Ordinarily Extraordinary - Conversations with women in STEM
We’re Kathy Nelson and Linda LaTourelle — co-hosts of Ordinarily Extraordinary: Conversations with Women in STEM.
Kathy, an electrical engineer, launched the podcast in 2020 to share real, unfiltered stories of women working across STEM disciplines. Now with over 130 episodes, the mission remains the same: to amplify the voices of ordinary women doing extraordinary work in science, technology, engineering, and math.
We’re deeply committed to:
- Normalizing the presence of women in STEM by making their stories visible
- Building community for women who may be the only ones like them in their workplace
- Educating listeners about the wide variety of STEM careers — and what they actually look like
- Empowering growth and retention by addressing the challenges behind the leaky pipeline
From early-career professionals to experienced leaders, our guests share how they got started, how they’ve grown, and what they’ve learned along the way. This podcast is a space where women in STEM can be seen, heard, and supported — because representation isn’t just powerful, it’s essential.
Ordinarily Extraordinary - Conversations with women in STEM
119. Dr. Sheryl Recinos, MD; Physician, Author, Homelessness Advocate
Sheryl Recinos is a physician, author, speaker and advocate. She is a locums hospitalist. After spending her teen years homeless and living on the streets in Los Angeles, she got a Bachelor's Degree in Cellular and Microbiology and later went back to school for her MD. Her childhood trauma helps her identify trauma in patients she sees and she advocates and works with homeless in Los Angeles. She has written several books about homelessness including a memoir, Hindsight, which chronicles her childhood.
What do we talk about in this episode?
- Sheryl's traumatic childhood and how she survived and became a physician.
- How the trauma she grew up with helps her in her job as a physician.
- How she strives to be the parent she always wanted to have.
- Her writing career. She has written a memoir about her childhood, a series of young adult books, and is about to publish a children's book.
- How the system not only failed her as a child, but actually worked against her.
- Her life now a physician, author, speaker, and mother.
Music used in the podcast: Higher Up, Silverman Sound Studio
You can support my podcast on Patreon here: https://patreon.com/user?u=72701887
Resources
You can find lots of information and resources and work Sheryl is doing here: https://sherylrecinosmd.com
"Hindsight: Coming of Age on the Streets of Hollywood": https://www.amazon.com/Hindsight-Coming-age-streets-Hollywood-ebook/dp/B07HYJTPKZ/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1583000285&refinements=p_27%3ASheryl+Recinos&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=Sheryl+Recinos
My Friend's Place - For 33 years and counting, My Friend’s Place has been
assisting and inspiring youth experiencing homelessness
to build self-sufficient lives. (https://www.myfriendsplace.org)
There's a lot of information and statistics on foster care system that can be found here: https://www.aecf.org/blog/child-welfare-and-foster-care-statistics
One in every five foster youth is homeless when they age out of the system at 18. Ten percent of foster children are placed in institutions and group homes, many of whom are older teenagers. Four percent of foster cases have the goal of emancipation, but over 50 percent have the goal of reunification. (https://www.fosterva.org/blog/what-happens-to-foster-children-when-they-turn-18#:~:text=One%20in%20every%20five%20foster,have%20the%20goal%20of%20reunification.)
