HAZARD GIRLS

As a child, Maria showed an interest and proficiency in tinkering and improving things. When her father’s job took her from her home in Mexico to the suburbs of Detroit at 14, Maria joined the robotics team and never looked back. Today in her role as Chief Technical Officer and co-founder at Canvas, Maria has put her PhD. from MIT and a lifelong passion for improving things to good use. Maria joins Hazard Girls Host Emily Soloby for a closer look at her experiences in the fields of robotics and engineering and her passion for improving workers’ lives. 

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Growing up on a farm on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia Louise Azzopardi found her love for working with her hands early. By the age of 15, she had left school and was working full-time as a mechanic. During that time she attended an Apprenticeship Expo where she met a woman who was a Heavy Vehicle Mechanic. Inspired, she applied for and got a similar position. Unfortunately, her dream of working in the male-dominated world of heavy vehicle mechanics soured as she was lectured and bullied extensively. She witnessed the bullying of the women who were told they got their job to fill a quota and were relegated to menial tasks. Louise was told she can’t do her job effectively due to her gender. Initially, she used these incidents to motivate her. It was then she experienced a phenomenon she calls “high functioning anxiety”. She defines this phenomenon as trying to outrun anxiety by working constantly, motivated by the fear that you may not be good enough, a fear enforced by detractors and bullies.

After experiencing the rollercoaster of being a woman in a male-dominated trade and feeling like no one understood what she was going through she wanted to make sure no one else felt that way. Louise started training in 2018 as a volunteer for SALT (Supporting and Linking Tradeswomen) which is where her love of training started. She is now a qualified life coach and supports tradeswomen on their journey to overcome self-doubt and be confident in everything they do! Don’t miss this inspiring story on this episode of Hazard Girls!

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Ashton Thompson has been burning rubber since the age of 6. Now at 22 her impressive racing resume and passion for motorsports stand out in the male-dominated racing field. On today’s episode, Ashton takes time out of her busy racing schedule to talk to Hazard Girls Host Emily Soloby about the challenges and rewards of her career as a rising star in racing. These include the physical demands of being a race car driver, the stress her busy schedule puts on her family and friends as well as the physical dangers. It’s all in a day's work for Ashton. Emily and Ashton also discuss her off-track activities which, as CEO of Ashton Thompson Racing, include her efforts to build an all-female racing team supported by female-owned businesses. Don’t miss this unique episode of the Hazard Girls podcast.

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Asia Fee is a chemist, the founder of Alchemist Asia cosmetics, a self-described “Remote Chemist”, and a Princess in Reinvented Magazine’s Princesses with Powertools 2023 calendar. Today Asia is our very special guest on the Hazard Girls podcast.

Growing up in a small town, Asia had a passion for science but didn’t have a lot of women role models in the STEM field. If you were in STEM, particularly if you were a woman, you were a teacher or you worked in a lab. While still in high school, she discovered he passion for chemistry through of all things, makeup. She couldn’t find the exact colors she wanted so like any good scientist she hit the books, did her research, and formulated her very own lipstick in the exact custom colors she wanted. A chemist was born.

After high school graduation Asia majored in chemistry at a local college. She was disappointed to learn that not only were there very few women studying chemistry, everyone, male or female, was doing so to fill a medical school requirement. There was no real STEM community. It wasn’t until she transferred to California State University Channel Islands that she realized how big and diverse the field of chemistry really is. It was at California State University Channel Islands that the opportunity to intern as an undergrad at Parker Hannifin came up, where she ultimately became a Lab Technician as a grad student. 

When the pandemic hit and all of her roommates were forced to move back home, Asia made the decision to move to Alaska with her partner. Working from home in Alaska home spawned her moniker “The Remote Chemist"

Asia started Alchemist Asia cosmetics while working for Parker Hannifin. She used what little free time she had formulating cosmetics as a way to keep in touch with her passion for chemistry and cosmetics. This rekindled her love for making cosmetics. It was primarily a hobby until, while making a batch of lip gloss, she made way too much. She offered the extra product to friends on social media and the response was overwhelming, turning Alchemist Asia into a real cosmetics manufacturer.

Today Alchemist Asia offers a full line of science-inspired beauty products named after scientific phenomena such as Test Tube Lip Gloss, Bioluminescence Oil (inspired by bioluminescent plankton), and cell soap which are scientifically accurate models of animal cells.

Spend some time with Host Emily Soloby and Asia Fee and share her amazing STEM journey bridging the gap between science and beauty.

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Growing up in a small community in India, Ayesha Iftiqhar saw most of the women in her family getting married and starting a family. When Ayesha read about Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-born American astronaut and mechanical engineer and the first woman of Indian origin to go to space, she said to herself “I can do that”. Seeing someone with whom she could identify reaching such amazing heights lit a fire within Ayesha.  As astronaut Sally Ride said, “If you can see it you can be it.”

At the age of 20, she left India for the first time to pursue her Master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. After graduation she went to work in the engineering field, working on a variety of projects including developing battery systems to replace gas engines in power tools and more. A big part of Ayesha’s work is Ethical Engineering, which focuses on reducing the environmental impact of the projects she works on.

