Podcast appearances and mentions of elizabeth churchill

Dr Elizabeth Churchill, Snr Director at Google, shares experiences on building team cultures, managing diversity, onboarding global teams, and useful management frameworks. She also shares her journey from psychology to working in big tech and now at the infrastructure level, what she was looking for in moving between companies, and her love of people, of being challenged and continually learning.See http://www.changingacademiclife.com/blog/2023/ cal80-elizabeth-churchill for a time-stamped overview of the conversation, transcript and related links.

In Season 3, Episode 14 of History Through Fiction: The Podcast, host Colin Mustful chats with Elizabeth Churchill, author of the novel Desolation of the Wicked City. During the conversation, Churchill talks about the history of piracy in Jamaica, the challenges of being a lawyer and fiction writer, and the process of starting her own press, Baroness Publishing. Finally, she inspires listeners by talking about how to handle rejection while making your own path to success. Don't miss it! Seriously, it's very uplifting. 

On Episode 61 of 'Ireland's best business podcast' with Conall O Morain, we bring you...2.30" David Russell, CEO, of Host Ireland joins TeamGBS to explain why he took a speedboat to his first job, why he hired a charity collector from outside his office, how his CTO went from butcher to running the company's entire technology platform, what he's willing to do to find and train people who want to become network engineers (like most of the country's businesses, 'he's hiring', why wireless broadband has to be part of the national broadband mix. The much maligned staff implementing the National Broadband Plan get words of encouragement from David who says their job is nigh on thankless, and implementing nationwide broadband is tough no matter where in the world you are.For his 'hire in a heartbeat' he went looking for an entire team (he is desperate to hire people after all) and he chose Barbara Humpton, CEO, Siemens Corporation, PLUS Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Flickr and Slack (so no slouch!) AND Bob Iger, President at Walt Disney. If only!27.00" Lisa Haskins, International Marketing Director EMEA for VidMob, one of the cleverest ad analytics companies we've come across. Their company research, that they make freely available, goes into the most minute detail of when, where, why, how people interact with ads, across all digital platforms AND what is called static ads...so non-digital ads as well. Lisa tells us that you'll get a 53% greater purchase rate from your 'call to action' in an ad if yo use the word 'GET' rather than saying rather than saying 'SHOP NOW'. She had so, so, so many tips including to use the word 'LIMITED' (as in 'limited offer') rather than saying 'BUY NOW' (this tiny change can increase sales by 20%!). Like all our podcast guests, VidMob is hiring so she's looking for multiple disciplines and she wants them now, for this incredibly fast growing New York HQ'd company.47.00" Eamonn Sayers, CEO, Guinness Enterprise Centre, talks about the huge expansion at one of Ireland's first business incubators. He explains why, though mainly tech focussed, that they also want a diverse range of businesses to 'incubate' at their James' Gate based centre because businesses learn from each other. But, if you think you'd like to base your business at the GEC, as it's called, you'd better be quick because Eamonn reckons he'll be putting up the 'House Full' sign in Q1 of next year.57.00" Eamonn is joined by one of his protegee companies, Kinia CEO Marianne Checkley, who gives the GEC three (!) thumbs up. She explains what her own education focussed social enterprise is doing and why working in the GEC is so, so helpful for her team to keep fully abreast of what's happening in the digital space, knowledge that her team of 20 then can pass on to the company's clients. One other good thing, they do their business in English and 'as Gaeilge'.Eamonn's 'hire in a heartbeat'...after naming most of his native County Kerry, he plumped for his own dad.Marianne's 'hire in a heartbeat', Elizabeth Churchill, Director at Google. Find out what makes her such a star pick.That Great Business Show is proudly sponsored by De Facto Shave dot com www.DeFactoShave.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In EP52 we have the chance to learn from Dr. Elizabeth Churchill, a Director of User Experience at Google.With Elizabeth we chat about the intersection of design and psychology as well as her approach on influencing product strategy from a User Research perspective. During the last years Elizabeth had the chance to work on many of Google's well known software tools like Flutter, Material Design and recently Google's new OS system called Fuchsia.During the episode we jump into:✅ how to she set's up to UX research projects at Google✅ how interviewing people outside of your user group can foster innovation✅ the biggest mistakes digital products teams and startups make in their product design, strategy and research✅ how to do user research on AI projects✅ what excites her about the future of tools and software platforms when it comes to user research✅ tactics to create more empathy in your larger product team (e.g. workshop method called “wearing hats"✅ how to control the customer experience with cognitive science and visual designThanks a lot for your time and for learning Elizabeth!

Transcript: [00:00:02] Hey everyone this is Lynn Vartan and you are listening to the apex hour on SUU's Thunder ninety one point one. In this show you get more personal time with the guests who visit Southern Utah University from all over. Learning more about their stories and opinions beyond their presentations on stage. We will also give you some new music to listen to and hope to turn you on new genres. You can find us here every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. on the web at suu.edu/apex or email us at suuapex@icloud.com but for now welcome to this week's show here Thunder ninety one point one. [00:00:43] OK. Well it's Thursday it's 3:00 p.m. and you're here in the studio and this is the apex hour. My name is Lynn Vartan and I'm so excited today excited two of my most favorite people in the studio with me and we are celebrating because our season is officially done for the spring semester which is totally awesome. But the fun doesn't end here. Those of you have been enjoying the radio show. I'm going to stay in my 3 p.m. slot here live and throughout the summer I'll be on air every couple of weeks and then that means that the podcast will also be active all through the summer. Just a reminder that we're subscribable on iTunes and on Google Play or wherever you get your podcast. And just do the search for SUU APEX. All right so let's get talk in here to my guests. I've got two of my favorite ladies and what we're doing today is we're kind of doing a behind the scenes with APEX for the spring semester. Those of you who know me well know I love me some TV and I love watching series where there's this after show or the behind the scenes or the looking behind the curtain of sort of the inner workings of things and that's what we're doing with the show. I'd like to kind of do it every semester and kind of talk with some of my great great great awesome staff and friends about how we make this thing work and some memorable moments from the season. So what I'd like to do is for you guys to introduce yourselves and maybe talk a little bit about what you do for APEX Who'd like to go first. [00:02:28] I can start my name is Roxane Cailleux and I graduated last year from SUU with a communication degree and now I work for Lynn and I am the event planning assistant and I just work alongside Lynn and we organize everything. So for me what I do is from social media to managing the class because we have a convocation class so grading the students and making sure they are fine. I also take care of the food orders, catering facilities, all of that. [00:03:14] She does everything. Let me tell you this whole thing would not run without her. We like to say that she's like my right and left hand. I mean assistant is not even the word to describe it. You're definitely our producer and really you have a hand in every single aspect of what we do. Yeah a lot of e-mails every day that is true. What is your favorite aspect of your job. [00:03:39] I like the day of. Everything from in the morning when we get there to the end when we wrap up. It's my favorite thing to do because there's adrenaline I like seeing people in the audience react. And I like meeting the speaker who we've been working to get here for so long. And yeah just like that day. But I like everything that I do. [00:04:03] But yeah yeah we definitely like our office time together. [00:04:08] Mondays Greek Fries [00:04:10] Yeah. Greek fries in the office while we get everything done. Yep yep. Thanks Roxie. [00:04:17] All right. Katie tell us about yourself. [00:04:19] Hello my name is Katie Englert and I teach in the ESL program here at the American Language and Culture Center. And for APEX I take pictures so I do all the photography during the event. Some of you out there might have seen me trying to be nonchalant as I walk around and take pictures. [00:04:42] But I love having you with APEX because you have a really artistic eye. You know and I'd like to know like everybody to know a little bit about your background because you have an anthropology background so when you're looking at a subject you're looking with a very specific kind of lens. [00:05:00] Yeah my background is in both anthropology and photojournalism so I kind of started my career as a photojournalist and then moved into visual anthropology and culture anthropology and my master's studies. But yes so I'm I'm definitely looking observing. I try to keep that camera up to my eye 24/7 when I'm sure an event like apex. And I'm just trying to find that moment that will tell the story. So it's always a challenge because sometimes people who are speaking can be kind of hard to shoot because it's often just someone speaking at a podium. So I'm just trying to catch that moment that's in between to kind of give some humanity to the person that's speaking and tell the story. That's so cool [00:05:50] If I can add something. You've really elevated it from my point of view since I do social media. You've really elevated the social media aspect of APEX. Oh wow thank you. But it's become really nice looking. Every week we have really good pictures to post so I think people enjoy that. [00:06:08] Yeah I think one of the things that's so cool is that in addition to kind of the standard shots you know you're really going for some interesting and different shots and I really love that. I mean can you talk about some of those. [00:06:20] Yeah that's that's especially what I'm trying to find those those moments before the event happens. One of my favorite moments I think was with her when Jeff Bradybaugh was here and it was a moment while you were speaking introducing him and he was kind of to the left of you in the frame and he's like looking up at the PowerPoint. But