Speaker

Susie Lee

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Seattle-based artist Susie Lee has forged an expanded practice that includes creative entrepreneurship, time-based new media, community convenings, performance, interactive digital installations, and object making. Her work explores the amplification of human connection through technology. Lee bridges art and technology in the public imagination and national press, with accolades from the Guardian, Seattle Times, CNN, Cosmopolitan, NPR, Marie Claire, Engadget, The Washington Post, and ThinkProgress. Siren, the app she co-founded and ran, partnered with Durex on a public campaign with 37M views, won 2015 Geekwire’s App of the Year, and is part of The New Museum’s cutting edge NEW INC program as entrepreneur-in-residence.

Lee has exhibited at a number of museums nationally and is included in notable collections. A graduate of Yale, Columbia and UW with degrees in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, science education and fine arts, Lee has been recognized as a TEDx speaker, Bonnie Bronson Fellow, Emerging Artist of the Year, Stranger Genius, and Artist to Watch.
Seattle, WA May 6, 2017
Modern Day Corporate Exile: When Organizations Close Rank
Sexual harassment, micro-aggressions in the work place

Minority groups who represent diversity checkboxes in tech are often positioned as "part of the club / part of the photo op" and feel included....until they are not. Whether it is a PR, leadership, or internal culture challenge, when the club feels threatened, the club beings to close rank, and the minority member begins to be shut out. Regardless whether the reasons for exclusion seem believable enough, the effect is the same, which reinforces systemic discrimination and modern day exile. And ultimately, these behaviors, when unchecked, impacts a company, not only in their everyday work environment but in their ability to attract future talent and maintain productivity.

So what are the power structures and hierarchies that allows for such dramas to unfold? How can an individual find true allies and safe spaces in such structures? Are there survival strategies when the closing of ranks occur in tech? And how can non-marginalized individuals identify and support from the inside?