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Meet Erica Stockwell-Alpert

Developer at Velir; Sitecore MVP

Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started?


I’m from Sudbury, Massachusetts. I studied computer science and psychology at Connecticut College and began working as a .Net web developer after graduating in 2014. I started working with Sitecore when I joined Velir in 2016, and I am currently a full-stack developer in Velir’s Managed Services department. I first became a Sitecore MVP in 2018, in part due to my Sitecore module, the Content Export/Import Tool, which I created to accelerate data exports and content entry in Sitecore.

What does a day in the life look like for you?


I have five accounts that I regularly work on, as well as occasionally helping with large projects. In my department, because we are maintaining older websites (often built by other agencies), there is a lot of variety among my sites; I’ve got four different Sitecore versions currently, with the oldest being 8.2, and the differences in Sitecore versions, as well as unique codebase structures and very old legacy code, provides unique challenges in development. Some of my sites have very basic css and Javascript, while others have complex React modules. I get to work with a wide array of backend and frontend technologies. I also handle deployments to production and handle urgent issues such as site outages.

After work is over, I have a number of hobbies that keep me busy. I take an aerial silks class once a week, and I make art that I sell at local oddities markets.

What would you say is key in exceling in your industry?

It’s critical to be able to learn and adapt, as web technology is constantly evolving. Be aware of what new technologies are being adopted, and take advantage of opportunities to use those new technologies. If you can’t dive into new tech in your free time, then ask to be involved in work projects that utilize it. If you learn about a cool new technology that your company isn’t using yet, share it with your colleagues and suggest a place where it could be implemented.

Share your knowledge. One of the easiest ways to make a name for yourself is to blog about technical problems you’ve encountered and how you’ve resolved them. If one person finds your blog post or Stack Overflow question helpful, then it was worthwhile, and you never know which posts are going to blow up in popularity; something that you assume is too obscure a problem or too obvious a solution might actually be an issue many other developers need help with. If it took you more than a few minutes of Googling to find an answer, it’s worth writing about.

What challenges do you see for women in tech today?

My biggest challenges have been internal. When I first started my career, I was younger than all of my coworkers, and one of the only female programmers. I felt like everyone was smarter than me, and I was afraid to speak up with questions or opinions because I didn’t want to make myself look stupid. The people around me were very supportive, but I limited myself due to my insecurity. It was a challenge to overcome, and it would have been a lot harder if I didn’t have great colleagues who have encouraged me and mentored me.

People of any gender can feel imposter syndrome, but I think it’s especially common for women in tech since it’s a male-dominated field, and it can be hard to make yourself vulnerable when you feel like you are a representative of your gender. Simply having more female developers in your office does a lot to alleviate this pressure.

Do you have any advice or tips for women looking to start their careers in tech? What do you wish you had known?


Be confident in your skills and your knowledge. The people around you are not smarter than you, they’re just more confident/experienced. Imposter syndrome can make you reluctant to ask questions (“surely I should know this already”) or to share your knowledge (“everyone else must already know this”). But, asking questions is critical to growing as a developer, and can also help you form personal bonds with your colleagues. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you struggle to understand something. Some areas will be harder for you than others, and different people learn in different ways (I’m very hands-on, and often have trouble understanding new concepts until I get to work with real examples). Code, as well as documentation, should be easy to understand, and if it’s overly obfuscated, that’s a failing on the part of the writer, not you.

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Meet Ethel Crosby

Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started?

My parents immigrated from the Philippines to the United States and settled in Chicago. They raised me and my siblings in the suburbs near Chicago, and I still live in the Chicago area.  I got my bachelor’s degree in Information Systems at Loyola University Chicago and my master’s degree in Computer Information Systems at Northwestern University. I am currently the Director of Technology Operations and Offerings at One North, which is a full-service digital agency within TEKsystems Global Services. My main focus is on growing our technology offerings, including the Sitecore practice, and leading operational excellence across disciplines. I’ve been in the tech industry for the past 2 decades in a broad range of roles from client-facing project management and product teams, to IT, marketing and security.

What is your favorite part of working in the tech industry?

I love the continuous improvements and evolution of new technology we get to work with in the tech industry. It keeps our work interesting and ultimately leads us to deliver innovative solutions for clients as their expectations and experiences change.

What would you say is key to exceling in your industry?

It’s important to develop domain expertise in an area you are truly passionate about. I’m a strong believer in having a growth mindset. You have to be continuously learning in our industry in order to keep up and not let your skills get stale.

What challenges do you see for women in tech today?

