Today I wanted to bring to your attention another role model  for me: a programmer whose posts inspired me, and with  whom I identified myself a little bit because of her addiction to challenges and her deep-running passion for technology.

I found out about Kelly Sommers, a.k.a. kellabyte, when reading one of my RSS feeds.

First of all, it is immediately obvious that Kelly Sommers is a passionate technologist and a professional you would enjoy working with. She became a role model for me after reading her self description, some of her posts, and after I saw her involvement in the developer community (recently she was named Apache Cassandra MVP in recognition of her work in this area).

Kelly likes challenges, and she is constantly willing to improve her technological and architectural skills. She is a true geek woman. She convinced me that women can become great technologists.

I hope I got your attention and you would like to find more about her.  There is a relatively recent interview with her that you might like also. Check it out on Code Project.

This is a subject I have wanted to write about for a long time, but I’ve kept putting it off because it is quite emotional.

I wanted to share with you how important it is to identify a role model/mentor. Therefore I’ve decided to write a series of posts that will cover this subject. I will write about people I was very fortunate to meet, but also about people whose books, presentations or articles helped me a lot.

During my education and my short career I have identified several professionals that helped me build my path and that were a great example. But there is one in particular that has brought the greatest contribution: my husband, Silviu. He is not only a life partner, he is also a model for my dream career. I am constantly amazed and inspired by his professionalism, his unrelenting passion for technology, his dedication, calm, integrity, and communication skills. I admire him for the team he created, and for the way his colleagues look to him. I am pretty sure there are people that see in him a model as well.

I know I have a long way to go till I’ll achieve all these, but I am really grateful I have a full-time role model.

I postponed this first post from the series to be able to publish it in a special day: Happy Birthday to you, my full time role model!