Naia Butler-Craig shares her love of space, Zachary Nunn discusses his journey to Living Corporate, and it's about to get dynamic
"My advice for others passionate about space is to keep that passion." In this week's You've Got This, Aerospace Engineering PhD Student and NASA Pathways intern Naia Butler-Craig discusses her professional journey and advice for others looking to get involved in the aerospace field. Be sure to check out our special interview with Zachary Nunn sharing his work leading digital media network Living Corporate as well as announcing our next guest, Doug Melville of Richemont.
Victoria: "Can you share with us the moments that inspired your professional and academic journey?"
Naia: "The Hidden Figures movie debut was something that inspired me so much. I actually knew a great deal about the hidden figures before the movie trailer was even out. This was because I was doing research for my @blackgirlsinstem educational page and stumbled upon their stories.
"I couldn’t believe Black women played such integral roles in getting us into orbit for the first time and even to the moon, working at NASA during such important times in both space history and the Civil Rights movement. Seeing their stories come to life on the big screen, in such an artful way, filled me with pride and motivation to keep going to honor their legacies. "
Victoria: "As a science educator and speaker, what's your process in bringing complex subjects like aerospace engineering to audiences?
Naia: "I try to explain things as if I’m talking to someone who has never even heard of aerospace engineering. It’s great practice for me because when I start to break down the technical jargon, I end up realizing what I may need to increase my own areas of knowledge in about the actual concept. I feel like I only truly learn something if I can teach it to someone else in a way that is accessible to them. It’s also a very big challenge when I delve into specific aerospace engineering topics. But when I do try to explain these things to broader audiences, I always end up with a better understanding myself. "
Victoria: "What does the training trajectory look like for wanting to become an astronaut, and what advice would you have for others who are passionate about space and space exploration?"
Naia: "Before being accepted to the astronaut program, my training will likely be mostly technical within my field of study. There are things I could learn to make me a more competitive applicant like scuba diving, obtaining my private pilots license, learning another language. If and when I’m accepted, they do all kinds of interesting training to prepare for the space environments, my favorite of which is simulating ISS operation through the Neutral Buoyancy Lab.
"My advice for others passionate about space is to keep that passion. My passion has taken me places my technical knowledge and training couldn’t. It also keeps me going when things get tough."
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I had the chance to jump on a call with Zachary Nunn the other week to learn more about his experiences and what inspired the founding of his podcast and publishing network Living Corporate. I'd encourage you to stay up-to-date with their content by subscribing to Zachary's LinkedIn newsletter, and in the meantime, you can read his interview below.
Victoria: "Can you tell us about your professional journey?"
Zachary: "I do well at making it sound like it was strategic and logical, but the reality was, so much of it was outside of my control. I graduated from the University of Houston in 2011 in three years, and started out as an HR manager at Target. Like a lot of big box retailers, everything is built on a planogram, including your career ladder and how you do your job, so not a lot of room for creativity or autonomy, even though they give you a really good foundational training framework. I was there for about 8 months, because the lack of ability to be creative and build things was challenging for me, so I got into oil and gas as an organizational design specialist and training specialist. Moving from this retail environment of 200 or so people where I’m an HR manager managing a small team and dealing with run of the mill issues around benefits, time off, schedules and performance ratings, to being a part of a global organization with over 35,000 employees and being a part of a much more diverse working environment was a huge shift. In 2012, the industry was a bit different than it is right now, and there were more resources going around - coming from the lower middle class, that was eye opening. And it was in that space that I got my first taste of consulting, because I was working with different global leaders - the global director for Asia, or the HR director for Europe - talking to them about their specific organizational challenges, and trying to deliver something specialized and nuanced for their working cultures. So that was unique, that helped me develop my personal brand and find my own voice over time.
And as the industry went down, I had to find a new job, so I became an HR business partner for a pharmaceutical startup. Like most startups, it failed, I was there for less than a year, but as soon as that happened, I got into external client-facing consulting. My first job was with Accenture. Then I went to Capgemini, and now I’m at a Big 4 audit firm as a Manager leading strategic org transformation through diversity, equity and inclusion."
Victoria: "What inspired you to start Living Corporate?"
Zachary: "I’m a first generation corporate professional and I’m a second generation reader. My grandfather was a sharecropper in Mississippi. He worked a factory job at John Deere and had to pass some factory tests that required reading, so my dad taught him to read. My dad is in the first generation in his family that learned to read. So when you think about my background, I don’t have this deep, organic network of people who can help me navigate being one of the 'only's' in a majority white space. Which is why in the career journey I just articulated, I had a lot of bumps and bruises along the way, a lot of racialized trauma. The truth of the matter is I've been called a 'gorilla,' 'monkey,' and worse while on the job. My education, experience, and ability to think critically has been questioned (and still is). For some people, my style of dress articulated some level of cockiness. I've been called a smartass, uppity, angry, intimidating, too aggressive... people have claimed my large vocabulary isn't authentic to who I really am, or that I don't understand the large words I use. Sad to say, more insidious than the words thrown my way are the double standards I have had and continue to endure.