it's just this nice light coming on his face and and the moment the composition just worked. And for me that was my favorite shot of the whole event even though it wasn't focused on him it was just the sense of him talking about him. But I'm just always looking for that kind of behind the scenes moment and because that adds to what he is talking about or the speaker is talking about in what everybody sees. And so thanks for the Yeah that's really nice. [00:07:14] You're really able to get kind of the feel of the event that way and that's one of the things that I've really enjoyed about your work. You know I had no idea that that photo was your favorite. And for those listening I mean we're talking about photographs but you can definitely check out all of our photographs by going to our Facebook page which is SUU APEX Events or just search for SUU APEX or they're all on the website which is suu.edu/apex and all of Katie's photos from the event. [00:07:45] So there and I had no idea that was one of your favorites [00:07:49] One of my favorites from like like before the actual event. And just because I felt like it came together in just a nice little moment that you know only maybe I saw. And yeah but hopefully it tells a bit about the scene. [00:08:03] Oh my gosh. So do you have any other favorite photos? That one of Susan Casey... [00:08:08] Yeah that was good. I like that. That was a nice moment too. She was interacting with someone that was buying her book. And again just trying to be in the right place at the right time. That's my goal. That's my job. And when I can do it successfully I'm happy. So got that one stands out. Some of lemon. ANDERSON Yeah and just performing. Those were always fun to shoot because again you're trying to get that emotion and that intensity from what the person is doing. [00:08:45] Was there anyone that was particularly was there any particular event that was more challenging to shoot from a from a fit of graphics and we'll talk about content later but from a photographic standpoint was there one that was more challenging the business. [00:08:59] One was a little bit of a challenge but I liked the challenge. Those are my favorite because I'm try again trying to get the best shot. But that was a challenge because it was a panel. So I was trying to move around and trying to get everybody in the same shot without it being boring or you know like a missed moment. So just waiting waiting and waiting for that moment to happen with five or six people in the same shot. So that can be tricky. And also just the lighting can be sometimes pretty dark in our room a lot of time. [00:09:31] What do you use. What kind of equipment. I mean I don't know much about this kind of thing. [00:09:37] My cameras rather old. I was just telling someone earlier today it's about 12 years old. Why did I use a Nikon 80. So for those of you photographers out there it's pretty old but I have an idea. 200 that is the lens I usually use especially when I'm far back and then 50 or 35 I think. So yeah I could definitely use some better gear but it'll you know it'll happen and you can do a lot. I've had those two lenses for 20 years and then they work pretty well. [00:10:10] Definitely working for us. How about you Roxy what's maybe more challenge. Is there a particularly challenging part of the day or of the event or something that you always know you have to kind of manage. [00:10:24] Probably the lunch Yeah I was going to say the lunch invites and I really try throughout the week because we get our RSVPs and everything so I try to make sure that we have everyone and then it's just a little it's a little scary for me to actually get to a lunch and then I'm just scared that someone is going to show up and be like. I RSVPd But I don't have them on my list and I have to make room for them. I have to tell them you have to go home. That's a little stressful for me. And then I try to anticipate as much as I can but I'm always nervous about just last minute problems like Chartwells is great but you know I'm always like is the team going to be there you know and stuff like that. Yeah. [00:11:12] Chartwells is our catering man. We've really had such great experiences with them this semester. We've tried some new different kinds of foods for the lunches and things like that and that's just been really fun. So yeah but you always want to make sure you know you do such a great job of anticipating my every need and sometimes I'm about to say and how about. And she's heard did it which is great. [00:11:37] So yeah it's easier if you just anticipate everything that could happen. That's what I learned from what I from I've been planning since I've started. And you just have to anticipate what could happen what's the worst that can happen that day. And then you always already have a backup plan. So if it actually happens then you know what to do and you don't have to freak out about it. And we don't need backup plans. So really really great. There's not a lot of times where something happens. [00:12:08] Yeah. I've been really thrilled with everything that way. OK. Going to a more sort of global thought Why do you think. You know we really believe in this series and I know you guys really believe in this series. But you know maybe talk a little bit about why do you think this series in particular or any speaker series like this is important to have on campus or why is it important to why do you think it's important to this community. [00:12:40] I think it's important for the students because we're in a university and it's all about learning and discovering new things and not staying in your comfort zone. So I think we're very lucky to have so many great people come to campus. And we're a rather small school and the fact that we can bring this type of people is is really impressive and it's really we're really lucky so the fact that the students can just show up for free every week and have a chance not only to hear what they have to say but also interact with them make connections. I mean I've seen students talk to the speakers and you know get their information. And so it's a really great thing to have on campus. I think it's very important to keep doing it. [00:13:30] That actually happened quite a bit just a couple of days ago with Dr. Bert Tisbury. You know she was giving out her phone number and you know all kinds of connections were happening and that's that really makes me happy. Katie what do you think. [00:13:44] I agree with everything you just said and just the diversity of this past year of the speakers that have come for Apex has just been truly remarkable and I feel really lucky. I mean I feel like to be a part of it as a shooter but I really feel lucky just to be a part of the audience and hear all of the different experiences that the speakers bring to the event and especially the diversity like like you said. And I like that we have people who are former alumni. We have people in the community. We have people from all walks of life all ethnicities diversity jobs. And I think it's just one of the best things about you that I just love. So it's very exciting to be a part of it. [00:14:30] Yeah that's definitely the diversity component has been something that we've been really from the design process really focusing on. And you know it it's not just bringing in a diverse environment from around that's certainly a key aspect of it. But like you said you know once a year we're featuring and then alumni and then we're bringing people from our community and our environment like off the cuff or the superintendent for design National Park and I think that you know continuing to showcase the just everything that's around us. [00:15:03] And then couple that with bringing people in is definitely a passion of mine and a goal for the series so I'm glad that that's been a meaningful part of it for you. Yeah that's great. Well I think what we'll do is we'll play a song now so I've got in my typical style Yeah. All kinds of things. I've been digging deep into this playlist. That's a bunch of kind of I guess emerging artists or perhaps new mostly new artists from the South by Southwest 2018 festival so I've got a few more from that. This first song is going to be called thanks 4 nothing. And it's by Nilufer Yanya and it's the title track from the album. Thanks for nothing. And again it was one of South by Southwest features and you can find it on Spotify or wherever you listen to music. You're listening to KSUU thunder ninety one point [00:19:03] Ok well welcome back. And this is Lynn Vartan and you're listening to KSUU ninety one point one and this is the apex hour and this is our kind of behind the scenes for this season's show. And I've got Katie and Roxie joining me and we're just kind of talking about how the season went down and some standout moments and just you know a little bit more about the inner workings of Apex the band. So welcome back Roxie and Katie Hello. [00:19:33] So what I'd like to do is kind of just talk about we had 11 events 11 or 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 11 events this spring and just kind of I'd like to just sort of remember them and maybe get a couple sentences from you about like your reflection or something you remember about it. We began the season the way our season works for anybody who doesn't know it's a weekly event series. During the course of the academic school year in the fall we start about the second week of September and run all the way up until Thanksgiving. Then we take a little break for the holidays retool. We begin in about the second week of January 2nd or third week and then go all the way through till the first week of April which is when we finish which is this week. So we began the season with our distinguished faculty lecture. What this event is is that there is opportunity for faculty members on campus to submit a written a paper presentation. That is original and that is adjudicated by a faculty committee that has nothing to do with APACS I'm not on the committee or none of our team is on the committee it's an internal university committee who goes over all of these proposals and then chooses one to be our faculty distinguished lecture and then we host that event where the faculty member reads their lecture. You may remember last year was Dr. Marbeck an art history and then this year our event was Dr. Ravi Roye and his talk was titled rebuilding public trust and democratic governance. The great political paradox you guys have any memories from that or thoughts about that one. [00:21:26] I know for me that the key that he brought up that I was really interested in was his opinion of the state and of democracy and where we move forward with democracy and that he's a little nervous about kind of the process of where we're going with democracy. Did you guys have any memories from that one. Yeah I remember I remember that although January seems like a long time ago now. But I remember thinking at the time when I was shooting it how great to hear what he's researching and what I remember as who is working on and just being really excited about that and not realizing at the time which again is why I think APECs is so