B The Way Forward

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B The Way Forward is an action-driven conversation about systemic change—how it happens, who drives it, and what it really takes to make an impact. Hosted by AnitaB.org CEO, and battle-tested leader in tech and equity, Brenda Darden-Wilkerson, the show gives listeners the tools they need to step off the sidelines and shape the future themselves. B The Way Forward Season 2 kicked off with a central question: do you change the system from within, or do you have to break it to build something better? Now, in our second half of the season we'll celebrate something women often feel they can’t admit to in the tech world - failure. Through candid conversations with leaders at the top of the tech industry the audience gets authentic, actionable advice that they can apply to their own careers. Thoughtful, incisive and full of Brenda’s warmth and humor, B the Way Forward is human conversations in a digital world. --- At AnitaB.org, our mission is to enable and equip women technologists with the tools, resources, and knowledge they need to thrive. Through innovative programs and initiatives, we empower women to chart new paths, better prepared to lead, advance, and achieve equitable compensation. Because when women succeed, they uplift their communities and redefine success on their terms, both professionally and personally. --- Connect with AnitaB.org Instagram - @anitab_org Facebook - /anitab.0rg LinkedIn - /anitab-org And for more ways that you can be the way forward visit anitab.org --- Our guests contribute to this podcast in their personal capacity. The views expressed in this interview are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology or its employees (“AnitaB.org”). AnitaB.org is not responsible for and does not verify the accuracy of the information provided in the podcast series. The primary purpose of this podcast is to educate and inform. This podcast series does not constitute legal or other professional advice or services.

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October 13, 20261 hr 6 min

Leading at Scale Without Losing Yourself ft Adam Cheyer

What happens when your imagination shows up decades before the technology does? Adam Cheyer built his first version of Siri in 1993, before the web existed. He went on to co-found Siri and Viv Labs and was the first developer at Change.org. Now he’s saying something many people in tech won’t: 2025 was the year programming died. Brenda talks with Adam about why boredom made him creative as a kid, and how cardboard became software. They also get into Doug Engelbart’s idea that people and tools have to change together. Adam explains why he thinks we’re in a “golden moment” with AI, and why the thing that scares him most isn’t machines taking over but people losing their sense of purpose. If you’re excited about AI but uneasy about where it’s going, this one’s for you. We Talked About: Why boredom and “active vs. passive” time build creativity in kids and adults How Adam built 50 versions of Siri over 15 years before the world was ready What the AI hype of the 1980s can teach us about today’s boom Why collective intelligence, or people deciding things together, may be the biggest opportunity after AI Why Adam is calling for a global slowdown while humans are still in charge Connect with Adam on LinkedIn Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 01:05 Meet Adam Cheyer 03:00 Magic as storytelling 04:20 Boredom, cardboard and creativity 07:55 Active vs. passive time 10:20 Software as the new cardboard 12:15 "2025 was the year programming died" 15:20 Studying the human mind at Brandeis 21:30 Why AI favors generalists 26:20 Doug Engelbart and human-tool co-evolution 32:00 When imagination arrives before technology 34:30 The first Siri, built in 1993 37:55 AI in the 1980s: expert systems in France 41:30 Augmented intelligence and collective intelligence 48:20 What technologists miss about human behavior 54:45 A golden moment for AI 56:30 The real risk: losing human purpose 58:00 Why the slowdown has to be global 1:02:00 Reasons for optimism 10 years out 1:04:50 Closing thoughts #BTheWayForward #AdamCheyer #Siri #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfWork #CollectiveIntelligence #WomenInTech #AnitaB

October 6, 202653 min

Imagination as a Tool for Change | Francesca Rossi on Intelligence, Ethics, and What Comes Next

