COBALT Magazine for Women in Technology

COBALT For Women MAGAZINE

HOME GROWN ROLE MODELS MADAM VICE PRESIDENT

BUSINESS FOR GOOD

WINTER LOVE

SUDEBI & PROBAL

MOUNTAIN HIDEAWAY

What would you do if you were not afraid?

Image by Robin McDougal

Sheryl Sandberg, Author Lean In

COBALTFor Women Passion Inspired, Technology Enabled TABLE OF CONTENTS

TECHNOLOGY Editor's Note

05

Funding Women Businesses

36

ENTREPRENUERS

Imagination: Create the Future

Sudbei and Probal

Nuptials

12

26

Susan Trivers

For Women In Technology

WWW.THECOBALTMAG.COM

20

THE AMBER COLLECTION TECHNOLGY FOR

A

CARRY

CASES

PASSIONATE

LIFESTYLEÂ

AMBER 1

W W W . E - G L A M . C O M

46th U.S. President Joe Biden & Vice President Kamala Harris

IMAGE SOURCE WION WEB TEAM NEW DELHI, DELHI, INDIA

Congratulations!

Editor's Note ROBIN MCDOUGAL EDITOR IN CHIEF

“The greatest source of inspiration in my life life was my mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris.”

Home Grown Role Models

In December, I became the grandmother of a little girl. My granddaughter is part of a new generation that will know women can be leaders of nations like the The United States of America. She is born into an American democracy which reflects her ideas, dreams, and aspirations. My granddaughter's generation of Americans is living proof that democracy is embedded in the belief that all people are created equal regardless of their race, religion, gender, and whom they love.

Our sweet bundle will be old enough to know she is empowered with tools to forge her world. In fact, she will cultivate an appreciation of grassroots leadership found in role models like her great grandmother Bernice Chavis Davis, a Brooklyn, New York community activist supporting Shirley Anita Chisholm.

Kamala Harris & Mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris

Historically, activism runs through our culture via other dynamic African American Women like Shirley Anita Chisholm, the pioneering first Black woman to serve in Congress and who also became the first woman to seek the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in the 1972 election.

Like Kamala Harris, our little one will know that her first leadership role model often begins in their own home. Born in India, Kamala Harris's mom arrived in the U.S. to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where she received her doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology becoming a breast cancer researcher. Kamala Harris shared, “My mother always use to say, “Don’t just sit around and complain about things. Do something.”

Thank you to all of our home-grown role models.

Love You Mom

My Mom & Role Model, Bernice Chavis Davis

"I eat no for breakfast."

VICE PRESIDENT, KAMALA HARRIS

Image by Robin McDougal

The composite image below depicts the first woman Vice President of the USA, Kamala Harris and Ruby Bridges, first black child to get admitted into the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana in November 1960.

"WELCOME TO THE WHITE HOUSE MADAM VICE PRESIDENT"

COMPOSITE PHOTO IMAGE CREATED BY BRIA GOELLER NORMAN ROCKWELL, THE PROBLEM WE ALL LIVE WITH, 1963

Vice President Kamala Harris thanked voters

CNN

The Hill We Climb, Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman Facebook, MSNBC

“Attitude is perhaps the biggest determinant of what we can accomplish.”

Dr.Tina Seelig, Author

Image by Robin McDougal

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

Sudebi Thakurata Co-founder SUDEBI THAKURATA IS A NARRATIVE DESIGNER, CREATIVE FACILITATOR, EDUCATOR, FUTURIST & WRITER.

SHE DESIGNS EXPERIENCES, ENGAGEMENT & ENVIRONMENT THAT ALLOW PEOPLE TO THINK, HAVE DIALOGUE, MAKE THEIR THINKING & INTERACTION VISIBLE

CO-FOUNDERS Probal Banerjee Co-founder Probal Banerjee is the co-founder & CEO of the transdisciplinary design-led collective, D.epicentre. He works on the interfaces of business, learning, design, analytics, innovation & storytelling.