When Ayesha found herself doubting her abilities, also known as Imposter Syndrome, she started working on personal engineering projects outside of her regular job. One of these projects was attaching LED lights to a cloth mask equipped with a proximity sensor. The mask would display a smile if individuals nearby were within 6 feet or a frown in they were less than 6 feet away.

Host Emily Soloby and Ayesha talk about Ayesha’s work in STEM outreach for adults and children, how she identifies with her chosen princess Cinderella in Reinvented Magazine’s Princesses with Powertools 2023 calendar, and how she takes her love for physics from the electronics lab to the skatepark.

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On this episode of Hazard Girls, we welcome Dr. Hannah Shows, Artificial Intelligence Specialist at Haynes Beffel & Wolfeld LLP. When Dr. Shows was in tenth grade, her geometry teacher told her he would be placing her in a remedial math class “as a favor to her” because she would never use math in her future, he unknowingly set her on a course that changed her life. When she arrived at college she opted to take the more difficult of the available math classes to prove to herself she could do it. It was in that class that she found her love for math and math education thanks to a more accessible, open, and diverse teaching style. Since then she's never looked back.

During her Ph.D. studies, Dr. Shows was working as a programmer. It was there she realized one of the things she loved about the work she was doing was the communication aspect. Her work required her to facilitate collaboration between multiple technical and clinical departments. Overcoming the significant communication barriers between departments is where Dr. Shows found her passion for communication combined with mathematics and engineering.

Outside of her role at the law firm, she helps bridge similar, highly technical communication gaps. Her social media, particularly Instagram, serves as a science communication platform where she helps people overcome the fear and loathing that often comes with math. Her goal is to create a community and foster communication in the interest of changing the landscape of STEM education while growing inclusivity in an often gendered space.

 

During their discussion, Dr. Shows and Emily touch on unlearning gender code-switching, keeping your femininity when entering traditionally male-dominated fields, strategic gender-typing in the workplace as a norm enforcement mechanism, and strategies for converting bystanders into allies.

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On this episode of Hazard Girls, Host Emily Soloby welcomes back to the show Kaylin Leas. Kaylin is a Journeyman Pipe welder for TDIndustries in Fort Worth, Texas She is their first Leadwoman welder. and Empowering Women in Industry initiative'sTradeswoman of the year 2021.

Kaylin and Emily catch up on Kaylen’s work with projects including everything from airplane hangers to hotels. Kaylen fills us in on her rodeo and pageant experiences and her appearance in Reinvented Magazine’s Princesses With Powertools Calendar. Reinvented Magazine is a publication all about women and girls in STEM and every year they publish a calendar featuring women in STEM and trades dressed up as their favorite princesses or warrior. Kaylin talks about how she relates to her chosen warrior Wonder Woman. Despite how far she’s come, Kaylin acknowledges there is always more to learn. As she puts it, “If ya ain't learnin', ya ain’t livin'” Well said Kaylin!

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Jennie Blumenthal is a professional speaker, author, CEO and founder of Corporate Rehab, an acclaimed professional coaching consultancy that has helped hundreds of executives ditch workplace hustle culture and find their path toward a greater sense of purpose. When the pandemic hit it gave Jeannie a moment to think. The constant hustle, being on 3 planes a week, led her to ask a question of herself - "Is the version of me that I feel I have to be to make all these things happen, the person I want to be?” The answer was a resounding “No”. The more she heard from other women that felt the same way, she knew she had to do something. This is how Corporate Rehab was born. In this episode of Hazard Girls, host Emily Soloby talks with Jennie about hustle culture, quiet quitting, and the importance of looking at values. Not just your values and not just the company's values but the connection between the two.

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As a young girl, Sydney Floryanzia was forced to attend an engineering camp one summer. There, she was introduced to the field of neuro-engineering, which ultimately skyrocketed her into a career that she is incredibly passionate about today! Sydney is a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate research fellow and a Ph.D. student in chemical engineering at the University of Washington. She has a published research article, an inventorship on a patent, and she is currently investigating the blood-brain barrier, drug delivery to the brain, and therapy for various brain diseases. She’s also an advocate for diversity in science and she is passionate about being a science communicator for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In this episode, Sydney offers some insight into her experience as a ‘Princess with Power Tools’, how she came to put unlike things together to find her true passion in the neuro-engineering field, and the exciting accomplishments she has made along the way. Don't miss this thought-provoking conversation with a woman in STEM who proves that femininity and engineering are not mutually exclusive! Listen in today!

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On today's episode of Hazard Girls we welcome Rachel Kowert, Ph.D. Dr. Kowert is the Research Director of Take This, a mental health advocacy organization that provides resources, training, and support to individuals and companies that help the gaming community improve its mental well-being and resilience. Rachel and Emily discuss how Take This addresses issues women in the gaming industry routinely face such as burnout, systemic discrimination, and harassment. Also covered in today's episode are Rachel's thoughts and experience with limiting kids' screen time and rules for online gaming. Also in the mix is Rachels's book Pragmatic Princess, a compilation of short stories about self-reliance designed for children aged 3-12+, her YouTube channel Psychgeist, and her appearance in the upcoming Princesses with Powertools 2022 Calendar.

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