports and enhances the Evershine School in Bangalore, India.  The Evershine School was started more than  10 years ago by Father Frederic, a Jesuit priest who opened the school in a rented kiosk space in a poor part of the city so more children would have access to education.  The Foundation, through Ms. Gizdavic’s leadership and personal donations, has grown over the past decade from kiosk space to a modern, two-story multiclass facility now under construction.  Ms. Gizdavic’s work with the Evershine School—she’s also a board member and internal Web site administrator—has inspired colleagues at MITRE.  A co-worker visited the Evershine School and helped teach computer classes. Another colleague started a similar project in her native Vietnam.  Ms. Gizdavic also works with the International Child Art Foundation and helps run Dulles International Airport’s USO Concierge Service.

 
Sue Hoffman
Associate
Booz Allen Hamilton

Sue Hoffman is an Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton.  She serves as a board member of the International Telecommunications Pioneers of America and is a founding member of the Northern Virginia Chapter Task Force on Diversity for the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. In the latter position she established the Veterans Scholarship Fund endowment. Ms. Hoffman also worked with a team from Fairfax County Public Schools to develop a multi-year project called Flight School, a series of four televised electronic field trips that brought local educators, museum curators, scientists, pilots and engineers together to promote an interest in the sciences. The programs were distributed to more than 19,000 schools, reaching 12 million students. She has also lent her time and experience to Be a Pilot/Family Day at the National Air and Space Museum.

Marie Johns
Consultant
Leftwich and Ludaway

Marie Johns is a consultant with Leftwich and Ludaway. She has chaired the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Washington and the YMCA of the National Capital Region.  Ms. Johns is a trustee of Howard University and the founding chair of the Washington, D.C. Technology Council.  The former president of Verizon Wireless Washington, D.C., spearheaded a Verizon-sponsored program called SEEDS (Students Educated for Economic Development Success) that trains out-of-school youth for information-technology jobs.  Ms. Johns also served as director of a nonprofit organization that provided funding for every D.C. public school and library to install cabling for high-speed Internet connections and local computer networks and provided training to teachers and library personnel. She is the chair of the Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science, the first charter school for science located on a D.C. college campus, where she has served since the school opened in 2006.

Kathy Kleiman
Senior Internet Law and Policy Attorney
Internet Matters

Kathy Kleiman is a founder and senior Internet law and policy attorney at Internet Matters, one of the country’s first law firms specializing in Internet law.  As a volunteer, she is executive producer and historian at First Byte Productions.  For the past 20 years, Ms. Kleiman has worked doggedly to share the stories of the ENIAC Pioneers—six women who programmed the world’s first modern computer during World War II—through her nonprofit ENIAC Programmers Project. She lectures at colleges and universities nationwide to share the story of the ENIAC programmers and encourage young women to pursue computer science and technical studies.

 
Shameka McCaskill
Systems Engineer
Lockheed Martin

Shameka McCaskill is a Systems Engineer at Lockheed Martin.  A member of Lockheed Martin’s Network of Volunteers (NOVA), Ms. McCaskill is a long-time volunteer organizer and presenter for events aimed at school-age students such Career Day and the annual Girls Excelling in Math and Science (GEMS) conference in Fairfax County.  Since her involvement with GEMS in 2003, the number of conference participants has doubled to more than 2,000 fifth- and sixth-grade girls.  When Ms. McCaskill isn’t speaking about her engineering experience during Career Day, she’s recruiting volunteers for Space Day and other educational forums where students learn more about math, science and space.

Vonda Rhodes
Engineering Manager
Lockheed Martin

Vonda Rhodes is an Engineering Manager at Lockheed Martin.  She is active in Lockheed Martin’s volunteer organization, Network of Volunteer Associates (NOVA), where she served as vice chair in 1999.  As a NOVA event champion, she recruited volunteers for the recent National Harbor Food and Wine Festival.  The festival benefited the Erikka Hayes Foundation, which provides opportunities in the hospitality and food service industries to economically and socially disadvantaged individuals.  She has served as the NOVA event champion for the American Heart Walk for five consecutive years.  As a member of the Potomac Valley Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Ms. Rhodes helped to establish the Delta Diamonds (now the Delta Academy), a tutoring and mentoring program for young women ages 11 to 18. For the past 15 years, she has organized trips, taught computer classes and led service learning projects for Delta Academy students.

Michelle Tortolani
Senior Engineering Manager
Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems

Michelle Tortolani is a Senior Engineering Manager at Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems.  A lifetime member of the Society of Women Engineers, Ms. Tortolani served on its Board of Directors from 2001 to 2008 and as Society President from 2007 to 2008. Under her leadership, the Society’s Baltimore-Washington section won a corporate grant for its Science and Engineering Education Development (SEED) program. SEED targeted eighth-grade girls for a four-year program that provided a week-long, hands-on science and engineering experience during the summer.  Ms. Tortolani also holds memberships in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and Women in Technology. In 2009, Ms. Tortolani won the Fellow of the Society of Women Engineers.

 
Katy Warren
Associate Department Head
MITRE

Katy Warren is an associate department head at MITRE. In 2004 the Northern Virginia Therapeutic Riding Program (NVTRP) asked Ms. Warren to set up their new Web site.  An avid equestrian, she later took on several roles at NVTRP including horse walker, rider assistant and volunteer advisor.  When a fire destroyed NVTRP’s facilities in 2007, Ms. Warren took a week off from work to help with fundraising and community outreach. Eventually she helped the organization find new facilities, which included a spacious riding space, an indoor classroom training space, and multiple barns and paddocks.  Currently, she’s helping NVTRP with its $5 million capital campaign.  Her dedication to NVTRP led to her selection at MITRE as Volunteer of the Month in April 2008.

Elizabeth Wilmot
President and CEO
Turtle Wings Electronics Recycling

Elizabeth Wilmot is president and CEO of Turtle Wings Electronics Recycling.  She is a member of The Twig, an auxiliary of Inova Alexandria Hospital.  Ms. Wilmot has served on The Twig’s fundraising, stock and entertainment committees.  Currently she serves as chair of the audit committee.  Like other auxiliary members, she also volunteers at The Twig Thrift Shop in Old Town Alexandria.  Ms. Wimot is the immediate past treasurer of the Belle Haven Women’s Club and remains an active member.

Kerrie Wilson
Chief Executive Officer
Reston Interfaith, Inc.

Kerrie Wilson is the Chief Executive Officer of Reston Interfaith, Inc., a non-profit organization that promotes self-sufficiency by providing support and advocacy for those in need of food, shelter, quality child care and other services.  She spearheads a partnership with Google Federal in Reston, which provides computers to the shelter so clients can have e-mail addresses and look for employment.  Ms. Wilson serves as a team representative and official for the Herndon Swim League and is a volunteer leader for Girl Scout Troop 3558.