My ISA Story: Creating a Better World Through Automation

Summary

Last month, I was seaching for a Physics book at home and found an old ISA Intech magazine, the July/August 2014 Edition. As I was turning its pages, I felt admiration (once again) for the authors of each article. Just look at the “About the author” section at the end of the articles, and you will confirm that they are very prepared and experienced professionals. I talked to myself: “My professional profile may not be enough to publish an article in an ISA Magazine." But I won´t give up.

Just a few days after, I saw a post at ISA Connect inviting ISA members to share their story, which may be published in Automation.com Monthly magazine. So here I am, excited, writing my story.

I joined ISA in 2008, the same year when I founded my own system integration company, and ten years later, I was recognized as a Senior Member in 2018. That year, even though I was already a board member at ISA El Salvador Section, I still believed that my scope of work as a section volunteer wouldn´t need to go outside my country. But the Pandemic invited me to join my first ISA international event: the ISA IIoT and Smart Manufacturing Virtual Conference in Brazil. Since this virtual event was not held in the country of origin USA, I finally realized that ISA is a worldwide organization.

In 2021 I was elected as the ISA El Salvador Section President, and I felt that I should start collaborating intenationally. One day, I published a post on LinkedIn about the International Automation Professional Day, and after a few days I found my photo published in the ISA photo gallery website. What a surprise! Finding my post on the ISA website was a meanigful milestone for me: No matter your level of professional expertise, all of us are allowed to communicate with a worldwide automation community.

In 2023 I received a phone call from Armando Morales (ISA Mexico Central Section). He was the ISA Latin America and the Carribean District Nominator. He invited me to volunteer as the next LA&C District Chair Elect.

I accepted and got elected. In 2024 I was attending my first in-person District Leadership Conference, in the beautiful city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. I learned a lot about ISA and about each country from all the peolple I met there: Yesid Yermanos (District Past-President) and Trydene Meléndez (LA&C District Chair), and many Professional and Student Members from Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Argentina. This event was also very special for me because I was able to bring my family with me, travelling together for the first time.

Now, in 2025, I achieved another great milestone: I was able to attend my first in-person international ISA Event: The ISA OT Cybersecurity Summit, in Brussels, Belgium. There I met Rachael, Andrea, Ashley, Francisco, Abdullah, Olawale, Scott and even got a selfie with the CEO! The level of each technical presentation was impressive. Now I want to complete all four certificates and earn the ISA/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Expert certificate.

Perhaps this story is not the type of article you expect to read on a technical magazine, but “Automation depends on people” (As written on a beatiful sticker I got this year from the ISA DLC in Belo Horizonte, Brazil). 

If these words encourage an ISA Member to volunteer for an international role at ISA for the first time, then I will be happy, because I will be contributing to the Vision of our amazing organization: Create a better world through automation.
 
_{As the International Society of Automation (ISA) celebrates 80 years of advancing the field of automation, we asked the automation community to share their personal experiences and stories. This story was one of the six we chose for publication on Automation.com. You can view all the submissions here.}