Having ‘imposter syndrome,’ the anxiety-driven feeling of self-doubt in your abilities, tends to be a common barrier for many women. I’ve felt this in the past when I moved into more technical roles. First acknowledge that imposter syndrome exists, then move on. Don’t let your feelings of self-doubt hold you back and channel that energy into something productive.

Do you have any advice or tips for women looking to start their careers in tech? What do you wish you had known?

It’s okay to ask for help when you need it. You don’t have to go through your journey in tech alone. Many people have some help along the way. Help can come in many forms from a mentor or developing a professional network with people to share experiences and best practices. Help can also come from your family, partner, and friends. Having a strong support system is key to a manageable work-life balance and for your mental health.

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Meet Natalie Mankowski

Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started?

I’m originally from Perth in Western Australia, and moved to Canada two and a half years ago. I came to Canada for a ski season but loved it so much I never left and have recently become a permanent resident!

I’ve always loved being creative and knew I wanted to pursue a career that combines creativity with analytical thinking. After I finished my Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Media Studies, I worked in Singapore as an associate producer intern for a film production company, where I worked closely with the marketing team and fell in love with marketing. After the internship I landed a job in digital marketing, became obsessed and went back to university while working full time to become a Master of Marketing.

Throughout my career I’ve been really lucky to be exposed to a lot of different types of projects and areas of marketing so I was able to discover what I was really passionate about early on. I’ve worked with nearly every industry under the sun and every pillar of marketing, but my biggest passions are marketing technologies and SEO. I actually dreamt of working with Sitecore years before I got the chance to!

I’m proud to be the Marketing Manager at Fishtank Consulting, where I head up a team of talented marketers who do groundbreaking things with Sitecore, SEO and content marketing. I love helping businesses connect with their customers using incredible technologies like Sitecore, paired with killer content, SEO and personalization strategies.

Outside of work, I recently fell in love with rock climbing and now you could say I’m addicted. In the summer I also love to hike in the Rockies, and in winter I usually spend my weekends skiing.

Share some of your accomplishments within the Sitecore community?

I became a Sitecore Strategy MVP for the first time this year, after contributing to the Sitecore community in the areas I noticed a lot of marketers were struggling with. All my contributions to the Sitecore community are aimed at empowering marketers and content authors to get the most out of Sitecore.

  • I’ve published over 50 strategic blogs on topics covering personalization, campaigns, profiles, experience analytics, goal setting, A/B and multivariate testing, forms, marketing automation and many more
  • Wrote comprehensive guides to setting up Sitecore personalization
  • Published a series of ‘how-to’ YouTube videos for content authors with helpful tips and tricks
  • Created screen-recorded GIFs and downloadable infographics that show step by step how-to’s
  • Started Facebook and LinkedIn groups for Sitecore Marketers and Content Authors so members could ask questions and receive free Sitecore advice and help
  • Published Sitecore strategies, tips and tricks on social media

What resources have helped you along your career?

Having inspiring and encouraging people around me like my team members, managers, mentors, and friends and family, who believe in me and want to see me succeed.

My university degrees definitely set up my foundation of knowledge, and taught me a lot about prioritizing my time and meeting deadlines, especially doing my Master’s degree while working full time.

I owe a lot to communities like the incredible Sitecore community. Joining online communities and following leaders in the industry to learn more, stay up to date, get involved, give back and be inspired.

Newsletters – I have a few favourite weekly marketing newsletters that help me stay up to date with the industry in just a few minutes of reading time. My favourite marketing newsletters right now are SEOFomo and tl;dr Marketing.

When I have more time to spare, I love to read books and listen to podcasts. They aren’t all industry specific, but I love being inspired by other people’s success stories, habits and advice. One of my favourite books is Winging It by Emma Isaacs, and for podcasts, I love The Tim Ferriss Show.

And of course Google! I’ve learned a lot from other people’s articles and content, so I like to give back when I learn something new.

What challenges do you see for women in tech today?

Unfortunately, there is still a big gender gap in the tech industry, and unconscious gender bias, discrimination and harassment are realities for a lot of women working in tech. A lot of the time it’s systemic and covert, and people are just unaware that they’re perpetuating the biases, but that’s no excuse.

Everyone has a responsibility to take a stand and call it out. If you say nothing, nothing will change, and it needs to come from everyone. We need more equity and diversity for businesses and societies to thrive, and we can’t succeed when half of us are held back.

Do you have any advice for women looking to start their careers in tech? What do you wish you had known?

Believe in yourself and just start! Make small incremental changes towards your goals everyday.

