Anita Balaraman's guest appearances

Anita Balaraman

Tech Policy Leaders

Gritty Serendipity

OwlTail

You’re well aware that this podcast is about public policy and so often we focus on that, but today, we’re also bringing you the creative side of policy making. So many of the policies that we fight to implement are created as a way to protect and preserve our ability to be creative. We know that for many professionals, it’s hard to be able to live a completely creative life, while balancing it with work and earning a living.   In a podcast first, we begin today’s episode with a poem by our guest, Anita Balaraman. The poem is called “Doubt” and  you can read it on Medium.com. Anita is a technology product leader with more than 10 years of experience in building technology products that delight the customer both in the B2B and B2C domain. She is also an adjunct faculty at UC Berkeley, teaching and coaching hi-tech product management. She is currently the founder of an early stage ed-tech startup. Most recently she led the digital customer experience practice at Cisco Systems, designing and launching enterprise solutions for customer experience. Prior to that, she led the product team at WalmartLabs launching products that combine machine learning, predictive analytics and personalization. She consults independently and on the board of technology startups in the advertising, ecommerce, and ed-tech space. Anita received her MS in toxicology and applied statistics, and an MBA, both from the University of California, Berkeley. Links: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Washingtech.org  Berkeley College of Engineering   Doubt, by Anita Balaraman An obedient child Never wild Begged to be schooled Never one to do, what she wants to. Somewhere in my teens I grew To my parents, a quarrelsome, defiant point of view. Aspired to cross the oceans blue To America for graduate school to pursue. Girls can’t be safe, outside of parents’ purview Unless she has a husband, never mind she is just twenty-two! In Berkeley, I was told you can be what you want to Even a brown girl with big starry eyes, can dream one day to be a researcher, a professional, or a professor someday. Worked hard, very hard, or at least I thought, For I’ve been given a chance, a really long shot. But told that I may never be a researcher sought There must be more than just the grades, I thought. Despite how hard I fought… Hiding my feminine brownness was like adding a nought[*]. Perhaps they are right, went my train of thought… Why else would I not see someone like me in doctoral gown? Oh don’t be sad, said my loved ones around You can be happy, rich, and successful without a doctoral gown- hands down. Look at the valley of silicon and sand A dreamland of success, prestige and wealth For those that are committed to technology at hand. Yes, but my mind wandered… Where did I lose the defiance in my view? I really care about children and leukemia And I can build risk models that I learned in academia. But can you blame them if they did not trust The models I built that needed their process to adjust. I don’t look like them, or speak like them The assumptions in my models are hard to trust. I found my kind, the brown variety, Who spoke bad English with no anxiety. The friends at home and those at work Looked and spoke like they belong to the same network. No apologies for being a vegetarian during team lunch Who clairvoyantly knew that salad wasn’t a good munch. This must be beautiful- to feel like you belong Without having to rehearse your lines so I don’t say something wrong. To work with the bunch where I hoped I belonged, I got another graduate degree, not the Ph.D. I longed. A business degree, hoping to correct the wronged. A Mom twice over, a wife and an employee, ‘you can’t get promoted if you leave at 5’, would annoy me. Benevolent prejudice, paternalism, and sexism: Belonging, I understood, with deep skepticism. A misfit perhaps, have always been A toxicologist, but not the wet-lab kind A technologist, but not an engineer’s mind An entrepreneur, who venture capital declined An educator, living the adjunct grind A researcher, without the terminal degree- unrefined. Seeking belonging, but always unaligned. Perhaps down in my subconscious mind the fringes appeal more than the straight jacket kind? The fringes feed concern for mistakes, Suspended between two or more contradictory states. An indecision between belief and non-belief Hiding, somewhere, is a fictitious fig leaf? Belonging requires suspending the lunatic fringe To honor and reflect the collective doubt. But that is harder to live, day in and day out Easier it seems to simply not honor their doubts?

