In today’s interview, we are joined by Rachel Quon, Head of Operations at Just Women’s Sports and a pivotal member of their startup team. Just Women’s Sports is a media company founded during the pandemic dedicated entirely to women’s sports.  Rachel herself is a former soccer player for the Canadian national team and the NWSL's Chicago Red Stars. During her time as a student-athlete at Stanford, she experienced firsthand the highly competitive culture of college soccer, which was the pinnacle for many players at the time.  Throughout her professional career though, Rachel witnessed the minimal investment in women's sports, often traveling by train and staying with host families. She was drawn to Just Women’s Sport’s vision and product, crediting the early founders for building it from the ground up by grinding out small wins to gain credibility. Rachel still embraces the role of "wearing many hats," covering business strategy, finance, HR, and marketing.  She also emphasizes the fierce competitiveness of female athletes—highlighting rivalries like that of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese that are drawing the largest audiences and expanding the sport globally. Looking ahead, she is focused on building a robust ecosystem for women’s sports and sees immense growth potential in the industry’s future. 

We're kicking off the school year, and our new series HER WAY CLIMATE with an interview with Deborah Sivas, an Environmental Lawyer and Director of the Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford Law School. Professor Sivas shares her experience working in the nuanced intersection of climate policy and environmental law. Sivas predicts that due to a conservative Supreme Court, there will be less and less judicial environmental protection as court decisions continue to water down protective litigation, as seen in cases regarding the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act. Moreover, Professor Sivas urges updates to environmental legislation that was “adopted in a different era,” in order to adapt to our current climate crisis. Sivas emphasizes that addressing climate change requires the work of not only environmental litigators, but policy makers, independent institutions, and ordinary citizens: it truly “takes a village.”

In the next episode of the series Her Way AAPI where we highlight Asian American female leaders, Her Way welcomes Mae Lee, department chair and professor in Asian American and Ethnic studies at De Anza College.  Raised in New York City, Professor Lee grew up in predominantly white neighborhoods and schools with few Asian peers.  She shares how her perception of herself shifted  from identifying primarily as Chinese to embracing an Asian American identity after attending Stanford University.  She describes feeling like an outsider due to cultural differences, but describes how “cultural analysis led [her] to have a deficiency mindset.”  In her courses, she focuses on providing historical context on Asian hate to help people understand the ongoing injustice, and has recently observed heightened sensitivity among her students to Asian hate crimes.  She emphasizes the importance of having this foundation and fosters active participation in addressing contemporary social issues.

In today’s episode, we are joined by Jean Kwok, award winning, New York Times and internationally bestselling Chinese American author. Kwok is the author of novels Girls in Translation, Mambo in Chinatown, Searching for Sylvie Lee, and more. Her work has been published in twenty countries and taught in universities, colleges and high schools across the world. In this episode, Kwok shares how she overcame hardship when immigrating from Hong Kong to Brooklyn at five years old. Kwok explains how her experience tolerating failure has shaped her success today, reminding listeners that your potential for success is inversely proportional to your ability to overcome setbacks. Kwok delves into the nuanced lines that immigrants straddle between their cultural origins and their new homeland, urging listeners to chase a life that is authentically your own, rather than attempting to fulfill exterior expectations. Throughout the interview, Kwok draws deep connections between how her positionality and cultural identity reflect in her writing.

In the first episode of the series Her Way AAPI where we highlight Asian American female leaders, we are joined by Margaret Abe-Koga, former mayor of Mountain View and current candidate for Santa Clara County Supervisor.  Born and raised in the Peninsula, Margaret became a translator for her Japanese parents and personally witnessed the discrimination one receives without a voice.  She then took various positions in local government and was mentored by several prominent politicians including Anna Eshoo and Norman Mineta before being elected the first Asian Pacific Islander American woman to serve as Vice Mayor and Mayor in Mountain View’s history.  With a deep passion for creating opportunity, Margaret shares how she cultivated a strong base of support and explains why it's so important to take a chance and break the glass ceiling.  As a community leader, Margaret works on raising minimum wage, assuring a guaranteed basic income program for low-income families, and creating clean energy authorities to lower carbon emissions.  Her election for County Supervisor is on March 5th!  Check out https://www.mak4supervisor.com/ to learn more. 

