Title: Manager, Telecom Technology
Employer: Black & Decker Corporation
Nickname/Alias: Big M What I'm Best Known For (in the Telecom World): My sense of humor, my home e-mail address (telecommgoddess). Other Primary Areas of Expertise: Call Centers. I’m also the team Visio and PowerPoint expert! Summary of Professional Background: Started in telecom at Maryland Casualty (now Farmer’s Direct). Moved from that company to Bally Total Fitness, then a small debt collection company, before coming to Black & Decker. In 2002 I earned my Master’s Degree in Information and Telecommunications Systems for Business from Johns Hopkins University. I’m also an accredited Avaya Specialist in Contact Center Management, and am currently working towards earning my Cisco Certified Network Associates designation. Prediction on the Future of Telecom & Telecom Managers: Telecom itself is going to be upended as never before; while copper may never fully go away (and I still have a rotary phone in my kitchen!!), the future is IP, and the sooner Telecom Managers begin to embrace and understand that, the better. Even if a company isn’t ready to go down the path of convergence, ignorance will be a great hindrance to them later on. This is not a silver bullet technology, but when used properly, can expand and redefine telecommunications to ideas only seen on Star Trek! Weirdest Thing People Usually Don't Know about Me: Everybody who knows me knows the weirdest things about me; maybe that I still have a tendency to confuse my right from my left. No – my husband knows that all too well when I give directions… There is nothing; I’m an open book of weirdness. When I'm not talking or doing something in relation to telecom, I'm usually... Doing Sudoku and Crossword Puzzles, watching TV. Book and author I'm currently reading: My father’s novel – Beneath the Radar, by Patrick Sheridan CD currently or most recently in my car stereo: Soundtracks to Mama Mia, Hairspray, and Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat The stupidest thing I've ever seen anyone do or say in relation to a phone: I’m still amazed by the number of calls we get in our department where the person reports that the directory doesn’t work on their phone. 10 times out of 10, the person is trying to find someone (for example) with the name Baker. But when the hit the ‘2’ key, they only come up with ‘A’ names – no ‘B’s’!! It’s very hard not to laugh as we help them through this crisis... | 
