Newsroom
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC— Triangle Business Journal recognized Jennifer Durbin, information security officer at RTI International, and Carmen Strigel, team leader for Information and Communication Technology for Education Training at RTI, as 2014 40 Under 40 Leadership Awards winners.
The 40 Under 40 Leadership Awards program recognizes professionals under the age of 40 in the Triangle for their contributions to their organization and the community.
“TBJ’s 2014 40 Under 40 winners are the region’s up-and-coming thought leaders,” said Bryan Hamilton, publisher of Triangle Business Journal. “Fresh ideas, progressive initiatives and persistent hard work make up the creed of this group. Look for them to shape the Triangle’s vision of tomorrow.”
At RTI, Durbin helped establish the IT Security & Compliance Division and was named RTI’s first information security officer in 2008. She ensures the security of all RTI data and compliance with federal, contractual and corporate requirements.
Durbin is a member of the North Carolina Healthcare Information & Communications Alliance, where she works with leading security professionals across the state to improve information security standards and regulatory compliance.
Durbin is also the author of a series of books, titled Tips for The Clueless Chick, that serve as a guide to help busy women navigate pregnancy, traveling with children and party planning. She offers her latest tips regularly at baby expos and in local media. She is also a member of the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce Working Mothers’ Task force to help working mothers enhance their careers in the greater Raleigh area.
Strigel is a global leader in information and communications technology for education. At RTI, she leads the development and implementation of education initiatives in Africa and Asia.
Strigel developed a first-of-its-kind software application, called Tangerine®, to enable education researchers and teachers to record data from early grade reading and mathematics assessments to inform critical education programs in developing countries. It is designed for use on mobile devices in low-resource environments without Internet. Since its first field trial in January 2012, Tangerine has been used in more than 20 countries by 15 different organizations.
Building on the success of Tangerine, in January 2013, Strigel launched Tangerine:Class, an open source platform that enables teachers to systematically collect, analyze and use results from continuous assessments of pupils’ early reading or mathematics skills. Throughout the 2013 school year, Tangerine:Class software was used on tablet devices by 21 grade two teachers and their 600 pupils in two rural zones in Kisumu, Kenya. A formative assessment conducted in June 2013 found that the schools witnessed an unprecedented improvement in the students’ ability to read.
Strigel is also a member of the Creative Disruptors at RTI, a team of staff members who lead cross-institute initiatives to encourage and support innovation.
This year’s winners will be honored at an awards luncheon on June 12 at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary. Triangle Business Journal will profile the winners in a special section, published in the June 13 print edition.