amazing and that it brings speakers like Ravi to discuss the research and for the public to understand what they're working on. Yeah I think that's cool because I mean I you know you you see people's names and maybe you're on a committee with them. That's actually then really see what or hear what they're discussing is amazing anybody wants to know more about Dr. Roy's presentation. He was also our very first radio guest on the show. So you can definitely check out his talk with me on the podcast and we go over a lot of the things that he mentioned and and his thoughts. So yeah I'll move on to the next one. [00:22:57] Did you have anything to say about [00:22:59] Just for me. It was kind of a special one from an event standpoint as you said. You know we had our first radio show with him and I think that's when we changed the seating to theater. And I just I really liked that and yeah just the first one of the season is always kind of special. So. [00:23:19] That's right. That was when we did the seating change and other behind the scenes tidbit wearing a very large conference hall and it's a really cool room but we always had just one aisle down the center. And actually we changed it so that we had multiple aisles so there's actually four different entry points kind of four aisles the two on the outer edges and then two in the middle which makes it really easy for people to kind of get in and get seated especially late comers. You don't have to feel like you're climbing over everybody in the movie theater that type of thing so cool. All right our next one was the SUUSA roundtable was a state of the Union and I called it where we had several of our Southern Utah University centers and just discussing different topics on campus and just kind of seeing what our young leaders are doing. This one. You know I'm not sure if we're going to make it an annual event or not. You know but it was really important I think to have the senators there and to kind of hear what their what the topics of interest to them are and kind of how they're looking at leadership. Did you guys have any memories from that one. [00:24:28] I can't believe this was the second event that we did. It feels like yesterday. It's so weird that it was the second. Yeah. But I thought it was a different event than what we usually do. And I liked having them there. And for me when I was a student I never really knew what SUUSA was doing. So I think it's really good for everyone to have been able to listen to them and see what they're actually working on. And yeah and I was really happy about the turnout attendance wise because I was a little worried about it. Some people just don't show up but it was really I think we got about 100 people a little bit less but that was really that's a surprise too I think to everybody and it turned out really well so yeah. [00:25:18] And that one within our smaller room we sometimes do events in the waiting room which is a smaller room and it's about a 100 120 capacity and yeah we had quite a few people at that one. [00:25:29] Just to add to what Roxie said. I think it was just great to have them their presence in a forum like APEX and how articulate everyone on that panel was really impressed with the panel and again it just made me really appreciate you and the students that are here and representing Southern Utah. And yeah I just was really impressed with without having gone. [00:25:58] Well that was January and then we move on to February and we began our event with our meet the business building which is you know a real special event for this year. It's kind of one of these once in a lifetime once because I mean new buildings don't go up every day on campus and we have this amazing brand new business building that's that's coming up. And this event was all dedicated to the making of that building. We had facilities we had the architects coming here the the contractors the business Dean spoke and that was kind of a roundtable discussion and one of the things that really stood out to me and maybe you guys feel the same way as the artist was I didn't [00:26:41] There was going to be some really cool art in that building that really reflect our natural landscape. Glasswork that's going to reflect off of the light and all these things and there's going to be a lot of social areas in that building and outdoor areas. I was really excited learn about that. [00:27:00] Yeah it was really amazing to see all those parts come together in that one for. And they had slides to kind of show what the business building is going to look like both inside and I think outside. Yeah and Yeah. Again another kind of local event that's very much a part of who you and the future of us which is just exciting. I was really excited to be a part of it. Roxie do anything about that. You don't have I mean you guys don't have to talk on every single one. Just say no if you don't that's fine [00:27:32] just the fact that I mean our office is right next to it. We see the construction every day and we just want to see it it's going to be in there and I was never a business like student. But I our current one can have some improvements. I'm really happy that students will have that opportunity to study somewhere like that. And it's it looks great. I mean I'm excited. [00:27:55] Yeah yeah. Well moving along on February 8th we had Emily Graslie and wow what a treat she was. I mean Emily Graslie has a youtube channel called The Brain scoop and it's just the absolute YouTube sensation and she she works the brains Scroope out of the Field Museum in Chicago. One of the big natural history museums in the nation and her story from from art painter in Montana to YouTube sensation scientist who goes all over the world you know inspecting fossils and dissecting animals and everything was just amazing and her talk was titled The value of curiosity. Memories from that one. [00:28:43] Yeah for me I really liked her because when we prepared the events we only have like a couple of pictures of the speaker and I can't help just making my own opinion and just expecting some kind of personality or like the way they're going to be. And she really surprised me because she always looks so sweet in her picture. And she is really sweet but I was pleasantly so surprised, she was very confident and she's very kind of feisty and I we she was really fun and I really enjoyed her talk. And the fact that she came from a completely different background than what she's doing now I thought that was crazy and also the fact that she's on YouTube is a really cool thing because it's become a really big platform especially for my generation and students here at SUU So it was really nice to have someone who comes from there. [00:29:35] Yeah I agree. I think what really stood out to me about her aside from what she actually does for her living is that she was a painter and then just was interested in going to the museum on her campus that the museum was like a very small room like things just packed up. And she made that into a career and it was really like inspiring and I thought like I thought if I was a student I mean as a as a grown adult professional I was really inspired and it just shows how you might start out somewhere in your career or in your major. And then how it can lead into other things and how exciting and successful she was and again very articulate strong passionate woman.And we had a lot of those was exciting to be around [00:30:28] Until March really started. but let's get a guy in there. February 15th we had our day in the life series where we bring someone in to talk about what their life is like. And this was Jeff Bradybaugh who is currently the Zion National Park Superintendent. And I just thought he was a delight one really just delightful delightful person and packed event in our smaller room and we were overflow we had like project we had to have the audio in the lobby so that the overflow could hear. That was just amazing. Yeah anything to add. [00:31:05] I think so. I know a lot of teachers in the ALCC we try to bring our students over to the apex events and that was a big one for students I think because they know where Zion is they can go there and to to hear someone from Taiwan it's involved with what goes on in Zion speak and talk was really great for them as well as myself like being relatively new to southern Utah. It was just great to hear his perspective and kind of how his journey came to be at Zion and some of the things that they're looking forward in the future. So it was really really great. And I love that picture I took. [00:31:45] It was well and then moving on we'll get one more before we take our next break. We could talk all day now and this was a very special event and it may maybe some people's favorite of the season. This was our Claudia Bradshaw event. Claudia Bradshaw is just a wonderful mother figure to us all is kind of how we came out of that and her talk was titled My journey into a new world and it was really about. She is the St George P. flag founder and a real ally to our LGBTQ plus family and it was just her story and special treat that her son was able to travel here from Chicago. So I'm sure you have something to say. Yeah I loved this one too. I loved that both her son and daughter were there and got to comment on when her son came out to her and kind of that family journey that they went through. And hell being in southern Utah that was hard and some of the pushback they got. But the thing that really stood out to me about Claudia is she is all about love and and that's it. Like I think of her and I remember leaving that event and just thinking she didn't have a negative thing to say about anything or anyone. And that is remarkable. Like you I haven't come across a lot of people in my life that doesn't have something negative to say everyone's right. So yeah right. [00:33:22] So it was just amazing to be in her presence and hear her talk talk about her family's story and her son and her daughter being there and being a part of that. So that was a real treat. And I loved shooting them. They were for tugger photo photographing them I should watch my verbiage when I say shooting out the way through and then before we go to break I asked our journalist Billy Clouse our journalist and blogger and those of you who follow us on online and and look at our archive. You see his reflections every week of the event. I asked him did one event stand out to you. And if so why. And here's what he had to say. [00:34:08] A lot of really cool things that APEX had. And I remember Emily Graslie especially fun for me because she started out as a Fine Arts major and they kind of transitioned into science fulling her passions. And I think it's really cool to be involved in so many different things. But I think my favorite of all the events really had to be the keynote address given by Dr. Perry. She's such a driven person. She was so happy and fun and they couldn't stop smiling throughout the event and to her story is just so inspirational. [00:34:43] Yes so that was Billy's opinion and you heard him mention Emily and we'll definitely talk about Dr. Berry I think a little bit more but time for some more music. And I have