Boshia Smith's Blog

Meet your AIIM peer Joan Darkortey.  Joan joined AIIM in January of 2020 and attended AIIM20 where I had the pleasure of meeting this very diverse woman.  Joan is a very busy young lady as she actively serves on the Diversity Advisory Council (DAC), OAS Division D&I Team, and served as Co-Chair of Blacks United In Leadership Development (BUILD) ERN from 2016-2018 while managing her role as a Senior RIM Analyst.  You can find Joan in the community here .   Name Joan Curran Darkortey, EMBA, CIP, CLSSGB Position Sr. RIM Analyst and Consultant Company   Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Where do you live in?  Atlanta, GA How long have you worked in information management?  Approximately five years directly in RIM, but an additional 4 years indirectly while working in the Legal department. What does your work entail? Do you have company support? How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work?  As a Sr. RIM Analyst and Consultant, my primary responsibility is to help staff understand and comply with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s records and information management (RIM) policy using the “Team Approach”.  My team and I do this by ensuring ...

Meet Maria Richardson, Records Manager at Patterson Belknap Webb &Tyler.  When not working, Maria has an interest in photography as well as being a dance instructor.  If your interest is the same, maybe Maria can help with some amazing dance moves:)  You can find Maria in the community here ! Name : Maria Richardson Position : Records Manager Company : Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, New York NY Where do you live in ? Linden, NJ, just a 45-minute train ride out of NYC. How long have you worked in information management ?  I've worked in Information Management for over 30 years  What does your work entail ? My job entails management of the Firm’s client and Admin records; Conflicts & New Matter Intake; Legal Holds and other responsibilities regarding compliance, security, and retention.  The complete matter/file lifecycle. What has been the biggest success in your career in information management ?  I’ve had a number of awesome mentors, and try to be the same to my team and colleagues. Seeing my staff and colleagues get accolades whom I mentored is a great feeling. What’s your current biggest work challenge ? I think my greatest challenge as is for ...

If you weren't able to join us today for our Tribe Talk with  @Jill Stelter , no worries!  The recording is in the library for you to view.  I've had several members reach out with great gratitude and some that we're unable to attend the Tribe Talk asking for the recording.  The recording is in the library here https://community.aiim.org/viewdocument/tribe-talk-jill-stelter-having?CommunityKey=0594b29e-595f-4c42-9609-1a75cf04f5d8&tab=librarydocuments&LibraryFolderKey=565fc2ae-1719-4a59-a3c0-e5e676431825&DefaultView=folder . Join us for our next Tribe Talk with our very own @Devon McCollum  on August 20th at 11:00 am eastern.  Devon will share ​How to Tackle Lack of Resources and Employee Management of Records.  You can find the registration for this Tribe Talks in our upcoming events -  https://community.aiim.org/events/chapter-events . Thanks! #MemberConten

Meet Andrew du Fresne!  Andrew is a Professor of Communication at Finlay University.  If you have not had a chance to meet and speak with Andrew at AIIM20,  please reach out to Andrew and introduce yourself here!  Name: Andrew du Fresne; Finlay, Ohio Position:   Manager; Adjunct Professor   Company:   University of Finlay How long have you worked in information management?  I have been in the information governance industry for about five years. Completed my doctorate in May. What does your work entail? Do you have company support? So, my doctorate entitled, the effectiveness of IG audits and organizations. So, what I do for my day job is I teach communication; television, multi-camera television production, communication. So, while I've been getting my doctorate, this is what I've been doing. About your dissertation. What were your discoveries? So, there are three main questions. The first question was, do audits make information governance programs more effective? The second question is to make compliance objectives more effective. The third question was if those two questions are accurate and they do, and they're in the affirmative, why do not ...

Meet Regina Martin!  Regina is a Records Manager/Operations Supervisor at Howard County Government.  Introduce yourself to Regina here . Name Regina Martin Position Records Manager/Operations Supervisor Company Howard County Government Where do you live in?  Columbia, Maryland How long have you worked in information management?  9 years What does your work entail? Do you have company support? How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work? So, we actually scan, Howard County scans records, paper and electronic. So we have the operation, a small team of people, who are responsible for ingesting that into our legacy repository archive. What’s your current biggest work challenge? The biggest challenge is, making sure it's easily accessible to the individuals that need it, how long to keep it. And managing it, I think we've kind of are addressing that issue, how to manage it, because we've come up with a process. "Okay, we're going to put it here. This is how long it's going to retain, in this permission-based access." What are you looking to get from your AIIM membership? I'm just trying to gather some information because ...

