Today, we're joined by Alex Levich. Alex is a Product Management Executive with nearly 20 years of experience building innovative products and teams at scale. Currently, Alex is a Product Lead at Google, focused on Maps & Local Verticals, and has previously worked at Facebook. Alex is a public speaker on digital media, product management, technology, innovation and women in tech. She was featured in Inc. magazine column on innovation, has filmed a YouTube show to showcase women leaders...

Today, we're joined by Danielle Forward. Danielle is a Product Designer for Social Impact at Facebook. She was born and raised in Santa Rosa, California, and moved to San Francisco to attend college. After ten years of paying her way through college part-time, she graduated as valedictorian with her BFA in Interaction Design from California College of the Arts. During college, she had two internships at Facebook, both on separate teams for Internet.org. Danielle is also the founder of Nativ...

Today, we're joined by Diana Kris Navarro. Diana is currently a software engineer at Tumblr. She was in the founding class of Girls Who Code in 2012, a hackNY fellow in 2017, and was featured in GWC’s Sisterh>>d campaign for Day of the Girl. She has previously interned at Adobe, Qualcomm and Gilt Groupe. Related Sites: Diana Kris Navarro's Q&A: https://www.womenofsiliconvalley.org/interviews/diana-kris-navarro Diana Kris Navarro's Website: https://dianakris....

Today, we're joined by Hidai Olivas-Holguin. Hidai is a former Google intern and first-generation student in her senior year at MIT. Related Sites: Hidai Olivas-Holguin's Q&A: https://www.womenofsiliconvalley.org/interviews/hidai-olivas-holguin Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenofsiliconvalley/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/WomenofSV Website: https://www.womenofsiliconvalley.org/

Today, we're joined by Ti Chang. Ti is an industrial designer passionate about designing products for women. As the co-founder and VP of Design at Crave, she is the leading voice in bringing modern sex toys to the mainstream. Her award-winning designs have helped pioneer the category of sex jewelry, de-stigmatizing pleasure products for women through aesthetic design and leading Crave to outlets such as the MoMa Design store, Standard Hotel, Goop, and Saint Laurent. Ti holds an M.A. in Desig...

Today, we're joined by Lesley-Ann Noel. Lesley-Ann is an Afro-Caribbean design educator and huge leader in the Design Thinking and Social Impact space. Lesley-Ann is the Associate Director of Design Thinking for Social Impact at the Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking at Tulane University. Lesley-Ann was a 2018–2019 Ocean Design Teaching Fellows at the d.school at Stanford University, where she co-taught a class in which students applied a design lens t...

Today, we're joined by Ruth-Ann Hazel Armstrong. She is a senior at Stanford University from Spanish Town, Jamaica, majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Economics. Outside of classes, she is involved in the Stanford Black Society of Engineers, The Stanford Daily, the Caribbean Students Association, and Stanford Women in Engineering. Related Sites: Ruth-Ann's Q&A: https://medium.com/caribbeantechies/4-questions-with-ruth-ann-hazel-armstrong-8ea77daa207f ...

Today, we're joined by Nita Singh Kaushal. Nita is a first-gen Indian-American engineer and founder of Miss CEO, one of the first programs of its kind to teach girls negotiation and other critical life skills. Since its founding in 2011, Miss CEO has trained over twenty thousand children, young women, and professionals all over the world. Nita is currently a Lecturer in the School of Engineering at Stanford University and an Instructor at Stanford Continuing Studies. Related Sites: &...

Today, we're joined by Shana Simmons. Shana is General Counsel at Everlaw, a cloud based e-discovery software company, where she leads the company’s global legal and regulatory affairs. In addition to her corporate role, Shana actively mentors early-in-career professionals and aspiring lawyers. Before Everlaw, Shana served as Head of Cloud Go-to-Market Legal at Google LLC, where she was responsible for managing a team supporting Google’s growing global Cloud business. Her ongoin...

Today, we're joined by Krystal Maughan. She is a Caribbean immigrant and engineering Renaissance woman in film, tech, and AI. She has done a workshop at Jet Propulsion Lab, interned at Apple, and is currently a PhD student at the University of Vermont. Related Sites: Krystal's Q&A: https://medium.com/caribbeantechies/4-questions-with-krystal-a-maughan-2fa2ed9ab9fe Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenofsiliconvalley/ Twitter:&nb...