Don’t overthink things and get comfortable with making mistakes. Put your hand up for a lot of different projects early on in your career so you can figure out what you love. Don’t be afraid of failing or asking lots of questions. Surround yourself with people you can learn from and help others as much as you can. Most importantly, have a loud voice, make sure your opinions are heard, call stuff out if it doesn’t sit right and cheer loudly for other women in the industry.

When I first started working in tech, I thought everyone would be a certain way, and have it all figured out with everything planned for every conceivable outcome. To my shock it turns out that everyone is human and most people are just winging it! So be yourself, stress less about the little things, smile and laugh as much as possible and don’t let anything hold you back.

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Meet Deepthi Katta

Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started?

This is Deepthi Katta. I am originally from India from a small town in the southern part India
called Anantapur. Now, I am a sun-loving Californian! I studied a lot while growing up, call it a
perk or a boon of being born in a professional South Asian family. Education was given utmost importance! Though my family was into medicine, Math intrigued me more than science or the size of my sister’s medicine book scared me to choose math as my major instead. Either was the case, that is where it all started!
I continued on that path to become a computer science engineer at Vellore Institute of
Technology. After graduation, I joined Wipro technologies as a rookie and experienced working for Microsoft as a vendor. When I came to United States, I pursued a Master’s in computer science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I gambled the program with all my might and graduated with honors. My first job here in America was on Sitecore (Destiny?) at a Company called Nowcom Corporation as a Software Engineer. My passion for delivering high-quality and standard solutions took me to my next step of being a technical lead within two years of joining the company. I currently work as Senior Technical Architect at Verndale where I lead cross-functional teams. I thoroughly enjoy solving tough problems and taking the teams involved through this journey of building something amazing that we can all be proud of.

What does a day in the life look like for you?

In a nutshell, never the same! I juggle many things in a day from both the professional and personal front. Like many women out there, I have commitments that I signed up for knowingly or unknowingly, but, I choose to stand by them and give my best.
At home, on the same day, I could be a hero and villain all at the same time. Most of it depends on if I say yes to junk food. I cherish and keep my family really close as they matter to me the most. I can’t imagine a day without my amazingly mature eleven-year-old and rock of my family, my husband. At work, I constantly wear several hats. On any given day, I might be collaborating with various individuals from different streams of software development. On quite a few occasions, I take matters into my own hands to solve any hiccups that come our way.
I mean only if a day of life is filled with an acceptable amount of madness is when I can sleep well. 

What would you say is key to exceling in your industry?

I strongly believe that to excel in any industry, it’s important that you love and have passion for what you are doing. Making it huge in the software world is no different! There is a cozy place in this industry for anyone who never thinks learning is a painful chore, loves solving problems in an innovative way, or could get people psyched up to do amazing at what they do to name a few.

What challenges do you see for women in tech today?

I have been blessed and fortunate to work alongside employees, bosses and people who always appreciated me as a valuable resource in the company. They strived in providing a caring and flexible environment which made my productivity twofold. Saying that, I know that is not the case everywhere and have seen first hand my friends quit due to lack of support from their managers especially while juggling professional and personal life. What was really sad is that in this case, the boss was a woman too.

It’s 2021, I struggle to believe that this is still an ongoing problem, but, it’s sadly true. We women have been blessed with the magical power to make humans and we should continue to do so to keep this world going strong. So, everyone around us including those we work for needs to support us during this transition. As they say, it takes a village!

Do you have any advice or tips for women looking to start their careers in tech? What do you wish you had known?

It’s okay to fail! It’s okay to be wrong! I wish I had known this during the early days of my career. I thought I had to be perfect and maintain a score of 100 or close to it at everything I do. Upon thinking hard and noticing others around me, I see that is the tendency across most women. We are deeply wired to aim for perfection!
Let it loose and go, rogue, when you get an opportunity. The amount of learning and confidence that can be gathered by being brave and taking up challenges is just so much better than settling for less. Shift that focus from trying to be perfect to giving your best at everything that comes at you and forgetting the rest. You will see the magic unfold!

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Meet Anne Norman

Anne Norman, Director at Digital Solutions; Sitecore MVP

Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started?

In my 15 years of experience focused exclusively within the digital industry, it’s been interesting to see the unique paths that have led many of us here, since “digital” jobs weren’t even a thing when we were getting started in the workforce. I began my career working within the telecom industry around the time IP Telephony was broadly commercially released. My company at the time asked me to help spearhead the design and implementation of our website. Needlessly to say, I was hooked on a career in digital from then on.

