I just submitted my application to be a 2014 TechWomen mentor. I have been supporting this excellent program of the US State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs since 2010 and I am eager to participate again. I hope to host an Emerging Leader from Africa or the Middle East in my new company Everwise in San Francisco. I want to expand my network of sisters in STEM!
Images Copyright 2011-2013 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
I am enjoying working at Everwise in San Francisco as their new Vice President – Mentoring. It is particularly fun to get re-acquainted with my hometown. I worked for years in our family business – in a building that does not exist any more. It was on Steuart Street at the base of Mission, across from what is now the Rincon Center but used to be the Rincon Annex US Post Office. I used to love looking at the WPA murals while waiting in line to refill our postal meter.
In the last two weeks, I have discovered an inexpensive place to park ($10/day instead of the $28/day I paid at first), and delightful places to eat closeby:
I have also admired the newly refurbished LeRoy King carousel and plan to ride it soon!
I am still working out how best to manage the San Jose – SF – San Jose commute. This takes between 1 hour 30 minutes, and 2 hours each way – depending on when I start. My husband John and I have both driven and taken the train. When he works from home, I have driven alone. Caltrain is less expensive ($18/day round trip) but I need to walk a mile from the station – so I arrive later and have to leave earlier. There are very few express (“Baby Bullet”) trains. If I ride a milk train, the trip is 50 minutes longer. Driving costs about $38/day ($.55/mile x 50 miles + $10 parking) but allows a flexible work schedule.
Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
Last week, I started as the new Vice President – Mentoring at Everwise in San Francisco. I am delighted to join a team helping progressive, successful corporations and non-profits to create world-class mentoring programs. My first big project will be with InovAtiva and entrepreneurs in Brazil!
Here is some of what drew me to Everwise:
My new position at Everwise coordinates well with my ongoing activities. I will continue as the Chief Operating Officer for People to People (pro bono), as a volunteer for the TechWomen mentoring program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, as an accredited EfM Mentor, and as a member of the Anita Borg Institute Advisory Board.
My husband John and I will be commuting to work together from San Jose to SF, where he is the Principle Architect, Open Storage at EVault (Seagate). Since our son Paul is graduating this month from Foothill College and transferring to San Jose State University in September, he can get to class more easily on public transit.
Image Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson
I just got back from a trip to Ethiopia during which I was honored to interview US Ambassador to Ethiopia, Patricia M. Haslach, on behalf of People To People Radio. Check out her advice to women and girls in the just-posted video. Thanks to my husband John Plocher for managing the recording and processing!
Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher
Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
Last week, I sat with the Anita Borg Institute Advisory Board at a gala celebrating Women of Vision, and in particular, the well-deserved award for Leadership honoring Dr. Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd College here in California. I am dating myself to write that I remember when Mudd was an all-male institution. Maria and her team have grown Mudd from 10% women in Computer Science to 40% – and have kept that 40% stable for years. This unique accomplishment deserves some celebration! Maria is amazing – she is also #17 on Fortune’s list of the world’s 50 greatest leaders.
The other inspiring winners were Tal Rabin (Research Staff Member and Manager cryptographic research, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) for Innovation; and Kathrin Winkler (Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, EMC Corporation) for Social Impact. Bank of America won as the 2014 Top Company for Women in Computing. Also attending the event were many of my sister mentors who have served in the U.S. State Department’s TechWomen program for scientific and technical women in the Middle East and Africa, including: Jameeka Aaron (of Lockheed Martin), Larissa Shapiro (of Mozilla), Andrea Leszek (of Salesforce), and Rahima Mohammed (of Intel).
Yesterday, my husband John and I drove to Berkeley to see His Majesty, King Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein of Jordan speak at International House on the University of California campus. I was pleased to see the slide saying that 30% of Jordan’s tech industry workers are women – better than the 26% in America as of 2013.
I have never seen the King in person before, although last year I was honored to meet his cousin, Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan. Also, when my daughter Jessica and I were on the bus to Petra in Jordan, we watched “The Royal Tour“, a video featuring King Abdullah riding his motorcycle to show off his country. Yesterday’s talk is yet-another event that entered my life because of TechWomen. Mentor Lucie Newcomb (of NewComm Global Group) posted information about the event – including how to get tickets.
TechWomen 2014 mentor sign ups open soon! Please consider expanding your mind, experience, and heart to join us!
Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson
Last night, many of the TechWomen 2011-2013 mentor alumnae from the Silicon Valley and San Francisco participated in an event introducing the U.S. State Department mentoring program for women in the Middle East and Africa to potential new mentors. Thanks to BrightRoll for hosting the event!
What is TechWomen?
TechWomen empowers, connects, and supports the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from Africa and the Middle East by providing them the access and opportunity needed to advance their careers, pursue their dreams, and inspire women and girls in their communities.
Through mentorship and exchange, TechWomen strengthens participants’ professional capacity, increases mutual understanding between key networks of professionals, and expands girls’ interest in STEM careers by exposing them to female role models.
1,400 women in STEM from 16 countries have already applied to be one of the 78 emerging leaders who will come to the San Francisco Bay Area in October 2014. Selections will be announced in June. Also in June, applications will open for professional mentors. Cultural mentor applications open in July. This is a life-changing and excellent program – both for mentors and mentees. I have been part of TechWomen since 2010 and I recommend it highly!
Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
I have been thinking during this twenty year anniversary and rememberance of the Rwandan Genocide of the remarkable emerging leaders I met during my recent visit as part of the TechWomen Rwanda delegation. Tomorrow, at the American Association of University Women (AAUW) California convention in Los Angeles, I am giving a breakfast talk on mentoring. I will open my talk by describing the delegation’s visit to meet the inspiring Gashora Girls Academy (GGAST) in Rwanda – as way of illustrating how mentoring is about meeting people where they are. I have been saving the Rwanda remembrance news stories served up by my Feedly reader, as a way seeing how the world understands these events and what came after. Here is what I have so far:
Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
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