Describe your career, your platform, or what makes you you?
Passion. I consider drive and grit to be my strongest assets, followed by my deep interest in people. I have been told that I connect well with people, and I believe that is so because of my genuine interest in them and their well-being. Apart from my day job at Intel, I founded a 501(3)c non-profit to work toward global gender parity and am also a published author. I write mostly on human rights and social justice and have published poems, short stories, and op-eds as a regular contributor on several international platforms. My last solo author work is Beyond #MeToo, Safe Publications 2022.
Do you have any habits or disciplines that you’ve developed that helps keep you motivated?
I am a very diligent and disciplined planner. I make to-do lists and break down my days, weeks, and even life into what I need to achieve and by when, and follow the plan. I have an 80-20 rule (to make sure I don’t drive myself insane) towards my plans – meaning, I understand that flexibility is key in planning but I do try and meet my targets and am disciplined about the work I need to put in.
What are you most proud of in your personal life and in your career?
I feel fortunate and proud that I have been able to pursue not just work, but also my drive to take steps toward solving the issues I care for. I accept that fighting for change involves accepting that change might not come in your lifetime, but nevertheless, I believe we have to strive towards change. I am grateful that I have been able to balance my life to be able to do that and have lived life so far following my core values. Small achievements in areas that are important to us make us happy, for example, in 2021 I own blogging awards for social justice for writing on transgender and LGBTQ issues – I look proudly at that and things like that. Even if there’d have been no award, I would have been equally proud, because I was able to put my voice out for something I care deeply about. My books, specifically Beyond #MeToo – which I consider an essential work for the workplace and broader gender equality, no matter how well or poorly it does, will always make me proud as it is my monumental effort toward what I care about.
We know from data that no one advances completely on their own. Relationships are often the difference between getting noticed and promoted and getting stuck. How do you identify key individuals with whom you need to build strategic relationships? Has UPWARD been a platform to helping you build these necessary relationships?
Absolutely. I would have never been where I am or have done the things I am proud of alone. Mentors, sponsors, and most importantly having a tribe is key. Upward is doing monumental work in this – providing a cohort, actively opening up opportunities, and in essentiality, taking the hard work out of finding and benefitting from a tribe, UPWARD is phenomenal. I am hoping that I can help women achieve their dreams and achieve my dream of fostering advancement of women in turn through my being part of UPWARD.
As an UPWARD Member what experiences have been most beneficial for you?
The member calls, and the above board opportunities that we are able to have access too have been quite beneficial to my learning of what’s out there. But most importantly, just the fact that UPWARD exists and I get to be a part of it – knowing that this resource and tribe exists – is everything.
What advice (2-3 things) would you share with others who have similar goals or is on a similar path as you?
Very early on, one of my mentors Ninette Vyaz, who was a Senior Director at Intel at that time shared with me the advice that most decisions in life can be reversed and recovered from – very few doors in life are ones you walk through and can never walk back out of, is what she’d said. This helped me immensely with my confidence and ability to take risks in my career. Saying yes to opportunities – worst case, I can always find a different job if it doesn’t work out. Another advice I had heard at a women’s conference that stuck with me was that first and foremost, you have to be good at what you do. You have to put in genuine effort and produce high-quality output – everything else will follow. Although this advice can be misunderstood if people consider this to be the only thing needed for success (for example, do head down work and forget to network, or expect to have the work always speak for itself – which unfortunately doesn’t always happen), this foundational which needs to be supplemented with and built upon with other things.
Do you have a favorite inspirational/motivational quote that you’d like to share?
I have always lived by two: Be the change you want to see (Mahatma Gandhi), and Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere (MLK). These have guided me and helped me decide my next course of action any time I have felt lost or stuck in life.
When you’re not in “work mode”, attending calls/meetings, what would we find you doing?
Painting or crafting with my daughter or binging on crime series.
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