I've had to constantly do two or three times as much as my white counterparts to get the same promotion or raise, or be given near impossible standards to meet for promotion and achieve them just to have the goal posts moved again. If all of this sounds exhausting and depressing, it's because it is. Every now and again though, people who looked like me would pull me to the side and give a nugget of wisdom here or there. But those were few and far between –self-preservation is the name of the game. I can’t demonize them for seeking to survive. It’s not reasonable for me to expect them to drop everything they’re doing for my well-being when they’re trying to help their families, but this didn’t change the fact that I still needed more guidance.
Desperate to get some help I ran to whatever 'Diversity and Inclusion' initiative I could, typically an employee resource group (ERG). But I found that ERGs were mostly spaces to pacify groups that are 'other' – yeah they do happy hours and commiserate amongst themselves, but don’t connect to career sponsorship, accountability for poor leaders, or solve anything systemic. When you talk about what we understand as diversity & inclusion, from the language we use - 'unconscious bias,' or 'assuming good intent' to the over-indexing on 'candid conversations' that lead to no actionable change, to the conflation of Black and Brown people with white women as a collective minority, to the lack of transparency when it comes to sharing real diversity data, and the overrepresentation of white people in positions of DEI leadership roles—it's all built to minimize discomfort for the majority and maintain capitalistic power structures. So naturally, it functionally cannot be about organizational justice—the two don’t mix. Experiencing this was also exhausting and depressing.
A few years ago I looked up and realized my story wasn't just my story, nor were my frustrations only my frustrations. I asked myself what does it look like to create a space that is authentic to the reality of Black and Brown experiences at work? What does it look like to challenge existing power structures in an unapologetic way? How can I bottle up the precious and valuable conversations I've had with Claudy Jules, Matamba Austin, Marty Rodgers, Janet Pope, Brittany Harris, and others? Living Corporate was my answer.
"What's wild about Living Corporate is that we've been able to have incredible guests — authors, activists, entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 Executives, and elected officials. Folks hop on the opportunity to be on our platform because they realize we're authentic. We’ve been able to interview Nikole Hannah-Jones, Robin DiAngelo, Chris Moreland, Michael C. Bush... I mean, incredible discussions with Minda Harts, Mandy Price, Neiman Marcus and Zander Lurie of SurveyMonkey, who’s doing some incredible work right now... the list goes on and on."
I’m thankful we’ve been able to have these discussions, and we’re not only talking about the reality of lived experience, but the changes leaders and organizations need to make to really have an impact. And I don’t see any other platform having that type of conversation, explicitly, multiple times a week. And we’ve been doing this for nearly three years—we're hundreds of episodes in at this point. It’s not just me, it’s Amy C. Waninger, Neil Edwards, a bevy of other talent who host The Access Point, a web show that provides the real talk that college students need to navigate the workplace as a first-generation professional and The Group Chat which tackles DEI topics that the legal department at your average company wouldn't allow. Living Corporate affirms marginalized and historically oppressed experiences and creates a resource for aspirational allies and leaders on what they can do to create a more equitable and inclusive workplace."
Victoria: "How does building community play a role in the work you do with Living Corporate?"
Zachary: "Living Corporate is a community in and of itself - we wouldn’t exist without the community of creators I highlighted earlier. But Living Corporate also highlights the fact that we need community for systemic change. We need a community of Black and Brown folks, white folks, Gay folks, Trans folks, Christian Folks, Muslim Folks, Disabled Folks – you need a community of all sorts of people who can leverage their respective perspective, privilege and power to benefit their neighbor.
"The biggest movements that have historically created the most impact are those that have been as intersectional as possible. And that’s hard because we have various egos, needs, and traumas that we’re bringing to that coalition, but we have to have that if we really want to see structural and systemic change. Our focus this year is on expanding that internal and external community."
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Next week's guest: Doug Melville
Next week we'll be joined by Doug Melville, VP and Head of Diversity at Richemont. Bringing a wealth of experience having previously worked as Chief Diversity Officer of TBWA, the executive team of Magic Johnson Enterprises, and on the business development team of T Capital Management, here's what I'll be asking Doug:
- Can you share some of the pivotal learnings and ideas you've gathered in your career?
- You've given multiple TEDx talks, the most recent in 2016. What topic would you want to feature in your next TEDx talk?
- What do you see as the future of luxury and brand-building, and how do you see community and diversity playing a role in that space?
You're invited to ask your questions for Doug in the comments, and thank you for taking the time to read and be a part of You've Got This.