Mirrors: Katie White, AdaMarie’s Head of Technology
The AdaMarie Mirrors reflect back to us the many roads (often winding, never smooth) to success! Real stories of real women to see yourself reflected in. At first, you’ll see Katie in this mirror, but eventually, we hope you’ll see yourself.
Welcome, Katie White!
AdaMarie’s Head of Technology Katie White discusses discovering her true self, her true passions, and finding harmony within our ever increasingly chaotic world.
Getting to Know You:
Field of Work: Software Engineering/Tech
Your STEM letter: T
Expertise In: Fullstack software development with a focus on frontend. Languages: JavaScript/TypeScript, Python. Frameworks: React, but I love Vue
Current Company: AdaMarie !!
Job Title: Head of Technology
One-liner about what you’re working on: Leading AdaMarie's technology and engineering initiatives.
Currently geeking out over: Knitting. I'm terrible at it, so naturally that means I have to conquer it and become the best knitter in the world.
STEM hero (alive or dead!): Ada Lovelace (the “Ada” in AdaMarie!) and Grace Hopper!
Tell us about your professional journey – how did you get where you are now?
My journey, like many other women in STEM, was long and rather winding. I first started coding in high school - shoutout to Regina's awesome tech teacher! - but my love and involvement with computers goes all the way back to the first version of AOL. My dad loves computers, so we always had the newest and most fun thing around and I think I inherited that curiosity and interest from him.
When it came time to go to college and figure out my major, though, I was a bit lost. I had never seen a woman software engineer - everyone my dad worked with was a man - and computer engineering simply didn't occur to me as a viable career option.
So I ended up getting my degree in Anthropology with a concentration in Archaeology. I really loved (and still love) the study of flintknapping as well as the study of material culture and the great question of "when did humans become humans?", which are probably some of the nerdiest things you can imagine. My journey took another turn, though, because I graduated immediately following the 2008 recession and had to take any job I could find. I couldn't afford to continue my studies up to the PhD level, which is really what you need to have a viable career in Archaeology. So, my path then led me into marketing for a natural foods startup based in Colorado and I spent my time traveling the U.S. and Canada, educating college and university dining halls, plus stadiums and event venues, on how to safely have allergen-friendly and gluten free food options.
Fast forward a few years and one kid later, and I needed something new. My husband and my sister in law are software engineers and my brother is a software engineering leader, so I was still surrounded by tech and still fascinated by it. When my husband encountered a tough bug, we would sit down and talk it through, and I would help him step through the logic to try to find where things were going wrong. All I was really missing at this point was the actual coding syntax, so I decided to try out a coding bootcamp. I found one that I could attend remotely, so I could work around my schedule and study from anywhere. Thank goodness those even existed pre-pandemic, even though it seems so normal to us now!
The rest is, well, history. I finally found a field I love and that I'm good at, which is the hardest thing to do in my opinion. There are so many things you can be good at, and so many things that interest you, but finding where those overlap? It's rare, and can be hard to figure out. And now I get to spend my time doing what I love, while also ensuring that women in this field are seen and heard and very, very visible. I don't want another girl to miss out on her passion simply because she hasn't seen a woman already in the field and doing it.
We’re also curious to know your personal story and upbringing. What has made you “you”?
I grew up in a deceptively idyllic suburb just outside of Detroit, close to the water, with big backyards, where most mothers stayed home and most fathers made a lot of money. I won't go into the suburb description because at least two very popular fiction books have been written about this place and how it looks beautiful and perfect and is, well, not. My mom was a highly driven, incredibly smart single mother working in healthcare, while my dad worked in computer engineering and traveled most of my childhood. My mom never felt included or even welcomed in any of the other mom circles because she was a single mother, and I always felt like the weird kid at school and never truly fit in because I absorbed knowledge like a sponge and would get super involved in whatever my interest was that day, then talk about it nonstop. I didn't want to be separated with the 'smart kids,' because all I wanted was to blend in with everyone else, so I rejected the one friend group that probably would have understood me.
I was a misfit masquerading as a normal kid, making myself small and silencing myself just so I could be palatable to others.
My older brother, though - he always believed in me. He would get so mad at me when I dumbed myself down to fit in, and I would get so mad at him whenever he tried to get me to embrace who I actually was. And my dad would always give me this look - a raised eyebrow, incredulous and slightly amused - whenever I did or said something silly, or pretended to not know something that I actually knew. My mom understood, I think because she had always tried to do the same thing when she was my age. But there was one particularly memorable time that a teacher from my second high school took me out in the hallway to ask me why I never raised my hand, when she knew that I always knew the answers. She was so frustrated and exasperated with me, and it has always stuck with me. It was that moment, I think, that I decided I would stop trying to hide. It still took a really long time for me to figure out how, of course, but her exasperation really helped me see things differently. So thank you, Mrs. Portnova, for your honesty and your exasperation.
The last puzzle piece in my journey to accept myself for who I am was my husband. His unconditional love and support gave me the stability and safety I needed, and seeing myself through his eyes helped me finally see that I didn't need to make myself small in order to be loved and accepted.
So in a way, my personal story has always been trying to accept and embrace who I am. And that very much influences my work now, and forms a core part of my ambition and drive. I want to be for other girls and women, who I needed to be for myself.
We know that real life isn’t a smooth and linear journey. What was your initiating moment that led you to your calling - can you tell us about that moment, what helped you move forward, what you learned/discovered?
I mentioned in another question that I first started coding in high school. Back then, computer classes were a new thing, and I worked on our school's website. Also, and I'm dating myself here, but inline CSS was considered a modern development. So my single moment, the one thing that led me to where I am today, was when I used inline CSS to turn the text of a link orange. It just felt magical, and I felt this vista of opportunities spread out in front of me.
If I could change the text color of a website, what else could I do? What *couldn't* I do?
It seems silly or small now, but that moment of pure magic is what got me hooked.
You’re a working woman in a performance-driven industry. Where do you find balance?
Balance is a myth. I have two kids, two dogs, a husband, a house, friends, a career that I love. It's impossible to find balance with all of those things, all of the time, and it stresses me out just thinking about it! I can barely find time to get a haircut sometimes, much less time to dye my Rogue-esque streak of gray. Which I'm working on embracing, by the way.
Harmony, though? Harmony is possible. Harmony between my responsibilities and my wants and everyone else's needs. Sometimes, life is going to take more out of you - one kid is sick and can't go to daycare, the other has what feels like 10 school events in a single week, my husband needs to travel for work. And sometimes, work is going to take more out of you - you have a deadline, you're trying to build a team, you're really interested and passionate about a project. And both of those are absolutely ok. This is what I tell my team and all of the engineers I manage - just try for harmony. And I'll work with you and be understanding with whatever you need, because that's what I need, too.
Life is hard. We don't need to stress ourselves out further by trying to attain the unattainable. Seek harmony, rather than balance. You'll be much better off.
If you were something in Outer Space, what would you be?
If I were something in outer space, I would probably be the Pinwheel Galaxy. It has a core of energy and is just spinning around, flinging cords of stars out from its center, not unlike how I have a core of spinning energy (thanks, coffee!) and I just fling that energy around everywhere, involved in a million things at once!