“What exactly is your favourite subject?” was the most difficult question for Sudebi when she was a child, as the world never seemed to be disjointed, fragmented with boxes of subjects, disciplines or domains.

A true polymath, one who loves to travel between the parts and the whole and one who constantly transcends boundaries of all kinds, to Sudebi everything is interconnected.

As a trans-disciplinary practitioner who seamlessly keeps wearing many hats, her challenge remains the same: to answer the question “What exactly do you do?” Someone who truly embraces the VUCAness of the world, much before the term started being used, Sudebi always loved to imagine possibilities and inter-weave perspectives, practices and processes when she met Probal.

Issue 27 | 234

Passion & Business Sudebi always loved to imagine possibilities and inter-weave perspectives, practices and processes when she met Probal.

Sudebi Thakurata

“Why can’t businesses consider emotions, ethics and experiences?” was the quintessential question that drove Probal all his corporate life.

Being conflicted between purpose and profit, and questioning the limitations of this duality, once he met Sudebi, his quest for answers became a search for more questions and together they started walking towards the inquiry, on a difficult path of curiosity, discovery, unlearning and transformation.

It was their mutual love for “meta”, the mutual aversion to follow formulas and templates, the joy of noticing little details, the affinity for narratives, the thrill of challenging wicked problems, empathy for people and most importantly an urge to help create some impact in many walks of life, that led to D.epicentre Consulting.

D.epicentre is a unique collective that the couple started to break boundaries of all kinds, while struggling against all odds, on top of one person pursuing a full-time job, one quitting a highly paid job, both pursuing higher studies, both facing a lot of personal challenges and very few people understanding or even supporting the vision.

Probal Banerjee

D.epicentre is a four –year old collective that brings people together, sharing a common vision about bringing in shifts. The shifts could be in patterns of thinking and behaving and ways of seeing oneself and the world.

LEARNING AND INQUIRY This happens by connecting the dots and looking at the larger picture while not overlooking the small, delving into a process of inquiry in an experiential, context-specific, transformational way that can blend economy with ecology, self with the society, past with the future, content with context and concept.

At D.epicentre, they see narratives everywhere and all their work is a way of storytelling: systemic, service-oriented, visual, performative, product-based, experiential or digital.

They believe in being and doing, practice as a method of research, body as a site of learning, design as a process of facilitation and not just an outcome with fixed forms. People, especially the users of their design, are the most important to them and so is their context. For no two individuals or organisations, do they design the same experience. Process and aesthetics are woven into their practice.

D.epicentre is a true un-organisation that really believes in the power of learning and inquiry, being a collective that crafts experiences from a variety of signature pedagogies, methodologies and philosophies.

Their uniqueness is in many aspects.

One of them is not having a fixed team which has only a rigid signature style or aesthetics. They believe in diversity and customise or individualise the design based on the need of the users, clients and the context. So their strength lies in the plurality of thoughts, multiplicity of perspectives and diversity of creative approaches, which help in maintaining each project to have its unique characteristics, completely different from any other project that the team has done before, and yet their network of members are all handpicked and their common principles, values and philosophy have an underlying similarity, enabling their work to maintain its quality and standard.

That’s why it is important for them to understand the requirements of a project frame the problem the project is addressing and therefore create the most appropriate mix of diverse people who would pursue an inquiry instead of fixing a problem. They want to avoid homogeneity or uniformity not only in terms of style, form, solution but also thinking. Building upon collaborative feed back where they involve the users in the storytelling is an integral part of D.epicentre’s process. Their design journey is not user-centred but userinvolved and user-driven, not rigid and templatised but emergent.

Process and methods are very important for D.epicentre which help in bringing in clarity and coherence. Often they engage in radical collaborations, where they bring together people with varied backgrounds and viewpoints, to create insights. They focus on conveying meaning in their work narratively and emotionally,

ENGLISH & DEVANAGARI

contextualize it so that the design becomes a journey from information to emotion, whether it is in systems, services or something else.

