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Called to success The next time you dial a toll-free number, thank a Bobcat. Helen Crawley, BSEE '84, helped develop the software that runs AT&T's toll-free network. "When my parents would ask, 'What is it you're doing?' I'd tell them that every time they dial 800, they're hitting my code," she says.   Helen Crawley   She was hired by AT&T right out of college, then in 1996 went to work for Lucent Technologies, a spin-off of AT&T's research and development divisions. In just five years she's risen from technical manager to vice president in the company's intelligent network and messaging unit, where she oversees $158 million in research and development in mobile Internet, e-commerce and other innovations. Crawley describes herself as "success-driven," and achievement runs in her family. Her brother Rex Crawley earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Ohio University ("He's Mr. OU," Crawley says). Sister Sylvia plays for the WNBA's Portland Fire. Hard work has propelled her through potential barriers -- such as being one of only three women in her engineering class at Ohio University. She also had to tough it out when her assignment with Lucent sent her from Columbus to Napierville, Ill., far from her family in eastern Ohio. She threw herself into her work and attributes some of her fast advancement to single-mindedness. "If I had to do it over again and were married, it probably wouldn't have happened as fast," she says. Young professionals ‹ many of them minorities -- contact her for advice about achieving similar success. She tells them the truth: Success takes sacrifice. But she doesn't feel she's missed anything, either. "This has been my path in life," she says, "and I'm happy with it." She isn't a complete workaholic, though. She's active in her church -- "Keeping God in my life has been my foundation," she says ‹ and escapes to the Caribbean, out of range of cell phones, pagers and e-mail, four times every year. And a positive distraction has entered her life. She recently married a fellow Lucent employee, and they plan to have children. "I think I'll be a good role model to my children in being the best you can be," she says. -- Corinne Colbert Back to Bobcat Tracks