Her Story
About Stacy
My path to where I am today is a different one. I went to school for studio art with an emphasis in graphic design at Binghamton University, and when I graduated, IBM hired me as a graphic designer. They called me a software engineer in my offer letter, which confused me at first, but I started asking questions and learning, and the more I questioned, the more I connected the dots. In 2000, I moved to Silicon Valley for IBM and was placed in their human factors department, where I did a certificate program in human-computer interaction. I learned that it's not just about the way it looks, it's about how the user interacts with it that makes it successful for adoption. I went on to do my full master's in human-computer interaction from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute while working part-time for IBM and interning for NASA Ames in their air division, working on something they still use today for domestic air traffic control. After graduating, I worked for a small startup doing two-factor authentication and single sign-on, traveling to 36 countries in 24 months to understand how people felt about passwords. I then spent 2 years at American Express building out their world service systems and leading the redevelopment of their merchant services globally. At Deutsche Bank, I managed a full-stack development team of 46 people remotely for 3 years, doing everything from infrastructure migrations to disaster recovery. I filed my first patent at JP Morgan on modernizing UI frameworks and went on to file an additional 10 patents, becoming a prolific inventor. My last two years at JP Morgan, I ran AI and data science for their Employee Platforms line of business. I recently began at EY in December as the Global Head of Product Experience for Infrastructure and Operations, with an emphasis on AI integration and working on a white paper on reference data. I'm still working with other inventors on additional patent work as well.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Stacy
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my family, to my curiosity, and to some of my mentors along the way. My family is incredibly important - every patent and everything that I do is to make, to show my kids that there's a wide, big world out there, and they can do anything that they want with it. I want to show them that Mommy started as an art major and is now, you know, has multiple patents in the fields of AI and in computer science, showing them the art of the possible. I work hard for my family. My mentors along the way have been instrumental as well - they've been great with my trust and with advice, and I really appreciate all that they have done for me.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to have an opinion. Be brave, and reach out to that person that you think would be helpful, because 9 out of 10 times, they are going to be willing to help you, and they're going to be willing to connect with you. Building a network is so important, and asking questions, because the question I have, probably 90% of the people in the room also have it, but they don't have the courage to ask that question. So I'm helping not only myself to have better information, but I'm helping others who are participating in said discussion to also have information that they might not have had otherwise.
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