The name D.epicentre with the D being both English and Devanagari (a script in India), symbolising both global and local every character including the “.” symbolises a core aspect of this movement. Through the process of ‘D’esign, they walk towards gaining ‘e’mpathy, see and listen to multiple ‘p’erspectives, as they ‘i’nterweave various elements with the hope of creating ‘i’mpact / ‘e’pics of our times, as metaphors, ‘i’mmersing in the ‘c’ontext, the background in mind, while finding experiential ‘n’arratives, bringing in ‘t’hinking, ‘r’esponsibility/’r’egeneration and ‘e’nquiry’ at the heart, through a process of creative collaborations.

The ‘.’ is the metaphor of a pause, slowness: reflective and reflexive inquiry that focuses on the self, the individual, situating it within the world. ‘Epic’is a metaphor of the kind of ‘i’mpact that can be ‘i’magined or ‘i’nter-woven while ‘Depic’ting the ‘centre’ of any problem, visualising and framing problems before designing solutions.

Vision The vision is to become: ‘the epicentre of design ’depicting the centre, the core of everything, keeping ‘epic’ (the eternally relevant-timeless) in the ‘centre’ of their work. While they aim to connect the dots, and believe in a creative unity, which the “maatra” of the Devnagari “Da”, a line signifies.

Universality of design is embedded in their ways of bringing in inclusion and wellness, but local, traditional wisdom is what they draw upon.

Depicentre loves framing, speculating and innovating about the futures, while unpacking the past, driven by a process crafted in the present where design is used as an approach as opposed to an outcome, with deep immersion in experiences. It is strengthened by complex systems thinking by navigating seamlessly between the parts and the whole, by observation, visualisation, interconnections, collective sensemaking and co-sensing. Art is used for its power to make sense through metaphors and not just sequential, logical and Cartesian ways.

Issue 27 | 234

If you want to know more about D.epicentre please follow them on LinkedIn

l e v e L U p!

IT IS YOUR TIME

By Robin McDougal, Editor in Chief COBALT Magazine for Women in Technology

Venture funding for female founders has hit its lowest quarterly total in three years. While overall US venture capital investments in 2020 are on par with previous years, those funds haven't necessarily reached female business owners, dealing them a disproportionate blow.

Investments in women-led companies this year are on pace to be the worst since 2017. ( Pitch Book, Sept. 30, 2020)

All of us at COBALT Magazine believe the lopsided funding opportunities are unacceptable. As a result, we have decided to launch efforts to galvanize our network to make a significant change to increase funding of women founders. COBALT+ is designed to nurture, develop, and clear a path to capital for women business owners we call Level Up! Â

Imagination Creates The Future

by Susan Trivers

Level Up Series A hive of business leaders and entrepreneurs ready to take their passion to the next level

Podcasts Seminars Virtual Brunch

IMAGINATION + CREATIVITY

We live in a results-focused time.

What’s the ROI? What’s the market for this product or that service? How much will investors be willing to put up? Is it even of interest to investors at all? Human beings are wired to create and imagine. We aren’t wired to generate measurable and financially desirable outcomes.

Those are learned behaviors. Yet to get ahead, it’s the outcomes that count. What are imaginative and creative women to do? I believe you need to stand firm on the value of imagination and creativity. You must “own it.” You have a vision and a voice.

Voice your big vision and then fill in all the nooks and crannies. Don’t let others talk you out of it.

Why is this so hard? Because from your earliest learning experiences to the present, wherever you are in your career, you’ve been told to learn the rules; adopt best practices; be in compliance; get certified. We’re told, overtly and covertly, that staying in and getting ahead requires continued compliance. Tamp down that imagination! Drown that spark of creativity! Be part of the consensus.

The founders, CEOs and executives I work with admire many of our biggest modern cultural icons: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Tony Hsieh, Richard Branson and others. When I ask them to imagine being like those men (too many men!) they get stuck. Money, connections, respect, teams of people —it all seems out of reach. It is not out of reach. The failure to use your imagination is the single biggest obstacle to success, on whatever scale you define it.