You’re well aware that this podcast is about public policy and so often we focus on that, but today, we’re also bringing you the creative side of policy making. So many of the policies that we fight to implement are created as a way to protect and preserve our ability to be creative. We know that for many professionals, it’s hard to be able to live a completely creative life, while balancing it with work and earning a living.   In a podcast first, we begin today’s episode with a poem by our guest, Anita Balaraman. The poem is called “Doubt” and <a href="https://medium.com/epixego/not-honoring-their-doubts-1e51413bd2f4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> you can read it on Medium.com</a>. Anita is a technology product leader with more than 10 years of experience in building technology products that delight the customer both in the B2B and B2C domain. She is also an adjunct faculty at UC Berkeley, teaching and coaching hi-tech product management. She is currently the founder of an early stage ed-tech startup. Most recently she led the digital customer experience practice at Cisco Systems, designing and launching enterprise solutions for customer experience. Prior to that, she led the product team at WalmartLabs launching products that combine machine learning, predictive analytics and personalization. She consults independently and on the board of technology startups in the advertising, ecommerce, and ed-tech space. Anita received her MS in toxicology and applied statistics, and an MBA, both from the University of California, Berkeley. Links: <a href="https://amzn.to/3CTddCG" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind</a> <a href="https://washingtech.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Washingtech.org</a> <a href="https://funginstitute.berkeley.edu/people/anita-balaraman/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Berkeley College of Engineering</a> Doubt, by Anita Balaraman An obedient child Never wild Begged to be schooled Never one to do, what she wants to. Somewhere in my teens I grew To my parents, a quarrelsome, defiant point of view. Aspired to cross the oceans blue To America for graduate school to pursue. Girls can’t be safe, outside of parents’ purview Unless she has a husband, never mind she is just twenty-two! In Berkeley, I was told you can be what you want to Even a brown girl with big starry eyes, can dream one day to be a researcher, a professional, or a professor someday. Worked hard, very hard, or at least I thought, For I’ve been given a chance, a really long shot. But told that I may never be a researcher sought There must be more than just the grades, I thought. Despite how hard I fought… Hiding my feminine brownness was like adding a nought<a href="https://medium.com/#_ftn1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[*]</a>. Perhaps they are right, went my train of thought… Why else would I not see someone like me in doctoral gown? Oh don’t be sad, said my loved ones around You can be happy, rich, and successful without a doctoral gown- hands down. Look at the valley of silicon and sand A dreamland of success, prestige and wealth For those that are committed to technology at hand. Yes, but my mind wandered… Where did I lose the defiance in my view? I really care about children and leukemia And I can build risk models that I learned in academia. But can you blame them if they did not trust The models I built that needed their process to adjust. I don’t look like them, or speak like them The assumptions in my models are hard to trust. I found my kind, the brown variety, Who spoke bad English with no anxiety. The friends at home and those at work Looked and spoke like they belong to the same network. No apologies for being a vegetarian during team lunch Who clairvoyantly knew that salad wasn’t a good munch. This must be beautiful- to feel like you belong Without having to rehearse your lines so I don’t say something wrong. To work with the bunch where I hoped I belonged, I got another graduate degree, not the Ph.D. I longed. A business degree, hoping to correct the wronged. A Mom twice over, a wife and an employee, ‘you can’t get promoted if you leave at 5’, would annoy me. Benevolent prejudice, paternalism, and sexism: Belonging, I understood, with deep skepticism. A misfit perhaps, have always been A toxicologist, but not the wet-lab kind A technologist, but not an engineer’s mind An entrepreneur, who venture capital declined An educator, living the adjunct grind A researcher, without the terminal degree- unrefined. Seeking belonging, but always unaligned. Perhaps down in my subconscious mind the fringes appeal more than the straight jacket kind? The fringes feed concern for mistakes, Suspended between two or more contradictory states. An indecision between belief and non-belief Hiding, somewhere, is a fictitious fig leaf? Belonging requires suspending the lunatic fringe To honor and reflect the collective doubt. But that is harder to live, day in and day out Easier it seems to simply not honor their doubts?

