Heather Kelley
Name: Heather Kelley
Current Job: Chief Information Officer and Hipaa Security Officer at Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging
Favorite restaurant in town? Anything Mexican – too many to list!
Favorite thing about Cleveland? Baseball and the lakeshore. We’ve got a beautiful view here in Cleveland and outside of the city there are so many great places along the lakeshore for a walk, picnic, or even a weekend getaway.
Q: Heather, thanks for joining us today. You are the CIO of Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging; what's does the organization do and what does your job entail? Our mission at WRAAA is to provide services to allow people to remain the place they want to call home. Our services and programs give older adults and persons with disabilities access to information, assistance, consultation, and long-term care services and support in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina counties.
As CIO and Hipaa Security Officer, it is my duty to protect the agency’s information and technology systems as well as maintaining compliance with Hipaa Security rules and regulations. On a day to day basis, there are many moving parts, but making sure the technology, facilities and digital communications run smoothly day in and day out is my main focus.
Q: Your agency is still running, but your staff is working remotely. How have you handled the shift to remote work and other challenges that have occurred during this pandemic? We were very fortunate that the move to remote working was not a severe shift in operations for us. We were able to move staff home quickly and with the help of my fantastic staff, all users were able to continue to work remotely. We gathered information for supplies needed to make remote work easier and began ordering and drop shipping office supplies and hardware to people’s homes immediately.
With technology such as Zoom, team meetings continued, support to our consumers continued, and communication stayed the focus. Our staff adapted well and quickly – some even learning their Wi-Fi password for the first time! It is great to see everyone working together for the good of our cause. We continue to work remotely and implement state of the art technologies that will support us not just in these circumstance, but in the years to come. This is a new starting line and we must continue to focus on successes in this new environment.
Q: It's very rare to see someone in Cleveland in a senior tech role that is a woman, let alone without a college degree. With that being said, you've crushed it since being named CIO in 2017 and was awarded Crain's Cleveland CIO of the year in your inaugural year at Western Reserve. Can you tell us how the Cleveland tech community can do a better job on issues such as diversity and inclusion?
Not fully knowing where I wanted to land after high school, I was fortunate get right into a great job at a bank and worked in the loan closing department. This provided a great opportunity to begin much of the technical training and where I learned skills for project management and finance, and under a great mentor, worked diligently on leadership and critical thinking skills. With this, I moved from banking to legal and there began a more in-depth training of technical certifications which led me to my first IT role in a professional services firm where I became Chief of Administration and Technology. Fast forward 25 years and I am grateful for the path that I chose and the example I can be for many who haven’t quite found their path.
I’ve had the opportunity to mentor in this capacity, helping others realize that their passion may not have a degree, and that’s OK. That is where I found myself years ago and I’m proof that hard work and following your dreams is always within reach. We as tech leaders need to encourage those who have the passions and skills to keep applying for those jobs, always keep learning, stay current on whats going on in the world and that along with hard work will pay off. Finding good mentors with tried and true leadership skills to help support them along their journey is also critical to success. I live by my motto – “I love what I do not because I know how to do it, but because I know why I do it.” It is within our capacity to change lives every day for the better and we in the tech community need to be sure we are doing our part.
Q: What advice do you have for someone who's transitioning from IT staff to IT manager role? The best advice I can give is to be sure they understand the people side of change and how to manage that. One must have the skill and passion help people through change. This means being an advocate for learning smarter, thinking outside the box, and good productive communication. Be prepared to provide leadership to align what a business does with what a business needs and how to lead people before, during and after times of growth and change. Train and sharpen your skills in IT Strategy, Project management and IT leadership so that you can be the subject matter expert not just for the little projects, but on an organizational enterprise level. It takes more than technical skills to lead a technical team.
Q: Heather, you have 3 children, how old are they and if quarantine wasn't happening, how do you usually stay busy as a family? I am a single mom to 3 terrific kids! My oldest son Ben (20) has started his Junior year at Malone University, my second son Jonathan (18) is attending Kent State University. My daughter Emily (14) is my youngest and she is busy with friends and is now a freshman in high school. Each of my kids have very different hobbies which is great as we all get to share in the different things each one likes to do. All my kids still live at home with me and I love that. I’m an avid puzzler so that is always fun to do as a family. With gaming, social media and the many other things kids are in to these days, it’s not always easy to do things together, but we always find time for a good sit down meal at one of our many favorite restaurants. Always good conversation and catch up!