Carol Covin – Finding Ada

October 7 is Ada Lovelace Day, the international holiday honoring women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths. It can be anybody, I like people finding a better way to do important things.

This year I’d like to pick on Carol Covin...because I think she is going to cure cancer. She’s not running around in a white coat with test tubes. That’s the early fun stuff, the equivalent of the single moment of creating a child.

Nope, Carol’s doing the parenting thing. She found something that works and now she is raising, maturing her set of solutions, introducing them out into society.

She doesn’t want to own the process, doesn’t want to keep anybody out. She wants the solution adopted, and she is spending her focus making that happen. Getting them ready to succeed in the world.

Here’s part of an email she sent:

Someone sent me a copy of the first article in the book and they could have been writing about me and my cancer project. He talks about what we learn as we go through our worklives, to find work we can do, to find work we love. But, the highest and most rewarding activity is to find work that no one else can or will do. I tried to give the cancer project away for 7 years, knowing there were obviously people more qualified than I to do it, but no one would and I will.

Here’s the case study for her 2010 STEM Award, No One Else Was Going To Do It.

Ada Lovelace Day succeeds not because of a winner, but because of sheer numbers. Quick! Go post an appreciation of your favorite Grrl Geek, and log it at the Finding Ada directory.

Happy Ada Day!