In a world where more than half the world population is outside or grew up outside the digital age and the other half immersed in digital culture, the debate over the digital divide and implications of technology on wellbeing vs advancement is forever growing. While technology has brought on massive growth, experts and researchers have also found that technology can be psychologically harmful, addicting, and hurt human interaction among myriad other health and human cognitive evolution ramifications. Technology when architected improperly has the potential to influence the health, and psychology of the human population negatively, expand the socio-economic divide between people and particularly impact the vulnerable population like the neuro-divergent population.
Undoubtedly, technology has made lives simple, easy, and convenient. Not only has it led us to comfortable and luxurious lifestyles, but it has brought much innovation across every sector in the world. But the benefits of it do not stop here. The tech revolution has the potential to improve well-being by addressing key societal and health issues.
With the advent of emerging technology, often touted Deep Tech, such as artificial intelligence, cloud, distributed computing, quantum computing, etc, it becomes ever more critical for experts who are well versed and multi-specialist to calibrate the implications of a broad range of digital technologies in any specific industry under ethical, privacy, and security contexts and lead appropriate digital solutions. While the polymaths of yesteryears had a prominent role to play in flourishing the states and governments of today, we need similar multi-specialty digital polymaths to design and architect the digital systems and businesses of today with utmost ethical, privacy, and security principles that consider broad range of users, communities, and participants.
This brings us to explore concepts such Tech for Good, Innovation with Purpose, and Digital Architectures for Good.
While many notable personalities participate and contribute in the digital era, few names surface when discussing Tech for Good with most notable among them being Mischella Felix. An Indian-born trained computer science engineer, and a masters in technology management, Mischella is spearheading Tech for Good Digital efforts by being at the front of developing the digital architecture strategy and roadmap and advising C-Suite & executive leadership for Fortune 500 that has maximum impact in today’s world. Among her many praiseworthy contributions was her being an advisor to the US Bank on the product vision for digitizing a humane recoveries debt platform through providing education and training opportunities for financial well-being and advancement. Previously, her vast portfolio included building inclusive money movement products, fraud-proof digital payments infrastructure while she worked at Capital One.
She joined BCG as the youngest Chief IT Architect and went on to be promoted in a short span of time to Principal (previously role titled Chief Enterprise Architect) where she is at the forefront of helping Fortune 500 on companies and organizations with digital strategy, and architecture with a special focus on innovating with purpose, protecting the privacy of user data, and securing technology components on cloud.
Mischella states, “Organizations (large and small) that want to adapt to changing digital ecosystem, to smooth disruption, survive digital competition, improve employee and customer well-being, and accelerate business agility should incorporate holistic human+business+technology elements such as purposeful digital product, intentionality in customer interactions and user needs understanding, and orchestrate secure, private, highly ethical and high integrity digital architectures ” She believes that in this modern era, powered by digitalization, social impact keeps businesses and corporations afloat. It is one of the key factors leading companies towards sustainability and growth. Given how a considerable percentage of the world’s population believes that technology is preparing the world for doom, the capability of companies to incorporate Tech for Good within their methodologies and operations is what will set them up for success.
Mischella has created a framework for People-Centric Ethical Inclusive AI and built Inclusive-Technology for the Neuro-divergent (patent pending) population to better engage in the digital world. While she is highly passionate about her career and is working tirelessly to change the face of IT through her innovative approach and solutions, Mischella is a strong advocate of education for all. She herself is a first-generation college graduate and is spreading the message of education all across the globe. She stated, “It is the support of my community and access to education that brought me where I am today. I owe my success to this, and to give back to the community is what I believe in.” With this being said, Mischella founded OneLiving in 2021. It is a non-profit global community that aims to improve access to education, career counseling, and tactical interviewing tips. As a Board Member of Global Missions, she provides free education to African single mothers and women. Her efforts do not stop here. Mischella is also one of the biggest motivators for other women and is working to encourage them to pursue their passions and turn them into successful careers. She is among the founding members of Women Tech Network and founder of Women in Science, Engineering, And Analytics which reaches more than 50,000+ women globally. Her accolades are never-ending as the list goes on. Being a recipient of the Indian Innovation Award, building inclusive money movement products, and advising some of the largest financial institutions, Mischella is true to herself and the world. Instead of enjoying the outcomes of her success and living a lavish lifestyle, she works to empower others to take control of their lives. She believes finding and working towards a purpose is essential to increasing the Global Happiness Index. Having served as a career counselor for more than 1,000 people, she is sharing her insights on attaining a happy career, well-balanced and purposeful career through her upcoming book “Career Breakthrough: Lessons to heal your career, find work happiness, and live your authentic self with purpose.”
