Business as Usual Featuring the ATHENA Awards and the EDGE Women's Leadership Program

Transcript:
Good afternoon everyone. This is Audrey Russo and president and ceo, the Pittsburgh Technology Council thrilled to be here today. Love the opportunity to talk about the issues that we're going to talk about today and some of the opportunities. But before we jump in and I introduce our guests, I want to give some shout outs and some of the shout outs include our sponsors, Huntington bank and sheetz, and Huntington bank has been with us since the beginning of this COVID-19 journey.

And we thank them for their work that they've done in small businesses and helping through all the federal and state initiatives to help small businesses they've been amazing and sheetz as well sheetz has been a strong partner of ours at the tech counter On their building, and they actually have built an innovation center so that they can be working on the future of sheets. So it's pretty exciting to have them as partners and really appreciate that. So I also want to tell everyone that we have muted you know the background for you because we don't want to hear your background, but I will apologize in case my dogs bark. But other than that, we have a chat and the chat is used for to have exchange with our guests, and we will be moderating that and hopefully we have time to answer any of the questions that you have or any kind of comments that you have. So I am going to jump in right now. Oh, and I want to remind everyone that tomorrow, we have David Holmberg, president of Highmark health, and he is going to be joining us and we have many great programs that are already in play. So you know, don't hesitate. And if you miss a show, you can go we have it archived, and lots of opportunities for you to see the kinds of things that we're doing and talking to so today. I'm really thrilled to introduce three women. And first I'm going to be introducing Lynne Banaszak. She is the executive director digital transformation and Innovation Center at CMU Heinz college.

We also have joined, we have our own Allison Kaharick, and she is director of major programs with us. And she is leading the Athena awards, and we're going to talk a little bit about that. And then we have Andrea Krueger, she's working to continue to build the council's edge program. We're going to talk about that. So today it's really about women leaders, and what it means and the kinds of work that we're all trying to do to lift each other up. So hello, Lynn. And just so that everyone knows I've known Lynn for probably about 15 years. She's worn a lot of hats. She has been someone that I've had a relationship with as a colleague, and as a friend. And, you know, I'll probably find some Ways to joke with her while where I would definitely do that with the other two guests as well. So I want to when you were recognized, I cannot believe that it was 2015. And you know, it was, I can't believe it's been that long then you were recognized as an Athena winner. And I know five years ago. And so really, what I want to do is a couple of things. I just want to and you can take it from here. I want you to talk about what that meant for you what it has meant for you what you think it is for the future, and then talk about the work that you're currently doing at Carnegie Mellon.

So, Okay, thanks. Thanks, Audrey. Thanks for inviting me to be with you today. I appreciate it and appreciate all the work that you're doing to keep us connected during these together but separate times. It's really been exciting to tune in and listen to you and all the people that you've highlighted. So it's a pleasure to be one of them today. I was the Athena winner, and 2015 and it was, it was almost like the Oscars, I have to say, I've never been someone who is good at being surprised, or I think I'm actually hard to surprise. And colleague of mine, from a law firm here in town, decided to nominate me for the work that I was doing. And I got that call, like many of the nominees this year received, and I thought, well, that's great. And then sometime after that, I got another call that I was a finalist and I thought, Wow, that's really great. And didn't expect to win this award. I think people because the perhaps because the finalists are so prepared when they get on stage. Maybe people think they know who is the winner before they get up there, but you really don't. And so, it about midnight, the night before the Athena awards, I was texting back and forth with my sister and she said, Did you prepare remarks? And I said, No, there's no way I'm going to win. doesn't make any sense to me. And she's like, are you serious, because if you do when you're really going to regret the fact that you weren't prepared to say things that you wanted to say, and so it about 1230 the night before I put a few remarks together and was so excited to be recognized and hear my name called that next afternoon, it was, it was quite a surprise. And to this day, from that moment that I was nominated till now, it feels like a great honor in my career and in my work.
But let's talk about Lin Lin Lin, the woman Lin, the woman who has worked in life sciences and biotech and economic development and worked at the university. So let everyone know about who you are. And then also talk about your foundation. So I mean, I think that's important. You don't just win this award, because you know, you're beautiful or you're nice or you're, you know, you need a team of people. That's really not what this is about. It's really about lifting others. So talk about Lynn so that people know a little bit about you.

