Her Story
About Effie
I started my career in teaching after earning my bachelor's in interdisciplinary Visual Arts at the University of Washington. My mom, with a teaching background, nudged me and said I needed a job - art's not a job, it's a hobby. So I evolved into teaching and went to Western Washington University to earn a post-baccalaureate teaching certification. I got hired to teach in Hillsboro, Oregon, where I worked with a lot of language learners, which was extremely meaningful to me and really enriched my understanding of how language acquisition works and how to help support kids who were struggling with their learning. This was when teachers and leaders really started to understand how to look at data to inform instruction, and I got very involved with that and became a teacher leader. I was encouraged to go into a Masters in Education Administration, which I did at Concordia University in Portland. After I earned that, I started working as a school director in Costa Rica, and then I've served as principal and vice principal at various public and private institutions before going on to education consulting with schools and districts around the nation. Now I'm doing AI consulting with small and medium-sized businesses, conducting AI readiness assessments and creating comprehensive key findings reports and roadmaps for AI implementation. I'm getting certified as an AI consultant in AI implementation and data sciences through a program with a company called Industry Rockstar. It's extremely comprehensive with many different series of courses and ongoing live courses - I could essentially be taking a live class every day of the week if I wanted to commit that much time.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Effie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to effort. For sure, I put full effort into what my goals are, what I want to accomplish. Whether I'm the smartest person in the room or not, I will work the hardest. I've always had this sense that there's gotta be an easier way to do things, and that nagging thought has driven me forward. I'm really proud of moving into this area of expertise and coming from an education background where I see a lot of connections. My understanding of the way the brain works relates to the way AI is designed to work around neural networks. The importance of language and the way you communicate - I worked with a lot of language learners in the Portland area teaching, so I have a really strong understanding of language acquisition. You have to have that to communicate with AI, especially LLMs, but really all the AI - you've got to be able to prompt it properly.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I would say don't be afraid to learn new things. I'm an old dog doing new tricks, and it's a little scary, but it's also really exciting.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would just advise them to keep an open mind and stay current with their education. Commit to ongoing education.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
With AI, we're really in the middle of a paradigm shift. If people don't have a growth mindset about it, then they're not going to really fully benefit from it. It's going to affect them whether they're ready or not. As you mentioned, entire cultures are going to be disrupted by this, but also entire ways of doing things are being disrupted and will continue to be disrupted in ways like they never have before. So getting people's mindset to grow around this evolving shift is, I think, the biggest challenge that we're facing with AI.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I'm a big believer in integrity and doing what you say you're going to do. I also value kindness. I think it's important to be kind to people, no matter what level of authority you have with them. And fun - having fun. I like to laugh.
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