Influential Woman · IT, Non Profit

Deepa Rao

Sr.Programmer Analayst | Quality Custom Distribution (QCD), Golden State Foods

Cleveland, OH

2Awards received

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Bachelor's in Engineering Degree Master's in Engineering Degree MBA in Business Management Member Cleveland People (Indian Ambassador) Member Global Equivalent Member Women in Agile Member ASCE

Her Story

About Deepa

I started working in IT in 2005 and have been in the field for the past 21 years. My typical day involves working 8 to 5 in the office resolving IT issues, and then in the evening I work with nonprofit organizations from 8 to 11 PM. I accidentally came across a volunteering position and started my volunteering journey in 2016. From 2016, I've been in various roles in volunteering and have been president of three different nonprofit organizations. Currently, I'm the secretary for one of the organizations. I'm also the editor-in-chief for a community newspaper, and sometimes I work till 2 o'clock in the night when the newspaper is about to release. My main areas of expertise are leadership and IT. Being president of various organizations and being able to give back to the community has been my most notable professional achievement.

Quick Facts

IndustryIT, Non Profit
Based inCleveland, OH
Specialty Leadership, IT, Non Profit
Volunteers with President of 3 different nonprofit organizations
- Secretary of nonprofit organization
- Editor-in-Chief of community newspaper
- Mentor with Global Equivalent
- Mentor with Women in Agile

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Deepa

01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

Adaptability is the thing that they have to go in with, because with changing work balance post-COVID and the hybrid and remote models, there are so many things that you need to adapt. I feel like adaptability is one of the things that women should try to embed because each and every office setup is different and each and every office corporate culture is different. I think that will make them easygoing when they go into a new office or a new culture, so I think that is the one advice I would like to give.

02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

I don't see any challenges in general, but I always see some challenges in my mentoring journey because people are still not open to mentoring. I was asked to go in with a mentor 10 years ago and I didn't know anything about mentoring, so I declined that, but now I'm sorry that I declined that. I feel like I should have taken it. So that is the huge challenge - whenever I'm mentoring, people don't show or they feel like it's not necessary. But I think if people go in for mentoring, it will improve their career journey and personal journey. There's so much to learn from the people who have already experienced that, so I see challenges in that area.

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