What is the connection here? Trust. As Etta Jacobs, MA, PCC, told us: “A boss who micromanages, gives their direct reports the impression that they don’t trust them to do the work.” When an employee does not feel valued for their expertise and empowered to solve problems on their own, they begin to lose interest. This leads to the number one reason employees leave their job: a bad manager ..read more

On January 11th, WEST held “The Journey Starts Now: Q&A Sessions With Women in STEM and What You Can Do Starting in High School,” a guest speaker panel moderated by Suhanee Mitragotri (Harvard College 2025. During this event, we had the pleasure of hearing from three incredible speakers: Dr. Cristina Almansa, Dr. Ambika Bajpayee, and Dr. Lesley Chan. Dr. Almansa is the Head of Clinical Sciences, Translational Medicine Immunology at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. She is leading a team of scientists responsible for the design and execution of early development tri ..read more

When we consider a traditional career ‘path,’ we are often looking at the educational background, first steps into professional positions, and growth path into a goal position or leadership role. When we ask a high schoolers, for example, what they want to do after they graduate, many will give you a step-by-step guide that they have attached themselves to in order to get into whatever job or industry is their goal. The reality is, even the best-laid plans are subject to change. Diane Ma has experienced these plan changes at a variety of points throughout her education and professional jo ..read more

In 1920, women earned the right to vote. In 1963, congress passed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, protecting women from being paid a lower rate than men for substantially similar work. As part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it became illegal to discriminate in employment based on race, sex, color, religion, and national origin. It’s now 2023 and women have been making progress towards equality in the workplace for over 100 years now. While there’s still room for major improvements, women have come a long way in the workplace.  ..read more

No, we're not kidding. While we at WEST certainly take pride in our ability to evolve with the times and seemingly constant fluctuations in climate and covid alike, we're also not above a bit of regression. That is to say, resuming a form of normalcy that moves to bring our community closer together once again ..read more

This year’s National Women’s Month theme is “Providing Healing, Promoting Hope." According to the National Women’s History Alliance, as written on , this theme is "both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history ..read more

Dr. Anne Thessen is a researcher at the Center for Health Artificial Intelligence of University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center. Anne is well known for her work on data infrastructure and the application of semantic technologies and machine learning in biodiversity and earth science. She has been an avid volunteer at WEST events for over 10 years and was the recipient of the WEST Giving Back Award in 2017. I recently had the privilege to speak with Anne about her journey, her involvement with the WEST community, and the advice she has for people considering a career transition. - Emma Sull ..read more

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