The message needed to be heard — and told directly by the messenger.
So two months ago, Alisia McClain, the executive director at the Louisville Future of Work, reached out to Joanne Harrell, if she would travel from her home in Seattle — as the First Lady of the Emerald City and retired Microsoft executive, among several other titles — to Louisville to speak at the fifth annual Women in Technology Conference at a fireside chat on Tuesday at the Mellwood Arts Center.
“She’s just someone who has made an indelible impression on me, when I met her two years ago,” McClain said.
McClain first met Harrell in the spring of 2020 — right before the city shut down due to the Covid pandemic — at a large Future of Work Initiative event in Louisville that was attended by several executive members from Microsoft, which oversees the initiative.
McClain was a little more than a month into her role as the director of community and education initiatives at Future of Work, with “no social capital.” Sensing McClain’s nerves, at one point, Harrell pulled her aside at a breakfast, after she had apologized for sitting in her spot.
“You don’t ever have to apologize for your presence. You deserve and have a right to be here.” Harrell told her.
“That was an incredible thing for someone of her level and stature to do and I never forgot it," McClain said.
McClain, who has served as the executive director of Future of Work since April 2021, added that Harrell’s statement, in many ways, provided the framework of the initiative, which first began in partnership with the Louisville Metro Government in 2019: “Everyone deserves a place and has a place in computer and data science.”
According to the Future of Work’s impact statement, the initiative — with its three main focal points of artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things and data science — has conducted more than 90 community events and engaged with more than 10,000 Louisvillians, most of which involved hands-on demonstrations of data analytics.
It has also established an equity-focused data science program, called ID+ Academy, in a joint effort with Jefferson County Public Schools and created a computer information systems degree program through Simmons College of Kentucky, Louisville’s only historically black college and university (HBCU). The initiative has made sure that its participants were mostly from underrepresented groups, including people of color and women, through Microsoft's Accelerate initiative.
Harrell told me that as AI continues to evolve, it is important to create jobs that “ leverage data and leverage AI, but at the same time, include human creativity.”
“So teachers will use data more and use AI, but at the same time, it's the human contact and touch that makes the difference.”
Keeping ‘your cup full’
Before she retired in October 2021 as senior director for AI, sustainability and market development strategy at Microsoft, Harrell visited more than 60 U.S. cities to establish connections like the ones that have been put in place in Louisville.
Well before that time, though, she began her career at Microsoft in 2001 in a sales and marketing role as often the only female in the room — let alone being a Black female. Even when she stepped down from her role, she said the percentage of women who held a position like hers in the tech world was only 6.6%.
“You just have to adjust,” said Harrell, whose husband, Bruce, became the mayor of Seattle in January. “And I can see heads nodding on this. You just pull from within yourself and say ‘I'm here. I should be here. And I have something to say.'”
She also encouraged those listening to always walk into any room — meeting room or otherwise — with “your cup full.”
“When you meet people that way ... you cannot only support them, but you can show up as your full and positive self,” Harrell said.
Harrell and McClain’s chat was preceded by opening remarks from Greg Fischer, the outgoing mayor of Louisville.
“When we decided to invest in Louisville, Mayor Fischer was a part of that,” Harrell told the crowd. “I know he's outgoing, but I just want you to know how instrumental in shaping [he was ] where we are today.”
Growing numbers
Women In Tech conference founder Shannon Fehr reported this year's event had 455 attendees, which was the most guests its had since the third edition when there were approximately 600 in attendance.
When Fehr first began the event in 2015, she was hoping for 40 attendees, and delighted when 103 showed up. At the time, she was working in the IT department for a company based out of New Albany, Indiana, that at the time was known as Boice.net before it underwent two mergers.
In her role, she helped organize IT-related networking events “all the time.” She would see upwards of 200 men, but only two or three women.
“I thought, ‘Well, why aren’t women coming? I know there’s women in IT, but why don’t they [attend]?'” Fehr said.
This year was the first time the event was held at Mellwood Art Center. Last year, after being canceled completely due to Covid, it was held in a hybrid format with approximately 350 patrons taking part either virtually or in-person at the Galt House Hotel in Downtown Louisville.
Fehr said that she sold about 50 student tickets from different schools, ranging from middle schools to local universities. Out of those tickets, she said about 90% were purchased for the students by sponsors.
“You introduce them young,” Fehr said, “And you get more impact by doing that.”
At the end of her chat, Harrell was asked to give advice to the young attendees.
“Don't put limits on yourself. Go forward. Push yourself. If something’s hard, figure out how to push through it… But if you stick to it, it's amazing what can happen,” she said. “The technology world is a beautiful place to work.”