Today, we're joined by Karina Canales. Karina leads the Scaled Comms & Platforms team for Creators at YouTube. She is a Peruvian immigrant who had an amazing path to get to the US. She is the founder of an extremely successful YouTube channel, which has recently surpassed 10k subscribers. Through this channel and her social media, she motivates not only women but also groups that don't usually have role models, including students from a low socio-economic background. Related Sit...

Today, we're joined by Eva Greene Wilson. Eva is a first-generation American. She followed a courageous and nonlinear path from administration to a JD and engineering, going on to become the founder of SocaMom.com, a community for families of Caribbean descent, and the Founder of the SocaMom® Summit, the first conference of its kind to address the concerns of the Caribbean diaspora. Related Sites: Eva's Q&A: https://medium.com/caribbeantechies/eva-greene-wilson-5eece7...

Today, we're joined by Anisa Benitez. She is an actor, brand builder, artist advocate, and creative entrepreneur. She’s built her marketing career at iconic brands, such as Google, where she has worked on hardware, and YouTube; at Time Inc. where she worked for TIME magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and Fortune magazine; and at RCA Records under Sony Music Entertainment. She is also the founder of More by Her, a storytelling platform highlighting creative womxn shaping culture; and host and p...

Today, we're joined by the Europe Lead for Women of Silicon Valley, Elizabeth Smith. Elizabeth is an MBA candidate at the University of Oxford. Born and raised in Washington, she moved to California in 2014 to attend Santa Clara University and intern as a software engineer in the Silicon Valley tech scene. She holds both a BS and MS in Computer Science from Santa Clara and Oxford, respectively, and specializes in cybersecurity. We discuss her decision to pursue an MBA, in addition to mindf...

BuzzFeed Article: https://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicaprobus/resources-for-white-allies-fighting-racism Black Girls CODE: "Black Girls CODE is devoted to showing the world that black girls can code... By reaching out to the community through workshops and after school programs, Black Girls CODE introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails." https://www.blackgirlscode.com/ Code2040: "Ou...

Today, we're joined by the Head of Community for Women of Silicon Valley, Raquel Small. Raquel is a Paralegal at Google on the Litigation team. Originally from the NYC area, she is the child of a proud Jamaican mother and a Panamanian father, and she believes empowering women and people of color is the only way to make society better. We discuss new motherhood, her ability to pivot daily in this constantly changing world, and some of her baking adventures. Referenced WoSV Pieces: &nb...

Today, we're changing things up, and Lea Coligado is interviewing our host Kendrick Umstattd. Kendrick joined the Women of Silicon Valley team, first as an intern, before joining full-time in May 2019 after graduating from Yale with an electrical engineering and computer science degree. She is now a software engineer on the Maps team at Google’s Seattle office. We discuss her upbringing, choosing to be aware over afraid, and her attempts to not adopt a French Bulldog puppy during quarantine...

Today, we're joined by the founder of Women of Silicon Valley, Lea Coligado. One of BBC's 100 Inspiring & Innovative Women, Lea has been featured on CNN, Bustle, BuzzFeed, and many more prominent sites. Lea is not only a Google Maps engineer working on accessibility but also the fearless founder of Women of Silicon Valley. We discuss what led her to found Women of Silicon Valley, how she got into technology, and how her heritage influences her. Referenced WoSV Pieces: Lea's...

Today, I’m joined by Jess Webb. Executive Summit Manager for Google’s Partner Plex and Women of Silicon Valley’s Event Lead, Jess has over eight years of experience in the event planning arena and coordinates logistics and content for an average of 70 events per year, focusing primarily on Spanish-speaking Latin American countries and Brazil. Born and raised in Brazil, Jess is a first-generation college student and proud member of the queer community. We discuss resilience, her experience c...

Today, I’m joined by Clarissa Bukhan. Clarissa has an incredible resume, helping grow Box and Optimizely in their early days, before joining Google. Now, in addition to being Women of Silicon Valley’s Editor-in-Chief, she manages Google-wide partner strategy for the company's largest, most complex partners. We discuss what Women of Silicon Valley means to her, how to find balance between work and motherhood, gratitude and self care, and some favorite recipes and analog activities. ...