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Vivien Chia
Ask Me Anything Event
Welcome to the Cisco Community Ask Me Anything conversation. Submit your questions from Wednesday, April 10, 2024 through Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Our Community VIPs, Kathy New and Maren Mahoney will be waiting to assist you and resolve any questions that have not been clarified, or answer and new questions that you may have.
More about this event:
Join us for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) event where you can get to know our Community VIPs Kathy New and Maren Mahoney. They talk about their experiences as women in tech, being a Community VIP, role models in the industry and so much more! This AMA session is your chance to ask them any questions you might have about their expertise and experiences.
Tell us a bit about yourself...
Kathy: I have been supporting Telecomm and Communication Services for a School District in Colorado for over 25 years. My career began as a software support tech but I moved into Telecomm Support and became the lead Telecomm Engineer. We installed Cisco Call Manager in 2019 and fully deployed Webex during the pandemic. My job has changed from traditional analog phone services to VoIP and added all our Cisco collaboration services and devices administration. I enjoy helping staff to be more effective in their jobs and networking with other customers to enhance my knowledge of the Cisco systems.
Maren: I have been in the IT industry for over 30 years, starting with a Help Desk and moving into Systems Administration, then Network Administration, and then got started in Collaboration (then AVVID) in 2000 as Cisco was just moving into that arena. My first version of CallManager was 3.0.5 and Unity 4 and I was hooked. I earned a CCIE in Collaboration in 2015. In addition to collaboration engineering, I taught Cisco Collaboration certification courses for almost 15 years and consider teaching one of the most important things I will have done in my life. I'm honored to have had the opportunity to help grow people! I am currently back in the field working for a large integrator designing, deploying, and maintaining Cisco Collaboration systems. I am also a US Army Veteran, musical theater buff, and proud wife and mother.
Your career and community VIP journey?
Kathy: I’ve always been active in user groups and found that networking with other users and customers are often the best way to find solutions to problems and proactively identify future solutions for my District. I found the Cisco User Group early in 2020 as we were supporting Webex Meetings for Education during the pandemic. While I found many answers for my questions, I realized that I also had answer for others and began posting replies. I hadn’t heard of the Cisco Designated VIP program until I was selected as one of the first women in the group in 2022 so I was surprised when I was notified.
Maren: I am lucky enough to have entered the IT field when it was smaller and less complicated, and have been able to grow along with it. It's been 30 years and you'd think I'd be settled, but instead I have recently started down the programming and automation path so I am a beginner again. The Cisco Community and Cisco Learning Space have been invaluable resources to me in my original journey in Collaboration, and I am relying on them again in my new journey. I have tried to help along the way, too, and am honored that my contributions have led me to being named a VIP.
Your role model(s)?
Kathy: I typically look at what others do well and try to emulate them but I do have one person that truly helped me during my career. Years ago I worked in the Marketing Department for US Swimming. The Marketing Director had been an entrepreneur starting her own business before working at US Swimming and eventually became the CEO of Running USA. She helped me to improve my interpersonal skills and provided guidance on how to be an effective employee and leader. Her personal drive and expectation to be judged based on who she is and her business acumen has guided me to never use gender, age, race or other physical attribute to judge others or assume that others are judging me based on them. While a lot of my job is working with computers and software, she taught me that no one can work alone and we should always treat others the same way we expect to be treated.
Maren: Generally speaking, my role models are women who forge ahead despite obstacles, take no grief, and are willing to speak out for themselves and others. In tech these ladies are: Radia Perlman, Hedy Lamarr, Ada Lovelace, and Katherine Johnson to name a few. (And if you don't know who those four are, look them up...they are inspiring!)
Your top Cisco and Cisco Community (community.cisco.com) resources?
Kathy: Since I have transitioned to being the primary collaboration administrator in our School District and it is a new technology for our organization, I focus most of my time in the Webex community. The new Webex Academy is a great place to get training on all things Webex. I began using it just for the Meeting Collab resources but we will be migrating to Webex Calling and it has great resources for learning more about migration from on-prem calling to the cloud. The Webex Help center at help.webex.com is another great resource for administrators and end users.
I also keep up to date with posts from the Insiders Group. Posts are available for all things Cisco and include unique opportunities to do challenges to learn more about Cisco products and services as well as participate in member only activities
Maren: Cisco documentation first and foremost. Everything you ever wanted to know is there. Cisco blog and articles on both the Cisco Learning Space and on the Cisco Community Forums. Google is your friend. You are likely not the first person to need a particular piece of information, so search and read and search some more. You'll learn things along the way.
Your recommended resources for aspiring girls in ICT?
Kathy: Find the learning environment that works best for you. Take advantage of tech social groups where you can network with others in addition to the more traditional college and online courses.
Maren: Girls: Girls who Code, STEM like a Girl, SciGirl on PBS. Go find a teacher that you respect and ask them to help you find resources, too. Women: Take advantage of places you can learn like Cisco U, Microsoft Learn, and the like. YouTube videos are awesome, but you will learn more if you read and do rather than just watch! (And when it feels overwhelming remember: "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!") And, whatever you do, VOTE!
Your advice/message for young women considering STEM or tech career advancement?
Kathy: Women can excel in STEM and tech as easily as men. If possible find other successful women and men that don’t believe gender should define what someone can do. Learn how they interact and manage other people, work and projects and emulate those traits that make them successful and resonate with you.
Maren: Don't underestimate or under-value yourself. Women are often the first to discount themselves, when the reality is they are usually among the smartest and hardest working in the room. If you are there you belong. Own that.
Thank you for all this great insight!
Now take the opportunity to interact with Kathy and Maren!
Note: Please post your question or comment no later than April 24, 2024.
Post your question/comment below by clicking "Reply"
(Answers will be processed depending on the availability of the experts)
Don't forget to thank the expert by giving it a helpful vote!
It's hard to pick one key success @KalebKaleb7906 but I think the successful rollout of Webex for classes at the start of the pandemic was a significant achievement. We had just converted to CUCM and installed the new system in all the schools in December, 2019, and were conducting training for Jabber and Webex Teams in March. Only a few staff had attended training for Webex Meetings when we had to transition from in-person classes to fully remote. I had 2 weeks to develop resources and schedule training classes for over 2,000 teachers. I also had to provide training and documentation for using Jabber for phone services. Got all the basics covered in that period of time and continued to work on improving documentation and giving guidelines to teachers for holding remote classes. I'm very thankful for Cisco and the Cisco Community for access to resources, webinars and program updates that helped to make this easier.
@Rossana Saul, it is always difficult to leave your comfort zone and many of my changes have been forced by circumstances outside my control. In those cases where I have had a choice, I would have an internal argument with myself about why I wouldn't want to have the experience. If it was because of my own insecurity or fear of failure and there could be personal or professional growth gained from it, I can usually talk myself into it. You mentioned this specificallly with the beginning of my career, but I still experience this in different areas of my life. In all cases, whether I succeed or fail, I've always gained experience and insight from it so I encourage everyone to take chances and try things outside their comfort zone.
