Volunteer & Community

Building communities, sharing knowledge, and giving back — from local meetups to enterprise-scale leadership.

2025–Present
Consulting Technical Expert & Member
Cumberland County Corvette Club (CVCC)

Serving as the club's consulting technical expert — advising on all technology decisions and infrastructure as a trusted member of the community. Currently leading a full discovery initiative: interviewing club leadership, assessing existing systems, and scoping a comprehensive modernization of the club website and documentation. Bringing enterprise-grade methodology to a passionate community — structured discovery, stakeholder interviews, and a clear modernization roadmap to carry the club's digital presence forward.

2023–2024
Director of Data & Interim CIO
Obscure IQ

Led data operations, privacy strategy, cybersecurity guidance, governance, and technology planning. Provided acting CIO-level leadership aligning data privacy, security, governance, and operational execution. Pioneered AI-driven privacy automation and enhanced delete request workflows to improve efficiency and data protection.

2023–2024
AI Engineering Advisor
Meet Smithers

Provided strategic AI engineering guidance, advising on AI architecture, data governance, and responsible implementation strategies for a technology-focused organization.

2021–2022
Community Leader — Metaverse & Web3 Security
Oracle

Founded and led an internal Oracle community of cybersecurity and architecture experts exploring security frameworks for Metaverse and Web3 environments. Developed strategic frameworks addressing decentralized identity, data ownership, and enterprise security in emerging platforms — positioning the initiative as enterprise architecture innovation.

2017–2018
Community Leader — Data Science Champs
Microsoft

Led a Microsoft data science community focused on knowledge sharing, emerging data technologies, and professional development. Organized sessions, facilitated collaboration, and drove awareness of data science capabilities across the organization.

2010–2013
Community Leader — Data Warehouse Champs
Microsoft

Facilitated a long-running Microsoft data warehousing community, conducting monthly sessions on MPP systems, Azure data platform evolution, and enterprise data architecture for engineers and architects across the organization.

2004–2008
Coordinator — Orlando .NET Pub Club
Microsoft MSDN

Organized and facilitated regular developer meetups for the Orlando .NET community, building professional connections and knowledge-sharing among engineers, developers, and architects in the Central Florida technology ecosystem.

2003
Coordinator — Orlando PASS User Group
PASS — Professional Association for SQL Server

Coordinated the Orlando chapter of PASS, organizing sessions on SQL Server technologies, data management, and database administration best practices for the local technology community.

