Mechelle Degree builds a technology career centered on leadership and mentorship

Mechelle Degree, profiled by Influential Women, is highlighting a more than 30-year career that has moved from IT support to global technology leadership, training, and program management. Her story centers on relationships, faith, and mentoring young professionals, especially women entering tech.

Why it matters: - Mechelle Degree’s career shows how technical expertise, communication, and leadership can combine into a long-term path in technology. - Her focus on mentorship matters because she is directing that experience toward early-career professionals and young women entering business and tech. - Her message centers on confidence and access: people can grow beyond their current circumstances when they have support, perspective, and opportunity.

What happened: - Influential Women profiled Mechelle Degree and highlighted her career across IT, training, project management, and global operations. - Degree graduated with a degree in Information Systems in 1990. - She began in IT support and later moved into training, Salesforce automation, and corporate leadership roles. - Her career included work with Ericsson and Sony Ericsson, where she served first as a training manager and later in IT as a service area manager. - Degree has worked and spoken across Latin America, Europe, Sweden, and Africa. - She continues to work in project management and program management.

The details: - Degree spent about two years in IT support before realizing she had a strong ability to communicate and engage people. - She described speaking and training as “That’s my jam,” reflecting a long-running interest in presentation and instruction. - She spent four years as a “road warrior” in Salesforce automation before moving into the corporate environment. - Her work in project and program management has put her in cross-functional roles with customers and teams across an organization. - Degree said those roles helped her understand challenges faced by professionals at different career stages. - She credits her parents with teaching her that she could accomplish anything and grounding her in faith. - Her leadership approach is shaped by trust, loyalty, love, and compassion. - Degree believes “networking is the new currency” and sees relationships as essential to leadership and opportunity. - She encourages young women not to limit themselves to what they can see right now. - After meeting a young woman at a luncheon who was about to start at Lenovo, Degree gave her personal cell number and offered continued support after graduation. - During 2020, Degree shaved her head as a personal choice during a period she described as chaotic and outside her control. - She said the decision reminded her that people can still choose their response when circumstances feel unpredictable. - Degree says compassion should play a larger role in how people work and live.

Between the lines: - Degree’s profile frames leadership as relational rather than purely positional. - The emphasis on faith, resilience, and mentorship suggests her influence extends beyond job titles and technical credentials. - Her story also reflects a broader shift in tech careers, where communication and people skills can be as valuable as technical specialization.

What’s next: - Degree is expected to keep using her platform to mentor young professionals, especially women in technology and business. - Her continued work in leadership, training, and speaking suggests a career focus on helping others grow while she stays active in operational roles. - More information is available through Mechelle Degree’s Influential Women profile.

The bottom line: - Mechelle Degree’s career is built on a simple theme: use skill, faith, and relationships to help other people see what is possible.