From now on, take these three steps to capitalize on your imagination, own your vision and use your voice: 1) When imagination strikes, stop and pay attention. Write it down or record a quick note. It can’t wait till later. Don’t squeeze in time for it, make time for it. Think of your imagination as a spark. Just like a spark to a pile of wood, your spark needs to be fanned in order to fully ignite. Do not jump immediately to “what’s the ROI of this idea?” Every idea needs time to develop, change directions, go through various versions. Work on it for the pleasure of working on it!

Hydrate Your Business Image by Robin McDougal

18

2) Speak up. Not once, not twice, but every single day. Stop people from interrupting you. Expect that they listen.

Set ground rules: listening and acknowledging, without editing and without telling you why it won’t work. Use analogies, stories and participation to create interest in your idea. Avoid logic.

Ask people to imagine your idea is now out in the real world. How would they use it? What would they say about it to someone else?” Move them from “it won’t work” to “hmm, I see it is working.”

3) Tap into your wits and grit. If you’ve gotten to the workplace, I guarantee that you have used your wits and grit before. Maybe to overcome shyness in a class? Maybe to lead a community organization? Maybe to get your first job. Or a promotion. Study your personal history for times when you used your wits—creative ideas to get out of tough spots—and your grit--the perseverance to prevail—to get something you really wanted. Your wits and grit are a permanent part of you, just like your imagination. You only have to decide to access them.

What are you imagining right now? Write it down and make time to explore it. Fan the flames to see how big a fire you can build. Speak about it in your own words, again and again. Not every bit of imagination changes the world, but the world will be a better place with your imagination in it.

Susan Trivers, President of Trivers Consulting Group

Nuptial

WHIMSICAL AND ROMANTIC

Yes, I Do!

image by Robin McDougal

Winter Love Palette

Sophisticated and romantic winter weddings bring out the dreamers in all of us. Beginning with the rich ruby red tones found during traditional holiday celebrations and ending with the earthbound emerald evergreens signaling nature.

Image credits: Etsy Winter Color Palette by Etsy Wedding Bouquet by Kangah Wedding Cake by Sjharmon Wedding decor by Devonanne

Take Time to Savor Your Accomplishments

Image by Robin McDougal

MICRO WEDDINGSIntimate

& Intentional

A Very Special Event Saying "I do," has become a creative and unique event. Many couples have opted to intentionally plan thoughtfully intimate ceremonies and celebrations. A more intimate affair allows the new couple to spend time surrounded by the people they love most.

Some couples prefer an intimate ceremony at City Hall or a chapel. While others are using the Micro Wedding movement to create quiet, intimate, small group wedding and adding elegance, luxury and tradition.

Honoring Loved Ones Your wedding day is a celebration that might include those friends or relatives who've passed-away, not able to attend due to illness, or responsibilities associated with military duty. Your inclusion can be subtle moment or a symbolic gesture.

VERMONT

Admitted as the 14th state to the United States, Vermont boast of having the most pristine natural parks, organic, healthy food, environmentally and casual way of living life.

Winter in New England is a must-see, however, Winter in Vermont is nothing short of breathtaking. Vermont not only has picturesque landscapes and endless scenic places to explore, but the state also has exceptional food especially maple syrup. image by Sabin Gratz, Susan Stripling, Jose Villa & Melissa Mullen

CONTACT: Toll-Free: (802) 746-8822 Email: events@riversidefarm.com PHYSICAL ADDRESS: 57 Tweed River Drive Pittsfield, VT 05762

MINDFULNESS & INTENTION NUTRITIONAL REFLECTIONS

Jocelyn Johnson, MSN/MS Theraputic Herbalism

Mindful Intention

I’ve thought about what mindfulness eating is all about. As a nutrition professional, I’ve studied various ways to convey how my clients can be mindful of the foods they consume. More recently, I’ve thought about the actual meaning of words, such as mindful and mindfulness. And how these words apply to my life or the lives of my nutrition clients.

The word mindful is an adjective defined as being attentive or aware of something, such as your child’s daily routine or your need for a break at the end of a long week. In comparison, mindfulness is the state of being present without judgment to a specific thought or action.

