The Roster: Vol. 20

Ally White

At Credera, we believe we’re truly better together. The Roster is a monthly series that allows you to get to know leaders at all levels across the firm.

Eric Woods

Senior Architect, Open Technology Solutions

Dallas, TX

Favorite App: Right now my favorite desktop application is GarageBand for Mac. It has a ton of amplifier and effect pedal emulators that make it easy to plug in a guitar and headphones and noodle around for hours. For mobile apps, Spotify. It doesn’t have the greatest user experience in the world, but the selection of music is unparalleled.

Life Hack: Tell jokes to little kids, as in 2 to 6 year-olds. They’re easy to make laugh, so they’ll have a great time and you’ll feel like the greatest comedian to stagger across the Earth’s crust. Everyone wins.

Now Playing: My favorite shows in recent years have been Mr. Robot and Atlanta. I just recently wrapped up Season 3 of True Detective, which I thought was really good. It has great acting, atmosphere, and an interesting structure. But I’m really much more of a movie person. I lean toward the work of auteur directors like David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino, and others. I’ve recently been revisiting the movies from the late 1990s like The Big Lebowski, Fight Club, and American Beauty. I’m pretty convinced at this point that 1998-1999 was the high point for movies in my lifetime.

Favorite Book: The Ego Tunnel by the philosopher Thomas Metzinger. In the book, Metzinger presents to the layperson a framework of consciousness and the self as an emergent virtual reality constructed from integrated sensory experiences and other internal, dynamic processes and feedback loops. The book is full of interesting anecdotes, thought experiments, and scientific experiments to support Metzinger’s case. It’s one of those books that reliably triggers an odd cognitive dissonance within me where I’m forced to confront the undeniable sensation of having agency and free will while simultaneously having an intellectual understanding of being little more than a meat-based robot. I find the tension in those seemingly paradoxical aspects of life really fascinating.

Favorite Sports Team: My oldest son’s soccer team, the Young Boyz. I’m also a big Mavs fan.

Personal Goals: Right now I’m all about being a good role model for my sons, a good husband, brother, and son to my parents. With respect to personal hobbies, I’d like to be able to improvise more fluently on the guitar.

Personal Values: Individualism, empathy, fairness, grit, intellectual curiosity, artistry, humility, and family.

Favorite Credera Memory: I don’t really have what I’d call a single favorite memory. But I do have many favorite moments that are little more than one-on-one conversations with co-workers over drinks or a bite to eat sharing interests, exchanging ideas, and cracking a joke or two. Just getting to know each other outside of a work-related context.

Client Experience Highlight: There’s a lot, but on one project I think of every so often, we automated processes that were previously manually executed and managed by the customer care team of our client. This was seriously toilsome work they had been doing for years. When we finally delivered the solution to the customer care team, one of them actually cried in relief knowing they wouldn’t have to do those tasks anymore. It felt good to get such a raw and positive reaction like that and know someone was genuinely appreciative of what the team built.

Daniel Youman

Manager, Management Consulting

Dallas, TX

Favorite App: The answer to this question was easy and sad for me to answer. The iPhone Timer is far and away the most used app on my phone. I have realized in my career that I am OCD about all of the wrong things, but I do also use the timer for good reasons like time blocking work, snoozing and “cooking”.

Life Hack: If a AA or AAA battery has died, you can lick both ends (separately) and it will give the battery a charge for an additional 5-10 more minutes. A word of caution… check the battery before you lick it, if it is leaking it will be pretty spicy.

Now Playing: Our boys love to watch “Daniel Tiger” and “Stinky & Dirty”. When the kids are asleep my wife and I are almost always re-watching The Office, Friends, or Parks and Rec.

Passions Outside of Work: My passions outside of work are all about family and follow a specific priority. The kids always come first, when they are awake my wife and I are spending as much time with them as we can. When they go to sleep or are spending time with family, I try to date and pursue my wife like I did before we were married. This can consist of dinners out, time talking over a bottle of wine on the couch or going on an adventure of some kind. When the kids are sleeping or with family, and my wife is unavailable (or also asleep), I love to cook, play basketball or build something in the garage.

