The Leadership Experience Tour is proud to announce they are bringing IT exec, Christine Burkette, to the tour. Shawn Fair, the founder of the Leadership Experience, chose Burkette due to her vast experience in IT combined with her speaking experience that transcends industries and genres.
Burkette is from Detroit, MI, and is the founder and CEO of Promising Integration Consulting Firm, Inc. (PICF Inc.), Her most recent accomplishment is the inventor and app developer of the newest sensational relationship compatibility app and card game, called, “The 5F’s To Love.” This app is a tool for new couples to couples married with 30+ years of marriage or more with a simplistic approach to aligning their core values and identifying what they have in common. Helping couples reduce the time they spend looking for their one true love or continuing to fall in love with your spouse. “The 5F’s To Love ” app is launching September 2021 and will be available for download on Apple Store and Google Play. Also launching this Fall is “The 5F’s To Love” card game, available October, 2021 at Amazon, Walmart and Target.
This past year, as the world battled a pandemic, many school districts were not prepared to make the transition to online learning platforms overnight. Burkette and her team of IT and academic experts at PICF, Inc., was one of the most sought after businesses in education and IT. Her company was contracted by several public school districts, and charter schools across the country to assist with managing the transition to online learning as well as the integration to 1:1 technology districtwide. Her background in curriculum and instructional technology tools and resources assisted multiple school districts in closing the teaching and learning gaps most districts experienced making the transition from a traditional teaching and learning environment to a virtual or blended environment. The outcome for multiple school districts working with her company identified a noted increase in student engagement and participation while maintaining or increasing student academic performance.
Her success and expertise was recognized during the pandemic when Stratix invited her to work as a contributing consultant on a project presented to the Michigan Department of Education which provided school districts with laptops, tablets, hot spots and remote IT support to close the gap on resources to maintain a successful remote teaching and learning platform.
Burkette was so successful with this endeavor that she was invited to be a guest on their podcast, The Future of K-12 Education – Beyond the Four Walls Episode 7, 16/10/20,43:50. She was also featured as an expert in a the article Rapidly Addressing Remote Learning Capabilities for Students in the City of Detroit with the Help of Stratix.
In the past six years, Burkette has spoken all over the world in the field of IT and equity, diversity and inclusion in IT. She has been a featured speaker at the Women of Color in Stem Conference and BEYA Conference for the past four years. This year at the BEYA conference she was a featured speaker on the Design Thinking, session.
Born and raised in Detroit, Burkette has always been someone with a flair for creativity. She began her passion for science and music in middle school and continued it through college where at Delaware State University she received a Bachelor’s Degree in chemistry and a minor in music.
Prior to her work in school settings, Burkette worked in the corporate-realm. It was here that she began to make the leap from corporate to education. It was also in this space where she developed her leadership abilities, project management, and technology skills.
One of her first successful endeavors was being contracted to deploy General Motors enterprise-wide new hire onboarding program. This program was so successful it was recognized in an article published in US Black Engineer & IT Volume 45 Issue 1, pages 24-25, US Black Engineer and Information Technology, published in, December 23, 2020.
She launched the program with the support of many top executives at GM, which included Mary Barra, CEO of GM, kicking off the program at the world headquarters in Detroit. Following her success with GM, she returned to education in leadership roles from Assistant Superintendent to CIO at Detroit Public School Community District .
While serving as CIO, Burkette reported directly to Dr. Nikolai Vitti, the superintendent of schools. Under his leadership, she was given multiple IT projects that were designed to put the school district back on track to being a high performing school district and leader in education. Burkette managed the rollout of a pilot program, transitioning six elementary schools in 2018 to 1:1 schools with state-of-the-art instructional technology tools. She was also tasked with designing and deploying the district’s first online placement exams for their schools of choice. Rolling out the online placement exam across four high schools for more than 1500 students in managing all four testing sites one day of testing, and streamlining internal processes, integrating CRM and ERP platforms, while upgrading the district’s network infrastructure district-wide. Providing this district-wide expansion increased network WiFi connectivity, placing the district in a position to transition to online learning ahead of other urban school districts.
Since launching her company, Promising Integration Consulting Firm, Inc. (PICF, Inc.), in 2012, and after working as a science teacher at Detroit Public Schools , she identified a gap in what students were being taught in high school science classes versus what they needed to be successful in college and beyond. So while employed as science teacher she incorporated real world science applications aligned to science pedagogy that students needed to successfully matriculate through their college science courses. She redesigned her high school science classroom into an interactive science workstation simulating a corporate science lab and testing environment. She did this by integrating a lecture idea zone, question and answer lab stations, and desktop computers stations to do research and write up lab reports. The impact she made in her classroom was reflected in increased science test scores by 40% while improving student engagement by 70%. Her non-traditional teaching style was recognized by various leaders in the State of Michigan.
Burkette has also spoken at numerous high school and college events as a female minority IT business owner, sharing her story and transition to a CEO of an IT consulting firm. Motivating and inspiring minority students all over the country to enter into STEM and science careers.
It’s Christine’s IT background and inspiring speaking experience that caught Shawn Fair’s attention for his Leadership Experience Tour.
Fair’s membership on the Forbes Coaching Council and being a highly coveted global corporate consultant have aided in selecting speakers for the Leadership Experience Tour. Burkette is well on her way to being recognized as one of the top speakers ni equity, diversity and inclusion in IT as well as the next sought after IT K12 consultant and app developer of the newest sensational relationship compatibility app and card game, called, “The 5F’s To Love.”
She has taken an innovative approach to aide the millions of people looking for their life partner, their one true love. Her app and card game, “The 5F’s To Love”, will launch in September 2021. You can download the mobile apps, Apple Store and Google Playstore and you can purchase the card game at Amazon, Target and Walmart, in October, 2021.
Her IT consulting firm, Promising Integration Consulting Firm, Inc is a female, black owned IT consulting firm, with more than eighteen years experience providing IT consulting services to small and midsize companies to school districts.
Her clients are: (1) IT Startups, (2) Education, (3) Health organizations, (4) Automotive, (5) Nonprofits, (6) Entertainment and (7) Financial. Consulting Services are as follows: (1) Education Consulting Services, (2) IT Consulting Services, and (3) Corporate Consulting & Services that includes hiring her as speaker at your next event. Her company has worked on various projects providing network infrastructure installation for new build and existing development projects to enterprise wide software integration.
Burkette is in the process of completing her WOSB/WBE Certification and registering as a federal female minority IT supplier. Her goal is to employ 100 to 200 additional IT experts to her team by 2023. You can also see her every week on her podcast shows, “TechTalkswithChris” or “The5FsToLove”, on Podbean, Youtube Channel, Anchor and Buzzsprout and streamed live across multiple social media sites.
The highly acclaimed IT exec says her motto is some people want it to happen. some people put in the time to make it happen. Some wish it would happen. Others make it happen. Ask yourself which one are you? Burkette is a great addition to the Leadership Experience Tour, and Shawn Fair is confident she’ll make an impactful and life-changing difference to those in attendance.
To contract Christine as an IT Consultant or speaker, you can contact her at Promising Integration Consulting Firm, Inc. website, or on Facebook and Linkedin, and at “The 5F’s To Love” website and podcast, TechTalkswithChris on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and weekly podcast.
Aside from her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at Delaware State University, with a minor in music., Burkette has completed her first master’s at Capella University, majoring in curriculum and instruction design. Her second master’s at Marygrove College is in chemistry and school administrator certification. Christine is currently pursuing her Ph.D in Psychology and Technology at Michigan State University.