This is where it gets sticky. Perhaps instead of mindfulness, we should look to set intentions to be better and put forth a new attitude towards ourselves and our fellow man.

Oddly enough, the word intention is used in our everyday speech to describe a plan or goal to reach for in the future.

However, the medical definition of intention is a manner or process of healing a wound. The practice of setting intentions can be employed to heal deeply cut wounds, which makes so much sense. We all have unseen traumas that need to be healed like an open wound. It’s these unseen

traumas we don’t realize we have. These traumas cause us to have certain biases and judgments that we project on to those around us. These judgments keep us stuck in a place keeping us on the proverbial hamster wheel, reliving or revisiting an event, time, and time again.

During these uncertain times, we’re all looking for the rhyme or the reason in our daily lives.

Sometimes, we find ourselves mindlessly daydreaming of the day we can be with our friends and loved ones, wondering what that first hug might feel like; or we mindlessly sit and eat an entire bag of chips just because they are there.

These new thoughts of mindfulness and intentions help to pull us out of the fog and mindnumbing monotony of our current day-to-day.

Being mindful of those who may have these unseen traumas and setting intentions to break out of our freak out of the new normal of having to wear a mask or stay sequestered from the world until this highly contagious virus plateaus in your community.

Perhaps you will take time to be mindful and grateful for all the good things in your life. Try setting new intentions to make space and bring balance to your life. Here are a few apps that can assist you with setting intentions and implement thoughts of mindfulness.

Several apps are available and compatible with Android and iPhone, iPad, and Apple watch.

The following basic apps are free and may be found in the either the App Store or on Google play.

Breethe, Mindfulness, Peace: Calm, sleep and meditation, Meditation Studio, Shine: Calm, anxiety & stress, ThinkUp: Positive Affirmations, and Motivate: Daily motivations.

Remember that setting intentions and being mindful will allow you all to bring balance to your every day, making the mundane more manageable.

References: Dictionary.com (2020). Mindful definition.

Retrieved from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/mindful?s=t Dictionary.com (2020). Mindfulness definition. Retrieved from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/mindfulness?s=t Vocabulary.com (2020). Intention definition. Retrieved from https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/intention Dictionary.com (2020). Intention definition. Retrieved from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/intention

Fund Her Idea!

  Achieving escape velocity is tough for all business founders, however, when you are a woman, especially a woman of color, you do not have the same access to capital as your male peers. Goldman Sachs reports, under 3% of women founders are funded and only 1% of funding goes to Black and Latina founders. Venture funding for female founders has hit its lowest quarterly total in three years. While overall US venture capital investments in 2020 are on par with previous years, those funds haven't necessarily reached female business owners, dealing them a disproportionate blow. Investments in women-led companies this year are on pace to be the worst since 2017. (PitchBook, Sept. 30, 2020)

BLAZE ACCELERATOR FOR SPACE ENTREPREURS At this time, women represent 18% of the aerospace industry and even fewer aerospace owners like Eren Ozmen, Founder and Chairwoman of Sierra Nevada Corporation, the global aerospace, and national security leader. Many women in aerospace and defense work in support functions such as HR, legal, finance, and marketing, rather than in operational roles.

Increase the "Green-Go" stage for her start-up

For example, only about 15% of aerospace engineers are women.

These numbers have been relatively unchanged for the past two decades.

How do you identify the next generation of leaders in frontier technology? With VC finance knowledge training.

COBALT+ has partnered with BLAZE to pave the runway and give the founders the fuel they need to achieve escape velocity.

