Helen’S BIO
Helen Lee Kupp is the co-founder and creator of Women Defining AI, a community of female leaders tackling the biggest topics of understanding's generative AI widespread adoption through experimentation, support, and community learning. She takes a practical approach towards helping leaders navigate the biggest changes in work — both from AI/technology, and the flexible/hybrid work revolution. She is the co-author of WSJ Bestselling book “How The Future Works: Leading Flexible Teams to Do the Best Work of Their Lives”. She believes in closing the gender technology gap - starting with women at work - to create a future of work that looks and feels fundamentally different for her two kids and the women she mentors.
WITH GROUPS CREATING PROGRAMS TO ENCOURAGE FEMALES TO CONSIDER STEM, WHAT IS THE BIGGEST BARRIER TO ENTRY THAT IS STILL PREVALENT TODAY?
The most chicken versus egg question out there! There are so many barriers (that don't look like obvious barriers), but here's what I will say about what I think we can change today as leaders, as parents. Yes, encourage more women to consider STEM. Yes, start as young as you can (I let my daughter play with legos and robot sets at 2 years old that she's discovered from her older brother's toys). But also: YES, we have to consider how we can be more involved in STEM today as adults. As a mom, how can I use AI to augment the work that I do at home and work. How can I push the boundaries of my own technical knowledge. How can I participate and define how this space gets shaped in the long run. Because if I want more women in the beginning of the funnel, I need to be willing to try at every point in the funnel too. And for all of us out there -- women and allies -- let women experiment & fail & get up to try it all again. My real job in my work at Women Defining AI & when I coach/mentor or manage other women ... is to stop the self-editing that women do to ourselves. The inclination to opt-out first, rather than opt-in when we aren't sure. Life is just an experiment, and doing will get you to better faster than waiting ever will.
WHAT OR WHO INSPIRES YOU?
The members of Women Defining AI inspire me every single day. I've been so humbled by the willingness of the women of WDAI to share, to collaborate, to lean in and support each other in ways that go above and beyond -- even when these women have never met in person! For example, my favorite story of my co-founder Nichole is when she led our very first WDAI study group to "figure out if we could build a custom AI chatbot together". She isn't an engineer by training, and doesn't code for her day job, but she not only jumped into the deep end and said "sure, let's figure it out" but used that as an opportunity to bring that first group of 8 nontechnical women on that journey with her to successfully build their first chatbot together over a lunch hour! It's the women in the trenches with us, experimenting, failing, trying, getting back up again that give me energy, that deeply inspire me to do all that I do now.
WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT/ACCOMPLISHMENT?
I am most proud of when I can push through my own fears and boundaries to try something new. This can be signing up for & finishing my first half marathon race after having my two kids (wow that was hard). It has looked like signing up for a speaking opportunity that I didn't think I was ready for (and ending up presenting to an audience of nearly 3000 people). The important point here though is I love celebrating moments & wins. There's always something to celebrate, something to learn. And I'm most proud of being able to take that lens to each experience in my life and career (it's a whole lot more fun that way!).