Girlstart’s Women in STEM weekly series highlights various women who are making a difference in STEM. Be inspired as these incredible women describe how they became interested in their field, provide insight into a day in the life, and share learnings from their experiences.

Cindy Patton

Senior Systems Engineer @ Allscripts

Cindy is a long time volunteer and council member at Girlstart. After a great career as a Systems Engineer, she is now wanting to share her talents with younger girls, and we are so happy to have her on the blog today!

What would you like to tell girls who are interested in a STEM career?
There are an amazing variety of choices out there. You don’t have to be stuck in any job or field or city or state. You are smart; Use your brain and some heart to find what makes you happy.

Was there a specific person or program in your life that encouraged you to pursue STEM?
I have been an engineer for 42 years, started when very few women were engineers. I had great high school math and science teachers, both male and female. The word problems in Math– are usually favorites of engineering minds.

Why is confidence in STEM important for girls?
Women are still in the minority in technical fields, your ideas and thoughts can be easily dismissed if not expressed in a confident manner. The world needs more women in STEM; We have many talents and we can make a difference.

Briefly describe your career as a Systems Engineer.
I could also be called a Linux systems Admin. I manage a few sets of computers that use a variety of UNIX operating systems to provide software solutions to Allscripts clients.

What are your favorite things about your career?
Flexibility of employment – I have worked government research, manufacturing, higher education, engineering consulting, semiconductor manufacturing, power industry, and most recently Healthcare IT.