Be Intentional with Your Impact - Dr. Maxine Cain's Journey
If I focus on me, I focus on my purpose, I focus on the generational investment, and be very deliberate and intentional of how I'm making an impact, that's what success looks like for me.
President Leocadia Zak:Hello and welcome to Agnes Scott College's podcast, journeys to leadership, where we explore the paths of inspiring women leaders from around the globe. I'm Leo Kadiazak, president of Agnes Scott, and the host of this podcast. I hope that our guest stories not only encourage you, our listeners, and leaders of today and tomorrow, but they also inspire you as you take the next steps in your own journey. Today's guest is an award winning leader, changing the way women business leaders and entrepreneurs live, work, and play by doing work that matters in STEM. She is the founder and president of STEM Atlanta Women Incorporated, a not for profit five zero 01c3 created to enlighten and educate women and girls about the advantages and global opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, and the skills needed to compete and succeed in the 21st century.
President Leocadia Zak:She has been awarded president Biden's lifetime achievement award for over 4,000 hours of community service in her efforts in STEM education and training. Her vision is to disrupt unconscious bias in tech and bridge the gender gap in STEM. Please join me in welcoming doctor Maxine Kane.
Dr. Maxine Cain:Thank you so much. I am so honored to be here.
President Leocadia Zak:We are so excited to have you on journeys to leadership. On our show, we understand that leadership doesn't just happen. It's a journey. During our time together, we want to explore your journey. The ups, the downs, the surprises, all of it, or at least as much we can get into the time today.
President Leocadia Zak:First, tell us about STEM Atlanta Women.
Dr. Maxine Cain:So STEM Atlanta Women is a nonprofit organization, as you mentioned. We focus on enhancing and increasing the talent pipeline for women and girls in STEM, more specifically, black and brown girls and underserved and underrepresented communities. We service girls in rural Georgia and in Atlanta. So we have a STEM Innovation Center in Summer Hill, which is over near the O'Bray Stadium, and down in Macon County near Fort Valley State. So we're all about emerging technologies, and we service, middle schoolers, high schoolers, college students, and recent college grads between the ages of 18 30 5.
Dr. Maxine Cain:So it's really all about, helping them to pursue careers in STEM right now. So we're we're very, very passionate about that, and we've been in business now about 8 years.
President Leocadia Zak:Well, we're delighted to have you, and it clearly is a passion at Agnes Scott as well. So it fits in perfectly. But I wanna step back to see where it all began. And when we were talking earlier, you mentioned that you're from actually Decatur, Georgia.
Dr. Maxine Cain:I am.
President Leocadia Zak:So I'd love to hear a little bit about that. Sort of what was it like growing up in Decatur, and were you encouraged to focus on STEM? And what was your journey?
Dr. Maxine Cain:No. I was not encouraged to focus on STEM. So I was raised in Atlanta, born and raised, lived in Decatur, Georgia, went to Avondale High School, right up the street in the Avondale Estates area. So, when I was a little girl, I really wanted to be a judge, but I was also one of those little girls that came from an underserved and underrepresented community. So we didn't really have a lot of money for me to go to school and do all that.
Dr. Maxine Cain:So, my grandfather stepped in and really made it happen for me to get through school. I started out at a community college, and then I left and I went off to be a flight attendant. I wanted to travel the world, and I did. I did it for 10 years, came back, got married, had my son, and then I transitioned into the telecommunications industry. So my background is human resources by trade.
Dr. Maxine Cain:I was with Verizon Wireless for about 22 years as an HR leader there. And as a part of that, I was able to go back to school. Verizon paid for me to go to school, which was very, very nice because, remember, we didn't have a lot of money for us to go to school. So I'm very fortunate that I was able to get a college education through Verizon. And, while I was there, Verizon is known for being a technology and innovation company.
Dr. Maxine Cain:We were out in front, one of the the best technology companies out there, but we really focused on, technology and innovation. We had a leaders first approach around making sure that the leaders were trained and developed before we cascade that information down to our frontline teams. And so that's where my journey started in technology. So I've just been very passionate about that since 1994.
President Leocadia Zak:Goodness. Well, let me back you up a little bit on that, however, because you mentioned you started as a flight attendant, and then you went to technology. Often people think, wait a second. Whatever I start with is what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life. How did you make that transition?
President Leocadia Zak:What made you think about technology having had that amazing experience of traveling around the world before that?
