Apr 4, 2023
Growing up with the example of hardworking, successful and supportive parents, Karin Moore rose to success wherever she set her sights. A motivated and unstoppable immigrant woman, Karin earned her engineering degree then pivoted with an MBA to a software career working over 20 years in some of the world's largest companies like Microsoft, Teradata and Optum. In parallel with being a mom of two, Karin reached executive level roles where she was one of three women above the Senior Director role in a 1200 person team. At the height of her career Karin realized, however, she was no longer learning. This realization led her to question everything about leadership for women in STEM including the barriers and success strategies. Karin decided to quit her lucrative job, leaving behind a bunch of stock and a team that she loved, to pursue her PhD in Global Leadership and Change focused on improving the lives of girls and women in STEM. She graduates in Spring of 2024 and her story is about rebuilding yourself when you feel that change is needed and how to listen to that voice which tells you "not this".
What You Will Hear in This Episode:
2:29 Karin’s personal journey
4:50 Choosing health and growth over money and success
10:24 Motivation and being unstoppable
13:06 Discrimination
17:22 Lessons learned
19:00 Anger, growth and observations about women in STEM
23:53 DEI and women in leadership
28:16 Karin’s goal of improvement in global leadership
31:47 Advice for women who may be thinking about a career change
33:30 Poem by Alina Kalieta Davis
Quotes
“Holding yourself small is never the right answer.”
“The one thing my parents insisted on is to never be beholden to a man.”
“You can plan your life a little differently so that you really are helping and acting in service to your community versus just piling on more money, getting bigger cars, bigger houses.”
“I'm learning how closed off my brain was to the plight of black people in our country. It's embarrassing, honestly, as an immigrant. Clueless. So if I walk out with the PhD, having grown that way, looking at the world with more empathy, it will have already paid for itself.”
“I’ve learned that self-regulating and self-managing is super, super important.”
“There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." - Madeleine Albright
“If you talk a good talk and you know, you show up on Pride month or you show up at women's months, but then the rest of the 12 months of the year, 11 months of the year, you're still hiring a homogeneous population of people, that is an indicator to me that there's a systemic problem.”
“The hardest thing about parenting, pick up and drop off of school.”
“I'm in a tunnel. I look back, I can no longer see the light of the old work and I look forward and there's a tiny dim glimmer of the future and that guides me forward through energy, through a lot of connecting with my spiritual side and hoping and trusting that I just don't think this is a big mistake.”
“I would say be fearless. Be courageous. There's always a better version of us if we trust ourselves.”
Mentioned:
Madeleine Albright
Connect with Bonnie
https://bonniemarcusleadership.com/
https://web.facebook.com/bonnie.marcus/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonniemarcus
https://twitter.com/selfpromote
https://www.instagram.com/self_promote_/
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