Career Advice Women Leaders Want You To Know This Earth Day
At The Earth Day Women's Summit last week, about a dozen accomplished female innovators and leaders talked to the audience about specific strategies for growing a clean green economy, including how to communicate creatively, sustainable business practices that work financially, socially and environmentally, and about new financial, investment and business models. They also described how agricultural innovations are reinventing fashion and food, in unexpected ways, and the impact on women who make up the majority of the fashion workforce and small-scale farmers.
Several of the women who spoke also gave insightful career advice, specifically for women in midcareer on Electric Ladies Podcast.
Zara Summers taling on panel - ED Women's Summit - 4-22-2025
'Naming it sometimes helps, right?...Say you're scared right now, but, what is the honest absolute worst thing that could happen? And when you really talk through it internally, you realize like, yeah, even it doesn't go well, but look at all the experience I'm going to gain.…And if you look at it from that perspective, it becomes less scary.'
Zara Summers, Chief Science Officer, LanzaTech
Telle Whitney
'For many engineers, especially women, but pretty much any engineer, they haven't necessarily been trained to communicate their ideas. And I think if you want to take your career to the next level, learning how to tell your story and what you want is really an important skill….It's just as important as the product development itself. And I'll say that again, it's as important as the product development itself and for many engineers, but especially women that is a tough lesson to really take in.'
Telle Whitney, Author of the new book. 'Rebooting Tech Culture: How to Ignite Innovation and Build Organizations Where Everyone Can Thrive'; Co-Founder of Anita Borg Institute For Women in Technology and Cofounder of the Grace Hopper Conference.
Jennifer Hough facilitating Circles at ED Women's Summit
'Especially when you've heard someone can be difficult or someone can be skeptical or cynical, it might take three lunches to get to know them well enough. If you make that the priority, that is going to mean the world to the results that you're seeking the world, huge, massive.'
Jennifer Hough, author of 'Unstuck: The Physics Of Getting Out Of Your Own Way,' TEDx speaker and advisor to leaders.
Chelsea Henderson on Comms-Culture panel at Earth Day Women's Summit 4-22-2025
'Women are really great at supporting other women. And so I think leaning into that and hearing, you know, the pitfalls, what was hard, what was easy. A lot of times we get focused on talking about what's hard and not on what's fun or what has been easier or what makes your day…. Plus don't let imposter syndrome cripple you.'
Chelsea Henderson, Director of Editorial Content at RepublicEn ('conservatives for climate change' and author of 'Glacial: The inside story of climate politics.'
Alison Ward speaking on panel - ED Women's Summit - 4-22-2025
Alison Ward, CEO of CottonConnect
As we close out Earth Day Month, these women remind us that we have choices about what we do with who we are, how we frame issues in our minds, what we buy, who we hang out with, what we are learning, and how we spend our time.
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