Wednesday, March 16, 2011

2011 Women to Watch: Claritza Abreu

By Jim Schakenbach, Special to Mass High Tech

Claritza Abreu
Chief Information Officer
Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Boston

Claritza Abreu is the first Latina to hold a senior technology position with the city of Boston and the commonwealth of Massachusetts. She has assumed numerous leadership roles in her professional career and her private life, dedicating time and energy to the health and well-being of Massachusetts residents as well as to a variety of Latino, women’s, and community causes. Abreu has spent her professional career in various positions within public agencies. She is responsible for a $13 million budget and an IT department with more than 75 staff members and the support of 33 sites across the state, including five large mental health hospitals.

Education: Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in computer science from Santo Domingo Institute of Technonoloy and Boston University, respectively, and graduate studies from New York University (NYU) and Suffolk University

Getting started in technology: “My math teacher in high school back in the Dominican Republic actually inspired me to go into an engineering career. I was 16 years old, one of the top students in his class, and he said I’d make a great engineer. I was going to be the first to graduate from college in my family, and I’d never even met a woman engineer.”

Her toughest challenge: “Coming here to the U.S. in my 20s, speaking just a little English, was tough. More than just the language, I had to learn the culture and how to get ahead to where I needed to be. As a recent immigrant with a college degree, I just had to work harder.”

Mentor: “While I was in college I had an internship in computer science working with a professor of systems and computer engineering at the University of the Andes, Joaquin Oramas. He took the time to encourage students like me to pursue advanced degrees and achieve our goals. He said technology was useless unless it was used to improve people’s lives.”

What accomplishment she is most proud of: “I helped adapt digital pen technology that the Boston Public Health Commission used to collect data from at-risk families in our Healthy Baby, Healthy Child program. This device made it faster, safer, and more efficient to gather data, reducing time, paperwork and cost while helping mothers provide the data necessary to help their children stay healthy.”
 

Robert Peterson, retired director of application development, Massachusetts Department of Mental Health

“She really cares about people, that’s her main concern. She’s a self-starter and has worked extremely hard. She’s very motivated to help people.

“She has natural leadership ability. It’s hard for her to sit back, she naturally likes to volunteer. She comes from a background of strong values — she would get to work at 7 o’clock in the morning and leave at 8 at night and still have time for her kids. People look up to her.”