Author: Michele Parrish

Dear WLGO,

 Happy New Year! We are kicking off 2014 with a fabulous inspirational keynote presentation from Arham Faraaz, Best Selling Author and Motivational Speaker from India.  Arham will be speaking on Leveraging Leadership to Reach Your Dreams.

Please see the attached fliers and profile for more information. We hope you will join us for this exciting event. Come, be inspired, and lead at new levels!

Who: Arham Faraaz, Best Selling Author and Motivational Speaker from India

What: Leveraging Leadership to Reach Your Dreams 

When: Wednesday, Jan 15th at 7:30 PST   (recording will also be available)

How: WebEx — See Below. Please RSVP by responding directly to michele@parrishpartners.biz by Monday 1/13/14.  Don’t forget to add this to your calendar!

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Topic: WLGO: Leveraging Leadership to Reach Your Dreams 
Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 
Time: 7:30 pm, Pacific Standard Time (San Francisco, GMT-08:00) 
Meeting Number: 646 047 800 
Meeting Password: wlgo 

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To join the online meeting 
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Go to https://mit.webex.com/mit/j.php?ED=259470277&UID=490874202&PW=NZWQ5YTExYmI3&RT=MiM0 

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Audio conference information 
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To receive a call back, provide your phone number when you join the meeting, or call the number below and enter the access code. 
US Toll Number: +1-617-324-0000 

Access code:646 047 800 

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For assistance 
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1. Go to https://mit.webex.com/mit/mc 
2. On the left navigation bar, click “Support”. 
To add this meeting to your calendar program (for example Microsoft Outlook), click this link: 
https://mit.webex.com/mit/j.php?ED=259470277&UID=490874202&ICS=MS&LD=1&RD=2&ST=1&SHA2=AAAAAr/fDXEM1XJmaA2sMdoTCuHeMreX9lYJIuzbr3ICi3tN 

To check whether you have the appropriate players installed for UCF (Universal Communications Format) rich media files, go tohttps://mit.webex.com/mit/systemdiagnosis.php. 

Attention Firefox and Chrome users: 
Google and Mozilla recently announced the upgrade of Google Chrome v32, expected on *Jan 14, 2014, and Firefox v27, on *Feb 4, 2014. These browsers will automatically block the Netscape Plug-in Application Programming Interface needed to join WebEx meetings. These policy changes apply to all operating systems supported by Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Please forward this information along to others you include as meeting attendees. 

For additional information and instructions to enable the plug-in (after the browser update), and for support, please read the IS&T KB article:http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/x/KDIYCQ 

*Browser releases are controlled by Google and Mozilla; dates are subject to change. 

Note: Safari and Internet Explorer users are not affected. 

CCM:+16173240000×646047800# 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This WebEx service includes a feature that allows audio and any documents and other materials exchanged or viewed during the session to be recorded. You should inform all meeting attendees prior to recording if you intend to record the meeting. Please note that any such recordings may be subject to discovery in the event of litigation.

Andrea Jones presented an excellent and well-attended session on alternative careers this month.  If you were unable to attend or would like to reflect further on the topic, please see the attached transcript and recording below.  Many thanks to Andrea for her demonstrated leadership and commitment to the WLGO community.

Recording:
https://mit.webex.com/mit/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=17995867&rKey=97ed22c89e0de706http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2012/10/15/5-questions-to-answer-before-you-make-any-career-changes/

Dear WLGO Members,

You are invited to join the national conversation on board diversity on 11/12/13.   Please see details below.  I encourage you to attend one of the events if you are interested in board opportunities now or in the future, or if you think it simply makes sense for women to be represented appropriated on U.S. company boards.

If you choose to attend, please consider sending me a note about your experience.  We are kicking off our WLGO Women on Boards initiative in November as well, and we will be leveraging learnings from this national conversation to guide our work.

Sincerely,

Michele Parrish
WLGO Founder & Chair
LFM/LGO ’95   

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NATIONAL CONVERSATION ON BOARD DIVERSITY

On 11/12/13, hundreds of people at events around the country will be talking about board diversity. Will you be at the table? 

Join us on November 12th at events happening throughout the United States to hear dynamic speakers and panelists discuss their experience with board service and learn how you might become involved.

2020 Women on Board (2020 WOB) is a non-profit campaign mobilizing professional women and men from all corners of the country to influence US companies. Our ultimate goal: to increase the number of women on boards of directors to 20% or greater by 2020. 

On 11/12/13, our second annual National Conversation on Board Diversity will educate people about boards and diversity and advocate for change. Our first, on 12/12/12, engaged more than 1400 people at 27 events in 21 cities and thousands more on social media.