Dr. Maxine Cain:So what happened, I traveled all around the world, but I wanted to get married, and I wanted to have kids. And I didn't wanna be a flight attendant with a new baby. And so I made a decision that when I got married, I was gonna leave the airline industry, and I wanted to start a new career. So at the time, I did a lot of research around what is the future state of our economy, what is the best choice for a career back then. And and that's this was around 1998, maybe a little bit earlier.
Dr. Maxine Cain:94, I should say. And I started doing some research, and telecommunications was the hot up and coming industry that for future growth, if I wanted to spend some time in a long term career, that's where I would go. And so I started out as a temporary employee in customer service, at Contel Cellular. It was way back when. And then Contel Cellular was bought out by Verizon during the joint venture.
Dr. Maxine Cain:So when we did that, I started out in customer service. I became an assistant supervisor, a supervisor. But because, remember, I wanted to be a judge when I was a little girl, I was able to do a lot of special projects at Verizon in HR. And because of the work that I did with a lot of those top leaders, they were very impressed with my performance that they offer me an opportunity as an HR consultant managing employee relations, and my career just continued to grow from there.
President Leocadia Zak:So I love the fact that, again, you started in one area. You knew ultimately where you wanted to go, but you had a path that wasn't directly there. Yep. That there were other things that you did in the process.
Dr. Maxine Cain:That is correct. I wanted to learn. I didn't know anything about telecommunications because I had spent the last 10 years in aviation. And so when you're transitioning from one industry to the other, you really need to learn the business. So I was really a student of the business.
Dr. Maxine Cain:So I was okay with starting out at a very low level to learn the business, learn customer service. I was managing 2,000 flight attendants, so I had a management career and experience. But I didn't know anything about the telecommunications industry. So it was my way of saying, hey. Let me go here.
Dr. Maxine Cain:Let me learn. Let me start out. And, again, I was only a customer service rep for 9 months because I really excelled in that. And then I went to be an assistant supervisor for a year. I was a supervisor for 4 years and then immediately transitioned into HR, and the rest of my career has been as an HR leader.
President Leocadia Zak:Well, as many of us know, people don't often think right away about women in tech. It's something you studied, you researched, you decided to go forward in that area. But were there things, challenges that you had as you were making that transition?
Dr. Maxine Cain:Yes. So like I said, I was in HR, and we managed and hired and trained and developed leaders in science and technology and innovation. And so I learned a lot about the business. But when I came out, you wouldn't think that an HR leader would start a STEM organization for women and girls. And so I ran into a lot of individuals who were very, very experienced and had domain expertise.
Dr. Maxine Cain:And they felt like, why is she starting the STEM organization? So it was almost like I didn't fit, but that wasn't the purpose for me. My purpose was to be able to reach back and mentor and develop young women and girls based on all of the experience that I had as an HR leader, staffing and recruiting women into well, not just women, but everybody into our tech space. And when we did that, we noticed that we just did not have a lot of women and girls in tech or young college students coming out of what what I call early career. And my focus was to bring awareness to that.
Dr. Maxine Cain:And I came out. I left Verizon in 2015, started the organization in 2016, took a whole year off and just really did research and development in the Atlanta market. More specifically in the black tech space, really trying to understand, like, why is it? Why is it that we are having a tough time recruiting women into our innovation space? And it was really centered around lack of representation.
Dr. Maxine Cain:They didn't see themselves. They didn't feel that the culture was welcoming. They felt they were not smart enough. There was a ton of imposter syndrome going on. And so I felt that it was an opportunity for me to really start to explain and to bring awareness, opportunity, and exposure to what it's like to work in corporate in a tech company.
Dr. Maxine Cain:And as I started to bring more awareness to it, we started to see those numbers change. We're not where we need to be, but, we made some pretty significant impact there.
President Leocadia Zak:How larger group do you work with?
Dr. Maxine Cain:Over the years, we've touched over 200,000 people from when you think about directly, indirectly, virtual across the world. We've touched a lot of them. And so we we work with schools. So I support various schools. So, like, for example, King Middle School.
Dr. Maxine Cain:That's a large school. And we have Coretta Scott King and Maynard Jackson and Carver Early College. And so you can get to a large impactful number very quickly depending on what you're doing, who you're partnering with, and what type of program. So we've touched a lot of girls over the last 8 years.
