Persisting in STEM: How Caitlin Kalinowski Kept her Eye on the Prize

My STEM Best Friend

Women supporting other women can be key to persisting in STEM fields. Mareena Robinson Snowden and Joy Marie Johnson share how their friendship of more than 11 years has helped them navigate their careers, from PhDs at MIT to Apple and working on “nuclear for good” as a Stanton Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Enjoy their insights about ‘finishing well,' the support of providing an appropriate response to meaningful accomplishments, and how there isn’t one universal perspective for women or people of color.

Persisting in STEM: How Caitlin Kalinowski Kept her Eye on the Prize

Caitlin Kalinowski is the Head of Hardware at Oculus, a virtual reality software company and division of Facebook, Inc. Caitlin was also involved in the product design of the first unibody MacBook Pro, combining her knack for creativity with her talent in product design. In this conversation, Caitlin shares her experience of overcoming feeling “behind” at Stanford, and how she embraced her diverse interests to land professional opportunities. Caitlin opens up about her experience in adjusting to different work cultures, activism in tech, and discusses the importance of persisting through fear for the sake of the end goal.

Connecting the Dots Backward: How Mary Vincent Created her Unique Career Path

Mary Vincent’s story is the perfect illustration of how career paths are not linear. After participating in the Peace Corps in Hungary, her passion for the planet guided her career in green tech, from data center efficiency to sustainable agriculture. Learn how she went from a non-technical background to becoming CTO of a wearable tech company, and a global speaker on all things IoT.

Building an Ecosystem of Supporters to Realize Your Dreams

Learn how Meena Sankaran channeled her childhood experience of having just 1 hour of clean water a day to founding Ketos, a water intelligence startup that delivers actionable metrics on water safety and sustainability to transform how businesses and people think about water. Her passion as a social entrepreneur extends to supporting refugees. Meena is the Founder and Executive Director of PRERNA, an all-volunteer, all women-led non-profit focused on empowering refugees in the US to help lead sustainable lives. She shares her journey from Mumbai, India to study Electrical Engineering in Texas, demonstrating how grit and the support of others carried her through challenging moments.

The friendship that sparked a movement: The Wogrammer Story

In this episode, Wogrammer co-founders share the roots and history of Wogrammer's mission. Erin Summers, Senior Software Engineer at Facebook and Zainab Ghadiyali, key product lead at Airbnb, share how their friendship inspired them to discover a common struggle from which the idea of Wogrammer was born. From female “bragging rights” in STEM to a native American engineer whose story went viral, they share the “why” behind the mission, and the vision they hold for its future.