In this episode Martha and Indira speak candidly with Sara Seager, a Canadian-American, world-renowned leader in astrophysics and planetary science. A professor at MIT, she has been instrumental in advancing the study of planets outside our solar system. Her research has greatly improved our understanding of the wide variety of exoplanets that exist in the galaxy and pushed us closer to finding another Earth-like world that could support life. 

After obtaining her Bachelor of Science degree in math and physics at the University of Toronto, she earned her PhD in astronomy at Harvard University. She has won almost every academic astronomy award possible including the Sackler Prize, the Helen B. Warner Prize from the American Astronomical Society, and most recently the Kavli Prize in Physics. 

She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a MacArthur Fellow, and a member of the American Philosophical Society. In 2020 she was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada. As the author of an award-winning memoir, The Smallest Lights in the Universe, she has distinguished herself not only as a scientist but also a storyteller who explores the wonders of human connections. We are thrilled to be able to have a conversation with Sara, an extraordinary scientist and enlightened humanist.

Episode Resources

• Piper, Martha and Samarasekera, Indira. Nerve: Lessons on leadership from two women who went first. Toronto, Ontario ECW Press, 2021.
• Seager, Sara, The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir. Canada, Penguin Random House, 2020.

Contact She's Got Nerve

• Email [email protected]
• Visit our website https://nerve2021.com/
• Follow us on Instagram @nervebook2021 and LinkedIn @she'sgotnerve

A special thanks to our team:
Marketing Manager & Producer | Orla McErlean
Show Manager | Eilis Courtney

Thanks for listening to She's Got Nerve!

In this episode Martha and Indira speak candidly with Kim Brooks, who began her term as Dalhousie’s 13th President and Vice-Chancellor in 2023 after serving as Acting Provost and Dean of both the Law School and the Faculty of Management. Kim has had a distinguished career as a law professor at Queen’s University, UBC and McGill and is known for her expertise in tax law. 

In addition, she has been a recipient of a 3M Teaching Fellowship and is well recognized as an advocate for university community inclusiveness. She is not only the first woman but also the first openly queer person to hold the position of president at Dalhousie.

Episode Resources
•Piper, Martha and Samarasekera, Indira. Nerve: Lessons on leadership from two women who went first. Toronto, Ontario ECW Press, 2021.

Contact She's Got Nerve

• Email [email protected]
• Visit our website https://nerve2021.com/
• Follow us on Instagram @nervebook2021 and LinkedIn @she'sgotnerve

A special thanks to our team:
Marketing Manager & Producer | Orla McErlean
Show Manager | Eilis Courtney

Thanks for listening to She's Got Nerve!

In this episode Martha and Indira speak candidly with Biddy Martin, a distinguished humanities scholar and widely respected leader in higher education. 

For more than two decades she served on the faculty of German studies and women’s studies at Cornell University. She chaired the Department of German Studies, served as senior associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, and assumed the role of Cornell’s provost in 2000. 

After eight years as provost, she was appointed Chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2011, she became the first woman and openly lesbian president of Amherst College, one of the top liberal arts colleges in the United States. Serving for 11 years as president, Biddy Martin is the longest serving president of the college in the last 50 years.

Episode Resources

• Martin, B. Femininity played straight: the significance of being lesbian. New York & London, Routledge & CRC Press, 1997. 
• Martin, Biddy. Woman and Modernity: The (Life)Styles of Lou Andreas-Salomé. Cornell University Press, New York, 1991.
• Piper, Martha and Samarasekera, Indira. Nerve: Lessons on leadership from two women who went first. Toronto, Ontario ECW Press, 2021.

Contact She's Got Nerve

• Email [email protected]
• Visit our website https://nerve2021.com/
• Follow us on Instagram @nervebook2021 and LinkedIn @she'sgotnerve

A special thanks to our team:
Marketing Manager & Producer | Orla McErlean
Show Manager | Eilis Courtney

Thanks for listening to She's Got Nerve!

In this episode Martha speaks candidly with Joy Johnson, a distinguished health scientist and researcher in gender and health with a particular focus on promoting health and modifying health-related behaviour. In particular, she has studied the different health behaviours of women and men in terms of how gender affects how they react differently to drugs and other therapies. 

