Powering Change - Women in Innovation and Creativity
I was invited to speak on a panel about leadership, women, and STEM for the World IP Day conference in Philadelphia. My answers to the questions that were posed in the panel are given below.
World Intellectual Property Day
April 26, 2018
Drexel Kline Institute of Trial Advocacy
1200 Chestnut Street
6 PM
Please share a brief overview of your career path for the audience (5 mins)
I have degrees in architecture and engineering, and have worked in both fields. When I was in school, my advisor described this as riding two buses at the same time. Most folks who work on buildings are either one or the other… they either tackle engineering and technology problems, or they create form and space. I like doing both.
I am currently an associate professor of architectural engineering at Drexel University. At different times during my academic career, I have also worked as an engineering consultant, because I want to keep up with the industry and practice. It also helps me teach my students using relevant real-world examples. In my career, I am both a professor and a professional engineer.
Looking forward, I hope to continue riding two buses, or more, at once. I see no reason why I have to be or do just one thing.
Now, technology, science and innovation have touched each of your careers in different ways, can you please share with the audience what first sparked your interest in these fields? (5 mins)
When I was growing up, we had one radio (no TV or other electronic things in our house, except my mother’s stand mixer that she got on order from the US and was the only one in our community. She made the best cakes.)
Our family loved that radio, as it was our one connection to the outside world. So I guess it’s a testament to my parents’ trust that they would let me take it apart and put it back together again. Again and again. The stakes were so high, but I was always able to put it back together. I guess that’s what made me think I was capable of doing engineering work.
Of course that didn’t mean that I thought I would actually choose to do it as a career… that actually happened later. When I was 16 years old, I was very nearly paralyzed in a diving accident. I was out of school for 5 months, in traction for most of that time. I eventually recovered, but it was a terrible and deeply uncomfortable experience. I hated all the equipment and technology the doctors and physical therapists used to help me walk again and I honestly believed that I could design better tools and equipment and spaces that would make the experience of healing a little less horrible.
Now, all roads always have few pebbles or obstacles in the way. Can you share with us some of the obstacles that you have encountered in your career path and how those experiences have shaped you? (5 mins)
I went to graduate school for civil engineering at Carnegie Mellon, right after undergrad. I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, and of course grad school isn’t the place to “find oneself”, so I quit after a year and half. Because I had loans, I started working in an engineering firm right away, and while the money was good, I found that experience to be unmotivating. I didn’t like the work – which was making computer models to analyze heat transfer for complex engines, even though I was actually adept at it. And so, two years into that, I quit again.
This time, instead of finding another job, I just got into my car and drove around the country- kind of my Jack Kerouac phase. I did this for six months, then ran out of money and found a job teaching art to 8-15 year old boys at an eco-camp on the coast of Maine. I was surprised to find that I liked connecting with these kids and figuring out how to motivate and interest them in making art from found objects. So much so that I was offered a position to stay on as the director of the art programs for the camp’s academic year outreach.
These aren’t exactly obstacles… but they were significant diversions along my trajectory that served to teach me one of the most important lessons of my life. Don’t do something just because you’re good at it. And (if you can afford it) don’t assume it’s good for your career just because it pays well or you can get promoted.
I know along my own career path, mentors and people that encouraged me to push further in pursuing my dreams played a key role in keeping me moving, particularly in challenging times. Can you mention one or two people that have played a key role in your professional development and the traits that made them so effective in that role? (5 mins)
When I was entertaining the idea of art director at the camp, I was called into the office of the camp foundation’s director. He told me that someone had tracked me down and urgently needed to speak to me. The person on the other line was a man from Berkeley who asked me if I would like to come out to California to study architecture with him. I was nonplussed.
Who was this person and how did he find me? It turns out there were two people in my professional life who kept track of me, despite my utter disregard for keeping in touch (just ask my sister, I’m terrible). One was my advisor at grad school and the other was my mentor at undergrad. They had chatted with each other about me and decided collectively that they needed to make sure that I didn’t drop out (of higher ed., of engineering work, of a career in STEM). So one of them had contacted my parents and found out where I was. The other had contacted a colleague in California and asked if he’d be interested in hiring someone like me, who was good at making computer models, but didn’t know what to do with that skill.
So that’s how I found myself, at the tail end of summer camp season in Maine, negotiating my work responsibilities in something called computational design with a person who would help guide me through the next seven years of my life. And a month later, I began graduate school for the second time, as a Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley.
What are the two or three traits or habits that you have developed in your professional lives, that you would wished you would have developed or nurtured earlier in life? (5 mins)
I already alluded to this before. I’m not great at keeping in touch. Sometimes I send emails or texts in my head, and then get into arguments about why something wasn’t done. Because they can’t read my mind. I’m getting better at it, mostly because there’s this thing called the Internet now? It’s awesome.
I think communication is probably the single most important part of being an effective leader, and making a habit of keeping track of my network, my former students and colleagues is fundamental. I like that we have ways to do that now that are easier than talking on the phone (gasp) or writing letters, but nurturing real connections requires making an effort. I used to think that these connections would just organically evolve and deepen – that Facebook or LinkedIn would do it for me, but I now know that you have to work on it, just the same way we work on research projects, grant applications, student advising, and a really good mojito.
Let’s talk about more your roles as leaders of the next generation of women innovators in very different settings. What do you perceive is the most difficult challenge that the women you lead are facing today? (5 mins)
I think that it’s very hard for young women, college age or younger, to see themselves in a field like engineering because they don’t see role models or they don’t have mentors who understand their struggles and aspirations. It’s so very hard to figure out how to navigate these waters when you don’t have someone to ask, how did you do this? Has this happened to you? What should I do?
This is generally true for women in STEM, regardless of their place in the career ladder. We simply do not have enough role models and mentors who look, behave, and struggle like us to help us figure out how to make it in the world.
I am a big proponent of getting men involved in becoming advocates for women’s career advancement. What advice would you have those men that want to advocate, but may not know how? (5 mins)
I think this is something my mentors have done for me… they kept track of me, even when I was a useless person who wanted to teach macramé to boys on the coast of Maine. I think men and women, anyone in a position of leadership really, should identify at least one young woman and then facilitate her journey- keep track of where she is, remind her of what she can do, and then help her get on with it.
If you know a high school student, or college student, or a grad student, who you think is awesome- help her. Watch out for her. Become her friend, her advocate, her coach.
What single piece of advice would you give to a young woman today that may be afraid or reluctant to become an innovator in whatever field attracts her? (5 mins)
Don’t be afraid to ask for help or to accept help when it’s offered. There’s a whole world of women and some men out there who are rooting for you.
Thank you. (I'll post photos soon.)