EXTON, Pa. -- Tia Lopez, a technical operations supervisor for Comcast in Georgia, has been named as the 2019 recipient of the Catherine Oakes Memorial Leadership Scholarship for Women, the SCTE Foundation announced today.

Lopez has been awarded a grant of $2,250 to attend the WICT 2019 Executive Development Series later this year. The WICT series is designed to help mid-career professionals build skills that are critical to effectively delivering results within their organizations, with a focus on mastering competencies vital to success at the director and VP level. Lopez’s application was among those that were reviewed by past recipients of the Women in Technology Award that is presented annually by the Society of Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and its global arm, the International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE), Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) and CableFAX.

Lopez joined Comcast in 2017 as a telecommunications technician and has leveraged SCTE•ISBE and WICT training, webinars and mentorship as she has advanced to her current position. She currently supervises 13 “amazing” technicians, is an active member of SCTE•ISBE’s Chattahoochee Chapter and most recently participated in the Chattahoochee Chapter Cable Games.

“Tia is honest, dependable, and an incredibly hard-worker,” wrote Lawrence Bell Jr., Technical Operations Manager for Comcast, in endorsing Lopez’ application for the award. “Beyond that, she is an impressive leader who is always engaged with her team and provides detailed communication to her team on a consistent basis. Tia's knowledge of cable theory and her expertise in engineering are huge advantages to my entire office. She has put this skill-set to work in order to not only maintain an already successful team’s metrics and moral but to enhance them.”

“Influence is my primary goal as a supervisor to my team,” said Lopez in her application. “I believe that by investing time in how each individual technician would like to further their careers provides them motivation to not only perform better, but also devote time to their education and learning new skills. This scholarship would provide me with the chance to grow in my role and establish an incredible foundation of the leader I aspire to be.”

As senior vice president, operations for SCTE•ISBE, Oakes was a leading voice for diversity and inclusion in the cable engineering and operations workforce. The scholarship is funded entirely by donations earmarked specifically for it. Donations can be made at the Oakes Scholarship page on the SCTE Foundation website.

SCTE/ISBE