President Leocadia Zak:That is absolutely amazing. Tell me, how do you help them get through that imposter syndrome? It's something we hear so much about. So how do you encourage them? How do you help them?
Dr. Maxine Cain:Yeah. So the first thing that's important when you're talking to young girls is to not even have them focus on the tech piece. It's really about them focusing on themselves and helping them to understand who they are. And so, as a part of our core values, we teach them to stand in their own truth. Know who you are.
Dr. Maxine Cain:What's important to you. And a lot of times, they don't know themselves. They don't know what they wanna do. They don't even know that there's opportunities for you to be successful in technology. Because when you think about it, they've not seen, you know, people like themselves pretty successful in tech.
Dr. Maxine Cain:And so I just really start with the baseline of who are you? Let's figure that out. Who do you wanna be? Can you stand in your own truth? What's important to you?
Dr. Maxine Cain:And really take them through that journey first. And then I don't focus on, oh, you should do this, and you should do this, and you should do this. I wanna understand what do you absolutely love doing? What do you love doing? What would you do for free if you could?
Dr. Maxine Cain:Because then I help them to understand that science, technology, engineering, and math touches every area of your life. From the minute you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night, you are touching some level of stem. And so that is how they start to connect where they wanna plug in into those 4 verticals. And I tell parents also not to force your children into a vertical, but really monitor them, engage with them, find out what they're most interested in, and then I can show you how to connect one of those disciplines to the child's interest. That's how we do it.
President Leocadia Zak:Well, you gave me the opening. So who are you?
Dr. Maxine Cain:Oh, wow. I am I am a person that is very purpose driven, very purpose driven because STEM Atlanta was not what I thought I was gonna do when I left Verizon. As a part of my career at Verizon, I did a lot of corporate event planning, and I did it for about 14 years. And so I loved it. And when I left Verizon, I started my own event planning company.
Dr. Maxine Cain:It was called Maxine Cain Events because I'm really, really like high end luxurious event, and I love to curate them. Right? So I started the business, was very successful, and, a lot of different organizations were reaching out to me from a business development standpoint. They wanted to know how are you connected with all these celebrities and entertainers and athletes and corporate leaders, and they wanted me to connect them and and because they wanted funding dollars. Why did why should they invest in you?
Dr. Maxine Cain:Because at the time, most of the companies were really focused on technology. They were they were focused on STEM initiatives, it was just starting. And so I would encourage them to really think about initiatives that would be future stated and that would tie into where the economy was going at the time. So I remember very clearly, I was at home, and I'm a person of faith. I remember very clearly praying 1 morning, and I was asking god to just I'm like, why is it that we're having a hard time getting people to pursue, technology and innovation?
Dr. Maxine Cain:And he simply said, why not you? And I paused, and I thought, what? Why not you? And I I just thought about it more and more and more because it was not it wasn't on my radar screen. It just wasn't.
Dr. Maxine Cain:And, again, did more research, and it wasn't always easy because I didn't follow that path initially because I still wanted to do what I wanted to do. But I understood that there was purpose and the need was far greater. And I finally surrendered and just went all in and decided, I'm gonna focus on STEM Atlanta. It was gonna be both for boys and girls. But through my research, it was really around helping women because the percentage of women in STEM was less than, like, 1% or something at the time.
Dr. Maxine Cain:And we really narrowed our focus, and we started with STEM Atlanta Women in 2016.
President Leocadia Zak:Well, I have to tell you, 1, as a lawyer, 2, as someone who's leading an academic institution that's focused on inclusive excellence, I love this word that I keep hearing, which is research. Research, research, research. Sounds like that is a little bit of your secret sauce.
Dr. Maxine Cain:It is. I mean, I love data. I'm a data analytics person, even in HR, on the HRIS side. But on the stem side, I just feel like the data tells a story. You need the data.
Dr. Maxine Cain:And even in when I was a corporate leader, you know, we always started with the data. Because if you can get the data to kinda outline what's happening in the workplace, how do you put strategies together to execute, I feel like, you know, if if I take the same principles into running a nonprofit organization, I would still be successful. And that's one of the things I did. I never, took on the role of, like, executive director. I'm running a nonprofit.
Dr. Maxine Cain:I took the role as founder and president, and I ran the nonprofit organization just like I would run my HR department at Verizon for many, many years, and a lot of it was data driven. And so I'm a big, big, big data person because it helps me to execute. And I'm a big executor. I'm all about execution.
