2022 Recipients of the Applause Program
Highlighting Women and Allies in Tech Across UCI
For Women’s History Month 2022, Women in Tech @ UCI is proud to announce the recipients of the Applause Program who embody WiT’s “Advance. Inspire. Empower. Act.” motto in the workplace.
Each of these individuals was nominated by their colleagues and peers for their impact and accomplishments in 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.
2022 Recipients
Jump to — Athina Markopoulou | Emilie Chow | Emily Young | Karen Nguyen | Maryam Rahimi | Melody Hill
Michele Haynes | Natalie Hashizaki | Somphone Eno | Stacey Rose | Sylvia Bass | Terri Donly
Athina Markopoulou
Professor and Chair
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
“Professor Markopoulou takes advantage of her role as chair to make a difference to inspire, encourage, support and motivate women at every level to reach high levels of success. She identifies and goes beyond what is expected of her to help and support female Engineering students, staff and faculty to truly inspire them for their own success. She is a rare faculty member who works tirelessly and finds great happiness and joy in the successes of others, especially our female students, staff and faculty.”
“As a successful woman in a STEM field, Professor Markopoulou advances cutting-edge technology, but also is a role model for the next generation of women. She is also the first female chair for the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, a department where women make up 12.5% of the faculty. In this role, she advances inclusive excellence best hiring practices and initiatives for student recruitment and experiences to mitigate the status quo of a very male dominated field.
To highlight her research and leadership exceptionalism, in 2020, Professor Markopoulou as Principal Investigator received a $10 million National Science Foundation (NSF) award to support a new research center led by UCI devoted to personal data privacy in an increasingly networked and instrumented world. Through support provided by this center, Professor Markopoulou is prioritizing broader impact initiatives that focus on tackling the challenge of women underrepresented in computer science and engineering.”
— Lori Greene
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Which of our four WiT values does Athina best exemplify?
“Athina remains dedicated to advancing knowledge about privacy and technology. As department chair and PI on numerous federal grants, she continues to push forward in the hope of developing technology and policy solutions in privacy and data security. Most importantly, she has drawn together individuals from industry and academia to discuss these critical themes in symposia, workshops, and research working groups. Additionally, Athina is dedicated to outreach and broadening the participation of women on topics related to security, privacy, and IoT.”
— Anonymous Nominator
“Athina has been very supportive in all aspects. She really cares about the development of female colleagues and takes every opportunity to advance, empower women in technology. The reason I picked inspire is that her consistent actions in supporting women in Tech not only advance and empower women in STEM but also lead to a more fundamental and positive impact by inspiring other people including myself to do the same. Such inspiration is of long-lasting and widespread positive influence. It will motivate and inspire more and more women in Tech to advance, and empower other women in Tech.”
— Yanning Shen
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Emilie Chow
Health Sciences Clinical Physician
DOM General Internal Medicine
“Emilie has been amazing— one of very few, maybe the only one, who fits each trait you mention. She is a woman colleague who goes above and beyond to foster a welcoming, supportive, and encouraging environment. She has multiple times empowered and inspired me. I am deeply grateful for her, and hope she is acknowledged for the warmth she brings to our work environment. She is an IT guru in our group, with multiple levels of Electronic Health Record (EHR) and IT specialty training that make her even more well rounded.”
How has Emilie personally impacted you in your role?
“Emilie empowers others with her approachability and great realistic friendly advice. She’s someone who makes you feel and be comfortable chatting about whatever an issue may be. She makes a person feel heard, helped, and while not making issues bigger than they are, she also doesn’t minimize concerns. The good balance, her willingness to chat and share feedback, especially in tough times, can really help settle a situation and empower a person. She deserves credit for what she does for those around her.”
— Zainab Saadi
DOM General Internal Medicine
Emily Young
Support Specialist
Office of Information Technology
“Emily Young makes a difference at UCI by striving to create a more inclusive, supportive, and education-oriented environment for all they come into contact with. In the technology space, they are a true Renaissance person, having developed the ability to perform front-line end user support, Agile facilitation as Scrum Leader, both high-level and low-level software quality assurance, user interface design, front end development, and 3rd party software procurement management. Emily demonstrates a contagious passion for learning through their eagerness to engage in the spaces around them, acquire new skills, and teach others. Emily is a constant advocate for inclusion, creating a welcoming and supportive environment everywhere they go.”