Personal Values: A few years ago when my wife and I decided to start a family, I developed a work “Mission Statement” that would help guide us through life and career planning. It consists of five very specific, yet broad values. Any position I hold must allow me to:

Serve others
Protect my family
Provide for my family
Find and share joy
Express my creativity

Favorite Credera Memory: I had the pleasure of helping lead one of the larger accounts at Credera during a period where the account grew by 15-resources at once. This was my favorite memory at the firm because it allowed me to see the excitement and eagerness our consultants bring to each project. Most of them didn’t know what they would be doing, where they would be working or who would be on their teams but they didn’t care. They knew they were equipped and supported to accomplish the tasks at hand and were thrilled to learn about and begin serving our clients. My job was the easy one, point them in the right direction and get out of the way.

Best Advice You’ve Received: “Life, marriage, and careers are like a raft trying to paddle upriver. You must be intentional and hard-working or the river of life will pull you back down. It takes effort to maintain the status quo and intentionally and persistence is required to keep moving forward.”

Ally White

Senior Marketing Coordinator, Corporate

Dallas, TX

Favorite App: Currently my favorite app is probably Marco Polo (a video communication app) – S/O to Sarah Bruner, Marketing Manager at Credera for encouraging me to download this one. I love sending and receiving videos to different groups including my roommates (yes we’ve Marco Polo’d from our rooms before), community group, my mom and even some co-workers!

Now Playing: I love New Girl, I’m not kidding when I say I’ll be watching it alone and laugh out loud. I also really loved American Idol this season! I used to be a super fan because I grew up singing but took a break from watching when I went to college. My roommates and I watched this past season and got soooo invested in wanting to see each of the singers succeed!

Passions Outside of Work: Bringing people together and making new friends! Even if I’ve only met you once, chances are in a conversation with someone I’ll refer to you as a friend. Other things I’m passionate about are spending time with my family (especially when we’re all together at the ranch I grew up on), trying new recipes (never thought I’d say that), being outside – if it’s raining on a Saturday and I’m stuck in my house it hurts a little inside, traveling to places I’ve never been, sharing how God has changed my life at The Porch (the young adult ministry at my church) and volunteering with my almost 3 year-olds at my church!

Office Music Playlist: The VNA Meals on Wheels team knows this because they made the mistake of letting me play DJ once in the team room… The Greatest Showman soundtrack is my jam. It never gets old to me. I also am a big fan of my Release Radar and Discover Weekly playlists on Spotify.

Favorite Credera Memory: Every day? But in all seriousness, I love waking up every day knowing I get to work with some of the most intelligent and creative people I’ve ever met, be a part of an amazing team, and learn from some pretty incredible leaders. Okay, now real favorite memory… probably the events that followed the moment when Andrew Warden said, “Hey Ally, you’ve been running right? Kevin Erickson can’t make it and we need you to fill in.” This was in reference to the fact that I signed myself up as an alternate for the Credera Ragnar Race. (Note: I hadn’t run in a few months) I thought I was just in it to take pictures, but little did I know that I would actually have to run. You learn a lot after spending ~24 hours in a van with coworkers. I have to say after that experience, I work with some of the best people around. Throughout the race, there were so many examples of our team living out the Credera core values of integrity, humility, excellence and even professionalism. It’s cool to be able to say that I work at a place where the people not only live out our core values at work, but they live them out outside of work too!

Role Model: My Nannie! From a young age, my Nannie (or Grandma) showed me what it looked like to be a woman of God not only through her words but through her actions. I honestly have no idea where I’d be in life without her positive influence! She has displayed strength, grace, patience, perseverance, and so so so many other incredible qualities. I know I can always call Nannie when life is throwing me a curveball and she’ll have the best advice. I hope to be half the woman she is someday!