With an impressive record of scholarship and academic administrative appointments, Dr.Johnson was the first woman to be appointed Vice-President Research at Simon Fraser University in 2014. In 2020, she was appointed the 10th President and Vice-Chancellor of SFU and has recently been reappointed as President for another five-year term. 

What a treat it is to be able to have a conversation with Joy Johnson, an extraordinary scholar and academic leader.

Episode Resources

• Piper, Martha and Samarasekera, Indira. Nerve: Lessons on leadership from two women who went first. Toronto, Ontario ECW Press, 2021. www.nerve2021.com

Contact She's Got Nerve

• Email [email protected]
• Visit our website https://nerve2021.com/
• Follow us on Instagram @nervebook2021 and LinkedIn @she'sgotnerve

A special thanks to our team:
Marketing Manager & Producer | Orla McErlean
Show Manager | Eilis Courtney

Thanks for listening to She's Got Nerve!

In this episode Martha and Indira speak candidly with Anne-Marie Slaughter, a woman who has demonstrated “nerve” throughout her entire life. Currently CEO of the think and action tank New America, Anne-Marie is a global leader, scholar, and public intellectual.

She was the J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign and Comparative Law at Harvard Law School. From 2002 to 2009, she was Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs and Dean of the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

In 2009 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appointed her as the first woman Director of Policy Planning in the U.S. State Department. She has authored or edited nine books covering a wide range of topics including global network design and leadership, gender equality and American renewal. 

She revived a national debate over gender equality in the 21st century in an article in The Atlantic titled “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”. She has truly been a trailblazer!

Episode Resources

• Piper, Martha and Samarasekera, Indira. Nerve: Lessons on leadership from two women who went first. Toronto, Ontario ECW Press, 2021. www.nerve2021.com
• Slaughter, Anne-Marie. Renewal. Princeton University Press, 2021.
• Slaughter, Anne-Marie. Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family. New York: Random House, 2015.
• Slaughter, Anne-Marie. "Why Women Still Can't Have It All." The Atlantic (July/August 2012). theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/

Contact She's Got Nerve

• Email [email protected]
• Visit our website https://nerve2021.com/
• Follow us on Instagram @nervebook2021 and LinkedIn @she'sgotnerve

A special thanks to our team:
Marketing Manager & Producer | Orla McErlean
Show Manager | Eilis Courtney

Thanks for listening to She's Got Nerve!

In this special live recorded episode, Martha and Indira speak candidly with Jill Moffatt, an elite woman athlete and 2X Olympic rower - an individual who has demonstrated “nerve” throughout her entire life.

As co-founder of MOMentum, an initiative to advance gender equity in sport and the support of motherhood in women athletes, Jill is passionate about creating a more inclusive future for women in sport. If that isn’t enough, she is currently pursuing her PhD degree at Laurentian University and conducting research on mothers who are elite athletes and how their stories are represented in the media.

Jill discusses her own experience as an elite athlete and how she had the ‘nerve’ to get there. 

Please note this live recording took place on March 13, 2025 at the ‘Breakfast with Champions’ hosted by She’s Got Next at the UBC Alumni Centre, Vancouver.

Episode Resources

• Breakfast-with-champions
• https://www.momentumcan.ca/
• Piper, Martha and Samarasekera, Indira. Nerve: Lessons on leadership from two women who went first. Toronto, Ontario ECW Press, 2021. www.nerve2021.com
• Slaughter, Anne-Marie. "Why Women Still Can't Have It All." The Atlantic (July/August 2012). theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/

Contact She's Got Nerve

• Email [email protected]
• Visit our website https://nerve2021.com/
• Follow us on Instagram @nervebook2021 and LinkedIn @she'sgotnerve

A special thanks to our team:
Marketing Manager & Producer | Orla McErlean
Show Manager | Eilis Courtney

Thanks for listening to She's Got Nerve!

In this episode, Martha and Indira speak candidly with Mary Wells, a Canadian materials engineer who is highly regarded for her research advances in the processing of advanced metallic alloys.  