Robin McDougal founder COBalt Magazine

Mary Lynne Dittmar foundeR The Coalition For Deep Space Exploration

John Milan, Principal Finance Suburban entertainment

Diana alsindy Propulsion Engineer Virgin Orbit

Chimene Davis founder Suburban entertainment

Julie Van Kleeck Retired Aerospace V.P. Aerojet rocketdyne

Melodie Yashar Co-Founder SEarch+

Allyson McDougal Tommy white, Director Cassie Kloberdanz LeE Co-Founder Co-Founder American University WorkChew Center for Innovation Brooke Owens Fellowship

Welcome

Grace Fejokwu Grace Fejokwu is an expert in computer information systems with a specialty in cybersecurity. Currently, Grace provides services at a Fortune 500 company as an Information Security Analyst. She reviews and provides assessments on security controls for mobile and desktop end-user computing.

Complex systems of cybersecurity and how security is intertwined with every layer of society has led her on the path to founding her company, Route to Security. The Route To Security is a non-profit organization whose main goal is to provide cybersecurity education to underrepresented communities.

As an Analyst in the world of cybersecurity, Grace has identified critical touchpoints when maintaining our societal digital needs.

Ruby Tang Ruby is the founder of Move Mankind, a crowdsourcing platform for ventures enabling the future of life, on Earth and Beyond. (Think, space and green ventures seeking advisory calls, funding, research participants and more.) It’s like a Product Hunt x Kickstarter for impact 2.0 ventures. Move Mankind currently counts ventures like Astrobotics in its community, as well as marketers, scientists, and other professionals.

Currently a Business Designer at a Fortune 500 consulting company, Ruby has previously, played Product & Growth roles at both multinational and start up technology companies. She started her career as a Planner at Ogilvy & Mather. Ruby received her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Global Business & Marketing with high honors from the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. She has a Master of Social Sciences degree in Advertising and is also a full-stack coder.

Payton Barnwell Payton is a human spaceflight focused mechanical engineer with a degree from Florida Polytechnic University. Her passion for space exploration has brought unique opportunities such as working on innovative solutions to traditional astronaut nutrition at NASA Kennedy Space Center, designing an Air Force designated X-Plane hypersonic research program at Generation Orbit as a 2018 Brooke Owens Fellow, and working on SpaceShip2 in the Mojave Desert with The Spaceship Company. Outside of internships, Payton received funding through the NASA Florida Space Research Program for her ideas on radiation resistance, worked in a chemistry lab on campus to assist with landfill water filtration, and created her own research course which worked to incorporate the humanities into traditional undergraduate STEM design courses. Payton was co-founder and president of the Florida Poly ASTRO + SEDS clubs, co-founder and Executive Director of Splash at Poly, and an avid science communicator in the Tampa Bay area.

Morgan Denman Morgan Denman is the Founder of Duality Space to make space-focused information and education both beautiful and inspiring. During her time working within the aerospace industry, she noticed a need to create awareness around all the amazing things happening in space. As a graphic designer and illustrator based on Florida’s Space Coast, Morgan believes humans are curious, and that curiosity is often expressed and explored through art and science as two sides of the same coin.

She graduated from The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY with a BFA in Graphic Design, then moved to Florida post-graduation and went on to work at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (KSCVC) where she found a new passion for space and science. Since leaving KCSVC, she has worked as a freelance designer and illustrator for multiple companies within the aerospace industry, continuing to pursue her passion for space and science communication.

Kaley Hassell Kaley Hassell is an undergraduate aerospace engineering student at the University of Oklahoma, minoring in business with a focus on entrepreneurship. In 2019, Kaley was awarded the Brooke Owens Fellowship for outstanding women and gender minorities in aerospace, and through her fellowship worked at Sierra Nevada Corporation on the Dream Chaser spacecraft.

Since then, she has interned as an electrical and power systems flight controller for NASA on ISS, built interfaces for the Orion missions, and interning at United Launch Alliance. Kaley has served as the chief aerodynamics engineer and business lead on the Formula SAE Sooner Racing Team, served as a leader in the OU chapter of AIAA, and has been an undergraduate research assistant in high powered rocketry research. Kaley is an active force in the mission to explore our solar system and beyond while embedding sustainability deeper into our daily lives and into the future of aerospace.