to apologize because the last song that you heard was not thanks 4 nothing. It was actually causing trouble by Saint sister. Now you're going to hear. Thanks 4 nothing. And again just our station I.D. This is KSUU Thunder ninety one point one and you are listening to the APEX hour. [00:37:57] All right we'll I'm going to bring you back here to the apex hour because we were just talking in the studio about how much more we all have to say. So this is KSUU thunder ninety one point one. My name is Lynn Vartan and I am joined in the studio with Roxie and Katie and we're talking about APEX. We left off at the beginning of March. And from you know these last five events that we had were just amazing. March 1st was Elizabeth Churchill who is one of the directors of user experience at Google. And she talked about human interactions human computer interaction over the ages. And it's hard to say a favorite but I don't know. She was like my she's like my hero sister yes soul sister. That's totally. I wasn't expecting to connect with her on the level. I mean I'm a musician and she works at Google but man that's and that's one of my favorite of the radio shows and the podcast too. Would you guys think I was excited about her because she's one of the biggest ones. Like she's I think one of the first marginality that we got. [00:39:07] I just was a little I don't know I didn't know what to expect but she was so sweet and so I just loved how generous she was with everyone that she interacted with and for people who only go to the lecture listen to the radio may not know but we also do class visits with the speakers usually. And she came. She went to so many and she was so she just shared a lot with people and she was just willing to help and I just really liked her. I like how she interacted with students. Especially Yeah yeah. [00:39:43] Yeah I agree I got to sit in one of her classes and she just seemed really at ease and able to communicate with anybody and got students talking and it was good. It's good to hear that. [00:39:56] So true she got she. I felt like I could put her in a group of anyone and come out with some amazing thing that just happened. So that was really cool. On March 8th we had Jen Marlowe another you know somebody who I did not know at all. Both Dr. Churchill and Jen Marlowe were were ones that were brought by other faculty members to me to have as guests. And so I didn't know what to expect with Jen and she's a film maker playwright her reflections on resistance from Palestine to Darfur to death row and man was there. There was not a dry eye. There was an intensity her event needed to be to. Like she showed three different projects that she had worked on and yeah she was amazing. I think again just so great that our students have access to people like Jen and Elizabeth and all of these speakers. Yeah yeah. [00:40:58] Powerful Yeah we had are in a different venue than usual and I think we were all a little nervous about the turnout but I think it just worked perfectly for her because it was so intimate. And she was able to really connect with the audience. And yeah I talked to her afterwards and I was like I don't know how you talk about this on a daily basis and like just do this for a living. And she was just like you have to focus on the positive that comes out of it. And I think that was a really nice thing and I just really like her and I I did cry a lot. [00:41:32] Her presentation is in the archive and up and unavailable so if you want to check it out and see what we're talking about it's definitely there. Then we had kind of our final push we had spring break in there so we had a week off and then and then we moved to the end of our like power to the end and we had Susan Casey come in and wow. [00:41:54] I was so impressed with her and I love those. I have probably three images of the brains because I just was so fascinated by the brains of there were whales and dolphins dolphins and what she was talking about just the science behind that was just amazing and how passionate she was about the topic it just really was inspiring like ice and passion and you know her books are so good so good. Yes [00:42:24] She was kind of like Emily in a sense that she didn't come from you know a science background. She's a writer. But I really like the fact that she just followed what she wanted to do and just decided to live from her passion and that was really inspiring. Also my favorite shot from you is the one you took when she was book signing. [00:42:45] Her expression it's just such a perfect blend of her and how she. I mean the passion and then the innocence then let [00:42:53] It just captured exactly who she is and how I saw her love it. [00:42:58] I really appreciated to like because we were able to talk to her at the lunch and she talked a lot about her next projects and how much research goes into that and just gave you a little bit more information. Also a great podcast everybody can listen to. She was great on the radio. And then our last two which which is just barely happened we had our art students roundtable and that was just a really fun probably going to be an annual event for us. We always have a big senior art show in our museum in town. [00:43:32] And to have a few of those seniors and talking about their art and what inspires them and how they do what they do and what they want to do in the future as artists I think that was really fun. So very very much so. It's always good to hear from students when they're working on and their ideas behind their art projects and finals. So yeah. [00:43:54] And last but not least was our keynote speaker. Very very. And Mandy you know where everybody had their emotions on their sleeve. This one was just laughing and smiling the whole time. I mean and another big message of love yeah yeah yeah go ahead. [00:44:14] I just I mean the thing that really stood out amongst many things with parties was that she talked about her life in a way that was funny. And she was able to talk a laugh and get people to laugh. And I always think that presenters or comedians are really if they can look at their own life experiences and laugh and get the audience to laugh about them but not in a negative way. It's just a positive thing and she just did that the whole time and again so inspirational a great way to end a packed series. Yeah. Yeah I just yeah. [00:44:54] I thought she was great for the festival of excellence. There's one thing she said that I wrote down when you walk with purpose you collide with destiny. And I thought I was like whoa. And I just think she impersonates that and she's like the living example that you can actually do that because everywhere everyone she would talk to even after she was like working with them.. purposeful. Yeah. [00:45:17] When you walk with purpose you collide with destiny. That's definitely an amazing part. That is her mission and that's her vision statement and it absolutely works. Well speaking of quotes I asked Billy one of the questions I asked Billy was that is there something that someone said that was particularly memorable to you that you still remember now. And here's how he answered that question. [00:45:42] Anderson was talking about success. He said that you have to love the process of what you're doing because you don't always get results you necessarily want. So you really have to love what you're doing. If you like as a student especially someone studying graphic design that can happen where there's a particular project that you love but nobody else really gets that they think you should take out. And even though the end result may not be exactly what you envisioned the press is going from nothing and creating a project is really fun. And that's kind of helped me just whenever there's criticism or things don't quite go as planned. Remember the process that I love what I'm doing and that makes it better in the end. [00:46:25] That was Billy Clouse our journalist and blogger talking about something that someone said this year that really had a powerful impact on him and he was speaking about. Lemon Anderson who was our first guest in the fall talking about the process. [00:46:41] Other memories do you guys have or maybe we should say. Do you have a favorite. Could you identify or is that just too hard to do. [00:46:49] I think it's really hard to point to one specific event that stands out. I thought they all were amazing. I'm really glad that we had the 1491s I had followed them. I've been following them for years so to see them in person was amazing. And off the cuff comedy was really great. The performance ones really seem to stick out to me. Lemon there indefinitely. And then all these the spring all these spring women in particular that. And that just happened by accident. You know somebody asked me you know did you really intend to have a very female centric spraying. And I mean with everything that's going on right now you know in terms of women's rights and me too and pay equity and all of these things it actually was not intentional you know I look at as a good thing. It was just this was this this connection of this collection of topics that we wanted at this time and it just so happened that it happened to be that way with which I was happy about you know but it wasn't an intentional thing but it ended up being powerful nonetheless. [00:48:00] Do you have a favorite Roxy. [00:48:01] It's really hard. But I think my favorite still is Glen and Loire from last fall. They were just so amazing and just loved their duo and their vibe and how warm they were with everyone and all their class visits were very special and they loved sharing with student I think it was their favorite part of their trip and I just loved every single part of of their visit here. [00:48:30] I'm so glad you mentioned them because they were one of my favorites too. They were my favorite one of my faves to shoot. Yeah I listen to. Oh yeah. And you can definitely check them out in the archive. There are videos posted so feel free to have a look. I love their music. [00:48:46] I don't think I can even say a favorite because I just fell in love with everybody I think so. On that note let's play my last little song that I have for you today. This song is called Dia D and the group is Gato Preto and the album is called Tempo. This is KSUU ninety one point one [00:51:15] All right so I could totally listen to that song all day. But we've got things to say here. This is Lynn Vartan. Welcome back to the apex hour. That song that you were just listening to is called Dia D Gato Preto on the album tempo we're talking about our apx season and I want to come back with a question for Roxie and Katie. Is there just another memory or another moment that you would like to share with us. [00:51:44] I think for me and I think we touched on this a little bit already but I think my favorite part of all of APEX was just laughing and crying during the last one during her tierces just it was a very emotional experience. And I just I love laughing and I'm just I think the more laughter in my life. I think a lot of people need a lot more laughter in their life these days. And it was just great to end with with her and to just very