2021 Recipients of the Applause Program
Highlighting Women and Allies in Tech Across UCI
For Women’s History Month 2021, Women in Tech @ UCI launched the Applause Program for members of UCI’s tech communities to recognize peers and colleagues who embody WiT’s “Advance. Inspire. Empower. Act.” motto in the workplace.
Every year, we pledge to celebrate the impact and accomplishments of these individuals fostering an inclusive culture at UCI through their words, values, actions, and attitudes. Let us be inspired to follow in their trailblazing footsteps this Women’s History Month and long after.
2021 Recipients
Jump to — Archana Chaudri | Briandy Walden | Carolina Manel-Romero | I-Rong Lin | Kathleen Quan | Rachel Tam
Archana Chaudhri
Applications Programmer
Libraries
“Archana Chaudhri demonstrates tireless commitment toward the success of Library technical operations and of the whole UCI Library. While each employee has a core set of duties outlined in their job description, Archana embodies so much more than her title and her areas of expertise. Yes, she performs her work at a very high level. And yes, she takes on the most complicated assignments for the unit. However, what is most remarkable about Archana is her drive to push herself and teammates to deliver the best services. Archana is not doing her assignments to check off a box. She wants our services to work as best as they can.
With that, she inspires me and the rest of our team to also be at our best. Archana’s work and numerous library contributions have been repeatedly praised by the department’s director Adrian Petrisor and by the division’s Associate University Librarian Alison Regan and we are ever so grateful to have her as a colleague.”
Which of our four WiT values does Athina best exemplify?
“Empower. There are often times when people with advanced technical abilities or strengths talk through things quickly with terms and concepts that are hard to grasp. Archana approaches this quite differently. She wants others to excel and enjoys seeing someone grasp a new concept.
This is what makes her the perfect first technical contact for the Libraries IT new employee orientation process. Archana has helped countless new hires with varying levels of technical abilities get settled in their first days on the job. Each time I have a chance to meet a new hire, I hear about Archana’s caring approach and how much more comfortable the first day felt because of her instruction and encouragement.
The empowerment is not only about setting these new hires up for success by talking them through each computing service and account, but by handing the controls over and being present should someone ask for help. My team and the Libraries are stronger because Archana sets them up for success and instills confidence that they can handle the work that lies ahead of them.
— Ashley Burke
Libraries
Briandy Walden
Associate Director, Student and Academic Services
Office of Information Technology
Briandy is a role model and champion for supporting and encouraging women in OIT. As a strong woman in a technical leadership position, she shows that it’s possible to overcome challenges to reach personal career success and also to lead teams to success. In addition to being an inspirational role model through her own success, she also works directly with women and empowers them to step out of their comfort zones and confront challenges. From my own experience as a woman in IT, I know that she is always willing to chat, give advice, and encourage me to advance in my technical career.”
Which of our four values does Briandy best exemplify?
“Briandy exemplifies each of these values, but the one that stands out the most to me is Empower. She works with women to uncover what their career goals are and then she empowers them to reach those goals and beyond. She does this by talking about her own experiences and mistakes she learned from, providing resources for learning and development to expand or learn a new skillset, providing opportunities to step beyond their existing job duties to practice a new skill or to show that they can do more for the organization, and more. I have personally been empowered in my interactions with Briandy; I am much more likely to bring ideas to the table and pursue advancement opportunities because of my time working with her. I would not be where I am today without her support.”
— Alissa Powers
Office of Information Technology
Carolina Manel-Romero
Application Developer
School of Biological Sciences – Computing
“Carolina’s work ethic and technical expertise has given me the tools and skills I need to make my the most out of my projects and advance the School of Biological Sciences’ digital initiatives. She’s empowered me to be very independent in creating my own pages and has inspired me to keep growing my own technical skills. As a hispanic female, I am also inspired and empowered by seeing other talented hispanic women, like Carolina, excel in technology and in the workplace in general. My goal with this nomination is to bring her well-deserved praise and let the campus IT community know who she is!”
How has Carolina personally impacted you in your role?
“Carolina inspires me to increase my own technical abilities. Without HER, I would not be able to accomplish all of our School’s website redesigns. Not only is she skilled in her programming skills, but she is very resourceful and has taught me new ways to build pages and has provided advice on how to use certain WP theme features. Together we have redesigned at least 10 School websites, many faculty pages and more to come in the future. She’s saved the School time and money with her solutions. She is a talented programmer and a great colleague.”
— Regina Castleman
Marketing & Communications Manager, School of Biological Sciences
I-Rong Lin
Assistant Director, Enterprise Applications
Financial Services IT
“For close to 3 decades at the helm of Financial Services IT, I-Rong’s experience and passion for technology inspires and motivates her team to innovate and strive for excellence. She leads by example, recognizing our diverse skills and backgrounds, and empowers us all to work independently, always providing guidance and support when needed. She is adaptable and can work with all types of personalities to move projects along to completion. I-Rong has mentored many team members to advance in their careers at OIT and beyond and has been an ally when opportunities for growth arise.
We at Financial Services IT want her to know how much we appreciate all that she has done for us as a team and for OIT. We cannot imagine UCI without her.”