Victoria Woodburn Currently finishing her third NASA internship with the Office of Communications at Goddard Space Flight Center, Victoria is completing her undergraduate degree at Northwestern University with concentrations in psychology, leadership, and integrated marketing communications. As a selfdescribed space-based storyteller transiently stuck on Earth, Victoria has always held a fascination for human exploration beyond this planet. Selected as a Brooke Owens Fellow, Victoria shared her insights toward drafting recommendations to address gender inequity for the United Nations. Her aspiration is to increase the accessibility of space for all individuals, regardless of their interests or backgrounds. Her strategy is to connect the public with current endeavors in space and translating the technical jargon of space professionals into comprehensible messaging.

Jasmine Leflore Co-founder of Greater Than Tech, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching girls of color the intersectionality of engineering and business to create technology business leaders of the future, Jasmine is an Aerospace Engineer who works on business transformation initiatives, engineering synergies, and various special assignments with an aerospace company. As a self-proclaimed change agent, Jasmine is motivated to inspire and uplift others into engineering and business by her unflinching ability to move things forward. Jasmine has earned her BSE in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan. She is currently completing her MSE in Interdisciplinary Engineering at Purdue University and her MBA at Indiana University graduating in Feb'21. Jasmine has been recently awarded the 2020 Women of Color STEM Community Service in Industry Award.

Hal Fulton Co-founder of Open Space Foundation, Hal Fulton is a software developer and author working on making space accessible to everyone. Known for the book series, The Ruby Way, Hal shares his "howto" approach to Ruby computer programming. In his free time, Hal and his co-founder have launched a foundation dedicated to bringing space to everyday people. He believes "To take people to space, we must take space to the people." The Open Space Foundation is a not-for-profit 501 (c) 3 dedicated to supporting space-related education and awareness designed to promote the growth and connectivity of the space community. Hal and his founders are creating ebooks, student programming, and events to further their mission.

Bailey Burns Co-founder of Open Space Foundation, Bailey Burns is an Aerospace Systems Engineer working on Life Support systems for spacecraft. In her free time, she and her co-founder launched a foundation. Open Space Foundation, a not-for-profit 501 (c) 3 dedicated to supporting space-related education and awareness designed to promote the growth and connectivity of the space community. Bailey is a Mechanical Engineer pursuing her Master’s in Space Resources, specifically in the areas of lunar regolith and lunar dust mitigation. Bailey is known for her advocacy as a suborbital citizen scientist at Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere) conducting earth-based, astronautic research and education program study of the upper atmosphere and its role in global climate change.

Bailey is devoted to informing and educating the general public about space.

CREATE Image by Robin McDougal

New Mom TO

THE

NEW

YEAR

*PANDEMIC REFLECTIONS

"Every time you state what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear it."

OPRAH

Image By Robin McDougal

I thought an advanced STEM degree would give me immunity from domestic chores.

During pre-married life, I cooked maybe once or twice a year, and had cleaning service because I considered my time and energy is precious. I am a workaholic and I often think that I could be working more.

Adjusting to married life was a hard awakening too. When he says that he needs to eat, what does that mean? I say to myself, I really don’t know how to fry an egg without burning it a little. Really, I only know how to clank away at a computer.

The hard awakening of marriage seems like a joke compared to the horror of the pandemic. Nothing could have prepared me for the hardship of being a female during the pandemic. No advanced STEM degree could have saved me. My husband, who is not in STEM, makes fun of me, saying, "fancy computer skills mean nothing during a pandemic." He’s right. I’m useless during the pandemic. For the first time in my feminist life, I wish I enjoyed cooking, I wish I could bake bread without it coming out rock solid. It seems the hero of the pandemic was whoever could cook and was the most domesticated and did it all with a June Cleaver smile. I am not smiling. My husband and I have been quarantined together for 167 days and counting, since mid-March. We also became first time parents to a baby girl in April. The pandemic caused pandemonium. Our baby shower was canceled, so was our hospital tour and birthing class.