personable. [00:52:19] Roxy [00:52:19] It's not as deep as you but this one time. So Jordan who's on tour in Southern Cal yeah he's amazing. I just loved working with him. Yeah like in general but this one time Maria Hinojosa was doing her soundcheck and she was just like very comfortable and he was putting the mic on her and she was just like oh yeah just clip it to my bra [00:52:48] And we should say Jordan is a music major does graphic design for us. And then pitches in on sound so you know putting my guess is not exactly his day to day. He's very uncomfortable and that is just really cute. His cheeks got very red. Well I also asked Billy this question and here is what he had to say throughout this season. [00:53:11] I was kind of shocked by how much fun everything was. I'm not a very outdoorsy person but I still enjoyed those events that talked about that. And I really enjoyed the arts events because that's something I'm interested in. But I feel like no matter what was going on it still was interesting because it never really went to the extreme details of whatever section that topic was on it was enough to kind of you know cover something that everyone was interested in. So even when there was detailed stuff they always made an effort to make it accessible to the entire audience which I thought was really cool. [00:53:54] All right that was Billy Clouse our journalist and blogger talking about what was a memory of the season for him. It's time for us to do our favorite part of the show and everybody loves it. What is turning you on this week so Roxy what is turning you on this week [00:54:13] For me. I love Netflix it's a little addiction of mine but [00:54:17] I think all of us have it. [00:54:19] I've been obsessed with narcos the show on Netflix. Yeah it's amazing. And I just I started it because I wanted to practice my Spanish. Yeah I'm very just interested in like the whole narco trafficking it's kind of weird but I really like that and it's just I was taken aback by how good it is and it's very high quality. The actors are really good and it's just a lot of action and passion [00:54:52] And are you all caught up to date. [00:54:54] Finished last night actually last night I. [00:54:58] Oh well we'll definitely check that out. I'm only in the first season on that one Katie. How about you. What's turning you on. [00:55:05] Well anybody who has touched me in the last two months knows I'm really into chickens right now. So we got seven chickens about a month and a half ago. And so my favorite thing in the world is at the end of the day or in the afternoon when I go home and just sitting out in the yard watching the lives of these seven little chickens and what they're doing and chasing worms and grapes and so that's so that's where my head is when I'm not here. What a beautiful way to spend the afternoon. It is nice weather. [00:55:39] That's great. Well I want to say thank you. We're out of time I want to say thank you so much to both of you to Katie who takes amazing photos for us and it's just such a great supportive part of our team. So thank you so much for being here today and for everything you've done for us. My pleasure and I love I love working with Apex. Can't wait till next season. Me too I can't wait. We'll probably have to do a teaser in the summer and then Roxy. Both of my hands not just my right hand but my right hand and my left hand and most of my brain most of the time. Thank you for being here today and for everything that you do for me. [00:56:16] It's a pleasure always to work with you I love it all. Thank you. [00:56:22] This has been the APEX hour. This is KSUU Thunder ninety one point one. And now that our season is over you still can find us on the radio. I'll just be here every two weeks on Thursdays and then we'll also have the podcast still going into our podcast feed so check us out online. Thanks for listening and we'll get you back to the music from ninety one point one. Thanks so much for listening to the apex hour here on Thunder ninety one point one come find us again next Thursday at 3:00 p.m. for more conversations with the visiting guests at Southern Utah University and new music to discover for your next playlist. And in the meantime we would love to see you at our events on campus to find out more. Check out suu.edu/apex Or email us at suuapex@icloud.com. Until next week. This is Lynn Vartan saying goodbye from the apex hour here. Thunder ninety one point one.

[00:00:01] You were listening to the apex hour on KSUU Thunder ninety one point one. In this show you get more personal time with the guests who visit Southern Utah University from all over. Learning more about their stories and opinions beyond their presentations onstage. We will also give you some new music tools into and hope to turn you on to new genres. You can find us here every Thursday at 3pm on the web at suu.edu/apex or email us at suuapex@icloud.com. But for now welcome to this week's show here Thunder ninety one point one. OK. Well we have one more best of show for you this week. This week I'm traveling one last time for the semester I'm all up in Salt Lake recording some videos for some music educational shows but I promise we'll be back live next week but in the meantime we have a great best of show for you this week. We're going to start with part of our talk with Dr. Elisabeth Churchill when she was visiting campus earlier in the semester. She had some amazing things to say about psychology about teamwork and just about her work with Google in California. So listen in. Best of Show last of the semester. Enjoy. [00:01:27] The human condition and human interaction has just been it's kind of a part of your DNA it seems you're just always observing it and aware of it and very interested in have in cohabiting with it. Can you talk a little bit more about how psychology maybe influences your current work and that might be a great sort of introduction to what human computer interaction is for you today. [00:01:51] So psychology's a vast area. So back in the day we used to talk about it as sort of the biological and perceptual which is what does the body do. How do you see how do you hear that psychology. But then there's developmental. How do you develop from a child. But how do you develop in learning. And there's more social. So you know how do you interact with others and how do others affect you and how you part of groups. So in the work that I currently do with material design for Google you know everything from what does an interface look like. So think about your phone. You know what can you see. What are the colors do what stands out for you. That's perception. You know if you swipe and move something how do you perceive that how does the voice sound to you. That's psycho acoustics the sound of a voice and how it makes you feel. And then we go to things like problem solving and reasoning you know is the information presented in a way that you can read it and you can understand it to know what you're trying to do is the task clear. Have you ever picked up your phone and you got an app and you open it and then you're like I do not know what to do next. Right. Psychology will tell you a little bit about what information you need to know in order to do the next thing. So there's perception and invitation and problem solving. And then of course we go to the social so you know if this app doesn't work and you don't get to talk to the person you want to think about social media how is that changing the way you interact with people. Do you do you speak to them more frequently less frequently. How do you feel about yourself and your identity. Do you think that your social media presence puts pressure on you or gives you joy. So we go all the way up to really thinking about the deep psychological emotional states which is what most people think of when they say psychology but actually psychology is all about from seeing to hearing to listening to meaning to problem solving and how all of that affects your emotional space as well. [00:04:02] It's just amazing. I mean I've you know I use my phone all the time I think about my phone all the time I think about social media all the time but really I mean you are just looking at all of it from so many different angles and all of them are psychological. It's it's fascinating to think of it from that.It must be so exciting on a day to day for you I'm sure. [00:04:23] Oh absolutely absolutely is and you know people who kind of go to bed with their phones and it's like their pet and their best friend. And if you've ever lost a phone there's losing the phone because the information on it but so many people feel like they've lost a friend and it's that deep crisis. Amazing. [00:04:41] I'd like to turn to some of the positions that you've held and so our listeners can kind of get a little more of a trajectory of some of the companies that you work for of course we know you currently work for Google as one of the directors of user experience. And can you maybe talk a little bit more about the specifics of that position. I know we just kind of went over the concepts but what does a Director of User Experience do and how has that position evolved. I know it's evolved quite a bit. [00:05:09] Yes so what we do what I do most of the time is I have a fantastic group that works for me with many different skill sets from software engineering to design to experimental to anthropology and ethnography because we want to deeply understand this experience of using apps and phones and other devices. But my job is really to come in make sure everybody is clear about what they need to do to partner with it manages to work with my V.P. to see where we're going to work with the director of the material design system to see where the strategy is so we build that together and to think about the long term future and then to help the people in my team understand what they need to do next get the resources for them to help my boss understand why I need additional resources maybe more people to do certain things and to basically prioritize it was a huge amount of my work is just listening watching understanding where we are with regard to goals looking at goals and seeing whether they're realistic or not at all or in certain timeframes. I mean readjusting is needed if the resources are available or not available but also just real people development. So for me a big part of my job is making sure every single person on my team understands what they're doing why they're doing it that it's important that it's part of their career trajectory as well as part of the product success and Google's success so that part of a bigger thing in the corporation even if what they feel they're doing is small and it's really critical but also part of we are part of their career and their life going forward. So it has to be mutually beneficial and growth on both sides. And my best people my best people are going to grow and they're going to go on. And that is sad but it's also exactly what needs to happen right. It's a little bit of that. I know you've had some path in academia. It's a little better that academia and that mentor ship creeping back and it sounds like I really