Which of our four values does I-Rong exemplify the best?
“I-Rong inspires and empowers us daily with her passion, work ethic and constant support of her team members while always keeping us on task for project timeliness. She is genuinely conscious of our work/life balance and is concerned about our wellbeing and team morale. She embraces change and encourages innovation, challenging us to go above and beyond.”
— Nasim Mohebb
Financial Services IT
Kathleen Quan
Quality Innovation Informatics Manager
Patient Safety & Quality, Epidemiology & Infection Prevention, UCI Health
“Kathleen serves as the clinical informaticist for the COVID-19 Vaccination Module in the UCI Health Occupational Health Database (OHDB) and facilitates multi-platform analysis for all vaccination populations (HCW, Patients, Staff, Students). To date, over 40,000 COVID-19 vaccination doses have been administered to 10,000 healthcare personnel and 18,000 patients. Despite her busy schedule, she takes the time to address even the smallest issues to guarantee that all vaccination needs are met. She is also thoughtful to acknowledge the work of the broader team that she works on to achieve success on these projects.”
How has Kathleen personally impacted you in your role?
“Kathleen has been a great partner during the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine at UCI Health. I have worked with her directly to ensure that the needs of our medical student population are addressed and she has been responsive at any and all hours during this critical period. She takes the time to ensure I have answers when I need them and is thoughtful in connecting me to those who can help me further when appropriate.”
— Julie Youm
Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences
Rachel Tam
ESMS Development Manager
Office of Information Technology
With nominations from five people in the Office of Information Technology and the School of Humanities, we’ve curated a small selection of the many anecdotes and insights shared by her colleagues:
“Through the 5+ years I’ve known Rachel, I’ve seen her mentor many different women, ranging from students to full-time UCI employees, all of which I’ve seen have a noticeable impression on how they navigate working at UCI and beyond. She’s fulfilled the roles of coach, mentor, manager, and friend, easily determining what a person may need at that current moment and adapting to what she thinks may best help. I’ve seen her build up the confidence of coworkers, tactfully approach and work with students on areas they can personally improve on, and promote events and topics to grow allies for women in technology. I’ve been happy to know Rachel during my time at UCI and hope to continue to learn from her to give the same inspiration that she manages to give everyone else. Thank you, Rachel!”
— Jeffrey Fellows
Office of Information Technology
“Rachel continuously models the intelligence, caring, and innovative spirit we all value. In addition to being a sharp technologist who stays current with the leading edge of fast-paced IT, she works hard tofocus professional activities through a DEIB lens and make positive progress for OIT and the whole campus community.”
— Anonymous Nominator
“To have the fortune of working under Rachel on her team has been one of the most effective changes that has brought joy to the workplace for me. With no small effort, she makes sure to prioritize honesty, trust, and psychological safety along with productivity and good work. The mentorship she has continued to offer me with her clear communication skills shows me that she genuinely wants you to do well and to grow to be able to contribute at your best. If my performance appears less than what I could offer, rather than trying to solve it like a puzzle presented in the Sunday news, she works with me to identify if there’s anything to be concerned about, whether it’s personal health, issues with the task, or my weaknesses, and reminds me to consider my employee wellbeing most of all. If my performance is better, she takes time to recognize it and allows me to understand my strengths. I am very happy to work with her and have received a number of acknowledgements that my performance has greatly improved after working closely with Rachel. Her effort for this comes continually from both small acts and grander ones – I’d like to recognize Rachel for a BIG round of applause!”
Office of Information Technology
Which of our four values does Rachel best exemplify?
“She consistently Inspires others through her own actions, giving those she interacts with a role model to learn from. I’ve seen her give inspiration through her willingness to thoroughly plan, her dedication, and her intentional actions. For those who may need help with confidence, she’ll help determine where and how to build that up, and give resources and the opportunities to develop that skill. While others at UCI also have this quality, I have yet to come across someone who inspires as much as Rachel does.”
— Jeffrey Fellows
Office of Information Technology
“Rachel empowers people. By bridging the professional and academic divide, she opened up an opportunity for UCI’s graduate students to grow their leadership skills. Her creativity and passion in creating the course content translated into powerful skill development activities. She shared with us how she learned to work effectively with teams and created an opportunity for us to do so as well. Rachel’s openness about her own professional journey gave us valuable insight on what management beyond the classroom looks like.”
— Kierstin H. Brehm
School of Humanities
“Empowerment is what Rachel exemplifies most of all when working with me. She recognizes my wins when she sees them immediately, and comes forward to work together when I’ve encountered a challenge above my level. As someone who is constantly critical of myself, I struggle to know when I’m doing well, but she makes sure that I am able to see where I’ve succeeded, enabling me to see that I can continue to do so in the future. I have received multiple praises for my increasing confidence in the workplace and can only attribute that to working closely with Rachel. Her support and mentorship has provided me invaluable opportunities to perform at my best and know that it’s not a failure to struggle sometimes on the path to doing better, which I truly would not have been able to know is possible for me without having worked with her.”
— Hoi Chiu
Office of Information Technology