Samara Carter is the Records Officer for George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.   Connect with Samara here!   Name  Samara Carter Position  Records Officer Company  George Mason University  What does your work entail? Do you have company support? How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work? I am the university Records Officer for George Mason University that's out here in Fairfax, Virginia on the outskirts of D.C. My job at the moment is primarily records management, but it's growing into more of an information management type of role. As I'm discovering the gaps in where we have our data and our information and our records on campus, our biggest struggle is that nobody actually knows how much data we have on campus, how there is no central hub. Universities, in particular, are very different organizations than businesses or other types of government agencies. We are a state agency, we're a state college, and in being so we have more records of so many varieties than other agencies have and our biggest struggle is that none of these records are particularly siloed into one department or one school. All of the different schools, all ...

Karen is the Director, Product Management at Hyland.  Karen is looking forward to becoming a CIP!  If you have any advice or words of encouragement for Karen to help her obtain her CIP certification, please reach out and share some tips!   Name:  Karen Loftis Position:  Director, Product Management Company:  Hyland Where do you live in?  Currently in Grafton, Wisconsin which is a suburb of Milwaukee How long have you worked in information management?  20+ years in a variety of capacities What does your work entail ? My work puts me in direct contact with tools that support information management and content services. I manage a team of product managers who are tasked with evolving the information management tools we offer. My team represents the voice of the customer and a variety of different industries. We champion market needs and work to ensure the technology tools we offer fit those needs.  Do you have company support?   My company supports me by allowing me and my team to connect directly with customers across different industries. We are NOT salespeople. Rather, our job is to connect with information managers with open eyes and ears, to understand ...

Elana is a Document Management Analyst MISO.  Please introduce yourself if you have not had a chance to meet Elana, reach out to Elana  here! Name: Elana Fate         Position: Document Management Analyst Company: MISO Where do you live? Carmel, Indiana How long have you worked in information management? 2.5 years What does your work entail? I am the Records Manager and keep and revise the Retention Schedule.  I also process the annual reviews of the company’s policies and procedures.  How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work?  We recently started a data governance initiative and for the first time, the company has an interest in data management and disposition. What has been the biggest success in your career in information management? Acting as the Records expert for the company and discussing data protection as the company decreases its data footprint.  Helping our company utilize data as a strategic asset while eliminating unnecessary cost and risk.   What’s your current biggest work challenge? Trying to convince the decision-makers to go back and create the foundational work that will make the changes they ...

Sharon loves to play guitar and maybe can share her love for playing:)  If you have not connected with Sharon, please do so here. Name Sharon Burnett Position Corporate Records Manager Company Vulcan Inc. Where do you live in? Near Tacoma, Washington How long have you worked in information management?  Over 30 years…a long time! What does your work entail? Do you have company support? How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work? As corporate records manager, I build and promote Vulcan’s records and information management program. Yes, we have C level support. My team of 2, reports to our compliance officer. We are a part of the larger legal team. Legal has recorded compliance as a strategic goal. I support that goal by training records champions throughout the company.   What has been the biggest success in your career in information management?  I’d have to say that there have been several things over the years, but the biggest for me was a personal goal of becoming a CRM (Certified Records Manager). I am also now a CIP. What’s your current biggest work challenge? Making time to fit everything that needs to be accomplished ...

Name:   Elizabeth Ballachanda Madappa        Position:   Part-time data compliance consultant and student Company: Consulting on an ad-hoc basis and studying Where do you live in?   Burlington, Canada How long have you worked in information management?   18 years What does your work entail? Do you have company support? How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work? From 2001 – 2006 I established multiple document control offices within a mining company in South Africa and oversaw the day to day operations of the document control offices during my tenure there. In 2006 I accepted a position at BHP Billiton as an Information Officer (which demerged into South32 in 2016) and progressed up to lead the Information and Records Management Function for the Africa Region. This role entailed overseeing their IM systems, information processes and information governance for their head office as well as various mines and operations located in South Africa and other African countries. I was involved with all aspects of IM which included the development of an information management strategy, obtaining leadership buy-in on the strategy as well as ...

Name Brooke Sales-Lee Position Corporate Services Specialist Company Interac Corp. Where do you live? I live in Toronto, Ontario and I'm a Canadian-American dual citizen with roots in California, Ontario, and Portugal.  How long have you worked in information management?  Two and a half years.  After leaving an academic career, I found myself thrown into the world of Records and Information Management in a new job at Interac, the fintech company responsible for every debit transaction in Canada. What does your work entail? Do you have company support? How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work? We’ve been working on implementing a new EDRMS, and I do a lot of the front end and document management side of that, training employees, setting up new spaces in the system, and consulting with employees to try to make the system a helpful tool rather than an imposition. What has been the biggest success in your career in information management?  It’s been a pretty short career so far, so I’m just proud of the progress I’ve made in a short period of time. It’s less a matter of one stand-out project or initiative and more two years of learning ...

