Angela Mitchell is the CEO of CASE Management Consulting president, based in Washington, DC. A multi-million, 8(a) Certified, Minority Woman-owned Small Business founded in 2016, CASE delivers secure, high-quality web-based process automation tools and knowledge management solutions. CASE guides an organization through change, focusing on business processes and technology. “Our mission is to provide leaders with real data to make better business decisions,” Angela says.
Angela is also the co-founder and director of Kids Code Too — a non-profit organization focused on building computer science confidence in elementary students (3-8th grades) from underserved communities. Kids Code Too teaches students to build computers, utilize the computers to learn to code, and teach other kids to do the same.
A little background: Earlier in her career, Angela was a Senior Associate at a Fortune 500 company. She served as the Software Development lead for all web development work on two of its largest contracts (over $700M/5yrs) in the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) market.
She was responsible for leading and managing the delivery of over 200 Research and Development projects for NGA. Ms. Mitchell led the implementation of over 20 custom workflow tools that automate numerous Chief of Staff and Business Executive functions at National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) offices to reduce time spent on administrative functions and increase knowledge management.
Additionally, she has led both Enterprise (10,000+ users) and Directorate level workflow collaboration tools. She has successfully built end-to-end solutions that provide leadership with the information necessary to make data-driven business decisions.
Angela holds a Bachelors’s degree in Computer Information Systems from James Madison University, a Masters’s degree in Information Telecommunications Systems at John Hopkins University, and Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship at Babson College, the #1 ranked Entrepreneurship school in the US.
Angela is also the author of the upcoming book, “Start Before You Are Ready,” published in 2022 by Inkandescent Publishing. She is also the creator of #Goals, an app that connects Mentors and Dreamers so they can accomplish their ultimate goals! Check out the #Goals app and chapters as the book unfolds on Angela’s column page.
What’s Next: 4 Questions for Angela Mitchell, co-founder, CASE Management Consulting
An interview with Hope Katz Gibbs & Cynthia de Lorenzi, authors, Your 2021 What’s Next Journal
Hope & Cynthia: Tell us about your business/industry and where it was before the pandemic hit in March 2020.
Angela: CASE Management is a minority, woman-owned, 8A certified business process automation, and information technology consulting company. We are primarily serving the Intelligence Community. Before the pandemic, all of our work was performed onsite in a cleared environment. We held weekly onsite, in-person meetings with everyone in our company. We were in high touch to build rapport and trust with everyone who worked at CASE.
Hope & Cynthia: Where were you personally in your life when COVID-19 arrived in the US? What were your short and long-term goals at that time?
Angela: I had plans to travel the world and experience different cultures internationally. I had to cancel four trips. I wanted to focus more on my non-profit Kids Code Too. My short-term goal was to participate in a handful of speaking engagements focused on women and minority entrepreneurship. Long term, I wanted to build a pathway and pipeline for future software engineers.
Hope & Cynthia: What are your thoughts now about your industry, your business, your personal life, your heart?
Angela: The way we work in the Intelligence Community has to change. This pandemic required clients and staff to pivot and reimagine how we work. We had to learn how to collaborate, communicate, and support the mission remotely.
My company had to figure out a way to connect with staff and find ways to reward their work without seeing them in person. I also delved into the stock market and learned investment strategies. I still found a way to safely gain new experiences, exploring nature, learning new ways to work out. I embraced a vegan lifestyle and how to become healthier.
Working from home allowed me to see my kids more during the day. After the George Floyd incident, I was encouraged because this time felt different. All races and genders were marching together, and white people spoke out on behalf of black lives, talking about privilege and empathy. I was also encouraged by friends who started to use this time to explore entrepreneurship and start businesses they always thought about but never had the courage to start.
Hope & Cynthia: Now the big question — What do you see coming next?
Angela:
- For your industry: More work in the unclassified domain, more telework
- For your company: We are increasing business development opportunities and having an aggressive goal to double our company size in 2021. Expanding our service offerings to include diversity and inclusion. Expand to other client environments.
- For yourself: Travel more, experience new cultures, gain a Diversity and Inclusion certification, expand my investment portfolio.
- For the country: Peace, Equality, Justice, Healing, COVID Recovery
- For the world: COVID Recovery and opening the borders, economic recovery
- For women: Equality and respect as leaders
Angela with her dad
Hope & Cynthia: One more question — now tell us the one question we didn’t ask you — and give us your response.
Angela: What was the most life-changing moment in your life?
In the last week before my dad passed from a 17 year battle with cancer, he encouraged my siblings and me to take risks so that when we get to the last moments of our life that we have no regrets and feel like they are ready to go because we did everything we wanted in our life. That is when I started my business and decided to start before I was ready. I started living like every day was my last.