Anita Balaraman: How to Overcome Self-Doubt in Your Cyber Career

Episode 2: I saw down to speak with Anita Balaraman and you do not want to miss the immense wisdom that she shared in the show!Anita Balaraman is a scientist and technologist passionate about teaching, and curious about the intersection of the future of work, learning, education, and AI/ML technology. Committed to enabling education to serve as a tool for social and economic mobility for all by democratizing occupational identity. Growing up as a girl in a traditional, modest household in South India, being an entrepreneur was not an occupational identity she knew: “I didn’t believe that because I didn’t see it.” Education, she believes should not be a privilege that promotes and perpetuates inequality, but rather a way to expand opportunity for all. She believes in the power of exposing students to role models so they see what is truly possible- an occupational identity that aligns with their interests and skills, and social capital that extends beyond their zip codes. Technology product leader with a demonstrated achievement record in building and marketing products aimed at delighting the customer. Accumulated a series of successes in risk modeling as a scientist that caused policy changes at USEPA, DFG, and USFW.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chetana-desai/message

Episode 2: I saw down to speak with Anita Balaraman and you do not want to miss the immense wisdom that she shared in the show! Anita Balaraman is a scientist and technologist passionate about teaching, and curious about the intersection of the future of work, learning, education, and AI/ML technology. Committed to enabling education to serve as a tool for social and economic mobility for all by democratizing occupational identity. Growing up as a girl in a traditional, modest household in South India, being an entrepreneur was not an occupational identity she knew: “I didn’t believe that because I didn’t see it.” Education, she believes should not be a privilege that promotes and perpetuates inequality, but rather a way to expand opportunity for all. She believes in the power of exposing students to role models so they see what is truly possible- an occupational identity that aligns with their interests and skills, and social capital that extends beyond their zip codes. Technology product leader with a demonstrated achievement record in building and marketing products aimed at delighting the customer. Accumulated a series of successes in risk modeling as a scientist that caused policy changes at USEPA, DFG, and USFW. --- Send in a voice message: <a href="https://anchor.fm/chetana-desai/message" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://anchor.fm/chetana-desai/message</a>

Stories Series 1: Scientist & Startup Coach - Anita Balaraman

Episode 2: I sat down to speak with Anita Balaraman and you do not want to miss the immense wisdom that she shared in the show! Anita Balaraman is a scientist and technologist passionate about teaching, and curious about the intersection of the future of work, learning, education, and AI/ML technology. Committed to enabling education to serve as a tool for social and economic mobility for all by democratizing occupational identity. Growing up as a girl in a traditional, modest household in South India, being an entrepreneur was not an occupational identity she knew: “I didn’t believe that because I didn’t see it.” Education, she believes should not be a privilege that promotes and perpetuates inequality, but rather a way to expand opportunity for all. She believes in the power of exposing students to role models so they see what is truly possible- an occupational identity that aligns with their interests and skills, and social capital that extends beyond their zip codes. Technology product leader with a demonstrated achievement record in building and marketing products aimed at delighting the customer. Accumulated a series of successes in risk modeling as a scientist that caused policy changes at USEPA, DFG, and USFW.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chetana-desai/message

Episode 2: I sat down to speak with Anita Balaraman and you do not want to miss the immense wisdom that she shared in the show! Anita Balaraman is a scientist and technologist passionate about teaching, and curious about the intersection of the future of work, learning, education, and AI/ML technology. Committed to enabling education to serve as a tool for social and economic mobility for all by democratizing occupational identity. Growing up as a girl in a traditional, modest household in South India, being an entrepreneur was not an occupational identity she knew: “I didn’t believe that because I didn’t see it.” Education, she believes should not be a privilege that promotes and perpetuates inequality, but rather a way to expand opportunity for all. She believes in the power of exposing students to role models so they see what is truly possible- an occupational identity that aligns with their interests and skills, and social capital that extends beyond their zip codes. Technology product leader with a demonstrated achievement record in building and marketing products aimed at delighting the customer. Accumulated a series of successes in risk modeling as a scientist that caused policy changes at USEPA, DFG, and USFW.--- Send in a voice message: <a href="https://anchor.fm/chetana-desai/message" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://anchor.fm/chetana-desai/message</a>