IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2020 - 9

they'll experience when they return back
home, but she describes it as "almost as
hard, if not harder" than when she first
arrived in Tanzania. Needing a place
to stay and a job, she moved in with
her brother in Texas and began doing
administrative services for a home theater installation company.
Though she eventually went back
to the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) world, it
wasn't without some skepticism; the manager who interviewed her for a technical instructor role at Philips admitted to
bringing her in because he had laughed at
her resume. "I told him, it's really simple.
I learned that if you can take anything
complex and break it down to its smallest
units and help other people understand
that you're going to thrive at any job you
have," she shares. And she got the job.
Adams later moved to Ohio, taking a
role as a program developer at STERIS
Corporation. Simultaneously, she began
work with an organization based among
the Maasai tribe in Kenya, helping it create
a branch in the United States. The nonprofit supported a locally run refuge for
girls escaping forced marriage and female
genital cutting, which impacts an estimated 2 million girls worldwide a year. "When
I was a Peace Corps volunteer, I saw a lot of
foreigners with good intentions come over
and start nonprofits that weren't sustainable, so it was important to me to support
something locally led," she says.
After a few more years, she was ready
for a change. "It was a good life, but
I was feeling drained and uninspired,"
she recalls. Her friends were concerned,
advising Adams that this was the time
in her life she should be adding to her
401(k) or taking other "regular" steps,
but she eschewed societal pressure and
opted for a year-long sabbatical, which
now, some of those same friends say
they wish they had done.
However, she didn't go completely
rogue. Like a true engineer, Adams
researched taking a year off and worked
off of a spreadsheet-style bucket list
(peer-reviewed thanks to social media).
During that time, she visited India,
Nepal, and New Zealand; hiked part of
the Appalachian Trail and the Himala-

Adams' vlog on the future of work, in collaboration with IEEE.tv, released its first
video in February 2020. Since then, she has created consistent content based on
interviews and Ask Me Anything career development.

yas; summited mountains; and accomplished plenty more. She also reignited
her inspiration.
"When I was hiking in southern
India, I thought over the past decade
of working in male-dominated environments and the interactions that I'd
had over that time period," she shares.
"There were times I considered leaving
engineering not because I was unqualified but because I was tired of working in that environment and bending
over backwards to behave in ways that
wouldn't be considered 'too female.'
I thought: what if we started en couraging engineering students to
talk about this before they entered the
work world? What if, instead of pushing diversity and inclusion education
on them, we challenged them to teach
us how to behave?" These questions
led Adams to find partners and launch
a scholarship that would empower students to champion minority groups
within STEM fields.
Returning from her sabbatical, Adams
moved to Denver to start the next phase
of her career when a company reached
out, offering her a one-year contract.
"What a great way to launch a company, having someone willing to pay you
for it," she laughs. Adams calls being a

DECEMBER 2020

In June 2015, Adams said goodbye to
her corporate job and embarked on a
year filled with adventure, which was
ultimately the springboard to starting
her company, Ristole.

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IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2020

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