believe in I believe it's. It's a manager's role to amplify the people that work for them and to learn from the people that work for them. It just that's what you should do and have to do and at a place like Google you are resourced to do. Google is very very very supportive of managers and manage developing management developing people. The Director of User Experience position is relatively new and has expanded. If I have heard correctly. Can you tell us a little bit about that. Yes so we had a lot of really great user experience professionals but the director level there's only been a couple there were a couple of people appointed to director level which is the highest level you can get and user experience. A couple of years ago when I came in as the first person from the outside to get that position and now I think we're up to 5 now maybe even more because we're just you know we had a round of promotions. But Google is investing enormously in this user angle in the human centered angle and recognizing that what we need is to bring leadership in from other companies and grow our own leadership. So it might be more than five now. Last time I looked it was 5 but it's really exciting for me to see that Google is promoting people and hiring people into this role at very senior levels. [00:08:45] That's fantastic. Well it's time for a musical break but when we come back I'd like to continue the conversation about team building teams managing teams. I've been I've been eating this information up because I'm really interested in management and leadership and teamwork. So stay tuned to continue for that. Again you're listening to thunder ninety one point one. This is Lynn Vartan and I've got a few songs to play for you today. The first one is called Me Voy. And it's this amazing group called Ibeyi that I'm really turned on and passionate about. And so this is Me Voy by Ibeyi. And this is the apex hour here on Thunder ninety one point one. [00:12:28] All right well welcome back. This is the apex hour. I'm Lynn Martin. This is Thunderer ninety one point one and we are joined in the studio by the amazing Dr. Elisabeth Churchill. Welcome back. And one of the things I'd like to talk about was one of the topics we touched on before which was teamwork a lot of what you do is building teams managing teams supporting teams and then working of course with teams to make amazing things happen. Can you talk a little bit about your style of leadership and I know you've been saying it may be a little different than the average Joe but it sounds amazing to me. And so the kinds of things you think about in terms of your leadership and your team and how that all works. [00:13:15] Yeah sure. I tend to bring people into my team who are very curious and who are self starters in some way that they're desperate to learn and they want to learn. I also really emphasize collaboration. So I want you to be really good at what you do and I'm going to support you to develop. We have a job to do for Google but I also want you to give you an assist to your teammates. So I strongly foster collaboration and my sort of way of thinking about things is that you know you have a portfolio of work that you do and say 60 percent of the work is very immediate product focused. And we don't really have impact we're going to get something done 20 percent should be things that are a little bit further out for you and 20 percent should really be about you know you're developing skills and the sensibility and the perspective that will be the future for you and for us potentially. So always about growing and I try to have the team be as diverse as possible and bring their ideas in. I love to talk and I can be a bit loud so I always tell my folks you know you get to tell me to simmer down. I like to encourage independence but collaboration and encourage the idea that you work on my team and you develop and you develop but if you get to the point where you feel you've grown beyond your interests have changed. Then we're all going to work together to get you into the next space. The next thing you want to do. So I really believe in the team but I try to keep a focus on the individual and the team so that they feel they belong and they can grow and they are strongly contributing. I love the duality that you foster with confidence and curiosity. I just think that as a teacher I really connect with that I really love that as a message for leadership. I know the communication component is also a big aspect of things for you. Can you talk about how that manifests itself in your team and how you helped to lead that. So a lot of people come in and they're very good at what they do and they think that their job is to do what they do and they then get surprised that actually they need to spend you a big chunk of that job actually communicating. So you know you might come in You're a great designer and you know your preference might be to design all day and you know you want to not talk to other people because that's who you are. And I respect that but I'm going to try and push you to start talking to others about your craft and sharing your rationale for what you do. Sharing your rationale will allow you to be reflective but sharing it will also give you confidence when you see others appreciate it. It will develop your rhetorical skills when you see what lens and what doesn't. And it will help the whole team to get more reach if you like. Now you could be the kind of person who comes in and you're like hey I only want to do the design work 40 percent time and that is great. I will help you figure out where you want to communicate and how and where you can bring your skills to the communication design as well. So people are different but the biggest challenge with you know young folk coming in is often they think they've got the job to do the thing they're trained in and they have. But they've also got the job to communicate what they're trained in and help level others up and to share the products of their labor and to get those out. And that's the way your team will have big reach. You know I can't be the only spokesperson for my work and for the team's work the team you know the junior people are going to be having lunch with others. They're going to be you know having opportunities to spread the work in other cohorts in other social situations they can go to you know happy hour mixes and spreading the word and knowing that they're an ambassador for their work but also for the team's work amplifies our presence and effectiveness. So helping them build confidence that that is their role. [00:17:28] Them have the skills to do the communication and the rhetorical skills to make sure that their great ideas land is beneficial to all. That's fantastic. I love it. I'd like to revisit the end of our we had a luncheon today and we were doing a little bit of talk back and you had this great I asked you a question about qualities or traits that you look for in team members or things that you think that undergraduates were mostly an undergraduate institution here but things that you think that undergraduates or even graduate school grad students could be developing. And I loved and I know some of it's an overlap from the previous question but I loved these four words that you hope for you remember I can remind you but these four qualities I thought were really special if you could share them with our audience. Sure. So it's curiosity and confidence yeah vanity and voyeurism. Love it. And so the curiosity is you know always keep curious. Often you know when you've had great teachers and you really respect them you know you can think that what they say is the answer and that can dull your natural curiosity because you think the answers are laid out for you. You have to bring your curiosity your you know alternative perspective feed that curiosity always ask questions. Don't think you have to know you know. Be curious. Confidence is related to that because I find a lot of young people come in and they're very very good but they don't have the confidence to own that curiosity and the skill and to be able to say to me a much more senior person that is interesting. Why do you think that. Can you help me understand that or here's a thought that I had. What do you think of that. So you know every encounter needs to be another opportunity for you to learn so you're curious you get to learn your respectful you're thoughtful and you're not treating the other person no matter how senior as if they have all the answers that you have to run away and execute on. You know I want you to be able to bring challenge in the best sense of the word to things. And the vanity and voyeurism is you know people we have to care about ourselves. We have to have some self nurturing. We have to celebrate our achievements. Yes. And you know it's called sort of vanity I mean back in the day in Britain it was like if you talked about yourself you were vain by vanity. I mean take pride in yourself and care. Don't be prideful but you know be be proud of your achievements and let others be proud with you. Yes. And you take away a little bit of a hey high five me you know really kind of lovely humble and bracing way and voyeurism is all human beings are curious about others so watch others see who you want to emulate and who you admire. You know watch how they do what they do try and emulate try and learn from them. You know nobody in the world is the first person to do pretty much anything. You don't have to be the lone rugged individual. You can learn from others celebrate their achievements and take on some kind of doppelganger ness of them and build yourself and learn and then carve your own path from what you've learned from them. And so I think vanity is sort of nurturing self voyeurism is observing and nurturing others and learning from others. Yeah I love those four. I just love those traits like this. I'm definitely going to steal them and use those words in my teaching because of course it's crossed up discipline. I mean that can just as easily apply to music instruction which is what I do. And as it as it can to what you do in your discipline as well. [00:21:26] So thank you so much for those concepts. Absolutely. I like to now talk a little bit. I know. I understand that you have had a fantastic experience with eBay and you think very fondly of your time at eBay. Tell me a little bit about that time and about what made it so special for you. [00:21:44] Well it was about people really so closely you know the team I worked with was there were amazing but also you know eBay was the first social platform. It was the first place it was the first marketplace it was the first social platform right. And eBay was putting people in touch with each other around goods you know the circulation of goods things that you don't want anymore. But I do. So it's about value and it's about honoring things it's about valuing materiality and a really good way. So all of the sort of sustainability stuff all of the values stuff you passed something on that had value to you. Now it has value to someone else. EBay is also you know it's allowed a lot of people who otherwise would not have been able to have