Reimagined

After Cal Poly alum Haley Pavone got impaled by a shoe during a sorority event, she decided something had to change about the archaic concept of the high heel. Now 25 years old and Founder & CEO of a thriving business, Pavone has accomplished more than most people twice her age. Her company, Pashion Footwear, offers the world’s first fully convertible high heel and has been featured on Forbes, The Ellen Show, the 2019 Grammy’s gifting suite, and, most recently, on S12 of Shark Tank. In this episode of Reimagined, Haley talks about life behind the "highlight reel" as a young entrepreneur: What it’s like pitching high heels to mostly white, male VCs, how she led her company through nearly running out of capital twice, and daily habits that are her secrets to success.

As individuals we harbor many characteristics that make us remarkable, however we tend to define ourselves through external validators like our internships, club positions, jobs and grades. We often lose sight of the little things that make us remarkable — and, what our co-hosts found, were really all we had once the pandemic started.

During this pandemic, we have learned small wins should be celebrated more often, as they serve a greater purpose in our self worth.  

In this episode, we chat with Jenny Brown, a developer advocate at Google and a facilitator of Google’s #IAmRemarkable , an event that aims to empower women and other underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond. We chat about Jenny’s non traditional path to Google and the unique characteristics that she brings to the table, the purpose of #IAmRemarkable and how initiating conversations about self-reflection & sharing moments of internal validation can help create spaces where everyone can celebrate being their most authentic self. 

Maggie Bell is a professional soccer player for the Danish women’s football league Aalborg BK and founder of non-profit College Athlete Compliance Enquiries (CACE). Maggie dreamed of playing soccer professionally since she was 5 years old. After graduating high school early and signing with UC Berkeley, Maggie embarked on her exciting, but challenging journey as a student-athlete. College sports isn’t what many of us think it is. From navigating complex compliance rules to overcoming physical and emotional strain, student-athletes push their limits on and off the field with little to no resources to support them. Alongside her brother, Maggie founded CACE, to provide free and confidential advice for college athletes across the country. In this episode, Maggie shares her experience as a student-athlete at Berkeley, the many hardships that college sports players face, and her passion for advocating for student-athletes’ rights.

Maggie Bell is a professional soccer player for the Danish women’s football league Aalborg BK and founder of non-profit College Athlete Compliance Enquiries (CACE). Maggie dreamed of playing soccer professionally since she was 5 years old. After graduating high school early and signing with UC Berkeley, Maggie embarked on her exciting, but challenging journey as a student-athlete. College sports isn’t what many of us think it is. From navigating complex compliance rules to overcoming physical and emotional strain, student-athletes push their limits on and off the field with little to no resources to support them. Alongside her brother, Maggie founded CACE, to provide free and confidential advice for college athletes across the country. In this episode, Maggie shares her experience as a student-athlete at Berkeley, the many hardships that college sports players face, and her passion for advocating for student-athletes’ rights.

Diana Iracheta is a manufacturing engineer, writer, speaker, and advocate on a mission to bring more Latinas into the male-dominated world of STEM. In 2019, Diana started her (soon-to-be) non-profit, Latina Engineer, to provide an empowering community for young Latinas in STEM. Her experience as one of the only Latina students in her university's engineering program and the challenges that she overcame along the way inspired her to build a platform that would remind ingenieras everywhere that they belong. Since its founding, Latina Engineer has grown into a community of thousands of ambitious Latinas who share a common goal: tear down the stigma around women in engineering. In this episode, Diana shares her story of immigrating to the United States at the age of twelve, the stereotypes that she faced (and crushed!) as a minority in engineering, and her vision for equal representation in STEM.

On this week's pod, Maxine Koven shares her approach to navigating the Venture Capital space. From kicking off her career in the entertainment industry and meeting Beyonce & Jay-Z, to being one of the early stage investors in @sweetgreen and @thrivemarket, Maxine is now the Co-Managing director of LDR Ventures. LDR is a female led, California-based venture capital and management consulting firm, focused on marketplaces, consumer products and services that make people’s lives better. The firm consults and invests primarily in female entrepreneurs at the Seed & Series A Stages. Tune in to our conversation with Maxine as we learn more about her career path, her first steps into venture capital, and the importance of intentional investing.

Surprise! After 11 episodes, we decided now would be a good time to introduce ourselves. Your guests this weeks are your host, Anjana Melvin, Epsa Sharma & Sydney Harder. Check out this week's episode as we share our quarantine friendship story, why we started this podcast, our favorite parts about interviewing our guests & our plans to continue interviewing incredible women who are reimagining aspects of their personal & professional lives.

Special thanks to everyone who has tuned in to the podcast & supported our journey so far. We can't wait to continue recording more episodes & sharing stories of women from all backgrounds & industries. So in the meantime, tune in as we share some laughs and dive deep into our podcast story, thus far!

It's no secret that the American healthcare system is flawed — from the ridiculously high costs to the disparities in treatment depending on factors such as race and gender, there is a lot to reimagine. While African Americans make up 13% of the U.S. population, they represent only 4% of all doctors and 3% of physician assistants in the U.S. In this episode, Stanford Medical School PA student and UC Berkeley graduate Shanice Watts discusses the importance of bridging the diversity gap in the medical field, her inspiring journey toward becoming a PA, and her work in bringing more underrepresented minority groups into medicine.

By definition, the term "influencer" is "someone who has the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge or position with their audience.” Within the last 5 years, brands of all sizes have been using the power of influencer marketing to advertise product launches & promotions to their consumers. Recently, there has been a loud call for the influencer space to equalize the playing field and offer more opportunities for people of color. In 2019, white influencers received 61% of sponsorships— still a large majority, but a decrease from 73% five years ago.

In this episode, we chat with Megan Niquette, Creator Partnership Strategist at IPSY, a monthly beauty subscription service. We discuss her passion for increasing diversity, equity & inclusion in the Influencer Marketing space, using your voice to make an impact, and not being afraid to speak up when a DEI issue needs to be addressed.

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd's unnecessary, unjust, and inexcusable death at the knee of a white police officer ignited the antiracist movement in America with renewed spirit. Despite a pandemic raging on, tens of millions of Americans, from life-long social justice advocates to young elementary school children, took to the streets to remind us all that racism is still very much alive. The event made a similar impact on educator and curriculum specialist Meg Honey, who co-founded a non-profit, Rise Up Against Racism, with the mission of elevating Black voices and experiences through neighborhood anti-racist libraries. In this episode, Meg discusses her role in designing inclusive humanities curriculums at Savvas Learning (previously Pearson) and why literature is one of the most important tools in building diverse, equitable communities.