Profile
Peter J. Constantine
Consulting Technical Manager @ Oracle
I worked with Dana in Oracle's Cloud Engineering group supporting an innovative database and vm migration automation platform for over a year. We also collaborated on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure certification preparation for ourselves and our team. Dana is very organized and methodical in her approach to solving complex business problems. She demonstrates deep understanding of data integrity and security issues facing the digital world and is committed to finding new ways to safeguard against data manipulation and abuse. She possesses an enthusiastic persona with a 'can-do' attitude and I look forward to working with her again.
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Zaheer Tanveer
President @ OpenText Public Sector Solutions, Inc
Dana is a very unique technologist. She is smart, intelligent and extremely competent at her job. She is humble yet does not succumb to pressure. While working for me at Microsoft, she always demonstrated her desire to do what is right for the customer. Sometimes, this meant disagreeing with the customer but she had the skills to make her customers see the value in her architecture and overall benefits in the business solution she was recommending. I truly enjoyed working with her and highly recommend her for technical leadership positions. I am available for discussion with potential employers. Thank you, Dana. I, and your customers, remain indebted. -Z
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Danny Wunder
Customer Success Lead @ Lantern
I worked with Dana for just a short period of time, but in that time Dana showed great potential. She didn't hesitate to jump in to help lead and deliver for complex customers. She was respected by her team and her peers and would be a valuable addition to any team.
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Channa Wijesinghe
Data + AI Capability Lead @ Cognizant Microsoft Business Group
Dana is an amazing resource to any team. She has a solid background in database design and maintenance. She has been able to transfer those skills to Azure and Microsoft's modern data services, to help companies achieve their full potential in the cloud
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Patty Delafuente
Data Scientist, Solution Architect for Public Sector @ NVIDIA
I had the privilege of working with Dana in the trenches when we both were working on a project to implement enterprise level data management services at a federal agency. I was one of the database engineers for the federal agency and Dana was the solution architect for Microsoft. I was impressed with Dana's breadth of knowledge and and she had the deep knowledge of the Microsoft Platform that we needed to successfully plan out our strategy. I have found a kindred spirit in Dana as it is not often I come across fellow women in the technical arena. that has her level of expertise. I am honored to recommend Dana for any technical, complex data and analytical project that comes her way.
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Dana Piermarini
Industry Advisor, Workday Federal
Dana has a brilliant mind with the ability to solve complex problems.
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Tamer Farag
Global Partner Ecosystem Lead @ Microsoft Fabric
I've known data for more than ten years, she is an expert on the data platform and database technologies. She did an excellent job supporting some of the largest SQL Server and PDW customers in the world. Dana has amazing work ethics and deep technical expertise. She is a real team player and a great mentor for her coworkers. I would highly recommend her for any customers looking for an Data Architect.
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David McDonald
Technical Leader and Solutions Architect @ Microsoft
I've known Dana for many years at Microsoft. She's a rock star Data architect. She is well known to have deep technical knowledge and experience. She has unique skills in being able to connect technology and solutions to our customer's business needs. She's passionate about the Microsoft's Data platform. She brings energy along with great knowledge to solve our customer's most challenging problems.
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Marty Larsen
Senior Service Delivery Manager @ Microsoft
Love my work with Dana. A great team player, very inclusive, resourceful and effective.
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James Herring
Principal Content PM @ Microsoft
I've had the pleasure to work with Dana on several tough customer projects during my time in product incubation at Microsoft. Dana is an engineer that is all about customer obsession and her ability to quickly establish technical credibility removed many barriers that could delay success by months. Dana exemplifies the type of resources I look for when building successful teams and is just an amazing person to work with.
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Abraham Samuel
Director Specialist, Cloud Solutions @ Microsoft
Dana is a seasoned technology professional with a understanding for relating technology to customers and clients. I had the pleasure of working with her on the Microsoft Services Support and Escalation team for data warehousing appliances. She is a team player, with a inclusive mindset. We supported similar customers for data warehousing and Azure data technologies and collaborated on a number of different customer and team projects. She always had a great attitude and it was a pleasure to work alongside her!
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Miro Flasza
Principal Development Lead @ Microsoft
I enjoyed working with Dana in her role as a technical support engineer for the SQL Server Analytics Platform System. Beyond being a seasoned professional, well versed in distributed data processing and cloud computing, Dana deeply cares about her customers and coworkers. Her commitment to understanding, translating and addressing customer requirements and issues is exemplary.
Profile
Ka Wo Fong
Senior Software Engineer II, Generative AI @ Qarik Group
I have worked with Dana in the same team since I joined Microsoft for a year now. Coming from Premier Field Engineer background, she is equipped with deep technical expertise on the Azure data platform, SQL Server, and business intelligence technologies. Whenever I have questions on any of those areas, Dana is my go-to person. When I first joined the team, I learned so much from her through her active and periodic contribution of Azure best practices to the team. Moreover, she exhibited excellent leadership in hosting the "What The Hack" series for both internal and external audience. Most importantly, she is never afraid of stepping out of her comfort zone. When I was working with her, she was eager to learn continuously by volunteering herself to work on customer engagements where she knew she could learn from. It is difficult to find someone like Dana who has many years of technical experience while continuing to remain humble and learn. She was a true pleasure to work with.
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Devin Jaiswal
Principle Cloud Solution Architect @ Microsoft
While working with Dana, I have learned a lot about technology, she is a great teacher, who strives to share her knowledge and experience with her peers. Dana is very proficient with the Azure Data Service stack, SQL Server, NoSQL and many more.
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Aubrey Truex
System Administrator @ FFVA Mutual Insurance Co
Dana is a detail-oriented DBA who would listen to our needs and work on fulfilling the requirements until they were complete. She had a great attitude and was very personable. Plus, she knew her stuff! A great resource for anything related to SQL Server.
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Todd Albers
Information Security Engineer
I worked with Ms. Dana Rivkind at InCharge Institute where she worked as Database Administrator. She is knowledgeable and experienced in the area of Database Administration. Dana is also very easy to work with in the corporate setting. I always knew Dana as a friendly and professional co-worker during the time that we worked together.
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Esteban Garcia
CEO (US) - Microsoft Services @ Xebia
Dana is a strong DBA that is always looking for pro-active ways to improve existing processes and servers/databases. She is always willing to work with others to arrive at the best solution to a problem. She is also always looking to learn and understand new technologies, which makes her a valuable asset to any team.
Profile
Tom Andraszek
Senior Software Developer @ Touchpaper
Dana is a committed database administrator. She is enthusiastic about her work, and she strives to be the best.
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Steven Schreiber
Senior Investment Consultant @ Newport Group
I would highly recommend Dana Rivkind. She distinguished herself from the rest of her group by being the most dependable person when work needed to be completed. Whenever I needed any type of IT help I would request to work with Dana. She was easy to work with and she always did what was necessary to get the job done on time and done correctly.
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Hubert H. Rivera
Executive, Bank Sales and Service @ USAA
Dana is a highly capable and experienced individual that would make an asset to any organization. Her ability to manipulate systems to retrieve the desired results was second to none. She was always willing to go the extra mile and was always courteous and very professional in every project she managed. I highly recommend Dana.

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