News & Events

Upcoming events in 2015!

Happy New Year everyone!  Please plan to join us at the following upcoming events:

Tuesday, January 20, 2015: Debra Hunter Johnson is our guest speaker on the topic of How to Get the Best Out of Your Team.  Click here to read more about the topic, our speaker, and how to RSVP.

Saturday, January 31, 2015 – DISD STEM DAY: Volunteers are needed to help run a spaghetti and marshmallow building activity with students at Dallas ISD’s STEM Day at Skyline High School.  We’ll have two shifts: 1:20pm-2:20pm and 2:30pm-3:30pm.  If you are interested in volunteering, please fill out this form and email our VP of Outreach, Nandika D’Souza.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015 – She Networks, She Wins: Save the Date for this annual event with the SMU SWE student section!  We’ll be at the Palmer Conference Center in Caruth Hall on the Southern Methodist University campus.  Stay tuned for a link to RSVP!

Saturday, February 28, 2015 – E-Week Family Day: Join Dallas SWE a the Frontiers of Flight Museum from 10:00am-1:00pm as we lead a fun E-Week activity! Email Jennifer Vilbig jennifervilbig@gmail.com to help out!

Interested in getting the best out of your team?

Please join us for our January professional development meeting!

Average leaders focus more on recruiting and less so on how to develop and use talent once they are hired. Good  leaders focus on finding people, at whatever level, who know the things they don’t. Outstanding leaders take the time to understand the capabilities of each individual so that they can connect employees with the right opportunities-thereby building a virtuous cycle of attraction, growth, and opportunity. Debra Hunter Johnson will share insights on how you can take your team from average to outstanding with her presentation: People Management: How to Get the Best Out of Your Team.  

When: Tuesday January 20th, 2015
             Networking starts at 6:00pm, Presentation starts at 6:30pm and should end by 8:00pm.
Cost: Free, and since we are meeting at the Olive Garden, food will be available for purchase!

About the speaker:

Debra Hunter Johnson is Vice-President, CLO & CHRO for Reciprocity Restaurant Group, which owns and operates Church’s Chicken Restaurants in Oklahoma. Debra brings 25-plus years of experience to her role and is responsible for all legal matters as well as leadership development and training for over 250 employees. Debra also owns a training and consulting practice that focuses on leadership development, employee engagement, conflict resolution, inclusion/diversity and legal issues related to workforce management.

Prior to her current role, Debra served in several leadership roles at American Airlines, Inc. including Vice President – Global Human Resources Services where she led a team of over 100 human resources professionals in the U.S., Latin America, Canada and Mexico and Associate General Counsel responsible for the areas of domestic and international employment and benefits law and litigation, environmental, immigration and the company’s compliance program. Debra has also served as a attorney with Chrysler Motors Corporation and with the law firm of Patterson, Phifer & Phillips in Detroit, Michigan.

Debra is a member of the Corporate Counsel Women of Color, American Corporate Counsel Association, National Employment Law Council and the state bars of Texas and Michigan. She is also very involved in the community and serves on the boards of the Dallas Museum of Art, Planned Parenthood of North Texas and is active with The Dallas Assembly. In the past, she has served of the Boards of Trustees of the Jack & Jill of America Foundation and The Hockaday School in Dallas and on the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee. She is also a member of The Links, Inc., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the Junior League of Dallas.

Younger Members Brunch Recap

YM_12142014Thanks everyone who came out for Dallas SWE’s first Younger Members brunch! Recent graduates from all over the country have relocated to the Dallas area and Saturday met for a tasty brunch at Gloria’s in uptown Dallas.

For those who didn’t make it, we raffled off two sets of circuit board nail wraps! Congrats to the winners, Amanda Posadas and Kristen Parrish! We have two more sets to raffle off for next time, so save the date for next month.Saturday, January 24th at 11am at Social House in Addison.

If you’re interested in being added to the younger members email list, please email Dallas SWE secretary Morgen Schroeder!

Holiday Mixer Event Recap

On December 3, Dallas SWE joined with Women of AT&T, Women in Technology International (WITI) Dallas, Slalom Cosulting, and The Intersect Group for an evening of networking and delicious refreshments!  Over 75 men and women met at BJ’s Restaurant in Addison for the occasion.

