2020 Virtual Professional Development Conference
SWE Los Angeles Virtual Professional Development Conference 2020
Due to the current risk involved with large gatherings, the annual SWE-LA Professional Development Conference, which was postponed to June 26, is now cancelled. However, SWE-LA is instead hosting a FREE five-part speaker series during the week of June 22, 2020. This virtual conference will feature topics related to resilience, leadership, and professional development during the COVID-19 crisis. Please see below for the schedule of events.
RSVP HERE to receive Zoom meeting details: https://forms.gle/39dVAtpWch7XCMcYA
Virtual Conference Schedule (all times in PDT):
June 22, 12-1 PM: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Remote Workplace
June 23, 5:30-7:00 PM: Working from Home with Children (Panel)
June 24, 5:30-7:00 PM: Leading Teams Remotely
June 25, 12-1 PM: Stress Detox in the Era of COVID-19
June 26, 5:30-7:00 PM: Dual Career Couples (Panel)
Learn more about our speakers here: http://losangeles.swe.org/2020-professional-development-conference---virtual.html
Questions? Email Megan Ford at megafo818@hotmail.com or Melissa Goetter at melissagoetter@gmail.com
Due to the current risk involved with large gatherings, the annual SWE-LA Professional Development Conference, which was postponed to June 26, is now cancelled. However, SWE-LA is instead hosting a FREE five-part speaker series during the week of June 22, 2020. This virtual conference will feature topics related to resilience, leadership, and professional development during the COVID-19 crisis. Please see below for the schedule of events.
RSVP HERE to receive Zoom meeting details: https://forms.gle/39dVAtpWch7XCMcYA
Virtual Conference Schedule (all times in PDT):
June 22, 12-1 PM: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Remote Workplace
June 23, 5:30-7:00 PM: Working from Home with Children (Panel)
June 24, 5:30-7:00 PM: Leading Teams Remotely
June 25, 12-1 PM: Stress Detox in the Era of COVID-19
June 26, 5:30-7:00 PM: Dual Career Couples (Panel)
Learn more about our speakers here: http://losangeles.swe.org/2020-professional-development-conference---virtual.html
Questions? Email Megan Ford at megafo818@hotmail.com or Melissa Goetter at melissagoetter@gmail.com
6/22 Diversity and Inclusion in the Remote Workplace

Samantha McBirney is an engineer at the RAND Corporation – a nonprofit nonpartisan think tank that conducts research with the goal of influencing policy and decision-making. Her background is in biomedical applications, emerging technologies, and laser physics. At RAND, her work has focused on medical logistics, emerging technologies (and how they're used by near-peer adversaries), pharmaceutical supply chains, and international drug policy, with interests reaching into national security, biotechnology, and public health. Samantha received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2018, and her doctoral research focused primarily on designing, building, and validating a non-invasive optical malaria diagnostic, specifically for use in low-resource settings. This work was highlighted by NPR’s All Things Considered, as well as by the MIT Technology Review, which listed it as one of the top ten low-tech inventions that changed the world in 2018. Samantha received her B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012. In her free time, you can find her with her husband running, traveling, protesting, or with their four pets.
6/24 Leading Teams Remotely

Missy Brost is the General Manager of the California Consolidated Manufacturing Center at Raytheon, where she leads an integrated team building radar, satellites and doing depot work, at 3 different sites. She has worked in operations and Engineering the majority of her career. Prior to Raytheon she was a Regional Director of Operations at Amazon, responsible for 7 buildings of up to 5,000 people and 1.6M sq ft in 5 different states. Missy started her career at Boeing, where she spent 17 years in roles in Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Product Development, Research Development, Technology Development and Material Handling. She spent time in Space, Defense as well as Commercial Aerospace. She has an Undergraduate degree from Arizona State University in Mechanical Engineering, a Masters is Mechanical Engineering from University of Washington, and a dual Masters in Systems Engineering and an MBA from MIT. She currently lives in Manhattan Beach, where she loves spending time outside. She spends her time and money on new experiences, from dining to traveling, having been to all 7 continents, all 50 states and 54 countries.
6/25 Stress Detox in the Era of Covid-19

Ritu Riyat is a speaker, coach, and consultant committed to helping individuals and organizations breakthrough burnout through applied meditation, lifestyle design, and behavior change. Ritu shares her knowledge with schools in formal classroom programs throughout the Bay Area. She writes for the Huffington Post, is a contributor to The New York Times, and other well-established publications. Her speaking engagements and professional work has been with some of the world’s leading biotech companies and cutting-edge industry leaders.
Ritu is a firm believer in experiential learning, and has been influenced by both spirituality and science. She is a certified health education specialist and holds her M.P.H. from the University of Southern California, an undergraduate degree in Genetics from UC Davis, her wellbeing coach certificate from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and is 500-hour certified yoga teacher, and complete multiple 10-day Vipassana sits through dhamma.org.
In her spare time, she can be found striking a yoga pose, sitting in silence, or musing about the future of health. For more information visit www.rituriyat.com.
Prior to being a social entrepreneur, Ritu was the Senior Program Manager of Wellbeing at Blue Shield of California and an Epidemiologist at LifeMasters.
Ritu is a firm believer in experiential learning, and has been influenced by both spirituality and science. She is a certified health education specialist and holds her M.P.H. from the University of Southern California, an undergraduate degree in Genetics from UC Davis, her wellbeing coach certificate from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and is 500-hour certified yoga teacher, and complete multiple 10-day Vipassana sits through dhamma.org.
In her spare time, she can be found striking a yoga pose, sitting in silence, or musing about the future of health. For more information visit www.rituriyat.com.
Prior to being a social entrepreneur, Ritu was the Senior Program Manager of Wellbeing at Blue Shield of California and an Epidemiologist at LifeMasters.

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