Empowering Women in Tech: How Lisa Schlosser Switched Careers to Build Up the Next Generation

Her network helped her pivot a successful career at Thomson Reuters into nonprofit leadership. Now Lisa Schlosser is helping others build up those same relationships—and tech skills.

More than 30 years into her career at Thomson Reuters, Lisa Schlosser was feeling good. As the vice president and chief technology officer for its FindLaw business, she loved her job and her team. Then 2018 came, and she faced a company restructuring that would dismantle it all. So she had a choice: Keep going down the path she was on or leap into the next unknown chapter of her career.

"Being engaged in the community and having a vibrant network helped me discover a new career plan where some paths were chosen for me and some provided me an option to choose," Lisa says. "Nothing in those [career] transitions was planned."

As she puts it, "a tap on the shoulder" led her to the serendipitous departure of the president of MN Tech, a board she had been on for almost 10 years. Then, at a MN Tech event, she was asked whether she would be interested in applying for the executive director position at female-focused nonprofit Technovation[MN]. "When I learned about the focus on inspiring girls to build technology to solve problems in their communities, I was sold," Lisa says.

Yes, Technovation[MN] is about teaching girls STEM skills, but it goes beyond teaching girls simply how to code. Instead, it shows them how to engage their communities for benefit and gives them technology and entrepreneurial skills that apply to all careers. Really, it's laying the foundation so that these young women have the courage to follow their passions like Lisa has followed hers.

While everything seems to have gone smoothly on paper for Lisa, changing your career after 33 years is no joke, and neither is helping break the glass ceiling. We caught up with Lisa and talked about her experience in technology, her transition to nonprofits, and her No. 1 piece of advice.

What makes you so passionate about empowering young women in tech?

When I graduated from college, the number of women getting degrees in computer science was 34%. Today it's closer to 18%, yet technology has never played a bigger role in our lives, from work to home, especially during this pandemic.

Teams building technology need to be diverse to better ensure we are safe, healthy, productive, and happy. Think about the rise in automation and the increased reliance on algorithms for many decisions such as whether someone gets insurance or not, your likelihood to default on a loan, what schools your children are admitted into, or whether you are chosen for a job interview. It is important that these algorithms remove signs of bias, and won’t that be more likely if the teams working on those algorithms are diverse?

According to Real Time Talent, the top jobs for growth in Minnesota in the next ten years are human services, health sciences, and information technology. Women are absolutely capable of exceeding in STEM-related careers and deserve the right to pursue these well-paying, rewarding careers. Plus, our communities will benefit from their experience and innovations.

When you think back on your journey with technology, were there ever points when you felt discouraged because of your gender?

It's often difficult being the "only." In college, it was typically myself and one other female in my mathematics and computer science classes.

As a technologist in a corporate environment, it was not uncommon to be the only women in a meeting. I’ve certainly been mansplained things many times over.

I have been lucky to have great sponsors throughout my career that helped me through sometimes hard-to-hear advice or encouraged and paved the way for me to pursue a new role or skill. [However,] I also don’t know what I don’t know. It’s not uncommon for women to receive lower merit ratings based on likeability. Women earn less than men in the same role. Women get promoted at a much lower rate than men. It’s likely that, in 33 years of being a technologist, these factors affected me in my career at some point.

What was the learning curve like going from Thomson Reuters to a different sector in a different type of role?

The biggest adjustment for me was that I did not have that strong internal network to provide exceptional expertise [that a large company would have]. I was just a week into the MN Tech role and we had an event that was one month away. The team was doing their best in building awareness, but it was not their primary expertise. I had to research and learn marketing-speak to figure out what I needed to ask for. I phoned a friend to see if my proposal was on target then asked her for recommendations. We outsourced the work and it was executed wonderfully.  

I find myself in that mode quite often… Do some research, learn to articulate what you need, phone a friend for guidance, make a decision and git ‘er done, rinse and repeat.

LISA AND MADELINE ALBRIGHT, FIRST FEMALE UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE

What's your No. 1 piece of advice to women in any stage of their career?

I cannot stress enough the importance of an engaged network. Many times, I have sat across the table from someone who had worked for a company for many years and found themselves in a situation where only an external network could help them achieve their next role. Defining your external network when you are finding yourself leaving your current role is too late.

Building a network takes time and effort. In building my external network, I have found lifelong friends. I have found mentors, sponsors, and funders. My network has educated me in areas I needed and areas I did not realized I needed. They have shared their time, talents, and treasures. We laugh, cry, eat, and celebrate together. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller