HumanizeHer with Erica Lockheimer

Join us for a fantastic and nostalgic conversation with Tanya Staples and Vida Forrest y Salazar, the co-owners and managing partners of Ace Camps Travel! This duo, who first met working together at Lynda.com and navigated the acquisition by LinkedIn, share their incredible journey from corporate executives to entrepreneurs redefining success on their own terms.   Their LinkedIn Backstory: Tanya details her start as a technical writer in the mid-'90s, transitioning to product management, and eventually becoming a key leader at Lynda.com who helped pioneer the revolutionary concept of video subscription learning. Vida shares how she transitioned her decade-long passion for higher education into a powerful role at LinkedIn, eventually becoming a full-time lead on the external Equity and Opportunity team, focusing on how the platform could drive social change for marginalized groups. Their partnership, forged in the intense environment of the 2015 LinkedIn acquisition, built the deep trust and resilience needed for their next act.   The Pivot to Adventure: The episode is a masterclass in finding fulfillment, covering: The Power of the Me Treat: Vida recounts the pivotal moment on a solo ACE Camp trip in Laos where the creative energy and community inspired her to find her new mission. The Second Founder Advantage: Tanya discusses semi-retiring from LinkedIn after leading Trust & Safety to defrost, and the unique appeal of taking an established, purpose-driven business (ACE Camps) to its next level. The ACE Camps Impact: Discover the organization's ethos, which stands for Adventure, Culture, and Education, focusing on small-group, immersive travel that fosters deep community and creativity, often acting as a catalyst for women to start new businesses.   This is an inspiring look at how strong relationships, vulnerability, and a shared passion for culture can lead to a meaningful, fulfilling second act in life.   Join the conversation with host, Erica Lockheimer and co-host, Elizabeth Wendorf-Bloesser  

Join us for the inspiring and deeply personal story of Xitlali Curincita, a first-generation college graduate, current UC Irvine graduate student, and former 2022 Youth of the Year award winner from the Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula. Raised in North Fair Oaks, she shares what it felt like growing up between cultures and often navigating spaces where she didn't fully feel she belonged.   From first grade, the Boys & Girls Club and the Redwood City Public Library became her second homes. Through Project Read, she learned to read, write, and learned how to smile and feel loved in spaces where she once felt guarded and alone. She talks openly about growing up with caregivers, missing her mom while she worked, and slowly understanding that "mom means sacrifice," especially as she learned more about her parents' journey coming to the United States to build a better life for their family.   In high school, Future Grads and College Track helped her navigate culture shock, questions of identity as a Mexican American, and imposter syndrome. With their support, she took her first community college class. Eventually earning enough credits to enter UC Irvine as a junior, serve as student government president at Cañada College, and graduate debt-free with a degree in social policy and a minor in education.   This episode highlights the transformative power of youth programs, which provide crucial academic support and a safe community for our youth via after school programs and college preparation guidance.    Xitlali reflects on writing her Youth of the Year speech as a love letter to Redwood City, advocating and mentoring the next generation of Youth of the Year candidates, and honoring the women who lifted her. This conversation is a powerful look at turning pain into purpose, finding home between cultures, and using education to open doors for everyone coming after you.    Join the conversation with host, Erica Lockheimer and co-host, Elizabeth Wendorf-Bloesser.

Join us for a candid conversation with Anu Muralidharan, COO of Expensify, as she shares the deeply personal story of the intense drive and competitive pressure she inherited from her late mother, who taught her that "being second was unacceptable." Anu opens up about how this drive led to debilitating stress and "scarcity thinking," culminating in a rock-bottom moment where she risked it all with the "Seinfeld experiment," quitting her role for an unstructured position at Expensify.   Expensify is the financial software company behind the payments and expense management platform that automatically handles billions of dollars in reimbursements and business expenses.   With a rigorous technical foundation—an engineering degree from the elite BITS Pilani and an MBA from Cornell University—Anu had the credentials, but she was vulnerable with us and shared that she felt stressed and completely unmotivated at the midpoint in her career.  Anu details how working with a career coach helped her navigate this pressure and find her "true north" by shifting her focus from obsessing about the end result to the quality of the input. This new approach paved the way for her to build Expensify's ops and payments infrastructure, lead the company's IPO, and now direct go-to-market strategy while leveraging AI to drive data-led growth.   🎧 Join the conversation with host, Erica Lockheimer and co-host, Elizabeth Wendorf-Bloesser.

