Kavari Ellingson: The road to DevOps
Karvari Ellingson was having a hard time after getting her Fine Arts degree. She got tired of having to choose between eating and paying bills, so she picked up “computer programming” out of a list of “10 highest paying careers” and ran with it.
Karvari joined a coding school and couch surfed to make it work. After completing the program, she earned a coveted paid internship and after trying different programming teams she found her spot in DevOps. Along with a new job, she is a mentor at the PDXWIT mentorship program, and she helps code school recent grads with interviewing skills.
It all sounds like the tech turn-your-life-around dream, but she still has to put up with a lot of sexism, and other -isms that a career in tech seems to bring.
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Dayna Del Mar: Believing
On this episode of BTGC, Juliana and Brit are speaking with Dayna Del Mar, who uses she/her pronouns. Dayna brings a unique combination of community building, people and culture operations, global travel and talent acquisition to her role as CEO of PackDen.
A Long Island native, Dayna has pursued adventure all over the world, from high-end yachts to villages in Ghana, from the Himalayas to the Andes. She was drawn to the West Coast in pursuit of more adventure and a thriving technology community, so it’s no surprise that she founded PackDen - an app that will help outdoor enthusiasts connect to friends, gear and guides in order to adventure outdoors.
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Ruth Lesser: Visa challenges (2)
The conclusion of Ruth Lesser’s story about her journey to acquiring US citizenship.
In the following hot second interview we talk to Amy Nelson, founder of The Riveter, who goes by she/her pronouns. She tells us about the opening of a new Riveter co-working space and why they chose Portland for it.
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Ruth Lesser: Visa challenges (1)
H1B visa immigrant, Ruth Lesser, has been living in this country for 10 years and just bought her first home in 2018. In March of this year she found out her visa extension had been denied and is in the process of petitioning a review with her current employer and their legal team. If that attempt gets denied by US Citizenship and Immigration again, she will have only 4 weeks to leave the US.
We have changed her name to allow for the comfort of anonymity during this challenging time, as this is being recorded on May 5, and the decision will be communicated to Ruth within the month.
Ruth's contact: ruthlesser38@gmail.com
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Perry Eising: Authenticity & Perspective
Perry is a passionate champion for underrepresented minorities in tech, who uses they/he pronouns. Born in the UK, they are a passionate champion for underrepresented minorities in tech. Before joining Netlify, Perry was a student and afterwards, an instructor at Epicodus, a coding bootcamp. They’ve been an active member of several communities that support underrepresented identities in tech, including Lesbians Who Tech, Out in Tech, and PDXWIT.
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Lindsey Murphy: Business building
In this episode, your co-hosts Juliana Kutch and Brit Syer talk with Lindsey Murphy aka Crazy Aunt Lindsey, who goes by she/her pronouns. Lindsey is the creator of the YouTube web series, The Fab Lab With Crazy Aunt Lindsey. In the show, she turns science into fabulous DIY experiments that engage kids of all ages! After experiencing career burnout on the East Coast, Lindsey moved to Portland where her creativity and entrepreneurial drive led her to many successful partnerships with local and national communities, from TEDx Portland to NASA.
Books mentioned:
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Abeer Eltanawy: Cheminformatics
On episode number two, your co-hosts Juliana Kutch and Brit Syer talk with Abeer Eltanawy, who uses she/her pronouns. Abeer is from Egypt and moved to the Bay area in 2014. She then moved to Portland to be with her husband and daughter in 2016. She has completed a Master of Arts in Cancer Research and is currently working on her Master of Science in Information Technology, while creating a space and name for herself in the new field of cheminformatics. Currently Abeer faces a new challenge working out her VISA details in the midst of this current political climate.
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Katrina Johnson: Data science superpowers
On this very first episode co-hosts Brit Syer and Juliana Kutch interview Katrina Johnson, who uses she/her pronouns. Katrina is a Chicago born Data Science student who won the 2018 PDXWIT Scholarship award, which she will use to attend a conference on machine learning and artificial intelligence in Austin, TX. She has dual Masters degrees in English and Philosophy, and hopes to use her newfound data science superpowers to fight for social justice.
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