What if the most important question in AI is not how intelligent we can make machines, but what we want that intelligence to do for us? In this episode of B The Way Forward, Brenda Darden Wilkerson sits down with Francesca Rossi, IBM Fellow and IBM's Global Leader for Responsible AI and AI Governance at the T.J. Watson Research Center, for a conversation about AI ethics, AI governance, and the human decisions behind every system we build. Francesca spent more than 20 years as a computer science professor advancing AI capability, before a year at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute changed the questions she was asking. She explains why AI ethics is really human ethics, why governance works like brakes and seat belts rather than a speed limit on innovation, and why the language fluency of large language models should never be confused with reasoning. She and Brenda dig into whose values get embedded in a model and who gets to fine tune them, what happens to democracy and the legal system when people can no longer tell what is true, and why the greatest threat to human agency may be the steady accumulation of small decisions we hand over without noticing. This is a conversation that sits right at the center of this season's theme of presence, passion, and purpose, because the future of artificial intelligence is not something arriving on its own. It is something we are building, one choice at a time. Connect with Francesca on LinkedIn We Learned About: Human agency as a measure of progress Gaps in training data How AI ethics is Human ethics What AI is teaching us about ourselves Chapters: 00:00 Just because we can build it, should we? 02:09 The bigger question behind 20 years of AI research 05:28 Leaving a tenured professorship for IBM 06:28 AI ethics is human ethics 10:45 Governance is the brakes, not the speed limit 12:19 What do we actually mean by intelligence? 15:13 Fluency is not reasoning 17:30 Why we anthropomorphize machines 21:36 What technologists miss about consequences 24:09 Business, government, research, and community in one room 29:15 Whose values get built into the model 32:44 The maieutic machine: AI that asks us questions 35:26 Serving humanity means expanding human agency 40:59 What gives Francesca hope 43:01 Deepfakes, jobs, and the risk of AI rejection 46:10 What AI is doing to how we learn 48:23 What working on AI taught her about humanity #BTheWayForward #AnitaB #FrancescaRossi #AIEthics #ResponsibleAI #AIGovernance #IBM #ArtificialIntelligence #HumanAgency #TrustworthyAI #GenerativeAI #AgenticAI #TechLeadership #WomenInTech #WomenInAI #FutureOfWork #AIandSociety #EthicalTech

September 29, 20261 hr 4 min

Building Change that Lasts by Designing for People | ft. Prasanna Gopalakrishnan

In this episode, Brenda is joined by Prasanna Gopalakrishnan, former Global Chief Product & AI Officer at ADP and a veteran executive with over 25 years of experience leading digital transformation across tech, banking, and media. While much of today's conversation around Artificial Intelligence focuses on what machines will replace, Prasanna shifts the narrative toward a far more empowering question: What can AI make possible for human beings? Prasanna also shares where her optimism lands ten years out, from democratized superintelligence to breakthroughs in mental health and drug discovery, and what still keeps her up at night. If you're a leader, product builder, or HR decision maker trying to bring people along through AI change instead of running them over with it, this episode is for you. Connect with Prasanna on LinkedIn We Learned About Designing for People The Human Advantage Responsible AI & Trust Leading Through Transformation Chapters: 00:00 Welcome back to Be the Way Forward 01:51 Meet Prasanna Gopalakrishnan 02:06 When technology actually works for people 05:08 Three questions to ask before you build anything 07:00 Just because AI can, should it? 08:49 What stays true about people across every industry 12:11 Better at transformation, or just moving faster? 15:03 Customers want a kill switch, and that's okay 16:23 What she listens for when she walks into a company 19:34 How do you measure people when AI does the work? 21:28 The wrong question: what will AI replace? 26:18 Superintelligence in everyone's hands 28:30 The divide forming inside organizations 31:34 Sprint thinking in the middle of a marathon 35:36 The what, the how, and what actually gets rewarded 37:19 Work, roles, and tasks are not the same thing 44:43 Giving people room to figure it out 46:42 The moment leadership became a philosophy 50:19 The moral compass she never gave up 53:01 Straight talk and why women hear it differently 55:41 Ten years from now 58:42 What keeps her up at night 1:00:38 What being the way forward means #BTheWayForward #AnitaB #WomenInTech #AIEthics #FutureOfWork #Leadership #ArtificialIntelligence #ProductManagement #DigitalTransformation #InclusiveLeadership

