Women in Tech Panel

Sheryl Walton leads the Help Desk and Service Desk Escalations Teams.  She has worked in the technical industry for over 20 years in a wide range of technical roles and with Autodesk for 7 years. She began her career as a Help Desk agent and previously worked for Boeing Aerospace, Clear Channel Communications and Tesoro Corporation.   She currently manages two global, cross-functional Service Desk teams with deep focus in supporting enterprise applications, collaboration tools and cloud services.

Rachel O’Gorman leads the Desktop Virtualization Services team at Autodesk, a pilot project to deploy its first on premises private Cloud to a small, select group of external customers. With Autodesk for over 10 years, she began her career as a Server Engineer and now leads a team that focuses on helping to solve business problems for its internal Engineering and Technical Sales teams, through creative use of virtual desktops and virtual applications.

Bren Hanson has worked in Customer Service Management for Exchange Bank since 1993, and in the Customer Service industry since 1981. She created the “Super Help Desk” in 2002 becoming the SPOC (Single Point of Contact) for her company. Recently she transitioned her team to concentrating on IT, Bank Security, Facilities/Maintenance and Telecommunications. She is bridging the gap between industry and education as the Chairperson of the Computer Science/IT Advisory Board at Santa Rosa Junior College. Bren has served HDI since 2003 as a member, local SFHDI board member, and the National Member Advisory Board.

Natalie Polanco is a system/network administrator at Lanlogic, an MSP and consulting company with a proven track record of designing and maintaining small and medium size networks as well as RMM solutions to support their customers better. Her attention to detail and ability to deal well in stressful situations has proven beneficial in implementing new services and providing technical support to their customers.

Janice Ng is a product designer, author, and activist for gender equality. Her children’s book “How to Be a Good* Girl” enables young girls and their parents to identity and challenge gender stereotypes, inspiring the next generation of leaders to stand up for themselves and others. She is currently helping companies get off the ground in the crowdfunding industry and has a long track record designing for other industries including medication, food, fitness, and health. Check out her book at www.howtobeagoodgirl.com

Panel Moderator - Queen Denchukwu serves as the Manager of Diversity Alliances and Partnerships at Autodesk, where she deepens current relationships at the K-12, University and Industry levels.  Queen also focuses on growing Autodesk’s engagements with organizations local to multiple offices, evolve the strategy of diversity partnerships, and measure the impact of Autodesk’s efforts. Prior to Autodesk, Queen spent several years in banking as a Business Relationship Manager with Wells Fargo and Chase.  Outside of work, she serves as a professional mentor with TechWomen – an organization that empowers, connects and supports the next generation of women leaders in STEM from Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East.