Women's History Month
A Q&A session with DISA Information Technology Specialist Gilda Jimenez

Office of Strategic Communication and Public Affairs
March 29, 2022 

Celebrating Women's History Month and this year’s theme, “Providing healing, promoting hope,” DISA Information Technology Specialist Gilda Jimenez shares her story and thoughts on what it means to provide healing and promote hope.

Q: What does your job at DISA involve?

A: My job involves managing and coordinating the agency’s compliance with the Clinger-Cohen Act and actively collaborating with the Defense Business Systems program, as well as other relevant federal legislation, directives and standards.

Q: How long have you worked with DISA?

A: I have been at DISA just over two years. My work anniversary was February 7. I've mostly been teleworking, but it has been a great ride so far.

Q: What career path did you take to end up in your current position?

A: I have been in the federal government since 2011. I started at the Transportation Security Administration as a transportation security officer, communications specialist and IT specialist (internet), where I was the webmaster for their intranet presence.

I have been a program manager for SharePoint migrations since 2013, working in the Naval History and Heritage Command and the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System in Florida. Currently, I mainly work in policy and process improvements for my program and collaborate with other programs.

Q: What is your education background (i.e. what did you study)?

A: I majored in physics to earn a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering with a minor in computer science at the University of Texas at Brownsville. I received my English\Spanish bilingual certification from there as well. Early in my college career, I participated in the Department of Energy minority undergraduate research associate internships at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. For my part-time research work in college, I worked on the open-source software development project "Tonatiuh" teams for solar concentration systems.

Q: This year’s theme for women’s history month is “Providing healing, promoting hope.” What does this theme mean to you?

A: The past two years have been some of the hardest times for our current society. Humanity deserves healing from all the mental and physical imprints of this pandemic. There should be hope that there will be another chance to hold loved ones, and to value human interactions more than our digital world. As a fellow human, I still have hope for our future, and our society in general. We all deserve healing and hope.