September 22, 20261 hr 6 min

Leading From Lived Experience | ft. Vivienne Ming

Machines can now write, create, diagnose disease, generate art, and carry on a conversation. Which raises a question bigger than technology itself: if machines can increasingly do what humans do, what makes us uniquely human? In this episode of B The Way Forward, host Brenda Darden Wilkerson sits down with Dr. Vivienne Ming, a theoretical neuroscientist, serial entrepreneur, and one of the world's leading thinkers on artificial intelligence and human potential. She has built AI that improves healthcare, reduces bias in hiring, predicts mental health crises, and reunites orphaned refugees with their families. But the through line of her career isn't machines. It's people. Brenda pushes on the hardest part: how any of this reaches policy, education, and the systems that keep flattening people into something simpler than they are. Dr. Ming's answer is characteristically unsentimental and characteristically hopeful: tension is the reality of a healthy world, all real problems are messy human problems, and the one thing you actually control is you. Because meaningful innovation begins with internal alignment. Before we reshape industries or build remarkable technology, we decide what kind of people we want to become. Connect with Vivienne on LinkedIn We Learned About 1. Algorithmic bias is a mirror, and that's what makes it useful. 2. Credentials predict far less than we think 3. There is no such thing as a problem-solving skill. 4. The cyborg finding: our advantage is exploring the unknown. 5. Depth is engineerable, and so is a better AI. Chapters: 00:00 Welcome Back: What Makes Us Uniquely Human? 01:47 Meet Dr. Vivienne Ming 03:02 Sci-Fi Nerd to Neuroscientist: Where the Philosophy Began 05:18 Real Smiles, Fake Smiles, and the Tip of the Tongue 07:43 Why Algorithmic Bias Tells Us About Ourselves 08:21 Facial Analysis for Hiring: Absolutely Not 08:52 Intelligence Isn't Fixed 09:35 Two Scientists, an EdTech Company, and 2008 Venture Capital 10:33 Ending High-Stakes Testing with AI 12:59 Foundational Skills, Not "Soft" Skills 14:58 People Can Change — And It's Measurable 17:23 Zero-Sum, Positive-Sum, and Peer Role Models 18:08 When Systems Treat the Most Complex Thing as Fixed 19:42 It's an Ecosystem Problem 20:11 Productization, Not Science, Is the Problem 22:38 Why Politicians Are So Vile Online 23:07 The Human Trust and the French Pluralism Project 24:05 You Aren't Your Shallowest Self 25:31 Allostasis: Beware Anyone Selling a Simple Rule 26:31 Finding the Happy Tension 28:58 There Is No Such Thing as a Problem-Solving Skill 30:33 Everyone's a Mashup — And Everyone's Bad at Something 32:34 When Scale Becomes a Flattening Word 33:41 Flattening Produces Divergence, Not Sameness 34:41 Three Levers: Technology, People, and Policy 37:03 From Thirty Parameters to Eight Billion 37:32 When the Worst AI Beats the Best Human 38:28 The World's Slowest Copy-Paste Function 39:26 Meet the Cyborgs 41:24 Our Advantage Is Exploring the Unknown 42:23 Why Don't We Take Courses on Curiosity? 43:21 Socrates: The AI That Refuses to Answer 43:52 Hybrid Intelligence — and Why the Students Hated It 44:12 Getting This Into Education Policy 46:22 Thirty Years of AI and a Thirteenth Company 46:46 Refugee Reunification, Autism, and Repurposed Tech 49:30 Building AI That Leaves You Better 50:56 Don't Wait Until You Have Wrinkles 51:27 The World Gets Better When Old Men Plant Trees 53:52 Diverse Teams, Flat Hierarchies, and Reading People You Disagree With 56:49 Tension Is at the Heart of Everything 57:46 The One Thing You Control Is You 58:48 Character and the Building of a Citizenry 01:00:12 Kuala Lumpur: The Question She Read Completely Wrong 01:02:40 What She Hopes She's Remembered For 01:02:50 Closing Reflections #BTheWayForward #AnitaB #VivienneMing #RobotProof #HumanPotential #AIandEducation #ResponsibleAI #FutureOfWork