Okay, I appreciate you saying all that Audrey. So I in my career, I've really been on the frontlines of helping companies not only become created, but find the institutional and the economic development support, they need to take really big ideas out into the marketplace. And so I have done that for most of my career through the Society of Automotive Engineers, and then was recruited to start a company that started the first biotech regenerative medicine conference in the world. We did that right here in Pittsburgh through visit Pittsburgh, believe it or not, we were sort of this arm that was thought that let's bring people into the city who are here for changing the world and creating interesting scientific approaches to big problems and was recruited out of there to then go to the life sciences greenhouse, where he went for almost a decade, being the first money into companies, and one of the things in all of that work that I realized are there were a lot of really powerful women working in biotechnology working in life sciences working in economic development. This sort of just had their heads down, you know, working really hard to move the needle and make a difference. But they weren't the majority. And a lot of them, particularly the bench scientists in this in this town, really didn't have a peer group. And so we started the first chapter of Women In Bio here in Pittsburgh. We were just I think we were the ninth chapter nationally. And I've just really felt that in all of the work that I've done, it was important to remember that we need to prop each other up, we need to build one another up. And I've done that in interesting volunteer ways throughout my career. I'm currently at the digital transformation and Innovation Center at Carnegie Mellon. And through a really generous and Embedded thought leadership type sponsorship from PwC. We work on interesting digital solutions to big problems that PwC faces in their organization, but also, they they help us roll out solutions to their clients globally.
And so the same thing, we're really starting with the science, we're building all of the support around it, to then take it off the bench and apply it in the real world in some interesting way. And I think the Athena award for me part of what was such a magnificent tribute was that it wasn't just saying, hey, you've been working a long time, trudging along is one of the oh geez in town, right. But you're doing other things that makes sure that you're allowing people a seat at the table, you're making sure that whatever access you have, you're granting and extending your circle to other people to make sure that they're in these thoughtful conversations, and they're having opportunity Unity's for career growth. And then, when tragedy struck my family in 2016, and my 17 year old niece Kaylee was, unfortunately we were treating her for an illness that actually it wasn't what she had and she had catastrophic results of about blockage due to undiagnosed Crohn's disease, and passed away just nine days before her 18th birthday. After 42 days in the hospital, really fighting to stay here and Kaylee was one of the shining lights in my life, but she was also a shining light in other people's lives. She was an advocate for others. She was a true believer in cracking the glass ceiling and making sure that women had a voice and she in her very short life, did a lot of work advocating for others and so we started a family called the Kaylee Lynn McDowell foundation in 2016. To honor and celebrate her life in all of her passions. And I'm proud to say that we've done great work. We do pop up voter registrations for young people, so that we can get 18 year olds engaged in believing and understanding that their voice and their vote can make this their world can really change the world. There are 4 million young people right now, that will be at the right 18 by the time of the November election. And so if you can imagine 4 million new voters, and so we're working on that and we give scholarships at her high school, Woodland Hills High School, to young people that not only are superstars academically and athletically and, and involved in all those ways, but most importantly, they have to be connectors. And they have to be people that build up others and build community within their school and beyond, to help influence the world in a beautiful way.

So you can see why she was given the 2015. Athena award shouldn't have been a surprise to you. But I want to pass the baton and we're going to come back to limb as we have time and anyone who have questions for Lynne just put them in the chat, because there's more to her than even just the short, no monologue that she just had. So I just want to quickly pass the baton to Allison on our team I mentioned earlier, Allison oversees all of our major programs, and she's going to talk a little bit about the Athena awards. And Allison.

