Entrepreneur, Consultant, Author, Speaker
Anna started out as an MIT rocket scientist and is now an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and consultant. You can read her blog here, check out the flying car company she co-founded, Terrafugia, learn about her community UAM work, and follow her on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
This spring, the first class of young women to earn the rank of Eagle Scout has been making national news. It’s a major accomplishment for them, and at least on the surface, a major step for gender equality. The response however, reveals just how much pervasive sexism still exists in our society.
Read MoreBeing out in front is amazing, but it’s also exhausting. A lot has been written on avoiding burn-out, on work-life balance, and on self-care. I find a lot of that useful – particularly advice about being out in nature and getting exercise and sleep, but in my experience it isn’t enough. So how do you keep momentum when it’s you that you are following?
Read MoreI didn’t march because I’m in the middle of potty training my toddler, and I think that about sums it up. ...in the broader context of my life, I made the decision I thought best at the time: I stayed home and chanted “We pee in the potty”, no signs necessary. Since potty training is at once all-consuming and incredibly boring, I’ve had a lot of time to think. So here are five of the reasons I think we as a society still have so much work to do.
Read MoreWe have a chance to choose compassion or hypocrisy. Blue has been asking Red to show compassion and respect for those not like them. Demanding, really. Saying that if they don’t, they are stupid and bad and undeserving of political power. And not surprisingly given that setup, they didn’t do it, but that dosen’t make their fears any less real. ... They are still people worthy of being treated as people. Everything we stand for is hollow if we can’t extend compassion now.
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There is work left to me, inherited by me because I am American, because the woman we are here to honor did not have time to complete it, because it is never done. It is my strength, my breath, my blood that must do the next thing. Then she will not have died — and I will not have lived — in vain.
Read MoreMy husband is a truly brilliant man, capable of great feats of observation - he can tell you the type of aircraft flying overhead with a casual upward glance, or the make and model of any number of cars on the freeway - so why can’t he see dirt? My answer: because he’s not a housework chicken sexer.
Read MoreThe light in me recognizes the light in you. The light in me recognizes the light in the people doing the harm as well.
Read More“Enough” is everywhere. We’re told we have it, to leave it alone when we find it, to strive for just that and no more to preserve our sanity, to work so that everyone on the planet has it. In a moment of overwhelm recently I told the room that I felt like whatever I did it just wouldn’t be enough. I wouldn’t be good enough. (At what? anything, everything!) But what is “enough”? And who gets to decide?
Read MoreThe best part of a snow day isn’t that real pants are optional though, it’s that nature gives us the gift of time. Forces completely outside of our control blow into the city with sensational news coverage and mountains of fluffy white stuff. There’s the mania of storm preparation: filling gas cans, stocking the pantry, throwing elbows for the last bag of ice-melt, bringing in firewood to stay dry by the hearth. Then as darkness falls, the calm settles in. The flakes start to fall in earnest. You can hear the wind swirling around the eaves. And there you are, snug inside with no choice but to amuse yourself as you best see fit for the next day or so. It’s time to let go and be still.
Read MoreI will figure out how, not to “have it all”, but to be all of who I am.
Read MoreIn a world flooded with selfies and Tweets, it’s easy to think that this idea of deliberate memory isn’t necessary. We can outsource the safekeeping of the moments that make up our lives. But I think we’re the poorer for it.
Read MoreA friend asked me how I thought we made it through. When the first, unfiltered, honest answer came bubbling up to my lips, I almost didn’t want to say it, it sounded so far from the “expert” advice that fits that selfless theme: I started putting myself first.
Read MoreThe other dogs in the family were barking when the doorbell rang. Layla was just looking, paws up on the top of the baby gate that was separating the living room and kitchen, clearly thinking, “What took you people so long to find me?”
Read MoreThere’s only one good reason to take a pay cut, shell out tuition dollars, and spend your nights and weekends sitting at a computer: you want this knowledge, skill set, and experience because it will make you more able to have the impact you want to have on the world.
Read MoreWe spent four weeks on the road. That’s a lot of hotels, spanning a wide range of comfort and, of course, the whole country. Yes, of course, things like a comfy pillow and a nice duvet are wonderful; a view of something other than the highway out the window is nice too. But night after night I slept well and felt at home simply because of my two bed-mates. Having my husband by my side and our dog at my feet was enough to make anywhere home. Even (especially?) when they’re both snoring.
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