Melinda Pontes is Assistant Director of IT and Operations for the International Student and Scholars Services (ISSS) department. She completed her BS in Engineering Science at Smith College in Northampton, MA. While at Smith, she participated in many leadership groups such as HONS (head of new students) for incoming first years and Outreach Coordinator for Smith’s chapter of SWE (Society of Women Engineers). Each year she attended Smith, she volunteered and ran SWE’s yearly outreach event to engage 80-100 middle school girls with different engineering projects. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Computer and Information Technology online, part time from the University of Pennsylvania to further expand her technical skills in a formal setting.
With over seven years of experience in data science and in IT, Melinda’s background encompass crucial roles of both the user and the developer. Her experience includes data migration analytics, technical troubleshooting, and software implementation and debugging. Melinda believes both technology and collaboration from diverse teams are crucial to success and innovation, especially to fulfill the university's goal to bring Penn to the world and the world to Penn, which is why she is thrilled to be a part of the Penn Global team.