Hi, there. Thanks for having me as part of the program for today and thank you everyone for joining the call. Clearly, we have taken on the VFC and awards program. From the Allegheny conference this year. It's our first time hosting it and it's going pretty well so far. We had our first You know, I've been doing our host committee meetings for a few months now everyone's so active in the community. And we're so just so proud and honored to work with many wonderful men and women on that committee including when we had our virtual hosts are judging last week. So our finalists are in I'm sure you've seen our social. Anyone that's on this call, obviously is receiving our emails and you're seeing our LinkedIn posts. So our five Athena nomination or sorry, five Athena finalists and our three young professional Athena finalists are out and about, and we are working with them actively. I'm here basically to talk to you today about the virtual program on September 11. As you know, again, you're all here virtually with us. We've taken most of our programs into a virtual space for 2020. So far as a result of COVID-19 and we're continuing to roll with the punches for Athena. You know this word Normally, this award celebrates women who demonstrate excellence in their profession, they contribute to their communities, and mentor other women and girls. And I think you'll be really understanding of why the eight finalists are where they are as a result of those three criteria that the Athena international award stands for. We are going to host a one hour luncheon program. We're keeping it as you know, as as good as we can, as you know, with the normal program has been in past years. And we encourage you to reach out, we're going to put the official email address in the chat section, you can email me if you want to talk about sponsorships of the event. We have many of those still open and available. If you want to talk about nominating somebody for 2021. If you'd like to talk about becoming a host committee member, I'm your resource or I can get you to the right person. So anything you'd like to chat about, feel free to reach out, we'd love to talk to you and have you take part in a program. Well, one thing I just want everyone to really understand that this is a heavily vetted process. So can you just quickly talk about that so people understand how the process is I have any weight into this process? I want to say that, yes. Awesome to just tell everyone that this is thoughtful deep bedding.

Yes. So this year, we had an impressive list of 46 Athena nominees and 23 young Athena nominees, this is an intense process. We have somebody nominate you or nominate yourself. There's an online forum. And then we go into a very detailed judging panel of which Lin participated for us this year. That panel, they they get the heavy haul, they're asked to read through every single 46 nomination or 23. For young Athena this year. They read a lot of buyers a lot of info about these impressive women in Pittsburgh. And then we asked them to, you know, score each individual. We talk about them openly and then we have a very long, I think, two hours each judging selection panel meeting virtually, again, doing everything virtually this year, we sat down to talk last week and it really is a heavy haul. It's a lot of reading, and you can tell that the panel members are truly committed. We had members from the host committee, we had former Athena award winners and we also had leaders of community leaders in Pittsburgh join us this year. So people that have never been involved in Athena before but are active on our community and we thought would be great people to, you know, provide their input for the women that we were reviewing this year. So it's quite the extensive process and very time consuming for our judges, and we appreciate their help.
It's great. So I thank you. So I want to just quickly to Andrea, Andrea Krueger I mentioned earlier. Let me see if I can personally see her here. Hi, Andrea. Thank you so much, everyone. Thanks
for having me.

Absolutely. You have played a key role in helping the tech council build and grow what we call the edge program during the time at the Council and you're still working with us now on this particular program to help us attract new women into our cohorts. Can you talk about edge and and so people can understand what that is what it means, why it's so transformative and why it's different than any training? Absolutely. And I can speak to this very intimately because I am a graduate of the edge program myself. Back in 2017, the tech council partnered with Christie Ullman, formerly of aligned leadership, but she's really rebranded. So she's now with edge leadership solutions. So we partnered with her to offer two experiences both a nine month
edge experience.

And then a two day retreat, which is coming up next week actually hard to believe, at nemacolin on August 20, and 21st. And as targets mid career professionals, mid career women who are looking to get to that next level in their personal lives and their professional lives. We do have a focus you know, since we are the Pittsburgh Technology Council on elevating women into tech into tech leadership roles and women in leadership roles in tech organizations, but really we have a broad range of women from a variety of companies who attend this summer. We have women from being why Mellon sdlc partners Hi, Mark mylyn innovation works ANSYS PsycINFO and a number of other companies participating. And so any woman looking to learn and dig into coaching, critical thinking, personal branding, influential leadership, executive presence, and to be part of a coaching a group coaching experience. So edge is not one where you know, you're somebody stands up in the front of the room and teaches from a PowerPoint. It's very much an interactive experience where you are really digging into these topics and issues with the other women in the program. So you're also building a peer network of amazing leaders from across industries. So if you read any of the testimonials that the women who have been through the program have shared a lot of them say things like life changing, which you know, sounds pretty radical for a two day experience or a nine month program, but That's the feedback that that we've received in terms of the impact that this experience has had.