September 15, 20261 hr 0 min

Carrying the Weight and the Vision | ft. Shubhi Rao

We ask AI questions. We trust its recommendations. We increasingly let it shape decisions about our work, our health, our money, and our futures. But there's a question we don't ask nearly often enough: who taught AI what it knows and who was missing from the room while it learned? In this episode of B The Way Forward, host Brenda Darden Wilkerson sits down with Shubhi Rao, founder and CEO of Uplevyl, and a leader who spent decades at the highest levels of global business (Ford, PwC, Tesco, and Alphabet) where she became the first woman and first person of color to serve as treasurer. From that vantage point, she saw a problem that never appeared on anyone's balance sheet: It wasn't only that women were underrepresented in the rooms where technology gets built. It was that the data powering artificial intelligence didn't really understand women's lives at all. If you build with AI, fund it, govern it, or simply rely on it, this conversation will change what you ask of it. Because behind every algorithm is a series of human choices, and the most important question isn't what AI can do. It's “Who is AI being built to serve?” Connect with Shubhi on LinkedIn We Learned About: 1. Data is only half the equation; the algorithm is the other half. 2. Foundational models are remarkable, and they're the wrong tool for specialized guidance. 3. The internet is a skewed teacher, so Uplevyl built its own corpus. 4. A woman is not a homogeneous group and that's precisely the design problem 5. This isn't about replacing human advocates, entrepreneurship is a three-person job. Chapters: 00:00 Welcome Back: Who Taught AI What It Knows? 00:57 Meet Shubhi Rao: Ford, PwC, Tesco, and Alphabet 02:27 The Problem That Wasn't on Anyone's Balance Sheet 03:18 The Google Project Where the Data Wouldn't Come Clean 04:57 Why Who Builds AI Matters 05:28 Two Halves of the Equation: Data and the Algorithm 06:43 Why Workforce Representation Alone Isn't Enough 07:23 Foundational Models vs. Specialized Domain Models 09:28 The Missing Middle Layer 10:49 The Internet as AI's Largest Teacher 11:19 A Very Western Internet — and How to Rebuild It Cleanly 13:37 The Smithsonian, Women Artists, and Voices with No Webpage 14:20 From Blame to Responsibility: The Consequence of Defaults 15:16 What We Missed When ChatGPT Launched 16:18 Now Everyone Can Be a Builder 17:39 Grace Hopper and "We've Always Done It That Way" 18:08 Seeing the Problem — and Leaving Corporate to Solve It 19:01 A Problem Solver First, an Entrepreneur Second 21:01 What Uplevyl Actually Solves 22:26 Workplace Rights Across 23,000+ Jurisdictions 23:25 A Woman Is Not a Homogeneous Group 24:50 Widowhood, Advisors, and the Great Wealth Transfer 25:50 Trauma-Informed vs. Grief-Informed Algorithms 27:26 Why General Models Hallucinate on Lived Experience 28:40 Founding Uplevyl Before ChatGPT 29:28 Pattern Recognition as a Superpower 31:42 Why Build a First-Party Knowledge Base from Scratch 32:28 Uplevyl Studios and Hundreds of Women Experts 35:11 Craft and Care: Protecting the Algorithm 37:03 When People Questioned the Vision 41:11 Building Every Line — and Choosing Europe for Privacy 42:43 Entrepreneurship Is a Three-Person Job 45:07 Taking Your Fingers Out of the Cookie Jars 46:09 AI for Empowerment, Not Replacement 46:36 Financial Flows, Human Capital, and Unsolved Human Problems 49:21 Technology Should Reflect Our Priorities 50:21 What She Hopes We See in the Mirror in Five Years 51:48 Leadership in the Unknown Unknowns 54:17 Presence, Passion, and Purpose 55:04 The 10,000 Days Question 56:22 Closing Reflections #BTheWayForward #AnitaB #ShubhiRao #Uplevyl #WomenInAI #AIBias #WomenInTech #ResponsibleAI