In this insightful conversation with Cynthia Teniente-Matson, President of San José State University (SJSU), shares her journey from being a first-generation college student and CFO to leading the oldest public university on the West Coast.   She explains how SJSU, often called "Silicon Valley's Public University," is now at the forefront of the AI revolution. Learn about the groundbreaking partnerships with tech giants like Nvidia and Adobe that provide students with essential AI learning labs and digital literacy tools, ensuring every graduate is prepared not just for current generative AI tools, but for the "convergence of technologies" like AI and human-robotic connections, ensuring graduates have the skills needed in the next 5, 10, and 15 years.   SJSU was founded in 1857 as the California State Normal School. This makes it the oldest public higher education institution on the West Coast and the founding campus of the entire California State University (CSU) system. In this sense, it was an "original" endeavor—a first in the region for public education.   Anchor of Silicon Valley: Located in the heart of downtown San José, SJSU is the public university physically embedded in the capital of global innovation. The "startup" metaphor connects the university's historical capacity for adaptation and innovation (constantly evolving its programs since 1857) with the relentless, disruptive, and entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley today.    This episode highlights SJSU's success as a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and AANAPISI, serving a profoundly diverse student body. Cynthia reveals the strategic shift to a pipeline-to-a-job model that has resulted in SJSU being ranked the #4 Public University in the Nation by The Wall Street Journal. This is a masterclass in leadership, strategic organizational transformation, and driving equitable change for the next generation of technical leaders.   Join the conversation with host, Erica Lockheimer and co-host, Elizabeth Wendorf-Bloesser for a dose of inspiration.

Join us for a deeply informative conversation with Joanna Strober, Founder and CEO of Midi Health, the pioneering telehealth platform transforming women's midlife health.   Joanna clarifies the hormonal chaos of perimenopause (which often starts in your 30s) and the shocking truth behind the decades of fear surrounding Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). She reveals data showing estrogen alone may actually reduce breast cancer risk and improve bone/brain health.   We dive into how Midi Health delivers rapid, personalized care from expert Nurse Practitioners, often covered by insurance. Joanna details their focus on comprehensive women's health (sleep, anxiety, weight, and sexual health) and their groundbreaking at-home blood test for truly proactive, personalized medicine. Hear her story of leveraging multiple career pivots to found her "fourth baby" and close a crucial gap in healthcare.

Join us for a lively conversation with Cherie Brooke Luo and Jean Luo, the Tiger Sisters! This dynamic sister duo, both successful tech product managers from LinkedIn and Snapchat, made a radical pivot to earn their MBAs from Harvard Business School and Stanford GSB to then become full-time content creators and entrepreneurs.   They pull back the curtain on how they built their brand and business in just over a year, achieving phenomenal success by hitting #1 Business Podcast and Top 3 U.S. Podcasts overall on Spotify! This episode is a masterclass in modern entrepreneurship and personal reinvention, featuring insights on:   🔀 The Power of the Pivot: How they moved from a reality TV show concept to launching their podcast and a physical product, Sisters Matcha. 📸 Startup Mentality in Media: Applying their product management skills (hypothesis testing, fast iteration, and ruthless optimization) to grow their content rapidly. 👩‍💼 The Flow State of Entrepreneurship: The satisfying reality of moving faster and seeing direct impact compared to the corporate world. 💰 Building Community and Commerce: How they created a highly engaged, supportive audience that helped them launch their sold-out matcha brand. 👯‍♀️ Sister Dynamics in Business: The hilarious and honest reality of living and working together—from figuring out who's better at editing to switching from messy text threads to organized Slack channels.   The Tiger Sisters' story proves that being intentional, adaptable, and focused on genuine value is the ultimate growth strategy. Join the conversation with host, Erica Lockheimer and co-host, Elizabeth Wendorf-Bloesser for a dose of inspiration.