She currently serves as Dean of Engineering at the University of Waterloo, the second woman to assume this position.  Prior to her appointment at Waterloo, she was Dean for the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Guelph. A consistent advocate for women in engineering, she chaired the Ontario Network for Women in Engineering from 2013-2018.‌

Episode Resources
 • Piper, Martha and Samarasekera, Indira. Nerve: Lessons on leadership from two women who went first. Toronto, Ontario ECW Press, 2021. www.nerve2021.com

Contact She's Got Nerve

• Email [email protected]
• Visit our website https://nerve2021.com/
• Follow us on Instagram @nervebook2021 and LinkedIn @she'sgotnerve

A special thanks to our team:
Marketing Manager & Producer | Orla McErlean
Show Manager | Eilis Courtney

Thanks for listening to She's Got Nerve!

In this episode, Martha and Indira speak candidly with Susan Hockfield, an American neuroscientist and the first woman to serve as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2004 to 2012.  Prior to becoming president, Dr. Hockfield served as Dean of Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Yale’s Provost.  

As the first life scientist to be appointed president of MIT, her scholarship involved the use of monoclonal antibody technology in brain research.

Episode Resources

• Hockfield, S. (2019). The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build the Next Technology Revolution. W. W. Norton & Company.
• Piper, Martha and Samarasekera, Indira. Nerve: Lessons on leadership from two women who went first. Toronto, Ontario ECW Press, 2021. www.nerve2021.com

Contact She's Got Nerve

• Email [email protected]
• Visit our website https://nerve2021.com/
• Follow us on Instagram @nervebook2021 and LinkedIn @she'sgotnerve

A special thanks to our team:
Marketing Manager & Producer | Orla McErlean
Show Manager | Eilis Courtney

Thanks for listening to She's Got Nerve!

In this episode, Martha and Indira speak candidly with Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, who served as the 19th prime minister of Canada – the first and only female prime minister of Canada. She was the first young woman president of her high school student council, the first woman president of UBC’s freshman class, the first woman to serve as minister of justice in Canada and the first woman to become minister of defense in a NATO country, to name a few. 

She has served as Secretary-General of the Club of Madrid, an organization she helped found, which includes former heads of government and attempts to enhance democracy. A Companion of the Order of Canada, she is recognized internationally as a trailblazer and a leader of leaders! 

Episode Resources

• Campbell, Kim. Time and Chance : The Political Memoirs of Canada’s First Woman Prime Minister. Toronto ; New York, Doubleday Canada, 1996.
• Piper, Martha and Samarasekera, Indira. Nerve: Lessons on leadership from two women who went first. Toronto, Ontario ECW Press, 2021. www.nerve2021.com

Contact She's Got Nerve

• Email [email protected]
• Visit our website https://nerve2021.com/
• Follow us on Instagram @nervebook2021 and LinkedIn @she'sgotnerve

A special thanks to our team:
Marketing Manager & Producer | Orla McErlean
Show Manager | Eilis Courtney

Thanks for listening to She's Got Nerve!

In this episode, Martha and Indira speak candidly with Elizabeth Cannon, a leading geomatics engineer, served as the eighth president and vice-chancellor of the University of Calgary from 2010 to 2018. Prior to her appointment as president, she was dean of the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary. 

Appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Member to the Alberta Order of Excellence, she has worked tirelessly to raise public awareness about science and engineering careers for women.

Episode Resources

• Elizabeth Cannon M. Enhancing Your Higher Education Presidency: Fifteen Lessons on Leadership. RENSAR Publishing; 2020.
• Piper, Martha and Samarasekera, Indira. Nerve: Lessons on leadership from two women who went first. Toronto, Ontario ECW Press, 2021. www.nerve2021.com

Contact She's Got Nerve

• Email [email protected]
• Visit our website https://nerve2021.com/
• Follow us on Instagram @nervebook2021 and LinkedIn @she'sgotnerve

A special thanks to our team:
Marketing Manager & Producer | Orla McErlean
Show Manager | Eilis Courtney

Thanks for listening to She's Got Nerve!