September 8, 20261 hr 5 min

Success Doesn’t Mean Slowing Down | ft. Dr. Safiya Noble

For years, we were told that algorithms were neutral. Just math. Just code. Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble asked a different question, and it changed the way the world thinks about technology. In this episode of B The Way Forward, host Brenda Darden Wilkerson sits down with the scholar, author, and educator whose groundbreaking book Algorithms of Oppression helped spark a global conversation about algorithmic bias years before most of us had the language for it. Dr. Noble takes us back to the beginning: a working-poor childhood full of questions about how the world really works, fifteen years inside corporate telecom, a front-row seat to the dot-com boom and bust, and a PhD earned at forty-one; proof that the timeline you were handed is not the only timeline available to you. She also gets honest about the cost. About Black women stepping back from leadership because they turn around and find no one behind them. About the online violence pushing women and girls out of public life. And about why, right now, retreat is a luxury none of us can afford. Connect with Safiya on Instagram We Learned About The search that exposed a system. Code is a language — and languages are subjective. Technology and humanity were separated by design. There are now two education systems, and AI is deepening the divide. Everyone has a lane, and everyone has leverage. Chapters: 00:00 Welcome Back: Presence, Passion, and Purpose 01:28 Meet Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble 02:17 Curiosity, a Working-Poor Childhood, and a PhD at 41 04:23 Corporate Tech, the Dot-Com Bust, and a Skeptic's Eye 08:00 Why We Ever Believed Technology Was Neutral 09:53 From Chat Rooms to Search Engines 12:45 Gen Z Doesn't Trust Search Anymore 13:44 The Search That Started It All 16:33 Designing the Study: What the Data Revealed 19:22 Algorithms Are Not "Just Math" 20:53 The Bifurcation of Technology and the Humanities 22:20 What If Women Had Held the Power and the Resources? 24:35 Eugenics, Race Science, and the History of CS 26:25 Techno-Solutionism and the Defunding of the Humanities 28:15 Sabbatical, Stand-Up Comedy, and Staying Present 30:03 The Cognitive Cost of AI Dependence 33:22 When Being Device-Free Becomes a Luxury 34:49 Who Gets Chatbots and Who Gets Teachers 37:23 Data Centers, Water Bills, and Community Pushback 40:58 "We Are the Optimists" 42:19 Tell the Truth 44:17 An Ecosystem of Truth-Tellers 47:16 Find Your Lane: Where Everyday People Have Power 49:51 Pensions, Portfolios, and Pro-Social Technology 51:53 Trained vs. Educated 54:02 Advice for the Exhausted Changemaker 56:08 Building "Data in Society" at UCLA 57:26 Gen Z and Values-Aligned Work 58:59 Black Women, Leadership, and the Cost of Retreat 01:02:31 Closing Reflections #BTheWayForward #AnitaB #SafiyaNoble #AlgorithmsOfOppression #AlgorithmicBias #WomenInTech #ResponsibleAI #TechEquity

September 1, 20261 hr 0 min

Beyond the Title: Why the Future Belongs to People Who Dare to Build It | Betsy Ziegler

