Although she loved being able to take a wide variety of courses outside her Trinity social science major—many of which "shaped" her—Roopangi Kadakia says, "At the end, her [Trinity experience] "was all about learning to learn."
No doubt it was her courses in math and computer science that helped her and her first job as a statistical programmer for General Dynamics. Responding to her inherent passion to serve, India-born, Pennsylvania-raised Roopangi earned an M.S.S.W. at the University of Texas at Arlington, became a licensed social worker, and joined the Peace Corps.
Serving in the municipality of Zomba in Malawi, she helped support the Treasury System and train her Malawian counterpart with database management skills. She also helped build a water pipeline that brought clean water to five villages and built computerized tools for five clinics to document progress in children's health. It was here that she "finally found that balance between my IT skills and my community and people skills."
After her service in Africa, Roopangi moved to Washington, D.C., where the Peace Corps hired her as an IT specialist. "That solidified my passion for serving with my love of information technology," she says.
Roopangi's integrity, skill, and passion for service stood out among influential officials, and she was asked to be a technical director or the Presidential Initiative called First Gov(now USA.gov). Charged with creating security guidelines and establishing best practices, she developed and chaired the FirstGov Security Advisory Board and advised senior management on FirstGov security.
After 9/11, which spotlighted the nation's need for cyber security, Roopangi was asked to join the Transition Planning Office for what would become the Department of Homeland Security, where she became the IT Security Director for the Science and Technology Directorate. Here she built the IT security program for all the DHS Federal labs and the Directorate.
The private sector also sought Roopangi's expertise. She accepted an offer to become CISO at the International Finance Corp of the World Bank Group, where she developed and implemented a comprehensive global information security program. But the call to serve her country remained strong and unrequited until an opportunity to become Web Services Executive at NASA arose."I wanted to prove that as a security professional, I could practice what I preached," she explains. In that role— a role she calls "unbelievable and very rewarding"—Roopangi was instrumental in bringing more than 160 applications and websites into the public cloud securely. Some of the applications were linked to data directly from the International Space Station, and others provided developing nations tools for environmental and climate analysis for their countries. "At that time it was the largest deployment to the public cloud by a U.S. Government entity," she notes.
This past summer, Roopangi was hired by the Veterans' Administration and is thrilled that her position is the culmination " of all my experience from social work to IT security to Cloud to IT management." With responsibility for the information security of all information assets, her immediate focus is on reducing security weaknesses and creating a world-class security organization. Undaunted by the enormity of the task, Roopangi says, "The VA's mission gives me the opportunity to serve veterans who have protected me through their military service. Now it's my time to serve them."
The breadth and depth of Roopangi's work has been widely recognized: NASA Agency Honor recipient, Cloud Innovation Award, Federal Computer Week Federal 100 Award, Fierce 15 in Federal government.
Outside work, Roopangi enjoys foreign and domestic travel and learning about new cultures, another passion ignited after an undergrad summer on a Mayan dig in Belize.
Although of late, it's been a challenge to get away, she tries to merge some of her volunteering with travel. Along with colleagues, she and her mom—"a great supporter and role model for me"— recently volunteered to build houses in Nicaragua. The experience "brought back all the great reasons I joined the Peace Crops," she says. "I'm so fortunate that I get to do what I love. My long range plans are to serve my country in any way I can and be able to travel everywhere I have ever dreamed of."
You can contact Roopangi at roopangi@gmail.com
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