By Michal Clements, W’84, WG’89
Moderator: Denise Winner, W’83, PAR’21. Panelists: Rebecka “Becky” Zavaleta, C’13; Lilian Haney, C’06; and Bhavini Soneji, VP Engineering, Headspace.
Fifty Penn alumni and guests enjoyed the “Blue Skies Women in Tech” 2019 LA Women’s Career Networking event. The program included speed networking, guided meditation, and the Women in Tech career panel. This was the second year in a row the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women and Penn Club LA held the event at Headspace in Santa Monica.
TCPW member Denise Winner W’83, PAR’21, President & CEO of Winner Squared moderated the panel. I learned from this that Denise has been focused on AI since the late 1980s.
Women in Tech 2019 Panelists were Penn Club LA board member Rebecka “Becky” Zavaleta C’13, Product Manager, Data Sciences, ZEFR; Penn Alumni Lilian Haney C’06, Director of Communications, AirMap; and Bhavini Soneji, VP Engineering, Headspace.
Others who made the event happen were TCPW’s Carolyn Enenstein, Denise Winner, and Michal Clements, Wharton Club of So Cal leaders Elizabeth Kopple and Anissa Finerman, Penn Club of LA board member Amanda Rykoff, and Penn Alumni Relations Christa Lembach and Terri Welsh.
Topics discussed were pivoting to the tech sector, staying current with the latest developments, big data, AI, human in the loop. Career advice included:
- Stay flexible – don’t necessarily have one “big” mentor, instead many people who help
- Mentally push through when faced with a challenge, whether it’s a project challenge or trying a new activity that will help with career and work
- Don’t limit yourself
- Leverage the power of the customer when pushing back from product management to engineering
This evening was hosted by Headspace who also provided delicious food and beverages. Thank you to all!
Frankly Penn 