The National Conversation events raise important funds for 2020 WOB to support research, outreach and communications. 2020 WOB tracks board diversity with the 2020 Diversity Index, offers diversity transparency with the 2020 Directory, congratulates the “W” winners who are already at 20%, and encourages other companies to add qualified women to their boards. 

For more information and to register for an event, please visit http://www.2020wob.com/11-12-13. Whether or not you can attend at event, please register your support at www.2020wob.com, if you believe qualified women deserve a seat at the table.

Can we count on your participation?

Stephanie Sonnabend
Co-Founder and Chair
2020 Women on Boards
Stephanie@2020wob.com

http://lgo.mit.edu/news/women-of-LGO/

What is your current role?

I currently work at Baxter Health Care out of Deerfield, IL. I am a Software Marketing Manager, responsible for voice of the customer input, translating that voice of the customer into requirements, and working on design and feel of the software. I am also responsible for naming, pricing, branding, and training (external customers and internal team) to bring a product to launch. I really enjoy this role. I wasn’t sure if it would be a good fit, but it actually is a great fit and is like a start-up within a large company. I have a lot of authority to make decisions for the product launch.

Where have you worked in the past?

I started as an electrical engineer living in Calgary, Alberta. At the time, almost everyone there worked in the oil industry. I worked in heavy oil in Northern Alberta as a control systems engineer. After that, I went into the MIT LGO Program and moved into operations. I then moved into a marketing role followed by a program manager role, thus marrying voice of the customer and manufacturing. Next, I went to work for Motorola as a supply chain manager. I first worked the backend of bringing products to launch. Later, I moved to the front-end, marketing and bringing products to launch.

What do you do to balance family and work?

I am married and my husband is Eric Hill. We met at VisionTek, a small company in Illinois. So you could say I did get some life balance by finding my husband at work 🙂 Eric and I now have a 2.5 yr old son, Zachary, and a 7 month old daughter, Sonya. As far as childcare, Zachary was our guinea pig. We tried a number of child care solutions from on-site company sponsored childcare , to a private nanny, to Montessori, to various daycare facilities. It seemed there was no easy solution for childcare. Our current chosen daycare is close to our house and enables my husband and me to trade-off who drops off and picks-up the kids. For better balance with a young family, Eric and I plan together. We schedule most things in our work Outlook calendar. We both travel, so it takes this high degree of planning to make it work. We even put child pick up and drop off times on each other calendars. We run errands and do laundry at night. We also work at finding easy ways to eat healthy. Steamer bags are a favorite way to ensure we eat more vegetables with little preparation time required! Finally, and admittedly this comes more from my husband, we are doing more and more online – we get our groceries through peapod.com, we get diapers, baby food, and a lot more from Amazon.com. If you looked at our front steps, you’d think it is always Christmas.

With children, we need to be very flexible because circumstances can change on a dime like when one of the kids becomes sick at daycare. We do our best to trade off these responsibilities. When my husband’s job was more intense and less flexible, I flexed more. Now that I am in the early phases of a new job, my husband is flexing more. Trading off like this works for us. We try to be flexible and not stress when challenges present themselves. Our philosophy is that we will figure it out and that has shown to be true…alternatives present themselves and we discover solutions. One thing that is not very balanced is time for myself. If there is a gap right now, it’s time for self. However, I do also teach MBAs a class on Operations at Lake Forest College. I find this work energizing and so in a way it is doing something for me! What I love most about it is that the students are very motivated to learn.

What one piece of advice would you pass along to other WLGO members on managing work and life balance?

The advice I would give is to not be scared to take risks because you are worried about how you will be able to handle everything. There is a limit to this but sometimes you can surprise yourself with how much you can manage. As an example, I was pregnant with my second child and working for Motorola when I was approached by Baxter to interview for my current position. I thought to myself… no one would hire a pregnant women! Interestingly, I interviewed in person a week before I delivered the baby. Two weeks after the baby arrived I decided to make this career change to something completely new…a new industry, new people, and a new role. In addition, I was also just beginning to teach at Lake Forest College. A second child, a new job, and teaching were three big changes all at once! I learned that even in situations of great change, some element from your past can serve as a thread of commonality to navigate the change. Change of that magnitude can be scary and I worried about failing. But it was all worth it! Don’t let fear stop you.

What do you do to challenge and stretch yourself to the next level?

I have been working at this new company for 3.5 months now. Just recently my boss asked me about my career development plans. I almost laughed because it is hard to think about the future when I am still trying to juggle the new job, new child, and new teaching on the side. So for right now I am absorbing everything new and starting to focus on self care, like exercise, again. With that said, my latest challenge has been taking on the WLGO newsletter process…again something new! Networking is really important and I feel I am terrible at it. So, I am reaching out to the women of LGO to stretch myself to engage more as well as to engage others in a great networking opportunity!