When Delia Grenville was honored with the 2015 Technologist of the Year Award, she didn’t realize the impact the recognition would have on her professional life.
“The award opened up a lot of career conversations in and outside of my company,” said Grenville. “It definitely gave me access to executive-level connections and conversations I wasn’t having before. I don’t think where I was in middle management, those conversations would have occurred as quickly.”
She received more opportunities as a speaker and panelist, invitations to meetings and luncheons and found herself with increased access to top executives at her company, Intel. She was even given the opportunity to work with Intel’s vice president of engineering as part of the Chief of Staff’s Office.
The highlights of the year after the award also included attending the Silicon Valley Comic Con (she represented Intel on an “Engineering for Tomorrow” panel), meeting Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, participating in an Intel fashion and STEM panel with women who have combined technology with the arts, and speaking at a Women’s Club luncheon at which the audience kept expanding and chairs were continuously added.
Grenville has served as an architect at Intel specializing in strategy, innovation and platform engineering, user experience at the time of the award. She's built a body of work over 25 years as she worked as a research scientist, technology strategist, and program manager.
She’s also the inventor of six digital content technologies. In her nomination, she was described as being a visionary thinker who brings her all to everything she does.
Expand your horizons
“On a personal front, last year opened me up to expanding my horizons and creating space for entrepreneurial collaboration,” she said. “There are so many ways to contribute to how the world views technology, women, and diversity. One of my favorite projects is with my sister, where we are bringing an adventurous young girl of color, Sela Blue, to life. I love applying my product development body of knowledge to an entirely different domain. Selablue.com is a creativity opportunity where I can provide ideas to combine technology with print.”
Don't fear feedback
One also shouldn’t regard feedback from outside sources as being disloyal, she said, adding “career management is especially important for women as we tend to be more focused on others. A lot of times our viewpoints can be filtered by our situations, the organizations that we are in,” she said.
Believe you can bring something special to the world
Grenville said her message to youth is simple: Focus on science in school, but don't undervalue the importance of the Arts. It’s “up to students” to take the opportunity to blend arts and sciences to help them to have the unique abilities to invent, design, and create our future technologies.
“Believe you can,” she said, adding that those individuals who possess the “unique combination” of artistic talent, the technical and scientific skill must recognize that they have something special to bring to the world.
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Grenville, who earned a doctorate and master's degrees in industrial and systems management from Virginia Tech, said it’s beneficial for individuals advancing on the corporate ladder to be aware of how they are perceived both within their companies and beyond.
