Presented by Michael Best, Thinkery’s Wonder Women in STEAM series highlights local female movers, shakers and innovators in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.
Get to know this week’s Wonder Women in STEAM, Meredith Walker!
Meredith Walker is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. Walker began her television career under the mentorship of legendary journalist Linda Ellerbee at Nick News. As a producer of that show, Walker traveled the U.S. interviewing kids for the Peabody and Emmy award-winning series. This experience became the foundation of Walker’s deepening interest in the lives of young people.
Walker went on to serve as the head of the Talent Department for Saturday Night Live, where she met her best friend, Amy Poehler. The pair decided to combine talents to create their shared vision of an organization encouraging and celebrating everyday girls experiencing adolescence.
Now living in Austin, Texas, Meredith is leading the charge of what that shared vision became: Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. What started as an online “clubhouse” primarily for girls has evolved to become an inclusive, positive online community for anyone who identifies with its mission of positive self-identification and advocacy.
Walker travels near and far to promote the mission of Smart Girls. She served as the journalism envoy for the U.S. State Department Bureau of Culture and Education’s mission to the Al Za’atari and Emirates Refugee Camps and visited remote primary-care clinics on delegations to Haiti and Malawi.
In 2015 Meredith was named a “Profile In Power” finalist by the Austin Business Journal and Austin Way designated her “The Confidence Builder.” Tribeza Magazine called her “unapologetically, brilliantly herself” in naming her one of their 30 “Persons of the Year.” She was the September 2016 cover woman for Austin Woman.
In 2016, Meredith was a WIlliam J. Clinton Distinguished Lecturer at the Clinton School for Public Service. She was a guest of the White House both to host the Champions of Change for Computer Science Education summit and to serve as an expert panelist for The White House Summit: Breaking Down Gender Stereotypes in Media. She returned to Washington, D.C. for the first summit of The United State of Women, where she and Amy Poehler served as co-panelists on the subject of “Revolutionizing Gender Norms.”
Meredith’s appointments include the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders Advisory Council, Common Sense Advisory Board for Gender Equality, The UN Women Global Innovation Coalition for Change (GICC) and the ONE Girls and Women Advisory Board. She teamed up with the Austin-American Statesman for her outdoor series POCKET ADVENTURES and has been published by POETRY and MOTTO for TIME.
Wonder Women in STEAM is presented by Michael Best. We are so grateful for their generous support.
Special thanks to Barnes Team Media for donating their services to produce the Wonder Women in STEAM video series.