Which of our four values does Emily best exemplify?
“Emily empowers others through their passion for accessibility, inclusion, and education. Through self-driven learning and membership in the IT Accessibility Workgroup, Emily has developed rich knowledge of software accessibility principles and implementation. They bring this to the software that their team produces, making it possible for students and employees of all abilities to benefit from these services. As an interface designer and a part of the business analysis process, Emily brings an inclusive lens to the systems that they create, providing guidance on inclusive language and creating interfaces that avoid presumption and maximize expression. Through advocacy and education, Emily empowers their peers to carry the same torch of accessibility and inclusion, making their effect all the more potent.”
— Jeremy Thacker
Office of Information Technology
Karen Nguyen
DCE Instructor
Continuing Education
“Karen Nguyen has rapidly achieved a very high leadership position managing technology projects for KIA Motors. She also finds time to teach in several UCI programs including Project Management, Innovation and Project Development for our domestic, corporate and international programs within the Division of Continuing Education (DCE).
Our evaluations from the students have been excellent and she has become a coach and mentor to many of our students. Karen inspires both the male and female students to achieve excellence in all that they do. Our female students, especially those from Asia, look up to her and she has maintained a long term relationship with many of them continually coaching, guiding and inspiring them to succeed.”
— Martin Wartenburg
Continuing Education
Maryam Rahimi
Physician
DOM General Internal Medicine
“Maryam Rahimi is a wonderful colleague and deserves credit for all she does — she fosters a welcoming and supportive environment, repeatedly willing to help, listen, and be there. It is priceless when colleagues help you feel heard and are there to provide support as much as they can. She has promoted get-togethers, walks, activities that promote a good open relationship, and consequently facilitate a healthy work environment. Multiple times she has empowered and inspired me to progress at my work by repeatedly spreading her wings to help younger faculty grow, feel supported and welcomed.”
How has Maryam personally impacted you in your role?
“Maryam helps others advance by going out of her way and sharing opportunities that can help our growth. She has no hesitancy in using her wisdom and experiences to help her colleagues do well, and be well. Her altruistic behavior and friendly attitude are wonderful to have in the group. She is also easy to talk to and approachable which is priceless. She has been there to listen even on the low work days, has shared go-tos, helpful next steps, and been supportive on the good days too.”
— Zainab Saadi
DOM General Internal Medicines
Melody Hill
Data Systems Manager
IS-Project Management
“Melody is an inspirational mentor to me. Whenever a problem arises, she provides the best resolution by keeping a calm, collected and cool manner. She has great communication skills amongst her peers and to other departments when working on a large scale project.
She provides a positive work culture and seeks the opinions of her employees when it comes to creating a standard work protocol that everyone can agree on. When an employee is unaware of certain information that is needed to complete a project or task, she is not afraid to seek out guidance and to connect the employee with the subject matter expert (SME).”
How has Melody personally impacted you in your role?
“My 1:1’s with her have been very encouraging, empowering and she’s always my cheerleader to help me advance and grow my skills and knowledge of the UCI enterprise. Without her, I feel like I would be lost and afraid to speak up on matters that I am an expert in and I would be more reserved around others during meetings. For her to be aware of my expertise and ask for my help has definitely helped me blossom as an individual contributor to the UCI enterprise. Her mentorship has empowered me to always keep growing as a contributor to UCI.”
— Anonymous Nominator
Michele Haynes
Senior Recruiter, Talent Acquisition
Campus Human Resources
“Michele Haynes is a talented professional who has consistently brought integrity and inclusiveness to both her work and interactions. Having worked with Michele as our Senior Recruiter for all of OIT, I know that she strives to bring attention to diversity and equity in hiring both our career and contracting for staff. I believe Michele has had a major hand in increasing our awareness of inclusion, particularly around inclusive language in job advertising, that is leading to a work environment that is increasingly representative of the county we live and work in.”
Which of our four values does Michele does exemplify?
“Michele both ‘Advances‘ the conversation around inclusion and ‘Empowers‘ us as leaders to help advance the conversation ourselves. Through her listening, understanding, and empathy, Michele uses her years of experience to help guide hiring managers through recruitment practices that help to expand our reach to women and minorities, practices that help level the playing field around candidate selection. Having built trust with leadership, Michele has been able to help to create a culture of learning and growing around inclusiveness in IT, which, with an organization that has the reach of OIT, surely benefits the entire campus.”
