Ep 35: Visionary Dr. Barbara Ciaramitaro: Be Strategic About Your Future

Diva Tech Talk Podcast

Diva Tech Talk spoke with Dr. Barbara Ciaramitaro, Chair of the Decision Science Department, and Director of the newly-expanded Cyber Security Center at Walsh College, a leading non-profit higher education institution offering fifteen business and technology degree programs, on both an undergraduate and Master’s level, as well as several business and technology certifications. Walsh is the first, in 2003, to have received the NSA’s official designation as an academic center of excellence in information assurance and in 2015 received an additional NSA designation as a center of academic excellence in cyber defense.

Fascinated by science as a child, Barbara was born too soon to have computers as part of her early learning. After graduating from Wayne State University, though, she was exposed to the rapidly changing technology landscape through her first job at Dickinson Wright PLLC, where she was tapped to be part of the law firm’s team to evaluate and introduce new systems. From there she moved to Plunkett Cooney, after a decade, where she became Chief Technology Officer; received her Masters degree in software engineering; and led the firm in selecting and successfully implementing their first state-of-the-art litigation support and database systems. She had a similar role at Miller Canfield and then moved to General Motors.

As the GM executive aligned with the internal legal department, she oversaw the development of a unique legal technology system, eventually awarded three patents and worth approximately $60 million.

Barbara was also teaching part-time, while she worked at GM and decided to go back and get her PhD at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida, as part of her evolving career plan. “I tell my students that you have to be strategic about your future,” Barbara says. “There are so many opportunities. You need to prepare yourself for the next one, even if you don’t know what it is right now.”

Following her own advice, Barbara move to full-time academia after leaving GM. She migrated from Walsh to Ferris State University to design information security courses and was lured back to Walsh in a leadership position. Barb is very proud that at the top 100 companies in Michigan, there are Walsh graduates at all of them. Along the way, Barbara has learned many lessons:

• Speak the language of business, and to your business audience.
• Have patience.
• Stay on top of things when it comes to technology innovation, and new developments.

As woman in the tech field, Barbara says “I was always aware that I was one of the few there, leading the charge. I grew up with the mantra that I had to be better than the men around me in order to be accepted. Know more, learn more, speak better, be better. I think that’s a horrible burden, but that’s what I felt I needed to do.” She says that bringing more women into the world of technology is one of her passions “because we need that.” Her advice to emerging women leaders includes some simple admonitions. “Remain curious,” she says. “Always look for new answers, new ways of doing things, new technologies. Be courageous since it’s not easy being a woman in the field of technology. And be true to yourself. Your personal integrity is the only thing you are going to carry with you through your entire life.”

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