You’ve seen them quite often around the Pathfinder-verse, heard them speak at events or virtual meetings, maybe even dialogued with them in a forum thread—they’re our Most Valuable Pathfinders! They are the spark keeping the Pathfinder Community ablaze, so it was about time we took a beat to really get to know each one of our MVPs better and share their unique stories with you!
So without further ado, let’s get to know…
Anna DeBolt
The Basics
- Years of Automation Experience: 5.5
- Current Company: TIAA
- Official Title: Lead Program Manager
But this is how Anna would actually describe what she does: I stole this from a former co-worker but I tell people I save lives and make dreams come true. Okay maybe that’s not entirely accurate, but I do make people’s jobs a lot easier.
- Biggest Professional Achievement to date: For her, the sign of success is when people trust that you will earnestly listen to them, consider what they say, and respond back thoughtfully. Seeing people continually return to her to with issues or conundrums gives her the ultimate sense of professional accomplishment.
Five Fun Facts
- She’d love to be able to clone herself so she could be in more places at once (and get more done!)
- Her favorite book, re-read time and again, is A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
- She has a hard rule about not wanting to be near anything with more than four legs on land, but absolutely loves any sea creature that breaks this rule, the cuttlefish most of all and octopods a very close second.
- She has gotten a major adrenaline rush from bungee swinging over the Royal Gorge in Colorado
- Her dream vacation is to see shows at every old opera/ballet/performance art theatre around the world; Her undergrade degree is a BFA in Drama focusing on Design and Technology
Expertise / Specializations
Anna started her automation career in a business analyst role and eventually moved into citizen development, so she definitely considers herself to be professionally strong in technical and business aptitude. Now, she has transitioned to a leadership role at TIAA where she’s working to make automation more of a priority internally and with their business partners. She’d like to continue to develop her leadership skills and make sure she’s successfully elevating her perspectives from her previous experience to a leadership level.
One piece of emerging tech she's excited about is the rapidly improving ability of generative AI. More specifically, she's seen updates shared among the Automation Anywhere MVP group that indicate AI's future ability to do code reviews and highlight potential errors. She believes that even if an AI model were to flag something that isn’t necessarily an error, the “grammar check” it will perform on best practices will be hugely impactful to the learning curve when teaching new analysts or developers.
Anna In The Community
Lucky for us, the community that Anna gives most of her time to (outside of work) is our own Automation Anywhere community. She is an active participant in forums and events, and is always open and eager to help members of our community who come to her for guidance. We appreciate you, Anna!
If she had one piece of advice for someone new to automation it would be:
“Get exposed to as much as you can and take every project you can. You don’t know what you don't know, so the more practice and exposure you have to different problems, approaches, etc., you'll undoubtedly be able to apply that knowledge to a future project and continually build on it.”
What’s Next for Anna
Looking forward, Anna plans to explore how she can bring more AI into the world she works in, which is Risk, Legal, and Compliance IT. She specifically deals with the Anti-Money Laundering & Fraud sector at TIAA. Anna believes AI can help by identifying issues and mapping patterns from their immense pools of data, as well as making sure they don't miss anything or have any gaps.
Thank you, Anna, for letting us all get to know you better. And thank you for your continued contributions to our Pathfinder Community!