Bri Crow, a Senior Technology Recruiter for The Intersect Group, welcomed attendees and interviewed special guest Debbie Allred, Senior IT Director at JC Penny, in a fireside chat format.  Debbie took a circuitous route to her director position and gave great advice to women pursuing leadership roles, work-life balance, the rewards of mentoring, and more.  Attendees also got the opportunity to ask Debbie questions directly.  Afterwards, a large percentage of the group stayed to mingle and connect with one another.  It was really inspiring to have such a diverse group and meet a lot of new people! Click below to view a few photos from the event.

We got some great feedback on this event: if you attended, check your email with a link to our survey!  We plan to hold another joint event in the spring, this time with the National Society of Black Engieers (NSBE) and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE).  Stay tuned for details!

 

November Professional Development Meeting Recap

On Tuesday, November 18, 2015, Dallas SWE met at Olive Garden in Addison, TX and had the opportunity to here from Audrey Selden, Board President of Leadership Women, on a topic very near to our hearts:  A3 – Leadership Communication Formulas for Aspiring, Advancing and Achieving.  Specifically, she spent time leading us through a listening assessment, explained micro-messaging and its effects on productivity, and ended with speed networking.

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Audrey Selden, our wonderful guest speaker!

After filling out the listening assessment Audrey made a point to highlight that having effective listening skills can lead us to achieving our leadership aspirations.  A few key points to becoming an effective listener were to listen with intention, for understanding and with heart.  A good way to practice this, Audrey says, is to paraphrase back the information communicated.

Audrey opened our eyes to the effects of labeling, even the good labels.   Five volunteers were given two minutes to write down ideas on what they would like SWE Dallas to do in 2015….the result, a sheet full of ideas!  They then were each given a label that they were unaware of but the each other and the rest of us could see.  They were asked to repeat the task.  Not a single idea was put on paper in the two minutes.  They even had a “labeled” Leader but the leader felt so much pressure and had no affirmations to her ideas, so she failed to write down her ideas as well.  This showed that focusing on labels removes the focus from the goal and is extremely detrimental to productivity.

(left to right) Britney Caldwell, Zaineb Ahmad, Morgen Schroder, Haley Vingsness, and Shelley Stracener participating in the labeling demonstration.
(left to right) Britney Caldwell, Zaineb Ahmad, Morgen Schroder, Haley Vingsness, and Shelley Stracener participating in the labeling demonstration.

She also talked about positive affirmations and how the small things matter to those who you are working with and for and to those who work for you.  A little note or public praise can go a long way to boosting moral and productivity.

Audrey promotes reading out of your comfort zone to get fun ideas to incorporate into our daily jobs.  She says, “Read everything from Sports Illustrated to National Geographic”.  She uses what’s going on in our daily lives (i.e. The Grammy’s) and incorporates into her job duties (i.e employee recognition and team building activities) to make work fun.

Audrey also brought information about Leadership Women programs, and Nandika D’Souza (Dallas SWE’s VP of Outreach) gave a short summary of her experience with Leadership Texas. Their programs are highly recommended for facilitating interactive learning opportunities in our state and meeting other women in leadership from areas you might not otherwise encounter them.  Check it out!

Also scroll down to our earlier post highlighting upcoming events through the end of the year and in early 2015.  We hope to see you at another event soon!

AT&T Women in Tech Hackathon: December 5-6, 2014

This is a special announcement for an exciting program sponsored by our friends at AT&T Women in Technology!

AT&T Women in Tech Hackathon brings together women and men developers to work on teams to create cool and innovative apps. This Hackathon will also focus on home automation apps.  There will be special prizes for all women and women-led teams.  We will also have career experts on hand to talk about careers at AT&T. This event also includes an option one-day coding camp on Thursday prior to the start of the Hackathon. The coding camp is a great way for people to brush up on their developer skills.  There are tickets for developers, UX designers, and students alike: check it out!

Sign up for the Hackathon on Friday and Saturday, December 5-6 at Eventbrite here.

Sign up for the optional Coding Camp on Thursday, December 4, here.

If you have any questions, please contact Jovana at AT&T here.

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