By Brenda Savage
Published on December 5, 2007
It is generally assumed that most people interested in computers are men, when in fact the first computer programmer was a woman, Augusta Byron, countess of Lovelace. It is out of the ordinary to find a smart, articulate, and attractive woman like Elizabeth “Liz” Gomez, director of microcomputer resources here at PJC, in a field that is stereotypically dominated by men.
Gomez’s fascination with computers started in her high school math class, when her math teacher let the class play on a TRS 80 computer from Radio Shack. Naturally gifted with a methodical and logistical thought process, Gomez found that working with computers was easy for her in class, from writing little programs to games like Pong. She became instantly intrigued with computers.
After high school in the early 1990’s, she landed her first job at an accounting firm as a computer operator, where she worked for six years.
“Whenever something would go wrong, I was always able to figure out what was wrong and fix it,” Gomez said. Her fascination with computers grew. Gomez found herself “spending many late nights at the office with my child playing on the floor, taking apart an old computer.”
Gomez later received many upper level certifications including certified microcomputer instructor and certified Novell instructor. Beginning in 1996 she taught Microsoft networking and Novell networking at Productivity Point for two years. In between her jobs and obtaining her certifications she raised a family and also freelanced teaching as a network instructor for a short period of time.
She started working at PJC in 1999 as a network coordinator, a position she held for about a year before applying and receiving the position of director of networking and microcomputer resources. Gomez’s department is responsible for the help desk, academic labs, staff and faculty personal computers, network services, student email, email servers, data and storage.
Gomez has a staff of 12 full-time employees, and six student labor/temporary staff.
“I love my job and the people I work with. I am a hands on person, I like doing the technical part as well. I’m not above doing it myself if necessary,” Gomez said.
She established the department’s goal to help make PJC students, staff, and faculty desktop computer usage better, and make everyone feel better in doing it.
There have been many little things her team has done to assist PJC in advancing service to students and staff; for example, the student email, which took a year of research and development prior to implementation.
“We are a behind-the-scene type department,” Gomez said, adding that she is especially proud of the Pirate Email that her team implemented at PJC.
Gomez hires and trains new people on Office 2007 and Windows Vista to provide quality service at the help desk. In addition, she works on ways to get student population information out of student records to apply it to new and innovative ways to enhance productivity at PJC. To the non-technical world these things may sound simple, but in Gomez’s computer world it is not.
Most of the faculty at PJC have worked with Gomez and her staff at one time or another.
“She wants a direct answer even if she might not like what she hears. She is not a person that wants to have people keep their opinion to themselves but to voice them and then the problem can be discussed openly,” said Michael Hual, senior academic computing coordinator.
Gomez wants people to know her department’s ultimate goal is to make the computer desktop usage at PJC better, and make them feel comfortable in doing their jobs. She realizes her department may sometimes cause inconveniences, however, she stresses that it’s not done intentionally, only to better the service for all here at PJC.
“Our ultimate goal is to make it better, and make you feel comfortable,” she said.