What does it really mean to lead with purpose in a world that rewards speed over intention? In this episode of B the Way Forward, host Brenda Darden Wilkerson sits down with Betsy Ziegler, CEO of 1871, one of the nation's premier startup incubators and innovation hubs in Chicago. From her early days at McKinsey and GE to leading innovation at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and now championing thousands of founders through 1871, Betsy has built a career defined not by a linear plan, but by a learner's mindset, radical authenticity, and an unwavering commitment to expanding what people believe is possible for themselves. Brenda and Betsy dig into what it takes to lead through ambiguity, how to stay grounded in your identity when your title becomes your identity, and why the future will be shaped by whoever has the courage to grab the pen. This is a conversation about redefining leadership, reimagining success, and building something that lasts beyond yourself. Connect with Betsy on Twitter (@betsyzeo) and LinkedIn We Learned About Staying present as a leader while operating in environments that are constantly looking ahead Why non-linear career paths are the norm, not the exception, and why that's actually a competitive advantage The "40 by 40" list framework Betsy used to reorient her life around living, not just achieving How authentic leadership can cost you power in some rooms while building deep trust in others The danger of defining your self-worth through your job title Chapters: 0:00 Introduction & Season Theme 1:44 Welcome to B the Way Forward – Meet Betsy Ziegler 3:11 Betsy's Response: Partnership Between 1871 and AnitaB.org 4:02 Leading in the Present While Focused on What's Next 8:26 Was Your Career Path Linear? Betsy's Honest Answer 13:10 The "40 by 40" List That Changed Everything 16:08 Letting Go of Certainty to Step Into Something New 19:42 Trusting Yourself Through Major Career Reinventions 21:53 The Danger of Giving Too Much of Yourself Away 25:07 How Betsy Separates Urgency From Importance 29:56 Authenticity in Leadership: Where It Costs You and Where It Pays 37:16 What Really Motivates Founders (It's Not the Metrics) 43:24 A Founder Story That Shifted Betsy's View on Impact 46:00 What People Misunderstand About Failure 50:20 Advice for Anyone Struggling to Believe in Themselves Right Now 54:05 AI, Abundance, and Who's Grabbing the Pen 1:00:05 Closing Thoughts and Defining Integrity #BTheWayForward #WomenInLeadership #StartupEcosystem #Leadership #Innovation1871 #AuthenticLeadership #AIandInnovation

August 25, 202639 min

Courage to Transform: AI Belongs to Leaders Who Build With Intention | Ambica Rajagopal

What does it actually take to lead AI transformation inside a global industrial enterprise, and do it with both technical rigor and radical humanity? In this episode of B the Way Forward, host Brenda Darden Wilkerson sits down with Ambica Rajagopal, Group Chief Data and AI Officer at Michigan, where she leads enterprise-wide data strategy to optimize manufacturing, services, and industrial operations through advanced analytics and AI. Ambica has built her career transforming large-scale organizations across pharmaceuticals, energy, and manufacturing, and her through-line has never been the technology itself. It has always been the people. In this conversation, Brenda and Ambica dig into what happens when the urgency of AI meets the human cost of change, why empathy is the most underrated technical skill, what a brutal performance review 15 years ago taught Ambica about the difference between expertise and leadership, and why she believes the most courageous thing a woman in tech can do right now is invest in her own resilience. This is a conversation about clarity, transformation, and what it really means to make your path the evidence of the change you believe in. Connect with Ambica on LinkedIn We Learned About: Why empathy, not speed, is the real foundation of successful enterprise AI deployment The critical distinction between self-expression and authenticity, and why getting it wrong costs you influence in the room Ambica's leadership mantra "Clarity wins the day" and what it actually looks like to apply it inside high-stakes, fast-moving organizations How a 15-year-old performance review that said "your team doesn't like you much" became one of the most transformative moments of her career The difference between being a journey person and a goal person, and why knowing which one you are changes everything about how you lead Chapters: 0:00 Introduction & Season Theme 1:00 Meet Ambica Rajagopal, Group Chief Data and AI Officer 2:30 Why Empathy Is the Only Way to Get AI Transformation Right 5:30 Empathy as Active Common Ground, Not Passive Sympathy 7:00 What Has Remained Constant Across Industries: Clarity and People 10:00 How Ambica Stays Grounded When Performance Metrics Are Always On 11:00 Meditation, Mental Space, and the "Room of One's Own" Framework 13:30 Has Leading with Balance Ever Cost You Anything? 15:00 The Shift from Showing Up as an Expert to Showing Up as a Leader 17:30 Journey Person vs. Goal Person: How Ambica Defines Her Own Motivation 19:30 When Personal Transformation Gets Tested the Most 20:30 The Performance Review That Changed Everything 23:00 Vulnerability in Leadership and Why It Takes More Courage Than Being Right 24:30 Authenticity vs. Self-Expression: A Framework Worth Knowing 27:00 Who Is Most at Risk of Burnout in the AI Era 30:00 Advice for Early-Career Women in Data Science Who Are Already Exhausted 32:00 Building Resilience and Finding Your Sources of Courage 33:30 What Integrity in Leadership Actually Looks Like 34:30 "Make Your Path the Evidence of the Change You Believe In" 36:00 Closing Thoughts: People Always Come Before the Technology #BTheWayForward #WomenInAI #AITransformation #EmpathyInLeadership #WomenInTech #DataAndAI #TechLeadership #CourageToTransform