Name Julia Mewbourne          Position Manager, Records Management & Imaging Services Company Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Where do you live in? Los Angeles, CA How long have you worked in information management?  20+ years What does your work entail? Do you have company support? How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work? We ensure the safe and reliable delivery of water to 19 million people in Southern California.  I provide the support for engineering drawing, public records requests, and manage the archive and library services.  I am very fortunate to have the organization’s support to drive initiatives that increase efficiency and reduce risks and costs.  I have a good relationship with IT, legal, Engineering Services, Water Resource Management, and Water Supply Operations and have positioned the team as their partner .  What has been the biggest success in your career in information management?  I have had many successes over the past 2 decades.  I am most proud of the fact that I have been able to share my knowledge through speaking engagements.  I have spoken on emotional intelligence, change management, ...

Who met Arlette at AIIM19?  She's full of knowledge and her eagerness to apply what she's learned from the sessions is contagious.  Arlette is the Global Records & Information Manager at Iron Mountain.  If you haven't connected with Arlette before, please do so here! Name: Arlette Walls Position: Global Records & Information Manager Company: Iron Mountain Where do you live in?  I work remotely from San Diego, CA How long have you worked in information management?  I joined Iron Mountain in December 2018, with 15 years of experience, primarily in the biotech industry, leading global and cross-functional initiatives in records management, compliance, risk, and data privacy.   I also served as PRIMO chair (Pharmaceutical Records and Information Management Organization), a consortium of top pharmaceutical companies aiming at developing and advancing RIM solutions in that industry .  What does your work entail? Do you have company support? How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work? One of my goals is to focus on transformative growth using Iron Mountain’s own information management solutions.  RIM is in an evolving environment ...

Meet Dario!  Dario has a wealth of knowledge in Information Management and is eager to start networking!   If you haven't connected with Dario, please do so here . Name   Dario Finardi Position   CTO and new-product manager at GEAR.it  Company   GEAR.it Where do you live in?   Reggio Emilia, Italy How long have you worked in information management?  Generally speaking, I work in Information Management from the time I was graduating in Physics in 1998.  At the very beginning as a technician, I was working on data collection and analysis. Then I moved to data accessibility and usability. Now I’m more a decision-maker in document flow analysis and platform to make automatic contents extraction, tagging, categorizing, and retrieving. What does your work entail? Do you have company support? How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work? As an expert in documents formats and management (i.e.: PDF, PDF/A, images, video, etc.) I’m writing style guides and requirements for our development team. The produced code is continuously improving our ECM, which is vertically aimed at machinery and industry 4.0 market enabling the interaction between IoT sensors ...

  Dan is one of our newest members!  I'm really grateful that he jumped on board so quickly to be spotlighted as the member of the month.  Dan is eager to start building relationships with our AIIM Tribe and taking advantage of education and training.    Take a moment to meet Dan! Name Dan Beck Position Director of Commercial Sales Company IQBG, Inc. Where do you live in?  Austin, Texas How long have you worked in information management?  Over ten years in consulting and professional services, supply chain, information management, and software. What does your work entail? Do you have company support? How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work? With my extensive relationships and contacts in the private sector, my objective is to expand our vertical market exposure and client base outside of the public sector. What has been the biggest success in your career in information management?  While the Client Partner for Capgemini, I sold and led the Finance Taxonomy Transformation work for Steve Balmer at Microsoft.  This project had obvious exposure and was an effort to normalize Finance Taxonomy as a precursor ...

Get to know your AIIM Tribe.  Eduardo Ortiz is an Analyst in Records & Information Management at CenterPoint Energy Company in Houston!  I've had the pleasure of speaking with Eduardo a few times and he's definitely good energy and loves what he does:)  If you haven't connected with Eduardo before, please do so here .  Name  Eduardo Ortiz Position  Analyst, Records & Information Management Company  CenterPoint Energy Company Where do you live in? Houston, Texas How long have you worked in information management?  3 years What does your work entail? Do you have company support? How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work? I serve within the Records and Information Management Department and Data Privacy Office, supporting the retention, use, and disposition of company information, evaluation of the company’s data privacy risks, and supporting the development and implementation of solutions to minimize those risks. Leadership supports our personal and professional career goals by allocating time and resources to help facilitate consistent progression toward meeting those goals.  CenterPoint recently acquired Vectren Energy, an ...