businesses create businesses. There are a lot of wonderful stories of you know single moms who sold stuff on eBay and made a little bit of money and kept themselves going as a real mom and pop stores who basically you know they were maybe in some way very rural but they got to have outreach and a customer base way beyond. So you know eBay has seen its ups and downs but as a value system as a company that really is trying to circulate goods that exist and have meaning for people and put people in touch with people. I just found it really exciting to be part of that. Yeah. Do you have a favorite memory from your time there or a favorite story. I'm sure there are many. So I have a favorite story which was about somebody hit create something great game of thrones is a big thing. I personally don't watch it. It is a big thing. And so somebody had created a chain Almah guinea pig where hamsters guinea pigs hamsters suit the day for the actual animal for the animal. And they put it on eBay and somebody picked this up and it became a meme that just went around because it was so well made and so silly and so fun that somebody picked it up and it went in for charity. And so it started to snowball and snowball and I think they made like 20000 dollars for this guinea pig chain mail outfit which went to charity Fantasma and there were things like that happening on ebay every day all day quirky things fun things and stories about you know I found a plate that you know my mom would have had. And now I have the plate. And it reminds me of my mum. And you know I'd never thought I'd see a plate like that again. So it's really deeply emotional as well as super practical. And it's those stories that really warms my heart. [00:24:29] That's just beautiful and you have just such wonderful memories from there it sounds like your. I think it was your first major position was at Fuji Xerox. Can you tell us a little bit about how how that was and the transition from being a student into that position or into your first sort of full time thing. [00:24:52] Well I started well my studentship went on to be a postdoc. So did my Ph.D. then I did my postdoc and then I really wanted to go into academia. But Fuji Xerox as a company had a research lab called effect's pal affects ph L in Silicon Valley and I knew people who sort of were affiliated to it. And so I was all set to go into academia. But I'd been working on virtual environments and remote communication and eFax Powell had a role they wanted to try and build communication between researchers in California and researchers in Japan just outside Tokyo. And so I was one of the few people at that time who had been thinking about these virtual environments and chat spaces and so forth for communication and collaboration. And so they asked me to come over and I came over and built a research team and worked with the most senior researchers to build communication tools to allow collaboration between researchers in California and in Japan. That was how that all started. My intention had always been to go back into academia. But I've was very supportive and they allowed me to keep publishing and doing work with students and I continued to do classes here and there and supervised students. So I kind of got the best both worlds. [00:26:13] That was Elizabeth Churchill here on the apex hour. This is the best of show. I'm out of town this week. But you're listening to the apex hour on KSUU Thunder ninety one point one and I'm your host Lynn Vartan. We have another clip from our Best of the spring and that is when we have the wonderful conversation here in the studio with several members of our allies on campus community are LGBTQ plus community. Just talking about all the different resources that were available. It came from a wonderful live event where Claudia Bradshaw who is one of the founders of the flag chapter here in Utah came and talked about her experience with her son and her family's story. And we just open that conversation up later on in the outer talk about all the different things that are facing our LGBTQ plus friends on campus and in our community. Listen in. Again this is the best of show. Lynn Vartan here talking to you for the Apex hour KSUU thunder ninety one point one. [00:27:14] I've kind of like to continue that as as we go on into this next segment and that conversation is today we've been really celebrating all of the resources and the projects and the programs that are available. But that's not the whole story. I mean there's still a long way to go and there are still a lot of difficulties facing the LGBT community here in Cedar City at SUU and in Southern Utah in general. What concerns you guys or what are the things that you feel were is the growth needed. What are the concerns. What are the things you have on your mind with regards to where we need more growth. [00:28:00] I think the largest I see looking at increasing racial diversity with the pride and equality club here on campus and then looking at you know LGBTQ plus communities of color in Utah looking at that double isolation of living in a state where the predominant population is white and it is also culturally not accepting of LGBTQ plus identities. Right. So I think those who do live at those intersections I think uplifting those voices are also really important in providing them with services that will validate those two identities not just that that transgender identity or the gay identity. They're not monoliths that when you also add this cultural background that adds a different layer to that experience. And I know that there's been a lot of work with immigrant advocate groups up in Salt Lake. Like many of us Utah they do a lot of work to also ensure that when they're doing undocumented outreach they're also looking at if you have LGBTQ I.A. plus identify partner. The process might look different a little different for sponsorship or things like that. So ensuring that those people who live in those different intersections are also being uplifted and we're not overgeneralizing populations right. Great isolation. John I know you feel pretty strongly about that part of the top part. That piece of the puzzle as well. Yeah and you know a tragic consequence a lot of the isolation is the extremely high suicide rate among the LGBT population especially trans people and gay men in particular. And one of the things we're trying to do in a larger sense beyond issue you just with a Southern Utah developing a larger southern Utah community is trying to break down that isolation where we aren't quite as isolated as it might seem. I mean we are culturally isolated we're geographically isolated but there are more people here than you might realize and we're trying to get the word out that there are more people here. There is a larger community that maybe people don't realize. And so we're trying to establish a larger community in that sense. We have a Facebook page. Discover pride Southern Utah. We're working on another Web site. There's always a Pride event every year. But establishing more community events throughout the year not just a once a year pride festival. I mean it's obviously great but we're trying to do more throughout the year. And these are all things being developed right now kind of with that Claudia Bradshaw just walked in. [00:30:30] I know we have more to add to the conversation. Our guests from earlier today has joined us in the studio. Welcome Claudia. Thank you. And we're so glad that you were here. Thank you so much for your time today. I've loved doing everything. It's been wonderful. We say and maybe this is what we've been talking about lots of resources. Maybe you could give our listeners I know you talked a little bit about it this morning but also give our listeners the opportunity to understand a little bit about what flag offers and the St. George chapter. OK. [00:31:07] Pflag was started years and years ago. But the main three main purpose is to educate and to support and to advocate for equal treatment. That's great. And how is how is that chapter doing today. How are things going. Who. It's been a little bit hard for me lately because my husband passed away and so I haven't been having meetings like I should so I still want to I'm glad to see we have someone up here. They're going to do that to have some meetings and I'll be glad to come up for those. Absolutely. We've been breaking all kinds of news today right we broke the news about the programming for Pride Week and about the showing of The Believer film and earlier today we also sort of broke the news. It's brand new that the flag chapter and again this is parent more of a parent support group but really can be anyone. Come on come all. And that that flag chapter is in the works to be started started here in Cedar City. And my understanding is that their first official meeting is going to be two weeks or a week from next Monday. So that would be like March 4th somewhere around there if anybody has and I believe it's March 7th the first Wednesday first Wednesday. [00:32:30] Wednesday will be in the library from 8 till 9 that evening. Okay perfect. And that's going to be at the Cedar City Library the SU library. OK. Oh wait. No I'm not sure. [00:32:40] Cedar City [00:32:42] Oh I'm not sure. Let me double check yeah. And so again I get everything we've talked about today is going to be on on the Allies website on this center for diversity inclusion. But that's another opportunity that's coming up. And that group is going to be meeting at either the library or the Cedar City library might be Cedar City Wednesday March 7th at 8:00 7:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m.. OK great. So that's a brand new thing that started. So we've got that momentum going in Cedar City for the Pflag chapter which is awesome. That is awesome. I would like to have some time. One of these times when there's a meeting to discuss coming out and maybe a procedure that would help some. I noticed there's some who are still not out to their families. Yes. And hopefully that what I could do it in a way that could help them so that the family can stay together. That's one of my main goals anyway. Personally I hate to see families be torn apart and that's really been one of your main platforms in your work and that's one of the things that's been so amazing is really keeping that love that the love in the family is strong. [00:34:00] Do you have any advice for anybody listening who may not be able to get to these events or any resources that you'd like to share or even just thoughts and ideas about how to start that conversation. [00:34:15] They're welcome to call me I'm going to give I give them my telephone number is 4 3 5 3 1 3 3 3 6 6 and I would be glad to have a conversation with them and maybe recommend books. There's a book that's called coming out an act of love. That means if your child comes out to you he loves you enough he wants to make sure that he's part of the family. That's pretty big. Yeah that's that's an amazing part of it. Well your story has been so powerful and it was so powerful again today. Do you want to share any particular bits that you've been thinking about or that you want our listeners