76. Lauren Sato & Ada Developers Academy

Ordinarily Extraordinary - Conversations with women in STEM

Lauren Sato is the CEO of Ada Developers Academy, an organization which prepares women and gender expansive adults for careers in software development in addition to helping place them in internships setting them up for long-term career success. Lauren has deep experience in leadership and leading programs that empower women in sustainable ways. She has a BA in Adolescent and Young Adult Social Studies Education.
Episode Notes

Lauren's passion for the work she does at Ada Developers Academy is so evident in our conversation. Providing sustainable life change for women and gender expansive adults particularly Black, Latine, Indigenous Americans, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander, LGBTQIA+, and low-income people is the core of Ada's mission. Lauren is working to accelerate Ada's growth which has been challenging and also unexpectedly strong because of COVID.

In addition to sharing information about Ada's program, her own story and journey of coming to Ada, Lauren shares stories of some of the women that have gone through the Ada program and how life changing it has been for them. We have some extensive discussions about diversity, the importance of language, and providing communities that people feel at home in.

Music used in the podcast: Higher Up, Silverman Sound Studio

Acronyms, Definitions, and Fact Check

Ada Developer's Academy - https://adadevelopersacademy.org

Ada Lovelace - Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. (wikipedia)

Gender Expansive - People who did not identify with traditional gender roles but are otherwise not confined to one gender narrative or experience. (www.hrc.org)

Seventeen percent of LGBTQ people polled lost their jobs because of COVID-19, compared to 13 percent of the general population, a survey found. (nbc news)

From February 2020 to January 2022, male workers regained all jobs they had lost due to the public health crisis, according to an analysis by the National Women's Law Center of the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report. However, 1.1 million women left the labor force during that span, accounting for 63 percent of all jobs lost. While women gained 188,000 jobs in January 2022, they are still short by more than 1.8 million jobs lost since February 2020. It would take women nearly 10 months of growth at January's level to regain the jobs they lost, the NWLC report indicated. "While men have recouped lost jobs, women are still in a big hole, and that shows how the pandemic impacts genders in different ways," said Emily Martin, vice president for education and workplace justice at NWLC. "Part of the reason for this is because women still hold the lion's share of caregiver responsibilities." (https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/behavioral-competencies/global-and-cultural-effectiveness/pages/over-1-million-fewer-women-in-labor-force.aspx)