National Board of Directors

Laura Steffek

President

Brittany Parga

Secretary

Brittany Parga is a Product Marketing Engineer at Texas Instruments, where she drives growth strategies and customer engagement within the semiconductor industry. She holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas. She has built her career in the semiconductor space through roles at companies like Texas Instruments and Qorvo. Brittany is passionate about empowering the next generation of female engineers. She actively advocates for young girls to explore STEM fields, believing representation and access to opportunity are key drivers of change.

Beyond her professional role, Brittany is deeply committed to community impact and volunteerism. She serves as Co-Chair of Unidos, TI’s Hispanic employee resource group, and is actively involved with organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters and United Way. Through her involvement in the workplace and community, she strives to inspire others, foster diversity, and create pathways for future leaders in STEM and engineering.

Melendy Lovett

Past President

With 30 other Texas Instruments senior executive women, Melendy founded High Tech High Heels (HTHH) in 2001. Why? Her dad’s influence and education gave her the opportunity to learn programming and technologies and how to apply technology to solve business problems. This was life-changing for Melendy and opened up many promising professional opportunities. She attributes her technology and STEM background as a major reason for career success, and in her view there are not enough young women choosing and staying in STEM fields. Thus, the Women of TI Fund was created with a goal of working with TI, TIers and the TI Foundation to close the gender gap in STEM – improving the lives of women and fueling diversity in innovation. There is still much work to do!

Career Highlights:

Chief Administrative Officer & Chief Financial Officer, Trinity Industries  2008-2022
Texas Instruments, SVP & President Education Technology 2004-2014

Allison Hallas

Board Member

Allison has been volunteering with HTHH since 2016. She joined the Board of Directors as Treasurer in January 2022 and is currently a Board Member serving on the Finance Committee. Allison has a master’s degree in Accounting from the University of Texas at Dallas and is a Certified Public Accountant with over 10 years of accounting and finance experience supporting STEM professionals.

Throughout college and since, giving back has always been a priority as she has supported many nonprofit organizations including United Way, North Texas Food Bank, Woven Health Clinic, and others.

After paying her way through school and working in the technology industry, she knows the importance of an education and has seen the positive impact STEM made in her own life. This experience and her passion for gender equality energizes her to encourage other young women to pursue STEM careers.

Yetunde Zannou

Education Committee Chair

She currently works as Director of Operations for reDesign, a national education consulting firm and social impact organization.

She joined the National Board as Chair of the Education Committee in January 2022. In her role, she applies her passion for STEM and experience with evaluation science to help High-Tech High Heels learn assess the impact of grantmaking on organizations committed to providing girls and young women with quality STEM learning opportunities and equitable pathways into the field.

Lynn Mortensen

Expansion Committee Chair

She retired from the Raytheon Company in 2013 having held many positions within the company in program management, product development and engineering management including vice president of engineering of a $3B business segment.

During her career, Lynn was the recipient of several awards including the Malcom R. Currie Innovation Award and Raytheon Womens Network Woman to Watch Award. In 2011, she was selected as a Woman Worth Watching in Technology from the Diversity Journal. Lynn was selected by the Society of Women Engineers for the 2017 Spark Award for her contributions to the advancement through mentorship of women at all levels.

Lynn is active in the community promoting STEM education through her participation as a board member of High-Tech High Heels and the STEM Advisory Council for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas. In addition, Lynn is an active member of BEST Robotics and Dallas Society of Women Engineers.

Lynn continues to share her experiences with the next generation of engineers in the hope of increasing the number and diversity of engineers for the future.

Carolyn Tobin

Board Member

Carolyn is an active volunteer, serving local and national organizations.  Carolyn has long been dedicated to increasing the number of young women entering Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields.  Aligned with her passion for growth of STEM in the United States and associated opportunities for women, she joined the leadership team of High-Tech High Heels in 2012.  Carolyn has served in various leadership positions, including Treasurer, for High-Tech High Heels.

Saminah Chaudhry

Secretary

Saminah graduated with a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Texas, Dallas. Saminah has held various engineering roles including RF engineer, applications and systems engineer helping customers solve system level design challenges and defining systems products from concept to mass production. 

Saminah currently as systems engineering manager for Isolation product line. She  is passionate about developing long-term talent pipeline for TI and is actively involved in inspiring students especially young women to pursue a STEM career.

Suchi Srinivasan

Board Member

Suchi Srinivasan has served on the High-Tech High Heels Board since 2019, and has been a member of High-Tech High Heels since 2017. Suchi has worked in the technology space for 25 years starting as a test engineer, progressing to engineering management and business leadership roles at Texas Instruments followed by Fortive Corporation. She mentors girls and young women and is a passionate advocate for women in STEM. She has been part of several panels advocating for advancing women in the workplace and is the Executive sponsor for Women in Technology at Fortive. Suchi believes in equity and inclusion of girls and women in STEM education and careers leading to high-performing institutions and teams.

Mehul Patel

Board Member

Mehul is a Managing Director specializing in delivering technology solutions for Accenture’s Financial Services. He lives with his wife Margi and their daughters, Shrita and Swasti, who are 6 and 9 years old, respectively. The family enjoys outdoor activities, learning about STEM topics, and traveling together. Mehul grew up in Chicago and currently resides in Atlanta.

Denitza Arguirova

Board Member

Dr. Denitza Arguirova is a development director with extensive international experience in project management, training, and data science. Holding a PhD in Economics and Finance, she has built a career spanning economic development and large-scale infrastructure projects. In her current role at Provident Data Centers in Dallas, Texas, she oversees project management, entitlements, site selection, and coordination of civil works, ensuring successful integration between stakeholders and the community. Her interest in data centers stems from her work in building education management information systems and infrastructure in Africa. Driven by a passion for innovation and community development, Dr. Arguirova is committed to advancing the data center industry by bridging her expertise in both technical infrastructure and global diplomacy.

Kelly Zaleski

Board Member

Kelly Zaleski is a new member of the High-Tech High Heels national board this year. She worked in the aerospace and defense industry for over 30 years, starting as a Systems Engineer and most recently as a Vice President of Engineering. Kelly has always been passionate about increasing girls in STEM fields and helping women advance into leadership positions because she has been the only female in many classes and meetings throughout her career. Kelly has mentored many women throughout her career and is now advocating in high schools introducing female students to the advantages of a STEM career.

Catalina Herrera

President, Southeast Texas Chapter

Catalina Herrera is a seasoned data and analytics leader with over 15 years of experience in the industry. She is currently the Field Chief Data Officer at Dataiku. With a passion for data and analytics, Catalina has dedicated her career to pushing the industry beyond digitalization to achieve business transformation. She has held both educational and technical positions, worked with state-of-the-art technology solutions across multiple industry verticals, and served as a data scientist and advanced analytics consultant. Today, she collaborates with Fortune 100 companies and global technology leaders on digital transformation initiatives. In 2020, her influence in the AI community in Texas earned her recognition as one of the top 30 women in Artificial Intelligence Advancements.

In addition to her professional achievements, Catalina co-founded a company dedicated to providing busy people with the space and means to maintain balance in life. Her company, “The Taste of Balance,” combines art and technology to foster balance between the two sides of the brain through mindful creativity.