to know. Because this is part of the podcast series which will be available on the Web site after the event and I'd love to give you the opportunity to just say more. I would also like to say to to the families to decide if they if their child comes out to them give it gives them a chance to to learn and to get educated. I have books available and some that I could recommend for the parents so that they can read read them and not and they don't want to destroy their relationship with their child. Vice versa so good education on how to do it. My son was so well-prepared when he came out to me it helped me. I'm not sad I didn't make some stupid comments that I did. But he was patient and I think Brian is here to talk to us. He has something to say. [00:36:06] So I'm from Chicago and we arrived here on campus. There is a lot of competing events. Mitt Romney being one of them. And I was staggered at a completely full conference room yeah diverse with both allies faculty students racial gender. It was all there. Yeah. So impressive. And all of these people care and are engaged and wanted to talk about this even if they weren't part of the LGBTQ. Well they are part of the community. Yeah but it's just very impressive that you know there is a strong community here. And I think it's pretty galvanized it seems or at least has a lot more potential but very very impressive and people shouldn't feel alone. And I think that's kind of been one of the themes today that we were just sort of getting into before you arrived. And that is that that fighting that the hardest part which is that isolation and and you you came on campus today as you said from Chicago and you came away with hey you're not alone. We have. There is a vibrant community so anybody listening we just want to you know make sure that that you know that that you're not alone and there is a community here and there's events and there's all kinds of things going on. And if you if you want to get involved or you want to check it out. You know we we everybody wants you there and you're not alone and there's plenty of love and plenty of compassion awesomeness going on and everything and as I said just to reiterate the places you can find information. The Center for diversity and inclusion. [00:38:01] The Allies web page and they all have social media associated with it. So just googling Suu allies or center for diversity and inclusion. And we're going to take one last musical break. I've got one more song to play for you. And this song is called Tiger and the artist is John moon. And the album is called Moonshine corner. Check it out and you are listening to the APX hour right here on Thunder ninety one point one screen round how many fans cameo cameo for much that sense is close enough that go dancing around the shots all right well welcome back everyone. We are super excited to have you back here for our last break. We were just chatting over the break about how much things have changed and how awesome that is that things have changed so much Claudie. You were just sharing that story about that was graduation. Here you were just talking about and how different it's been and how. Now you know you're really enjoying what you're seeing. I hope on campus. Awesome yeah handsome to see the change. Well I wish we had hours and hours and hours spent. But in our last little bit of time here we're going to do our our what's turning you on this week. Everybody's favorite segment and everybody's kind of giggling here. And this is the time where we talk about what's making you excited and just to kind of share things and it can be anything it could be a movie or a TV show a podcast a book or something else. So who would like to start. Chris do you have yours. [00:43:59] I'm going to give a very literal answer to the question that you pose so I'm going to say Gus Kenworthy are gay Olympian Sochi medalists and now Pyeongchang competitor. That's my answer. That's perfect. And what's this event again. Does it matter. He's extreme skiing. Oh yes stream winter sports. I love it. Ok cool. Great. [00:44:23] And how are you John what's making you what's turning you on this week. [00:44:27] Well now the Chris took mine I'm going to go with a more academic response and thanks to Johnny McClain for the recommendation. But there's a book called Whistling Vivaldi that is just amazing. It's a great but it's really incredible. It's about it's stereotype threat and just the background of how it works when you are a marginalized or minority group. How the stereotypes that follow your group affect your performance in the real world and it's really just a fascinating book that's been actually getting quite a bit of press and the title again is whistling Vivaldi and I can't remember the author's name. Do you remember. Steele I think that sounds about right but whistling Vivaldi is really a great book. And it's been on a lot of the list and I know it's been talked about on NPR and all these kinds of things so definitely check that out. Great Braden How about you. [00:45:25] My mom. Ah filthy. But it's true she's a rock solid rock star so it makes me really happy to see her get that credit because I know what she's the work she's done how much it matters and then also just being here. I see you today I mean staggering what's going on and there are so many resources and good stuff happening. Wonderful to see you. I love it. Yeah I see the diversity is sexy. I love that much new bumper stickers sounds are new center motto city I love it. Hashtag diversity. [00:46:08] Claudia how about you. What's making you excited this week. This today was so wonderful because we had so many people who did come to to listen and to speak and share. And it was all about love. And so that always is a turn on for me. Love is eternal. [00:46:26] That's wonderful. Well I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you Claudia and Braden and John and Chris for spending the hour with me today on the apex hour. As you all know where we are subscribe lable on iTunes the podcast you can just google suu apex or do the search on the podcast and subscribe. Leave us a review. We'd love to hear it. We'd love to see the podcast go into the ratings and get some traction. Also we just want to recap a few of the resources. The Center for Diversity and Inclusion is right here on campus in the Sharwan center room 101 and also on their website you can find everything calendars social media pages and everything like that. Also on the Allies page which is Su dot edu slash allies. We want to remember that there's that. Ask us anything button. So get on there it's completely anonymous if you have questions or you're looking for resources or anything like that. And then early in the show Claudia gave you her phone number which you know if you really are looking for some support she is a loving mother to us all. So thank you guys so much for taking the time and spending the hour with me today. It was really great. Thank you. [00:47:46] Well that does it for our last best of show the semester and next week we will be back in the studio live. And this is the apex our every Thursday 3 p.m. KSUU ninety one point one. Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the apex hour here on Thunder ninety one point one can find us again next Thursday at 3:00 p.m. for more conversations with the visiting guests at Southern Utah University and new music to discover for your next playlist. And in the meantime we would love to see you at our events on campus. Find out more. Check out suu.edu/apex Or email us at suuapex@icliud.com. Until next week. This is Lynn Vartan saying goodbye from the apex hour thunder Ninety one point one.

Photos, reflection, and a transcript of this podcast are available on the SUU website.

How will "smart" technology and AI impact work for humans? Dr. Elizabeth Churchill, director of UX at Google, talks to Lou about how she sees AI providing a creative counterpart to work done by humans, not as a means to supplant it. She discusses the difference between coordination tooling and skills tooling, and how both are primed to be invaluable components of the EUX toolbox. We’re ecstatic to have Elizabeth as our opening keynote speaker at the 2017 Enterprise UX Conference. Get your tickets at http://rfld.me/2ouQx8H or follow along on Twitter at @enterpriseUX. Follow Elizabeth Churchill on Twitter : https://twitter.com/xeeliz Follow Rosenfeld Media: https://twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia

Loop11’s co-founder Shefik Bey speaks with Elizabeth Churchill, a Head of UX at Google. Elizabeth has also been the Director of Human Computer Interaction at the eBay Research Lab, as well as having held senior research positions at Yahoo and Parc and she is currently a distinguished visiting scholar at Stanford university. They discuss Elizabeth’s background in psychology and path into UX via AI (1:33) then how she moved into he roles at eBay and Google (2:40). Shifting between enterprise and consumer research (5:25) and dealing with data at scale (7:55). Elizabeth explains what she does in her role of Head of UX at Google (8:53). The importance of recruiting passionate, interdisciplinary people to your team (11:55), then exploring the relationship between curiosity and passion (14:45). They then look into what is the appropriate balance between moving quickly, failing fast and ensuring you are moving in the correct direction (19:00) and how it relates to the experience level of the team. Defining the different types of research and how it should be defined (26:15). What designing for emotion means to her (39:00). The recent designing for machine learning systems symposium that she ran and what she found most interesting (47:44). Follow True North on Twitter or subscribe to be notified of new episodes.

Elizabeth Churchill is a director of UX at Google and has worked on a number of projects, including material design. She received a PhD from the University of Cambridge in cognitive science and has since worked at a number of the world’s leading tech companies. Join us while we talk about how she has balanced the industry and academic sides of her career.

Episode 7 Download the audio Do you speak-a my language? Elizabeth Churchill – TummelVision Ep. 7 from heather gold on Vimeo. There was a little Buzz, a little iPad and a lot of accents swirling around the show this week. […]

In this age where QWERTY communication and point-and-click are implied when I say social networking, face to face can sometimes seem like an inappropriate intrusion and unnecessary add-on — certainly something that we don't need to design for when we outline our services. I will describe a series of studies we did where we blurred boundaries between online and physical space social networking using desktop, personal device and public screen displays, and recent work on the move from online socializing to offline meeting among internet daters. I will use these studies to highlight the omissions in our design reasoning and concomitant surprises. I will more generally speculate on some issues that arise when we extrapolate tacit or explicit metaphors of online sociality to the offline world, and vice versa.