Hi! My name is Erin Gilbert. I am a senior at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. I will be graduating May 2020 with degrees in Business Administration and Information Systems with a minor in Psychology. Several years ago, I began working for a company that had a homegrown CRM program. The more I worked in the program, the more apparent it became that it was randomly deleting data. As the person who discovered the problem, I was charged with finding a solution.
It was a challenging process and I grew tremendously. We got a new CRM, I learned it, and then I got to train others. It sparked my passion for optimizing business processes through technology. More importantly, it gave me a path to follow. I began attending college after a six year hiatus following my Associate’s degree. Back then, I had aspirations of earning a BA in photography, changed my mind, and then stopped going to school because I didn’t know what to. The wonderful professors, including Dr. Sauter, that I’ve had at UMSL have enabled me to grow more.
For the past 5 years, I have been incredibly lucky to be surrounded by strong women in technology. I founded and now co-lead the Salesforce Women in Tech User Group of St. Louis. We have close to 300 members and meet monthly. The women in this group serve as mentors to each other. We help one another solve Salesforce problems as well as ‘significant other’ issues. I am a much richer person for knowing and learning from them.
The Grace Hopper Conference celebrates many things that mean a lot to me: learning, technology, growth, business, and women supporting women. I am grateful for the opportunity to experience all that the conference has to offer and bring what I’ve learned back to my peers.