💡 "I play in the spaces where tech, storytelling, and entertainment intersect." Author–filmmaker Abigail Hing Wen joins us to talk about her newest universe, The Vale—a novel with a short-film prequel and a companion Roblox experience about a boy navigating an AI-driven virtual fantasy world. We dig into how she builds story worlds with real AI literacy behind them, drawing on years as an AI tech exec and as the Director & former host of Intel's AI Podcast, plus her work on fairness, transparency & accountability in AI policy. Abigail also opens up about the decade before her "yes," the four "buried" novels that taught her craft, and how that persistence led to the breakout book-to-film journey from Loveboat, Taipei to the Netflix movie Love in Taipei.  Website:  In this episode 🎭 The making of The Vale — novel → short film → Roblox world 🤖 Using AI thoughtfully in creative work — what helps, what harms, and what's hype  🧗‍♀️ Law → tech → author/director — embracing the "jungle gym" career 🎬 Book-to-film realities — what authors actually control ⭐ How fans truly help — preorders + ratings (Amazon/Goodreads/IMDb/Rotten Tomatoes) The Vale is in the home stretch and every order around the country before September 20 is critical! Please support your local booksellers and spread word! NOTES: sales transactions must CLOSE to count. Indie Bookstores: (preferred) Bookshop.org (preferred) Barnes and Noble  Amazon CTA: ✨ If this conversation resonates, preorder The Vale, watch Love in Taipei on Netflix, and drop a quick rating/review—those signals make a huge difference. 🙏 Join the conversation with host, Erica Lockheimer and co-host, Elizabeth Wendorf-Bloesser.

Kirthiga Reddy, a trailblazing leader and first female Investment Partner at SoftBank Vision Fund, shares her incredible journey from growing up in India to becoming an influential figure in tech. She details her time as a Director of Engineering at Silicon Graphics and the first employee to launch and lead Facebook (now Meta) in India. This episode is packed with invaluable insights, including: The Power of the "And": How she embraced the "superpower" of having a career and a family, even when societal pressures suggested it was an "either/or" choice The Career Jungle Gym: Why she chose a 40% pay cut to pivot her career and how her impressive (linear-looking) resume actually hides a series of strategic, non-linear moves Guilt Management: Her powerful philosophy on not "overthinking" every decision and learning to manage guilt as effectively as time The "Trust Technology": A deep dive into her new venture, Verix - a company building a verification layer for digital credentials using blockchain, and the pivotal learning that led her to that mission AI Kiran: The story behind her new initiative to spotlight and grow the community of women in AI in India. Kirthiga's story is a testament to the power of a growth mindset, the importance of mentorship, and the courage to take a break and find clarity. Join the conversation with host, Erica Lockheimer and co-host, Elizabeth Wendorf-Bloesser.

Join us on The HumanizeHer Podcast for a powerful and candid conversation with Nidhi Gupta, a trailblazing leader with a chemical engineering background who rose to become a Chief Technology & Product Officer - then ventured out to create her own business and become a Co-Founder and CEO!  Nidhi shares her incredible journey from growing up in India, where she was one of just a few women in her engineering class, to navigating pervasive biases and microaggressions in the tech industry. She reveals how these experiences fueled her passion to create SheTO.org, a non-profit dedicated to accelerating women's leadership in engineering.   This episode is packed with unfiltered insights on: Overcoming adversity:  How early experiences of bias shaped her resilience and grit The emotional side of impact:  Why she prioritizes supporting one life over just chasing big numbers The unexpected challenges of funding a non-profit:  Debunking myths about corporate and investor support for mission-driven organizations Building a thriving community:  How SheTO's programs achieve remarkable promotion rates for women in tech A White House invitation:  The surreal moment she realized her work is being recognized at the highest level.   Nidhi's story is a raw and inspiring testament to creating change, fostering community, and finding soulful fulfillment beyond traditional corporate success.  Join the conversation with host, Erica Lockheimer and co-host, Elizabeth Wendorf-Bloesser.

In this episode of The HumanizeHer Podcast we sit down for an insightful conversation with Catherine Fisher, LinkedIn's esteemed Career Expert! Catherine shares her journey in communications, from Netflix to LinkedIn, revealing how she became a go-to voice for career navigation.   This episode dives into crucial topics like the evolving job market, the impact of AI on careers, challenging traditional growth paths (the "squiggly line"), and the art of asking for what you want. Tune in for candid advice on handling workplace setbacks, the power of delegation, and building a resilient network.   Join the conversation with host, Erica Lockheimer and co-host, Elizabeth Wendorf-Bloesser.   ** NOTE **  An audio mishap impacted this episode's sound quality, but we worked with Swell Sound to repair it so you don't miss a moment of the great conversation!