I was born in a log cabin, with no running water and no electricity, in Alaska.
There's no roads to Barrow.
You can't even drive there, you have to fly in, and
technology space wasn't even something that was on my radar.
It wasn't even something that I could...
conceptualize as being a future for me.
I studied electrical engineering in Pereira, where I live now, and it was very strange for a woman to
be an electrical engineer. It was so strange here, that in the whole faculty we had, in the whole
program, we had less than six women. So, we didn't even have a woman's bathroom near to us.
I had been thinking that only the graduates of professional computer schools
were able to become developers, until I actually started this job.
There are so many women when I joined my first FileMaker workshop 12 years ago.
Female developers I met there have been leading the FileMaker community in Japan.
We often meet at events, and have become good friends.
I'm pretty for sure she thought she was reaching out to a man for the job.
Until I got there, and they're like, "Oh you're Chris." They really would not expect to see
a young black girl, um, with the skill level that I have, so when you tell them like, "Oh, I got
a degree in Computer Science and my Master's is in Business Information Systems, they're like,'What??'"
My company is Thorson Consulting, and I've been a FileMaker developer for almost 25 years.
I go into so many offices where people are just...
you know, they're really stuck, and I have been so fortunate to not have a career like that.
We needed a tech solution to manage our data.
Working with FileMaker has given me a ton of freedom in my life.
Originally, that was probably one of the main attractions for me, was that I knew that I could
both pick what clients I wanted to work with, and also what I wanted my life to look like.
Women Innovating Together is a non-profit, and we're formed by a bunch of volunteers, essentially
working towards the goal of advancing women's careers in technology,
specifically in the Claris platform.
Women Innovating Together have played a huge role in my career, and have been a great sounding board and resource
um, to really help me set goals and to get to where I would like to be.
When I look at the women who are incredibly successful with FileMaker community,
I see a plethora of women who are skilled and accomplished in other fields.
It's exciting and rewarding to be able to, to do these things and kind of knock down some barriers.
I would suggest get as many certifications, make your resume bulletproof. How can someone turn you down?
I would love for women to know that, that there are people who,
who want to support you and that there are people who will help you with this,
and that it really is an option.
So, I would just love for that message to get out there to little me, 20 years ago.
That there is a space for you here, and there is a community for you.
This is a thing that's possible. This is a thing that is here for you.