Indira Martinez

I attribute my success to my parents. My parents came to this country to give us a better life, and they raised us with knowing our Venezuelan culture but also understanding the importance of education. My dad always says the papelito is important, the little paper is important. Regardless if you have a little certificate of an 18-month program, or a bachelor's or a master's, the little paper is important. I attribute that education to my parents because they always instilled that nobody could take your education from you. That's what my parents have instilled in us. It's also the immigrant mindset of having to work triple as hard. As an immigrant who came here when I was young and was raised in Chicago but born in Venezuela, we're neither here or from there. The mindset of having to be the best of the best, or just work triple as hard, there's no mediocracy. That's a lot of the immigrant mindset and being a Latina in tech.

The best career advice I've received is to always stay true to yourself. In every situation, ask yourself: does this align with your values, with your foundation, with your morals? Listen to that from the beginning. Don't sell yourself short.

You belong. Don't question your ability or your skill sets. You belong anywhere that you step foot. We all struggle with imposter syndrome, and at the end of the day, there's a reason why we are in different phases, whether you are starting out or whether you're a tenured professional. You belong in that space at that moment in time. For our next generation, I want them to see that in healthcare, there was either two paths - you either became a nurse or a doctor - but there's other careers in healthcare, such as what I have now in implementation. There's a lot more that we could do in this industry than just becoming doctors or professionals. Everything is digital. There's not one path for everybody.

Being in digital health is imperative because I'm bringing not only my knowledge from my education, but I'm also bringing the perspective for my Hispanic community that can be very undervalued in healthcare. There's such things as food deserts that are in our communities. There's no real grocery sometimes in certain demographics. Being the only one in those rooms can be very lonesome when we're talking about improving individuals' health, but most of the science is based on Anglo-Saxon science. So being in the rooms and saying, hey, did we think about our chronic diseases that are impacting African American communities, Hispanic communities? Did we think about that? Did we think about how we're providing healthcare devices like Apple Watches or Fitbits to these communities to improve their healthcare? I'm bringing that perspective in those rooms for demographics that are usually overseen. The challenge has been being the only Latina in my systems department. Making sure that I understood my voice to not become too aggressive when I'm speaking. I had to learn my soft skills a little bit more because my delivery has to be more magnified than regular John Smith's delivery. But it's worth the frustration when we execute the product and launch, and I realize they really did hear me. That makes a difference.

Integrity is most important to me. Always have integrity, be accountable for your actions and your words, and be kind. Everybody has a story behind their actions, but always be kind to everybody that you speak to. We're all humans at the end of the day. We're all the same.