Season 1: Cracking the Code – From Underestimated to Undeniable spotlights senior women in STEM who’ve broken barriers and redefined success. If you’re a woman in science, tech, engineering, or math—or you lead teams in these fields—this series offers real stories, bold leadership, and hard-won insight you won’t hear anywhere else. These candid conversations go beyond inspiration—they offer career insight, leadership lessons, and visibility strategies for STEM women leaders navigating executive paths.
Each episode features unfiltered stories from women who’ve risen to executive roles in industries that weren’t built for them. We unpack how they navigated bias, burnout, reinvention, and visibility—without apology and without a playbook.
Leadership Variations: Unfiltered is a limited-series podcast exposing the messier side of leadership—the parts no one talks about, but every leader lives. Each series explores a different high-stakes topic: rising without apology as a woman in STEM, redefining success after burnout or reinvention, busting leadership myths that don’t hold up in the real world, making bold talent decisions without a clear playbook, and leading when the politics are real—but the guidance is vague.
If you’re leading through complexity, developing leaders others overlook, or navigating visibility at the top—this podcast is for you.
Hosted by Dr. Amy Bladen Shatto—a leadership strategist and executive coach with 25+ years of experience advising senior leaders and developing talent in high-growth and Fortune 100 companies
Learn more at www.leadershipvariations.com
Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Dr. Wanda Toro Turini, Rare Disease Leader, Top Pharma
In this episode of Leadership Variations: Unfiltered, Amy Bladen Shatto sits down with Dr. Wanda Toro Turini for a candid conversation about career reinvention, identity, entrepreneurship, and what happens when the version of success you once pursued no longer fits who you have become. Wanda began her career at Novartis, where she worked across oncology, marketing, sales, and product launches before leaving a successful corporate career to pursue entrepreneurship. For nearly two decades, she ...
7 Jul 2026
S1 E11: Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Dawn Armstrong, Human Good
In this episode of Leadership Variations: Unfiltered, Amy Bladen Shatto sits down with Dawn Armstrong, Vice President of Information Technology at Human Good, for a candid conversation about moving from underestimated to undeniable as a woman in STEM. Dawn shares how she built credibility across male-dominated technical environments, transformed dysfunctional IT teams, and learned that trust—not control—is what creates real performance. She also discusses the leadership skill that matters mor...
9 Jun 2026
Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Lisa Imondi, The Mosaic Company
In this episode of Leadership Variations: Unfiltered, Amy Bladen Shatto sits down with Lisa Imondi, Senior Vice President of Consulting Operations at The Mosaic Company, for a powerful conversation on what it really takes for women in STEM and technical spaces to move from underestimated to undeniable. Lisa shares how some of the most meaningful leadership moments in her career came from stepping into work she had never done before — building programs, leading transformation, and proving that...
12 May 2026
Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Dr. Andrea Garfinkel, Research & Extension Center, Univ of Wyoming
In this episode of Leadership Variations Unfiltered, Amy Shatto interviews Dr. Andrea Garfinkel, a plant pathologist and agricultural leader whose career spans academia, agtech, and global farming systems. Andrea shares her unconventional leadership journey—from post-PhD fieldwork and career breaks to leading research in high-tech indoor farming environments. The conversation explores what it really takes to transition from technical expert to leader, particularly in male-dominated industries...
13 Apr 2026
Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Dr. Rosemary Bernal-Gomez, First Analytics
In this episode of Leadership Variations: Unfiltered, Amy Bladen Shatto speaks with Dr. Rosemary Bernal-Gomez, a seasoned analytics leader and STEM advocate whose career spans over three decades in high-stakes environments. From developing predictive analytics models that helped eliminate workplace fatalities to navigating the realities of bias and credibility testing in leadership, Dr. Bernal-Gomez shares what it truly takes to rise from underestimated to undeniable. This conversation explor...
10 Mar 2026
Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Pilar Baltar, Perplexity AI & Various Top Tech Firms
In this episode of Leadership Variations: Unfiltered, Amy Bladen Shatto sits down with Pilar Baltar, Business Fellow at Perplexity AI and former senior executive across global Microsoft partner organizations, to explore what it truly takes to lead at the intersection of AI, revenue, and executive power. With over 20 years leading large-scale tech transformations across EMEA and the U.S., Pilar shares her journey from computational linguistics to AI strategy, and what women in technology must ...
10 Feb 2026
Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Biliana Veleva-Rotse, Amicus Therapeutics
In this episode of Leadership Variations: Unfiltered, host Amy Bladen Shatto, PhD, PCC, BCC sits down with Dr. Biliana Veleva-Rotse, Global Medical Director for Fabry Disease at Amicus Therapeutics, to unpack what leadership really looks like for women in STEM who rise without the recognition they deserve. Biliana shares her non-linear path from neuroscience PhD and academic research to global leadership in biotech—revealing how credibility, influence, and impact are built without positional...
20 Jan 2026
Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Tara Hernandez, MONGODB
What if the most important parts of leadership never show up on a résumé? In this episode of Leadership Variations: Unfiltered, Amy Blaydon sits down with Tara Hernandez, Vice President of Developer Productivity at MongoDB, for a candid conversation about what leadership in STEM actually demands—beyond credentials, titles, and technical brilliance. With a career spanning Netscape, Mozilla, Pixar, Google, and MongoDB, Tara reflects on why leadership success is less about solving technical prob...
9 Dec 2025
Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Dr. Natalie Crawford, DVM, Veterinary Pathologist, Operations EXEC, & Coach
Leadership Variations: Unfiltered | Series 1, Episode 4 Leadership Challenges & Growth with Dr. Natalie Crawford, DVM, Veterinary Pathologist, Operations EXEC, & Coach In this powerful episode of Leadership Variations: Unfiltered, Dr. Natalie Crawford shares the unfiltered truth about leadership growth, identity, and resilience as a woman of color in STEM. With 20+ years across animal health, pharma, and medical devices—and a rare blend of scientific rigor, operational leadersh...
11 Nov 2025
Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Jennifer Wipf, Ginko Bioworks
Leadership Variations: Unfiltered | Series 1, Episode 3 Leading Through Change & Authentic Leadership in STEM Join us for an inspiring conversation with Jennifer Webb, General Manager of the Biosolutes Business Unit at Ginkgo BioWorks, a pioneer in synthetic biology transforming diverse industries worldwide. With 7 years of leadership experience at Ginkgo, Jennifer shares her journey navigating massive organizational growth, restructuring, and the challenges and opportunities of leading i...
14 Oct 2025
Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Ana Hooker, Exact Sciences
Leadership is more than charisma — it’s about clarity, resilience, and authenticity. In this episode of Leadership Variations Unfiltered, host Amy Bladen Shatto — leadership development consultant and executive coach for women in STEM — sits down with Ana Hooker, Senior Vice President and Chief Laboratory Officer at Exact Sciences. Ana leads a global team of 2,000+ professionals while mentoring the next generation of STEM leaders. Together, they dive deep into the leadership challenges no o...
9 Sept 2025
Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Laura MacDonald
Leadership Variations: Unfiltered — Limited Series 1, Episode 1 Cracking the Code: From Underestimated to Undeniable with Laura MacDonald What does it take to go from underestimated to leading global teams in STEM? In this debut episode, Laura MacDonald, Chief Growth Officer at Hotwire (ROI·DNA), shares the mindset shifts, leadership strategies, and career moves that helped her break barriers and accelerate her impact in high-growth, high-pressure environments. In the first episode of Leade...
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