M. "Nikki" Flores

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credit: M. Lodise

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credit: G. Lodise

Résumé Monica S. Flores

msf Monica "Nikki" Flores is a Certified ScrumMaster® and Certified CPACC technical project manager at Lullabot, a strategy, design, and development agency working on enterprise platforms for Fortune 500 brands, government agencies, higher education, publishers, and technology companies.

Since 2004, she has developed websites for clients and employers including the redesigns for the State of Iowa, New Relic, the IBM Selector Tool, Green America, the GIST Network for the U.S. Department of State, and Changemakers for Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. She has used Drupal (user: monicadear) since 2008.

She is a proponent of using technology to solve problems, connect communities, and build effective change-making teams.

Flores served in leadership for DC FemTech and was elected board member to Green America, where she chaired the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion board committee 2018-2020. She taught for the Nonprofit Technology Professional certificate 2017-2022, and co-founded 10K Webdesign. She supports women-focused ventures through the Female Founders Network (LinkedIn Group).

A recipient of the 2018 and 2019 NTENny Award and the 2021 FutureHack Hack for Good, Flores speaks at conferences and panels on technology, management, and entrepreneurship. Flores is a Pantheon Hero.

updated: March 19, 2024

16 April 2019 Host, Tech-I Global Pitch Competition, 12 finalists pitching for $230k in cash and prizes
Global Entrepreneurship Congress, Bahrain
Photo credit: G. Lodise

16 April 2019 Tech-I Global Pitch Competition, female founders Queenny Lopez, Thuy Huong Ngo,
Jasmine Lim, Ariuntuya Altangarel, Monica S. Flores, Heidi Nguyen, Oghenetijiri Emuveyan
Global Entrepreneurship Congress, Bahrain
Photo credit: G. Lodise

Founder, advisor, manager building digital products at the intersection of social justice, technology, education, & community

Short Biography

M. Nikki Flores (@monicasflores) builds digital products to support a socially just, environmentally sustainable, equitable society. As a technical project manager she leads redevelopment/new rollouts for Fortune 500 brands, government agencies, higher education, publishers, and e-commerce. Since 2004, she has developed websites for over two hundred clients. She is currently on the board of the Drupal Association.

As part of her civic engagement, Flores was on the leadership team for DCFemTech 2020-2021, and an elected board member to Green America 2017-2020. She was a course instructor for the Nonprofit Technology Professional certificate 2017-2022 and was part of the 20NTC Session Advisory Committee. She was a committee chair for Kyle Wilson Elementary PTO, VP of Programs for the Campbell Elementary School PTA, Board Member for the Mesa Verde PTSA, and Co-President for the Kilohana School Community Organization. She also served as a Girl Scouts volunteer for ten years. She founded the Female Founders Network (2015) and co-founded 10K Webdesign (2004). She is the recipient of the 2018 and 2019 NTENny award and 2021 FutureHack Hack for Good Award and speaks, writes, and presents on entrepreneurship, technology, and leadership.

Nikki's speaking engagements include

DrupalCamp NYC
Florida DrupalCamp
Drupal Diversity Camp
Women in Technology World Series
Lesbians in Tech
NTEN
Global Entrepreneurship Week DC
Women in Technology Summit Southeast
Tech Rebalanced
Tech-I GIST Network Global Pitch Competition Bahrain
DC Startup Week
STEEAMnista Summit New York
DC Startup Weekend
Net2DC
DC Web Women
Working Mother DC
Women in Technology Summit Philadelphia
DrupalCamp Hawaii

Full Biography

msf M. Nikki Flores brings experience as a project manager, web developer, engineering manager, digital products director, technical founder, and advisor to national and global teams. A Certified ScrumMaster®, her recent engagements include digital product director leading redesign for Green America, lead software engineer for the GIST Network (a project of Global Entrepreneurship Network for the U.S. Department of State), and product team lead for redesign at Ashoka Changemakers. She taught herself to code in 1999 and moved to Drupal in 2008, implementing agile methods since 2014.

In her current role as technical project manager, she supports teams. Lullabot serves higher education, government, and membership organizations, and publishing organizations. She researches requirements and deliverables, keeps timelines on track, communicates with clients, explains processes, and helps identify functional specifications, determines and documents content types, user permissions, and reporting tools, and supports teams during buildout.

