Susan Lawson, President of Yevich, Lawson and Associates, Inc., (YL&A), Springfield, Illinois
Ms. Lawson is an IBM GOLD consultant. As the founder and owner of YL&A, her responsibilities include running day-to-day operations/proposals/contracting and technical sales of a database consulting/solution services and education firm. YL&A is known for its expertise in large databases and complex applications.
Ms. Lawson has been the IT field for over thirty years. Starting as a computer operator in a large data center at the age of sixteen and continuing into database administration and system programming while completing her Masters in MIS at UIS. Since that time, she has gone on to work for various public and private companies, consulting firms and IBM. Overall, her most rewarding job has been owning and operating her own consulting and education company (YL&A) for the past twenty years specializing in large databases and complex applications with a focus on performance availability for organizations world-wide in over forty countries. She is an internationally recognized presenter and educator in the field of IBM DB2 z/OS database and application development and performance. She has also authored several books, including the IBM DB2 z/OS DBA and Application Certification Guides, and multiple articles/white papers.
As an active principle consultant and educator for YL&A, her responsibilities include working with several large clients worldwide, in the private and government sectors, providing technical expertise, advanced education and performance/availability audits. These audits involve database and application analysis and performance tuning to save CPU and improve overall performance and availability/stability. Design and analysis activities are also performed for migrations of legacy data to DB2 z/OS to ensure maximum performance and proper exploitation of a DB2 z/OS to ensure maximum performance and proper exploitation of a DB2 z/OS data sharing/sysplex environment and latest release features. Daily client work over the years involved database and application design, third-party tool evaluation, implementation and usage, and development of backup and recovery strategies.
Ms. Lawson also provides expertise to IBM as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the DB2 certification exams (including the DB2 11 or z/OS database Administration exam, the DB2 for z/OS System Administration exam and the DB2 12 for z/OS DBA Proficiency Badge). This includes writing and reviewing all questions on the exams.