President Leocadia Zak:Greatly appreciate that. But you also mentioned several times success.
Dr. Maxine Cain:Mhmm. You
President Leocadia Zak:know, identifying success. So what is success for you? What would success mean?
Dr. Maxine Cain:You know, success for me is making sure that I'm very clear about who I am, that I'm very clear about the impact that I'm making on the lives of women and girls, and I really call it generational investment. You know, how are you making a generational investment for the young women and girls and even the network of women that I support in the community? How am I impacting their lives? So for me, success looks like seeing young women and girls have an opportunity to grow, develop, and and get into the jobs that they never thought they could be. Again, I was one of those little girls that wanted to be a judge, and, ultimately, I was able to do that in a career, in HR.
Dr. Maxine Cain:Right? And I think success for me is also making sure that I'm able to take care of my family, make sure that they are good, make sure that I am staying laser focused on the mission and the purpose of what I'm supposed to be doing, and making sure that I am okay personally because I'm I'm focused on self awareness. I can't be the leader and the the person that's developing others if I'm not self aware and I'm not doing my own self work. So that's very important. So all those things to me, if I focus on me, I focus on my purpose, I focus on the generational investment, and be very deliberate and intentional of how I'm making an impact, that's what success looks like for me.
President Leocadia Zak:As you've reflected on yourself and on your journey, has anything surprised you?
Dr. Maxine Cain:Yes. I think, I started out with the imposter syndrome myself because, again, I was hearing all this chatter about, you know, why would she you know, is she a scientist? Is she an engineer? Is she this? Is she that?
Dr. Maxine Cain:And I felt like, what? Should I be doing this? But I'm like, I'm the one that was hiring these folks. So I knew what we were looking for, and I knew that they may have the domain expertise, but talent development and placement was my expertise. So I knew what the companies were looking for, but I still had that that impostor syndrome as if, you know, should I or should I not be doing this work?
Dr. Maxine Cain:But I really leaned into why not you. And I kept that at the forefront. And one of the other things for me is I feel that as a leader, it's important for me to reach back and mentor and develop my younger self. That little girl who wanted to be a judge, but she came out of a underserved and underrepresented community. Mother didn't have a whole lot of opportunity, went through a divorce, the whole 9 yards.
Dr. Maxine Cain:The whole avatar was I was that little girl. And so to me, I felt that I needed to stay true to that and make sure that I made a difference in the life of someone else.
President Leocadia Zak:Doctor Kane, having you on the show has been such a pleasure. Do you have any additional words of advice or encouragement for our listeners?
Dr. Maxine Cain:Yeah. One of the things that we're working on right now that I'm very passionate about is artificial intelligence. Right now, we're going through a technological shift in the earth, and so many of us do not have a voice in AI. More specifically, I wanna leave the audience with these stats. That right now, when you think about AI and the careers in AI, it is 91% men.
Dr. Maxine Cain:91% man. 9% women. And so when you think about the whole, the 100%, only 10% are African Americans. And when you break that down, less than 3% are African American women and less than 1% are Latinos as a whole. And so there's a lot of opportunity out there for us to lean in, learn, grow, understand how to have a voice in the space so that we can also make a generational investment in our children, in our communities, in our families, in our careers.
Dr. Maxine Cain:And for those who are, you know, leaving corporate America and wanting to start their own businesses, I want them to understand to really take a hard look at at how the positives there are some negatives. But, again, if we're not having a voice in this space, we can't make the changes. So that's that's a message that I'm traveling around and really sharing and training and developing women on the importance of plugging in, leaning in, and understanding how artificial intelligence can help, how artificial intelligence can hurt, and why having a voice will make a difference.
President Leocadia Zak:Thank you so much. That's such an important message. And I know it's something we've really focused on at Agnes Scott, the importance of critical thinking and matching that with science and technology, especially AI, and also the recognition for the potential bias in AI. So it's important for those voices, for the people to be there, to be part of that development of AI. What a terrific message.
President Leocadia Zak:Doctor Kane, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. To our listeners, I hope you are encouraged and inspired. Doctor Maxine Kane's journey is one of many that we are thrilled to share with you. Thank you for listening, and thank you to our podcast producer, Sydney Perry, for making this podcast possible. I am Leo Cadia Zack, and this is Journeys to Leadership.
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