And I like your point about talking about it as not as training, per se. It's really not we do it a disservice when we when we really talk about training, but there are things that that have happened with the women who have participated in terms of their own professional experiences, you know, some of the data that many of the women what did we find out like in the first few classes,
over half of the women had been promoted into a leadership role within their organization or outside of the organization. Many of them have gone on to join nonprofit boards, or who have gone on to take a leadership role within employee resource groups or women in technology groups within their organization. So it's really one that inspires and motivates the women to want to give back to their community. And I should mention that we also do offer scholarships to the program so we have a number of women attending the retreat. This year that we have a partnership with red chair, Pittsburg. So we have a number of scholarships through them. And then some additional scholarships as well. We always want to be mindful of being a diverse group of women. So people coming from all different backgrounds and experiences to make it a more rich experience. We've done a good job.

Thank you, Andrew. For that we put the links up there, we put info about the retreat, and anything that's related to that as well. And and in this time of COVID, when people are really feeling a little bit disconnected, it couldn't come at a better time for us to look at each and every one of us to look at what are our lives, what's our impact? And what does it mean in terms of our own contribution to ourselves and to others, so, so thank you for that, Andrea. Really appreciate that and appreciate your leadership there as well and your candor in actually participating in the program. So I want to jump back to learn if I can, I don't want to go far but I just want to go back to Lynn Thinking about that was five years ago 13 and all the things that have sort of changed with us, can you share what your what what it really means to you in terms of living in Pittsburgh, being a leader being a woman working in, um, you know, I want to say Life Sciences, biotech, you know, digital transformation, etc. What's changed in five years? What's, what's the been changes, have there been progress? Are we still, you know, meeting to make sure that we're highlighting and lifting people up?

Well, I think one of the things that's changed in five years is a lot of it is thanks to you and your work at the tech council because I think that you in your leadership and in your role there have really done a really great job of making sure that we sort of the broaden the circle around who gets to who gets to be part of the conversation. The subject matter that we're discussing the issues sort of allowing the issues to lead the discussion and the dialogue in our community.

And so I think when I think about the last five years, I think there has been progress in that some of the women who have won this award have been have been finalists, the nominees, I think, have taken that very seriously. And I think that one of the things that's been such an interesting outgrowth of becoming part of the Athena community is that most, believe it or not, most of the women that I am connected to through that community, were not women that I typically spent my time talking with or for, for that matter, understanding what they did or what help they might need in their networks. And so I think one of the most powerful things about the Athena network Is that it really is a dynamic network of women who say, Listen call on me. If you need something, and I can help, I'll find a way to offer it up. If I can't, I'll find you the right person to help you with that. And so I feel like in the last five years, the work that I've done certainly feels broader is is and I mean that in that it feels like a bigger a bigger group of people that don't all look the same, that don't all come from the same backgrounds. I think there are a lot of hard working women in leadership in this region, that make that sort of the underpinning of their leadership. Right. And so, you know, I, I look to you for that and commend you for that as well. So I think what what's been different in the last five years, I think is some of the digital transformation in our world. region in in the way that we do business at large, has allowed us very similarly to the way that we went from being asked to shelter at home to within days being able to be reconnected with one another, in a bigger way on this platform and others similar to it. And so I think the world looks like that, too. I think that our platforms have broadened. And there are people working hard to make sure that those are including lots of people, lots of perspectives, and lots of ideas of how to get better at the work that we're doing. Not only in our, you know, our sectors and in our, in our very specific work, but also society, to make sure that the things that matter to everyone are part of what we think about when we do our individual work.
But some things haven't changed.

Right that Yes, that's true.
Right? Some things haven't changed. Yes. These conversations about what it means for everyone to be at the table. You know, black women, LGBT, you know, we can go through the list and make sure that we all understand that we're still punching through that ceiling.
Right? I think that's right.

Right. And I think I don't want it to be all Pollyanna. I appreciate your path and, and, you know, taking the positive side, but I'm going to jump back to Andrea for a second because that's one of the things that I've learned about watching the women and connecting the women who have gone through edge. And by the way, Julia popping reminds us that Christie guffman from edge is a young Athena award winner from the past. So it all it's nice that it comes into some of these, you know, full circle. But Andrea, I think one of the points that you've taught me through this and because at first I was a little apprehensive about edge that whether that really was a kindness program that would be impactful. And quickly after two years, I realized No, this this really is different. And the amount of focus on the variety of women that participate, to me has been the most profound. Do you want to comment on that a little bit. You mentioned it earlier, when you talked about that your intention has always been for it to be a diverse group of people. And thanks to red chair, thanks for sponsorships and thanks for companies taking leadership. We've been able to like remarkably achieve that.

