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Due to today’s economic crisis, the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mother has drastically decreased. High inflation and standard living costs have caused the parental dynamic to shift. In 2021, 77.2% of mothers with children under the age of 6 worked full-time. The number increases to 81.2% when their children are between the ages of 6 to 17.
With this change, how are women balancing their work-home life dynamic, and how can we support them in their career?
Join Dinah Allen and ClickSide Chat Facilitator Tori Harper Mercado for a moderated discussion on how to excel professionally and personally in this Motherhood Mash-Up. Tune in to this month’s ClickSide Chat to listen and share experiences with other fellow members who have tackled parenthood and their careers head on.
Dinah Allen
Dinah Allen began teaching roller skating lessons and founded SkateTastic Training in Indianapolis in 2020 to help participants elevate their roller-skating skills. Passionate about early childhood development, Allen wrote a book to inspire kids to read and stay active and published her first children's book, Jada’s First Skates.
Not only is Allen a roller-skating enthusiast, but she is pivoting into the tech industry to become a User Experience (UX) Designer. In 2022, Allen received a scholarship from The Mom Project’s Rise Program to receive a UX Design Professional Certification by Google and was also awarded the Professional Development Grant by Women & Hi-Tech to further her education in UX Design. As a junior designer, Allen wanted to stay connected to the design community and volunteered for Indy Design Week, and joined as an active member of Women & Hi Tech and Create. Connect. Collab.
As a new mom, Allen wears multiple hats. Dividing her time between running her business, studying UX trends, and raising a beautiful baby girl named Zuri, Allen has found a way to navigate the Mommy Matrix.
The event is FREE and exclusive to Women & Hi Tech members! Space is extremely limited, and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Once registration is filled, no wait list will be initiated. Registration for ClickSide Chat is required in order to provide you with the final login instructions.
Women & Hi Tech’s ClickSide Chats are monthly, virtual discussions amongst our members to share ideas, resources, and perspectives about the professional and personal challenges we are facing and serve to build new connections with fellow members. ClickSide Chats are held on the third Wednesday of each month, except July, from 4-5pm. One or more members serve as co-hosts and share their experiences, advice, talents, and resources for our greater good. ClickSide Chats are presented by the Membership Engagement Committee, led by Women & Hi Tech Board Member Sahara Williams and facilitated by committee member Tori Harper Mercado.
Sahara Williams is an attorney at Koenig, Oelsner, Taylor, Schoenfeld & Gaddis PC (KO Law), focused on data privacy and cybersecurity compliance law as well as general commercial and corporate matters. Previously, she operated her own engineering and construction management firm for nine years and served as the executive director of a nonprofit equestrian learning center for youth for five years.
Sahara earned her J.D. from the IU McKinney School of Law. She graduated with a BS in Civil Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University and earned a MS in Civil Engineering from Purdue University. She is an alumnus of the Stanley K. Lacy Executive Leadership Series (Class XXXVII), the Richard G. Lugar Excellence in Public Service Series (2012-2013) and the IBJ 2013 Forty Under 40 Class as well as a Soror of Alpha Kappa Alpha.
Tori Harper-Mercado joined the Women & Hi-Tech organization in October 2022 and joined the tech industry just under two years ago. She has previous experience in civil engineering and sports & entertainment working in a variety of marketing roles. Currently, she works as an Account Executive for Onebridge, a local data and analytics consultancy, that specializes in decision intelligence and helping their customers become heroes in their own organizations.
Tori participates and involves herself in areas where she feels she can give back to her community such as coaching and mentoring athletes of her high school track and field team and being an active committee member for Rebuilding Together Indianapolis.
In her spare time, she is a new experience fanatic that thrives off of fun adventures, connectivity, and the love of animals (especially dogs).
**By registering for this event, you acknowledge that you may be photographed, videotaped, and/or audio-taped during the course of this event and hereby give permission for your image, and/or voice to be used in education, training, promotion, advertisement, and/or trade and communications media by Women & Hi Tech in any and all media outlets throughout the world, without restriction as to frequency or duration of usage.**
***PLEASE NOTE: W & HT event registration is non-transferable. ***
