Claritza N. Abreu
Hola todos! Thanks for reading my story!
I was born Claritza Natalia Pacheco Gomez in the small town of Villa Isabela, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Due to my father’s job, my family moved to the south of the island, to the City of Azua, where I spent my early childhood years, going to the beach and learning about plantains, watermelon and tomatoes; after four years, we then moved to the Capital City Santo Domingo to El Ensanche La Fe.
I attended the local neighborhood schools graduating from Academia “La Trinitaria” from where with the help of my family and a college loan, headed to the Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (INTEC) to pursue Computer Systems Engineering degree.
Why Engineering? Well, my high school math teacher, Professor Ramon Morrison, said to me one day, “Do you know that engineers are the ones that build the world?”, and then he went on to say “you are very good with math, you should become an Engineer”.
That mentorship moment inspired me to select a technology career in college, and “oh boy” I am so grateful for it!
Once at college, Professor Joaquin Oramas, a Colombian researcher working in the DR, said to me, “you have to make an effort to study abroad to learn new cultures, new languages and learn how the world is leveraging technology to impact people’s lives” at the time, the island was behind in technology. I followed his advice and went on to pursue a scholarship that took me to New York City to attend NYU’s computer science program.
A year later, I moved to Boston to start my own family and My professional career. Due to the culture, languages and lack of network access, it took me 2 years to get a professional job despite of having 3 years of professional experience in the Dominican Republic, that was very painful. Watch my YouTube video in the link below for more on this early stage of my professional journey.
It took one person to take a chance on me and offered me Database Developer job at the Boston Public Health Commission where I started my professional journey in the USA. Later on I continued my masters at Boston University.
Twelve years later, I left that amazing place as the Director of the Technology Department and the rest is history.
Today, I hold the position of Head of the Customer Engineer for the Northeast Region at the well-known high-technology company, Google Cloud. I have held various executive positions in important government, corporate and academic organizations in the Greater Boston area, demonstrating my leadership abilities and actively leading significant and transformational initiatives such as the founding of Dominicans In Tech among many others.
I am an avid technology evangelist and well-respected community leader in Massachusetts serving in multiple important boards such as the prestigious Mass General Hospital.
Thanks to my family, my mentors, my discipline and resiliency, I have created a successful career in the technology industry allowing me to provide a good-quality life to my family, contribute to society and support my community.
I keep myself healthy by having close relationships with my family and friends, travelling around the world, meeting new people, practicing martial arts, tennis and hiking and…of course as a good Dominican, I dancing as much as possible!
Favorite Dominican singer: Juan Luis Guerra, Favorite Food: My Mom’s Sancocho, Favorite Beach: La Ensenada, Puerto Plata. Home in DR: Punta Cana
Links:
My Immigrant Story (15 min video): Phone Book Story
