Panel: The Power of Story with Career Girls

The power of listening to stories is well accepted. Humans are hard-wired to learn from and to be inspired by stories. What may not be as well-known and serves as the focus of this panel is the transformative power of sharing one's account. This program will feature several women who have shared their educational, career, and life journeys to help the next generation succeed. We will explore how speaking their truth has transformed their lives.

Tune in on YouTube.

Program participants are (subject to change):

Anya Adams, director.

Anya Adams is an award-winning Canadian-American director who is best known for directing Black-ish, Fresh Off the Boat, and The Good Place. The Alice Initiative named Adams as one of the top emerging female filmmakers on The Alice List 2020. Since then, Adams has won the NAACP Image Award 2020 for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for GLOW (episode, "Outward Bound") and will make her pilot debut directing the coming-of-age drama series Ginny and Georgia, a Netflix original premiering in summer 2020.

Sahar Jahani, writer/director.

Sahar Jahani is a first-generation Iranian-American writer/director raised in Los Angeles. She earned a BA in Film & Media Studies and Literary Journalism from UC Irvine. She received an MFA in Film and Television Screenwriting at Stephens College. Sahar worked in scripted development at YouTube Originals before transitioning to the writers' room on the Golden Globe-winning Hulu/A24 series RAMY, where she wrote her first episode of television. In 2018, Sahar was selected to participate in the Film Independent Project Involve Program, where she wrote and directed JUST ONE NIGHT, an award-winning short film that premiered at the LA Film Festival and has gone on to several other festivals worldwide. Her original pilot, UNCOVERED, was awarded the 2019 MACRO Episodic Lab Grant and is in development with Executive Producer Eva Longoria. In 2019, Sahar was a writer on 13 REASONS WHY (S4, NETFLIX), adapted the novel, AYESHA AT LAST, for Pascal Pictures, and was listed as one of Hollywood's top new writers on the Tracking Board's Young and Hungry List. She just wrapped the writers' room on a new Netflix Drama series and is currently on a Freeform show.

Charmin Roundtree Baaqee, civil engineer and art curator.

Charmin Roundtree Baaqee has 20 years of experience as an engineer and over 12 years of experience as a gallery curator for the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Her passion and appreciation for  Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) community-based initiatives have been long-standing and have developed since childhood.  As an Oakland native and resident, she has witnessed her hometown's socio-economic challenges and an active participant in its ongoing revitalization.  Her work with local emerging and established  artists and  continuous  support of  youth through mentoring and volunteering in Oakland   Public  Schools, Berkeley Youth Alternative  Program,  and the  National Society of  Black

Engineers is a testament to her unyielding desire to maintain the lively, colorful, and economically sustainable pulse of one of the greatest cities in the country. As a mother, art curator, engineer, entrepreneur, and community steward, she aspires to cultivate the visual arts' enthusiasm and support and spark creativity in how people approach life experiences.

Anne Collins Smith, museum curator.

Anne Collins Smith is a cultural curator, historian, and worker in the literary, visual, and performing arts. She is the Curator of Collections at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. Smith has participated in the Independent Curators International's Curatorial Intensive and Getty Leadership Institute's Museum Leaders: The Next Generation programs. Likewise, she serves on the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Arts Council and the board of trustees of the Association of Art Museum Curators. Smith's interests include arts and the economy, arts leadership, audience development, cosmopolitanism, the curator's evolving role, material culture, public art, visual culture, and African Diasporic continuity in artistic and cultural practices. Her curatorial work is inspired by New Orleans jazz musicians and cultural ambassador Irvin Mayfield's culture definition. He explains, "Culture is about definition. And if you're not involved in the process of defining yourself, then somebody else will define you; and perhaps they'll define you to the point where they think you don't need to exist." In all that Smith undertakes in her avocation as a cultural worker, it is the uplifting and celebration of culture and shared heritage and creating a definition from many perspectives that drive her work.

About Career Girls: CareerGirls.org is a comprehensive video-based career exploration and readiness tool for girls. It's free to use and free of ads. It has the most extensive online collection of career guidance videos focusing exclusively on diverse and accomplished women — over 250 of whom are in STEM fields — added weekly.

Linda Calhoun is the Founder and Executive Producer of Careergirls.org. This free, noncommercial online platform showcases video clips of diverse women role models sharing career and educational advice to inspire young girls to expand their horizons, improve their academic performance, and dream big about their futures.