Michelle Krutza

I think I've just always been very driven to accomplish something bigger in the community and bigger than myself. I spent a lot of time when I grew up on my own - I kind of grew up pretty young and had to be an adult at a young age. I've always pushed myself professionally to find that stability and security in a job where I can actually contribute to something meaningful as well. So finding that balance of loving my job and loving my work, but also making sure that I take care of myself. I've just found a pretty deep drive there. I've also had a lot of inspiring women in my life that have showed me that women can have positions of influence and positions of power and wanting to make positive changes there. I've had plenty of influential women in my life that have done that for me.

I wouldn't want to - you know, there's a lot of answers and things that you have to learn through going through processes yourself, but I would mostly want to tell someone younger than me that those periods of change can be uncomfortable, but sitting in that discomfort, you're growing through things and knowing that they will be much, much better on the other side. Through all those challenges, when you think, oh, nothing's gonna work out, and everything is crazy in my life, just knowing that all of the work that you're doing is setting you up for success on the other side of things. That's definitely what I'd go back and tell my younger self - just keep pushing forward, keep getting back up again and trying again, because you're going to fall down 200 times, and that's uncomfortable, but the other side of that, you learn so many valuable lessons. So just sitting in the discomfort of those tougher times, so that you can grow professionally and personally.

I think right now in our field, people are struggling to find that place where they get plugged in. The job market in general right now hasn't been great - I'm lucky to find the opportunity I have. Some people are struggling with the AI adoption and technologies in those ways, and learning how to find formal education and training for that, and learning how to leverage it as opposed to using it improperly. I think in my field specifically, that's an interesting change that we've seen. It's changed a lot of job descriptions. On top of that, it's hard for people to find that career plugin, and it's all about your network and who you know. That's how I ended up here.

I would say just remaining empathetic towards people is very important to me in the work and my personal life. Transparency and integrity in those ways, working at home. Empathy for people, and always just remembering that you don't know everyone's full story, so being kind to everyone is really important, especially in the workplace and with people that we encounter. And just drive in the morning too to accomplish things.