I rolled up my sleeves and learned the “business”, first at a full-service agency then in an all-digital consultancy. This approach allowed me to fully understand both traditional and digital parts of the marketing eco-system and the cohesive benefits it can offer customers and their end-users. As a I matured in my skill set and made the progression to an all-digital agency, I was able to see how just how innovative and hard-working digital experiences can be. I was able to go way beyond brochureware sites, working on highly complex, integrated solutions including multi-brand, commerce, connected products, portals, custom applications, you name it!

Historically, many of my roles have focused primarily on delivery and project execution, tackling everything from project management to client strategy and account direction. For the past 5+ years, I’ve worked within sales. The pre-sales expertise I provide includes highly personalized and pragmatic recommendations to prospective clients on what’s possible as well as what’s going to be impactful to their business; specifically in the areas of marketing strategy, commerce, and digital marketing technology platforms, like Sitecore’s full product suite. I also focus on sales enablement and working across our global selling teams at Horizontal Digital, making sure they have the information they need to help customers within Sitecore ecosystem – this everything from product knowledge, training, and access to sales assets like case studies.

Outside of work, I find balance with my husband and our three kids. We love to plan multi-state road trips, try every sport at least once, and we’re currently attempting to camp in each of Minnesota’s state parks. I also play on a women’s soccer league.

Was there ever a time that you wanted to give up when pursuing a career in tech? What kept you motivated?

As Rick Astley aptly sang “never going to give you up.” I’ve been all-in with a career in technology since I participated in that first website project in 2005. That said, it’s not all fun and games. Not only is the industry highly competitive, but things are also always changing; capabilities are enhanced, new platforms are introduced, and customer expectations are higher than ever.  

One thing that keeps me motivated is I’ve embraced a personal goal of continual learning and growth. I’m not talking about reading industry articles, trends, and research—though, yes, that’s part of it—I’m talking about a next level of education where it becomes a fundamental part of my day-to-day work. For me, this includes everything from seeking out innovative solutions to challenges, helping creatively solve problems, driving better results for customers, as well as refining our approach to how we work together ­– both internally, across disciplines as well as how we partner with our customers and partners. For those of us in the industry, it helps if you’re truly passionate about technology and believe in the endless possibilities of digital solutions. I also believe that gaining experience in multiple discipline areas helps provide a well-rounded perspective into the whole business.

What resources have helped you along your career? 

I spoke previously about cultivating a personal passion for learning and I can contribute a lot of my growth to this approach, but I think it’s only half the story. The other side of success is the individuals and teams that have pursued mutual success along the way.  

What challenges do you see for women in tech today?

One main challenge that comes to mind is representation. Research broadly shows women are becoming more influential in purchasing decisions both at home and in the workforce. However, many times those voices are absent when it comes to planning and creating the experiences that support them.  

Companies that invest in equality and diversity many times have better stock prices, higher performance metrics, and lead the pack on setting up a foundation for ongoing growth and bottom-line success. Today the technology industry is predominantly male, and companies can’t wait around for change to happen on its own. There isn’t a checklist of how to get it right. Instead, there needs to be a purposeful approach to define and shape what equality means for you, your organizational brand, and culture.  

Tangible ideas that come to mind that can help all of us to amplify the voices of women and the underrepresented in our day-to-day experiences include:   

  • Advocate for experiences that consider and support all people and their needs. For example, if your agency is creating a new website for a provider specializing in Prenatal care, your research and usability should include speaking with women that have become or plan to become pregnant as well as their partners.  
  • Professionally challenge the stereotypes and outdated cultural realities that suppress ideas and voices. Many times, folks may not realize they are interrupting when a woman shares in a meeting or always asking a woman to take on the more administrative tasks like taking notes or setting up the calendar invite. 
  • As you rise, lift others. Purposefully share the amazing stories of the women around you and elevate positivity.  
  • Support the next generation of working professionals by giving your time volunteering to help encouragement to the next wave of women technology leaders.  

Do you have any advice or tips for women looking to start a career in tech? What do you wish you had known?

One thing I wish I had learned much sooner in my career is to have courage and self confidence in my own voice and opinions. Oftentimes I’m the only female in the room and I’ve second guessed when I should speak up and/or if what I have to say will be taken seriously. What I’ve come to realize is that our opinion not only matters but it’s appreciated. Part of this is self-driven assurance that you and what you say is valuable, but there is also the cultural reality of the company you work for. An inclusive company culture promotes allyship and demonstrates it in practice every day.  

Finding our individual voice within the fast-paced, competitive technology industry can be challenging. If you can participate in a formal or informal mentorship program that provides 1:1 support from female leaders – I would recommend jumping at the chance. This may help those earlier in their career identify with successful role models, as well as offers personalized guidance to your specific journey and experience.