— Briandy Walden
Office of Information Technology
Natalie Hashizaki
Clinical Applications Manager
Systems Application
“Many times, Natalie provided leadership to our diverse team and displayed patience, poise, and character to support the women across our teams. As a nurse and informaticist, she is adept at partnering with women across disciplines to ensure that everyone’s perspective is heard. In particular, when we had a challenging situation with tight deadlines, she remained laser-focused on consensus building to achieve our time-sensitive and pioneering digital health innovations.”
Which of our four values does Natalie best exemplify?
“While Ms. Hashizaki exemplifies all four attributes in WiT’s “Advance. Inspire. Empower. Act.” motto, for me her commitment to advancing missions and goals of the women on her teams is admirable. She is a pleasure to work with and is able to modestly display her technical brilliance in healthcare delivery with her technology expertise without alienating or excluding our team-members. She welcomes all questions and provides an inclusive environment to advance healthcare for all patients.”
— Lisa Gibbs
Division of Geriatrics & Gerontology
Somphone Eno
Assistive Technology Manager
Disability Services
“Somphone is constantly offering guidance, time, advice, and mentorship to all of her colleagues, but particularly to me and to the women in her department. She also supports all students (including women) to ensure they have full access to the classroom material needed.”
How has Somphone personally impacted you in your role?
“Somphone is a role model for cheerfully accepting new responsibility and going above and beyond to support the work of our committee, and me as its co-chair. She is always willing to take extra time to ensure that folks with disabilities have equal access to campus resources. She often volunteers for additional committee assignments, even under tight deadlines and pressure. She’s a rockstar!”
— Meredith Ehrenberg
Office of Information Technology
Stacey Rose
Supervisor, Network Projects and Infrastructure Engineers
Office of Information Technology
“She has provided me guidanceand a space for me to talk to her about issues related to my team as well as any problems I have in my position. Stacey helped me realize I need to focus on seeing the big picture and to not focus on the technical jargon as I will learn them in time. She also played a role in creating the certificate in Women’s Leadership! She introduced this program to me and was also able to help secure OIT funding, which allows women in OIT to receive leadership training.”
— Anonymous Nominator
Which of our four values does Stacey best exemplify?
“She empowers all individuals to excel and do their best, utilizing resources to better an individual and with Stacey there’s no such things as barriers. She always pushes through and because of that she has the knowledge to push others, especially women at the University. She has helped develop programs that impact our women workforce on the overall campus along with other women inside and outside of OIT. She truly believes in women advancing their careers in IT at UCI. She’s a very strong leader that believes in everyone’s capabilities and pushes all to educate and advance themselves both for the benefit of the individual and also for the University. She’s also a great manager and an overall wonderful person!”
— Brian Chrisman
Office of Information Technology
Sylvia Bass
Web Content Architect, OIT Client Services
Office of Information Technology
“Sylvia is a wonderful colleague who is always willing to go above and beyond. She is a supportive and helpful colleague, collegial to all, and enthusiastic about the technology she works with.”
How has Sylvia personally impacted you in your role?
“Sylvia inspires me to be a helpful colleague and expert. She does her job with integrity, always focused on the quality of service and the products, while being responsive to the client’s skillset. I value Sylvia as a colleague, not only for her expertise but for her responsiveness, kind nature, and true caring for others at UCI.”
— Matthew Martinez
School of Biological Sciences
Terri Donly
Nursing Informaticist
Nursing Informatics
“Terri has worked across the spectrum of UCI. She transitioned through nursing units and served as a nurse manager, too. For the past 10 years, Terri has held the “operational awareness” torch for IT analysts. When Epic analysts need nursing workflow validation, we can count on Terri knowing it, or at the very least who is a good resource. Terri is tremendously respected by many nurses and nurse leadership.”
— Brian Lambertson
Systems Application; Information Services
How has Terri personally impacted you in your role?
“Terri inspires me with her nursing informatic knowledge and her calming demeanor when I can’t figure something out. She has called on many occasions to walk me through the process to ensure I understand how to navigate it. She never tires of answering my constant questions and explaining in a manner I understand. When asked “Can this be done?” she always says “Let me figure it out,” and she usually can. She is a role model of being an accomplished IT woman who displays the UCI values in every interaction.”
— Janice White
Nursing Administration