August 18, 202639 min

Quantum, Equity, and Building What the Sector Keeps Avoiding | ft. Kate Waimey Timmerman

What does it look like to build a technology ecosystem from the ground up in a field most people can't yet name? In this episode of B the Way Forward, host Brenda Darden Wilkerson sits down with Kate Waimey Timmerman, CEO of the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE), the Midwest's most powerful quantum information science and engineering consortium uniting universities, national labs, government agencies, and private industry. Kate brings a rare combination to her role: a decade-plus background in neuroscience, a systems-builder's mindset, and an unapologetic commitment to making quantum one of the most accessible and inclusive sectors in emerging tech. Brenda and Kate dig into what it takes to lead across a non-traditional multi-institution ecosystem, why the growth mindset doesn't expire at graduation, how the South Side of Chicago became an unlikely anchor for quantum innovation, and what accountability actually looks like when you're building something the country has never built before. This is a conversation about awareness, access, and the courage to build a future that doesn't just replicate the models of the past. Connect with Kate on LinkedIn We Learned About: Why "awareness, awareness, awareness" is the foundational operating principle at CQE and in high-stakes scientific environments How Kate transitioned from neuroscience to leading one of the country's premier quantum ecosystems and why that path is the point What it really takes to lead across a multi-stakeholder ecosystem spanning universities, startups, national labs, and government Why quantum technologies are far more accessible than people assume, and what the Midwest Quantum Workforce Strategy is doing to prove it The Duality accelerator, the first quantum-focused startup accelerator in the United States, and how it was built for the globe, not just one institution Chapters: 0:00 Introduction & Season Theme 1:00 Meet Kate Waimey Timmerman, CEO of Chicago Quantum Exchange 2:00 Staying Aware in Systems Optimized for Speed, Not Reflection 4:00 Leading Across a Multi-Institution Ecosystem 6:30 From Neuroscience to Quantum: What People Misunderstand 8:00 What People Outside the Field Need to Know About Quantum Now 11:00 Career Transitions and Identifying Your Transferable Skills 14:30 Risk, Growth Mindset, and Why Adulthood Is the Best Time to Develop It 17:30 Staying Grounded When You Lead at Scale 20:00 When the Science Is Ready but the System Is Not 22:00 Being First to Market: CQE and the Duality Accelerator 24:30 What Short-Term and Long-Term Success Looks Like for CQE 27:00 What Neuroscience Taught Kate About Leading Complex Systems 30:00 What Real Accountability Looks Like in an Emerging Tech Ecosystem 31:00 Why the South Side of Chicago Matters for Quantum's Future 32:30 Open Quantum Initiative and the Q Ready Program 35:00 How to Stay Aligned When Your Vision Is This Big 36:30 Closing Thoughts: Building Differently, Not Just Building Forward #BTheWayForward #QuantumComputing #WomenInSTEM #ChicagoQuantumExchange #EmergingTech #InclusiveInnovation #TechLeadership