Much to his disappointment, my husband couldn’t attend the final few prenatal visits, however he was able join via FaceTime. I was lucky he was allowed to come to the hospital for the birth and stay with me the remaining days. Some states banned support persons from coming to the hospital. I just can’t imagine going through a cesarean and being alone with a baby for four days. It would have been both physically and emotionally unbearable for me without my husband. I had planned to spend a few weeks in a postpartum recovery center where they cook for me, watch the baby, and give me daily massages while I recovered. I also planned to hire cleaning service, go to the masseuse and yoga studio once a week to lose the baby weight. We also planned to visit his family in South Korea to introduce them to their first grandchild. And of course, we planned on sending the baby to daycare by the time I return to work.

Sadly, none of that happened.

We were all too much in fear of the pandemic.

We went into quarantine not only to protect ourselves, but most importantly our baby. My husband is working remotely, which means he is actually working during the day. I am still on maternity leave. I've decided to take 25 weeks of paid + unpaid leave, thinking I would rest and vacation.

“I am a woman, phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman.

That’s me.” – Maya Angelou

Image by Robin McDougal

Unfortunately, it has turned into 25 weeks of domestic hell because of the pandemic. You see, my maternity leave plan, pre-pandemic, did not include my husband being home for 25 weeks. On top of taking care of a newborn, I have to do the meal preparation and cleaning during the day, so my husband can focus on work. I really shouldn’t complain, my husband does more than his fair share. But again, him being home, me cooking and cleaning multiple times a day, was definitely not part of the original plan. Bless the moms that have school aged children at home on top of husbands and newborns. Every day looks something like this: feeding, pumping, entertaining the baby, cooking while entertaining the baby, feeding, feeding the husband, cleaning, pumping, entertaining the baby, feeding, entertaining the baby, bath time, cooking, feeding, dinner with the husband while holding the baby and eating with one hand, entertaining the baby, putting baby to bed, cleaning, washing bottles, pumping, and finally time for myself, but by this time I am exhausted. There is no ounce of energy left to care about my hair falling out, the baby weight I did not lose, the painful inflammation in my hands and wrists. I’m just too tired physically and mentally, besides, the baby’s needs and supporting my husband always comes first. Today, I sang ABC on a continuous loop to a crying baby, while holding her in my lap as I tried to write this, and the dishwasher was running in the background.

There is no escape.

I am really looking forward to going back to work. But oh yes, we are in a pandemic. There’s no judgement for what other parents do. I, personally, cannot stomach the idea of sending my four month old, my only child, to daycare during a pandemic. Unfortunately, my job is not remote. I have to go in. Do I quit and stay home with the baby? But I actually really enjoy this job. But at the risk of my baby’s life? But we need two incomes to qualify for the bigger house we are currently shopping for while interest rates are low. I am so conflicted. The silver lining of the pandemic is that my husband was able to stay home and be with the baby instead of the traditional few weeks of paternity leave. We are very blessed the pandemic enabled this time to become a family.

We are so very much in love and happy with what we built together. But I feel we are being forced to rewrite our future plans. It is making me choose between everything I worked for up until now or the safety of my new family.

Why can’t I have both?

I have six more weeks to decide. Will there be a miraculous vaccine by that time? I understand now why some parents step away from their careers to be with their kids. I feel guilty that I can’t be decisive. They aren’t giving up anything at all. They simply value family more than anything. Truly, advanced computer skills mean nothing compared to the value of family. Even if I did become a stay at home mom, I don’t think I will ever learn how to make bread soft.

Thoughts of a first time mom during the pandemic

By J. Song

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Image by Robin McDougal

COBALT Magazine

Thank You to Our Contributors JOCELYN JOHNSON MSn, MS.,Therapeutic Herbalism jocelyn@trilliumlotus.com

JENNY SONG Senior Business Consultant

SUDEBI THAKURATA She is a narrative designer, creative facilitator, educator, futurist & writer.

PROBAL BANERJEE He works on the interfaces of business, learning, design, analytics, innovation & storytelling.

SUSAN TRIVERS She is the author of Tinker: How Smart Business Owners Develop Creative Ideas for True Growth,www.susantrivers.com

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Image by Robin McDougal