Her Way Climate hosts a spotlight on Lauren Weston, the Executive Director of Acterra, a Bay Area nonprofit dedicated to bringing people together to create local solutions for a healthy planet. Lauren has nearly two decades of leadership experience in fundraising, philanthropy, and advocacy from several well-regarded education nonprofits including the Breakthrough Collaborative, Hiller Aviation Museum, and the YMCA. In this spotlight, Lauren discusses the core programs of Acterra, ranging from beneficial electrification to their motto of "healthy plate, healthy planet." She also explains Acterra's Theory of Change, which is to compel the wider public to recognize the urgency of the climate crisis and to increase people's willingness to take appropriate actions. This spotlight ends with a guest Q&A.

Her Way Spotlights are online events made available for listeners to join. See our upcoming events at herwayspotlights.com.

In this episode we explore the journey of Abby Greubel, co-founder of ELETE, an online platform connecting collegiate athletes with youth athletes. Abby shares how she navigated the complex process of founding ELETE by interviewing Stanford athletes, gathering valuable insights into what they desired from ELETE and leveraging their network for feedback. Despite the challenges of running ELETE while being a full-time student athlete, Abby emphasizes the importance of staying true to one's path, setting realistic goals, and defining progress and momentum. She shares the dual-sided service ELETE offers, catering to both college athletes and youth athletes, and highlights the support she received from the student athlete community. Abby's journey is a testament to the value of pursuing one's strengths, staying resilient in the face of challenges, and creating a sense of purpose by supporting the next generation of athletes. Her story encourages listeners to be open to new opportunities and to invest time and energy in endeavors that bring value and a sense of importance.

In today’s episode, we are thrilled to be joined by Christine Su, a global product executive and the current Head of Product for AI Recommendations at eBay.  Su previously founded PastureMap, a startup that helps ranchers make climate-friendly and profitable decisions and also led global content moderation strategy at Twitter.  With a background in humanities, Su dives into how she developed the confidence to lead AI initiatives at large companies and shares the profound impact she believes generative AI will have on future generations.  As someone who is an entrepreneur at heart and takes pride in leading teams and developing strong relationships, Su emphasizes the importance of exploring new career paths at all stages, seen through her own switch from the climate activism realm to working for large social media corporations.  She reminds us to stay curious about what we are truly passionate about and not let fear dictate the choices we make.  

Welcome back to Her Way podcast! To start off the 2023-2024 school year, we are joined by Mo Fong, the executive director of STVP, the Stanford Engineering Entrepreneurship Center.  After emigrating from Taiwan to the United States at an early age, Fong studied chemical engineering before pursuing her passion for education and entrepreneurship.  As she began to learn about systemic education reform, Fong shares about how the few people in education with a dual business background motivated her to apply business principles to different fields.  Fong explains that “some people think of entrepreneurship as startups or founding companies… the way [the STVP] think about entrepreneurship is more of a mindset,” teaching people to examine their own values and principles, so they are grounded when ethical dilemmas arise.  Fong believes that finding great allies who will advocate for you and being courageous to ask for help is key to career success.    

In today’s episode, Her Way welcomes Charu Ramanathan, the Co-Founder and CEO at Vitalxchange, a digital health platform that provides a safe parenting ecosystem and network to coach parents in helping support their children’s needs.  Charu describes herself as the “chief, cook, and bottlewasher,” where she does anything that needs to be done, but primarily drives strategy and product development.  With a background in biomedical engineering and as the founder of multiple successful companies including CardioInsight and Lokyata, Charu explains how her love for creating and building from ground zero has been one of the most fulfilling aspects of her entrepreneurial journey.  She describes the significant challenges, but also huge rewards that come with creating a unique company that aligns with her mission and authentic core values.  Charu inspires us to nurture our ideas from a young age and let the world react, as this is the time to explore our passions.