August 11, 20261 hr 4 min

Keeping Humanity in the Loop: You Don't Have to Lose Yourself to Lead Change in AI | ft Judith Spitz

What does it take to reach the top of one of the largest tech organizations on the planet, and then walk away to fix the pipeline that got you there? In this episode of B the Way Forward, host Brenda Darden Wilkerson sits down with Judith Spitz, former CIO of Verizon and founder of Breakthrough Tech, an initiative reshaping who gets access to power and influence in a tech-enabled world. Judith's path from applied research scientist to Fortune 10 C-suite leader to movement builder is not a story about climbing a ladder. It's a story about learning when the ladder stops serving you, and having the courage to go build a new one somewhere else. Brenda and Judith dig into what authentic leadership actually costs, why imposter syndrome is a conversation worth retiring, what happens to AI when the wrong people are in the room, and why the moment we are living in right now may be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to break a broken talent pipeline before it locks into place again. This is a conversation about humility, urgency, humanity, and the radical act of lifting others as you climb. Connect with Judith on LinkedIn We Learned About: How Judith built her leadership identity through applied research rather than corporate command-and-control, and why that unconventional start gave her the freedom to lead authentically from the beginning Jim Collins' definition of great leadership as "a paradoxical combination of personal humility and professional will" and why that framework reshapes how we think about authority Why Judith wants us to retire the imposter syndrome conversation and replace it with a more empowering reframe: you don't have to know everything, you just have to surround yourself with people who do The moment Judith looked around the C-suite and realized women weren't coming up behind her in 30 years, and why that observation became the foundation of Breakthrough Tech What "democratizing privileged access" actually means in practice, from Sprinternship micro-internship programs to AI-focused work-based learning cohorts Chapters: 0:00 Introduction & Season Theme 1:00 Meet Judith Spitz, Former CIO of Verizon and Founder of Breakthrough Tech 2:30 What Pressure at the C-Suite Level of a Fortune 10 Company Actually Looks Like 4:00 Relationships as Rocket Boosters: How Judith Survived the Peak 5:30 The "March": Suits, Pumps, and How Women Were Taught to Perform Leadership 7:30 Judith's Unconventional Path: Why Coming Up Through Research Changed Everything 10:00 Authenticity as the Non-Negotiable Foundation of Leadership 13:00 Jim Collins, Personal Humility, and the Paradox of Great Leadership 15:30 Why Judith Wants to Retire the Imposter Syndrome Conversation 18:00 Leaving Verizon: How Do You Know When It's Time to Go? 21:00 Fall in Love With the Problem, Not the Solution 23:00 The Origin Story of Breakthrough Tech 26:00 Women in CS Peaked in 1986: The Data That Would Not Let Judith Rest 27:30 Democratizing Privileged Access: What It Means and Why It Matters 35:00 How to Hear the Voice That Tells You It's Time to Do Something Different 38:00 What Happens When You Give Overlooked Talent a Foot in the Door 41:00 How Judith Stays Motivated on the Hardest Days 43:00 Was Your Drive Rooted in Achievement? Judith's Honest Answer 47:30 Who Is in the Room When AI Decisions Are Made, and Who Is Not 53:00 The AI Skills Gap: What Hiring Managers Say vs. What Technical VPs Need 58:00 The Medical Residency Model and the Once-in-a-Generation Pipeline Opportunity 1:01:00 Defining Leadership by Integrity, Not Title 1:02:00 Closing Thoughts: You Don't Have to Lose Yourself to Lead Change #BTheWayForward #WomenInTech #BreakthroughTech #AIWorkforce #TechEquity #LiftAsYouClimb #InclusiveAI #WomenInLeadership