Women working in tech continue to face significant barriers in the workplace, including a shortage of women role models and a persistent gender bias, notes ISACA. But the Executive MBA programs at UT Dallas’ Naveen Jindal School of Management are helping shift this underrepresentation of women in the technology field.
Here we shine a spotlight on some of our recent female EMBA alumni enjoying highly successful and dynamic leadership careers in the male-dominated technology field.
Nicole Kohanski
Nicole Kohanski has held the COO position at Unequal Technologies in the Dallas/Fort Worth area since 2011, with previous roles as COO at Legacy Neurological Monitoring and Partner at The Remmick Group. Nicole is a recent graduate of the Executive MBA program at University of Texas at Dallas, achieving Honors with High Distinction while simultaneously fulfilling her duties as Chief Operations Officer.
Nicole is PMI-PMP certified and highly skilled in team-building and leadership, product development, product marketing, operations management, and business strategy and business development.
Stephanie Hight
This accomplished alumna earned her Executive MBA at UT Dallas in 2016 and demonstrated her superior leadership skills by serving as valedictorian for her program’s cohort. Stephanie Hight’s talents for team-building, collaboration, troubleshooting, and maintaining effective customer relationships have also served her well in her 10-year career with Cisco. She currently acts as Client Services Manager at Cisco in Dallas. Previous positions with the company include Systems Engineer and Networking Consulting Engineer. Prior to joining Cisco, Stephanie was the Network System Administrator for the City of Raleigh.
A highly respected sales professional with a proven record of strong technical and business skills, Stephanie is frequently called upon to help coordinate groups across networks to resolve difficult issues and enable sales strategies. She is especially passionate about leveraging her technical acumen into business strategy and organizational transformations.
Geneva Martin
A current student in the MBA program at UT Dallas with an expected graduation date of 2019, Geneva Martin has served as Senior Director of Data and Analytics at WorldLink US in the Dallas/Fort Worth area since May 2016. Her previous six years were spent at Hewlett Packard Enterprise with roles that included Senior Program Manager of PMO, Analytics and Data Management, and Information Governance.
Geneva began her education by earning two bachelor’s degrees from Liberty University in 2010. No doubt her dual degrees in Computer Management Information System and Religion played an integral part in her ability to be an emotionally intelligent people manager with a proven record of overseeing accomplished, diverse teams. Geneva possesses a unique blend of executive competencies and diverse IT skills. She is adept at successfully aligning business and IT strategic initiatives while providing strong, empowering leadership in the development and implementation of multimillion-dollar programs onshore and globally.
Jori Wiemer
Jori Wiemer is another one of UT Dallas’ newest EMBA graduates. She credits the “added bonus of being in an executive program, surrounded by a cohort of other working managers” for adding a layer of real world experience to her time in the program. Jori states this made the level of education at the Naveen Jindal School of Management “above and beyond what I expected.” She is continuing her education and is currently pursuing her MS degree in Accounting.
Jori has enjoyed a nearly 11-year career with Arconic (formerly Alcoa), and currently holds the title of Service Center Manager at Arconic/Kawneer in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. A series of positions, promotions, and geographical moves that began with a customer technical support role in Atlanta, GA, have led Jori to her current role, which finds her helping to double the size of the Texas service center. This bold, fearless leader blessed with a strong drive to succeed earned her BA in Religious Studies at Texas Christian University in 2003. Jori is “looking forward to applying my MBA and P&L experience in my next role and continuing the journey.”