Right. Yeah, I mean, we have women who are coming from nonprofits participating. This is a public cohort. So Christy's been doing this work for years within corporations. And that work is just limited to those employees of that organization, whereas this pulls from all across the region. And I think that's what makes it so unique is that you know, you have women who are lawyers. And it directors and, you know, from nonprofits to fortune 500 companies all coming together, and just realizing how much they actually have in common and how how so many of their experiences are shared experiences, and that they can lift each other up and come together and come to solutions to support each other. So it's a beautiful thing to, you know, to see the friendships, the relationships that have formed. And I hear so many times from these women that, you know, they're carrying them through years and years beyond the program. So it's not just limited to that. That's that time period that they're together, but it goes on and on.

Absolutely, yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that. I think it's important for people to understand that and so Lynn, we're going to wrap up the show, but I want to give an opportunity if there's any other any other points that you think are key as people who are listening here in terms of leadership in terms of community participation. Because face it, your background, it's gonna, it's exhausting when you listen to all the things that you've been doing. So it's not like you just, you know, punch in at eight o'clock and, you know, 430 or five or whatever, most of us are working around the clock. And sometimes we're doing that to over perform, and you know, make sure that we're doing, you know, 10 times more than the next person might be doing. So, just I want you to wrap it up for us, Lynn and sort of talk about that, but what it means to be an active contributor and part of unity, and building others because it's not just building up women. It's everyone. Yes.
Well, I think that we all have a responsibility to one another.

And I think, you know, I think your point is well taken Audrey, I think some things have changed, but lots of things haven't changed. And, you know, we all get caught in this sort of circle of sameness of just, you know, understood just being part of something and not really observed. and deciding that there are things that need to be changed. And so I think true leadership is really about responsibility to others. And I think all of us that are fortunate enough to be in a position where we have a platform to speak, where we have a platform to make a difference, we should make sure that if something's wrong, if something isn't inclusive, if something isn't equitable, that we take the extra time to make sure that we're considering others, and making sure that we're not only working on behalf of ourselves, but for the greater good. And I think we're seeing now more than ever, people talking about that. I was fortunate enough to be part of an op ed it's on cnn.com today about leaders coming together to just to use this moment in time to really make a difference, and not just sort of have bullet points of what what change looks like. But but also be sort of change makers and decide, I think one of the things that's really important to me is you have to be willing to give something up. If you really want to make a change. You can't sit in a circle of sameness and say, Well, this is unfortunate, but I got my spot, right? You have to be willing in a lot of ways in order to have true leadership in times of change and need to be willing to give up your comfort to be willing to give up your spot to be given, be willing to give up your Pollyanna. You know, sound bites, if you will, to speak the truth and to speak the truth for the greater good.

Well, wow, I don't think I could wrap it up any differently. And I just want to thank Allison for leading the Athena program and taking us through this iteration. I'm pretty excited and impressed by the work. And thank you, Andrea, for being so candid and passionate about the edge work and keeping us focused on that being Definitely a critical piece of the work we do, and making sure that we're really inclusive and intentional. And Lynne, just keep on doing what you're doing right. So where should we find this office today that you made reference to?
It's on cnn.com. It's an opinion piece called diversity leaders to corporate America. Black employees lives depend on your willingness to change.

So if anyone wants to get ahold of any of you, I would imagine you're very easy to find on LinkedIn, unless we put your email out here, whatever you want, but I would tell everyone that you can contact any one of these three women, and they will be there to provide the kind of support and to try to open doors. It's really about opening doors, and I really appreciate that. So thank you all. Thank you all for being here. Believe it or Not today at 230. We're busy at the tech Council. We have our chief marketing officer series insights at 230. We have some incredible people that are being highlighted there. So I hope that you can take some time and join us. And also tomorrow we have David homebirth. We've lots to talk to him about we're also going to focus on with him, the fact that the their commitment at Highmark to hiring people in tech who have disabilities, and with July 26, marking the three decade signage of the American Disability Act, we are going to continue to have conversations about what it means to be included when you're someone who has a different ability than some of us might have. So I want to thank you all for being here. Thank you, you three lovely, amazing women. And I will see you tomorrow. Thanks again.
Thank you, Audrey.