Page 18 - San Diego Woman Magazine Digital Version

Women of Distinction

birthday, but she decided to stay in Virginia prove. “At first, I must admit, I did receive
for a bit. Donna obtained a position working some push back from those who were not
as an engineer for the Navy Exchange Ser- familiar with the changes in technology and
vice Command and was assigned to the West actually found it hard to change with the
Coast Region making frequent trips between times, but once they realize how much bet-
the corporate office and California. “I thrived ter everything can run by being open to the
in this environment because I picked up a va- changes suggested, they often realized they
riety of skills that led me to be a well-rounded had no idea how they managed without it.”
engineer.” Donna noted one of the common miscon-
In 2001, Donna gave birth to a son, and ceptions people have when updating their
then shortly thereafter a change in location systems to improve technology is that the
occurred when Military Orders moved them process will shut business down when in
to San Diego in 2003. The family moved and reality with the technology we have today
she has been here ever since. Although she changes are made behind the scenes without
enjoyed her time working for the Navy, when any disruption at all.
she relocated to San Diego, they were unable
to provide a satisfying job fit to her back-
ground and qualifications, so she ventured
Donna Hale manufacturing company based out of Scott-
forward working as a Network Engineer for a
sdale, Arizona. As a testimony to the kind of

Helping Companies Thrive work Donna does and how she puts every-
thing into any job she undertakes, it did not
take long for them to realize how valuable she
was to the company. She had started this new
By Judith A. Habert job in October and by January was promoted

Photos courtesy of Donna Hale to Director. Unfortunately, the company end-
ed up closing down their San Diego division,
and not wanting to make a move to Scotts-
dale she transitioned to a management posi-
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennes- tion with a web analytics company. Two years
see the youngest of 7 children, Donna Hale later, she found an exciting position working
knew at an early age what path her future for three boutique hotels in San Diego and re-
would take. “I realized that I wanted to get mained there for nine and a half years as the
involved with computers and technology Vice President of Technology. In her role, she
when I was in 11th grade taking a typing led the design of the technology architecture
class. My teacher often talked about what and managed the software, infrastructure,
the future would be like with the advent of team, and budget for technical solutions.
computers and mainframes and all things Donna puts her heart and soul into ev-
of that nature, which put me on the road to erything she does and has a very giving na-
doing different types of internships.” With ture. She finds time in her busy schedule to
a natural curiosity, she found she craved mentor students in technology and has been
learning more in technology. a moderator on various women in technolo- It was through her association with
Not quite sure where technology was gy panels helping to bring more women into a local chapter of The Association of IT
going, Donna realized that everything she the field. With her close to a decade worth Professionals that Donna met Y’vonne Or-
was learning was soon to evolve and that of experience in the hospitality arena she mond, and her next career path emerged
most businesses were run on some kind of has also found herself on different advisory clearly - Consulting. “Y’vonne was then
computer system. Donna did her first intern- councils for the hospitality industry. president of the organization and I was
ships with The Internal Revenue Service and With a vast 30-year career in tech, she providing CIO consulting services to var-
another with FedEx where she picked up var- has helped an infinite number of compa- ious private organizations. We would meet
ious computer languages. During her intern- nies upgrade their systems to meet all of the and talk at different events and from the
ships, it was a family emergency that required wonders that can be accomplished through very first day that we met, realized that we
her to move from Memphis to Hampton state of the art technology. She has often cre- were kindred spirits, and both had such a
Roads, Virginia. Donna’s mother was diag- ated roadmaps for companies leading them love for community and technology.” Some
nosed with cancer, so she went there to help to the cutting edge of technology and help- time passed and at this point, Donna had
her through her treatments. Unfortunate- ing them to simplify processes they were not become president of the Association and it
ly, her mom passed a week before her 25th even aware they could simplify let alone im- came to her attention that a position for a

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