Flores speaks and presents on project management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. She has served on the faculty for the Nonprofit Technology Network's Professional Certification.

She advises emerging projects that build community, foster connectedness, and advance technology to create a better world. She was board member and interim executive director, Asian Pacific Americans for Progress (2004-2006). She is the recipient of the NTENny Award in 2018 and 2019. She co-founded 10K Webdesign, founded/sold A Successful Woman, and was a member of The Wing (2018-2020). She served as a Leadership Team member, DC FemTech (2019-2020) Flores highlights women in technology through TechWomxn (since 2019) and supports startup ventures through the Female Founders Network (since 2015).

Current Highlights:

Board committee member, Drupal Association (January 2023 - )
Arcadia Ambassador for Clean Energy (January 2020 -)
Pantheon Hero for Drupal/Wordpress Hosting (December 2019 -)

She received a B.S. from the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Cornell University and is currently based in the Washington, DC area.

Videos

What Career Opportunities Exist for Girls Interested in Tech?

What’s Most Fulfilling About a Career in Tech?

My Best Advice for Girls Considering a Career in Tech

What Motivated me to Launch a Tech Career?

How can a #WorkMom Thrive in a Tech Career?

Speaking, Judging, Mentoring

Presentations

14 Steps to Think Like a Digital Leader

For mid-career professionals interested in developing additional leadership skills: review foundational digital skills, commit to an accountability plan for expanding use of technology, gain a checklist of how to be more effective in leadership, and learn how to prepare for workforce trends
link to presentation

100% Remote: 7 Tips to Successfully Manage a Fully Distributed Workforce

Technical project manager Monica S. Flores will share practical knowledge on how to manage remote teams based on the experience of the 100% distributed team at Lullabot, a design and strategy agency that supports Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, higher education, and publishers. Lullabot staff work across 9 time zones using tools like scheduled meetings, Slack, Paper, Google, Jira, and Zoom. We’ll discuss fundamental ways to practice compassion, respect boundaries, and foster psychological safety based on lessons learned in the field.
link to presentation

Introduction to Drupal

Setting up a Drupal site on Pantheon, identifying content types, basic user roles and permissions, and views
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Develop Good Data Practice

Thinking through your data structures, understanding how content types relate to one another, and making a plan for collecting and utilizing data at your organization.
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Case Study: Green America on Drupal
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Developing an Action Plan for Diversity and Inclusion

Building an Action Plan for Diversity and Inclusion at your Organization

Slides and presentation for discussion of how to increase integrate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
link to presentation

5 Learnings about the Website Redesign Process

Breaking down the architecture, timeline, and requirements to move a website onto Drupal 8 to increase capacity, allow for more integrated content, and better deploy meaningful information to clients, customers, and the community.
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Five Tips to Increase Our Leadership Capacity

Women deserve greater opportunities for financing, mentorship, and advancement – women seek more responsibility (and better pay), and simultaneously navigate the path that leads to leadership opportunities. Learn five specific ways to increase demand for your expertise by “putting yourself out there”, giving yourself a chance to #failforward, facilitating professional development within your organization, operating around deliverables/results, and mentoring the next generation.
link to presentation

Learning to Fail Forward: Embracing Failure on your Journey to Success

Women with skills, enthusiasm, and determination face a wide-open future. We learn fortitude and flexibility by starting, growing, scaling, or in many cases, failing in our new venture. We’ll review six lessons in the entrepreneurial journey that model how to embrace change, learn from past mistakes, and move forward in your next opportunity.
link to presentation

Ten Tips to Travel the World

Use these tips to plan your journey of discovery. Voyage into the world with effective equipment, a positive attitude, and this roadmap to know who you are, where you are going, and how you will get to where you want to be.
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2017 Marymount University Career Event

Gave remarks about supervising an intern, and the importance of communication, patience, and flexibility.

2016 DC Startup Weekend

Served as mentor for this hackathon focused on social good.

2016 STEEAMnista Summit 2016 - NYC

Panelist at event focused on increasing the participation, visibility, leadership, and celebrating the achievements of women across S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) + Entrepreneurship + Makers.