After earning a computer science degree at The American University in Cairo, Dalia Powers moved to Dallas to work on a project with Texas Instruments. She has since held roles at global firms CBRE, Capital One, and USAA, eventually moving into her current position as senior vice president and CIO of digital and data platforms at Humana. Here, Powers shares what sparked her career journey—and her love for Dallas.
“I grew up in Cairo in a family of three girls. My dad owned his own business, and my mom was a general manager of sales and marketing at a large local company. That was at a time when it wasn’t common for women to be in leadership positions. I credit my mother for being such an amazing role model for me. She really helped me understand the value of having a career and being independent, ambitious, and driven. When I was young, I dreamed of becoming a ballerina, but at a very early age, I was also interested in math and science. Those were my favorite subjects in school. I was 12 or 13 years old when I signed up for a computer science class. That got me hooked. It was fascinating to use technology to solve problems and to be able to program machines.
“They taught us a basic programable language. It was just so fascinating for me to use technology to solve problems and be able to program machines. I was just in love with it. That was probably one of the reasons why I went into computer science.
“I went to American University in Cairo, where I majored in computer science. When I went to college, I really enjoying the idea of creativity, innovation, solving hard problems, and seeing how I can really change things through being able to program them and get results really quickly.
“[Studying computer science] was one of the drivers for me to come to the U.S. Two weeks after joining Texas Instruments, they sent me on a project to Dallas, which was supposed to be six months to a year. I happened to land in Dallas and fell in love with it. Growing up in Egypt, I always saw American television shows and movies. I used to watch Dallas reruns. Obviously, TV is not always reality, but it was a good introduction. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are more similarities to Egypt than I had thought, but I enjoy some of the differences, too. Cairo is a very active, busy city, and Dallas feels a little bit more laid back. That’s something I really love.”
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