Dr. Brown agreed to participate in our ongoing 'Take Five' interview series.
- How did you get involved with BDPA? - I originally joined the BDPA in 1996. A lady named Roxanne Clinton told me about the organization and I was amazed that a program like this existed at the time. The way I found myself starting a career within IT was not through a direct plan, so to be able to show others what I do and how I got there was something of great interest to me.
- What is your favorite part of working with BDPA? - My favorite activities are working with young people. College students, High School Students and New entries into the work force. These young people are usually very eager to learn and they soak up everything I tell them like sponge. My next favorite part is giving presentations to up and coming entrepreneur’s, existing entrepreneur’s and people that are just curious about entrepreneurship. I have presented at the national conference in previous years in this area and these are truly the high points of my BDPA career.
- What future evolution or change would you like to see in BDPA? - I would like to see the BDPA be more active in the more advanced areas of technology. There are quite a few opportunities within the IT arena particularly in the architecture and administration roles and high level design and development work spaces. A few of the HBCUs are also a little behind at offering up to date (CIS, MIS, BIS) curriculum’s that will help add a few more minorities into these fields of study. I would like to bring my experiences to the organization and help make anyone that will listen way that can gain experiences with standards like Oracle EBS, SAP, IBM DB2, Oracle PeopleSoft and Microsoft SQL. I would like to then further this exposure into specialized areas like S>O>A>P, IT Auditing, Project Management (PMP) for IT functions. These areas can certainly use a boost of minority subject matter experts.
- Why should someone pay $100 membership dues to join BDPA? - I would tell all existing and new members that for the $100 membership dues the BDPA can provide:
- A few different ways to educate and train, for those that are interested in learning within the IT arena.
- Insights on career paths for entering into or shifting within the IT work space.
- Help fill in the gaps caused by lack of experience and/or lack of training with affiliations with organizations like the BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF)
- General Information about what is happening within the IT arena to continue to attract more members interested in this news.
- Any advice for people considering donation to BETF? - I would advise anyone that donating to the BETF benefits not only students but BDPA chapters. The programs that I am aware of exist to assist its participants with educational and planning that can help start or maintain a career within the IT area. If anything you can become more computer literate. Since finance is the biggest obstacle between minority communities and educational programs and opportunities, a donation to the BETF is certainly one way around this obstacle.
We encourage you to learn more about all of the 2011 national and regional BDPA candidates. Mostly, we encourage you to share some BDPA-Love for Dr. Brown. It takes gumption to put yourself on the line for service as a volunteer leader at a national level. I appreciate Dr. Brown for his willingness to do so ... and for taking the time to share his thoughts with us.
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