Erica Lockheimer

Founder and CEO of HumanizeHer | Ex-VP of Engineering at LinkedIn | Podcast Host | @HumanizeHerNow

Follow LinkedIn 😎 and Instagram: erica_lockheimer

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

I am such a super fan of Jenny and and she inspired the entire team. We had so much fun on set. Friends for life!

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

I am a big believer that being a little pissed off and frustrated definitely fuels ideas and innovation. But at the end of the day, there are a lot of great ideas out there and the only one that matters is the one you actually execute on. 💯 This exactly why we started @HumanizeHerNow!

And I loved her response... It's a measuring stick about how much you care about something.

We need places where we feel like we belong and our voices are heard. Let's go!

You can watch the full episode here: https://t.co/dUliT3fUy0

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

When an entire community rallies behind its local creators, makers, and dreamers that is when the magic happens and creates massive economic opportunity.

My cup is full after coming home from the Mana Up celebration in Hawai'i, focusing on supporting local small businesses!

Co-founder of Mana Up, Meli James, has become a new fast friend. I’ve become an investor in her company, and she has joined as an advisor for HumanizeHer

It’s been so inspiring to learn more about the community and all of the amazing work they’re doing.

I had the honor of meeting so many incredible founders and exploring their consumer goods businesses. It was so fun to connect with founders and hear their personal storie learning why they are so passionate about the products they build and what drove them to take that leap into entrepreneurship. I left feeling so inspired and came home with a full haul of local goodies:

Mohala Eyewear – Founded by Ashley Mariko Johnson, offering inclusive sunglasses designed for different face shapes and nose bridges.

Big Island Coffee Roasters – Amazing 100% Kona coffee, co-founded by Kelleigh Stewart and Brandon von Damitz.

Meli Wraps – Eco-friendly, reusable beeswax food wraps created by Melia Foster.

Paper Crane Soaps – Handcrafted, natural soaps made by Amanda Richards.

Brianne & Co. – Beautiful handmade jewelry crafted by Brianne Light.

Lotus and Lime – Island resort wear and fashion designed by mother-daughter duo Kim & Jade Alexis Ryusaki.

The Hawaii Fudge Company – Delicious handcrafted Hawaiian fudge!

Ua Hawaii – One of my absolute favorite scents: island-inspired natural perfumes run by Leala Humbert and Blaine Kusler.

Kris Goto – Whimsical, island-inspired pop art and prints created by local artist Kris Goto.

Waimea Herb Company – Outstanding Hawaiʻi-grown herbal teas (huge congratulations to them on their People's Choice Award recognition!).

Coco Moon Hawaiʻi – Founded by Amber Thibaut, known for their incredibly soft island-inspired swaddles and throw blankets.

It was also wonderful to see Governor Josh Green show up to support all of the locals.

I came home with so many great products and got a major head start on early Christmas shopping. Here’s to supporting local and celebrating our amazing entrepreneurs! I’m leaving Hawaii with so many incredible new friends. 🌺✨

Arleen Fernando Paulette Jencks

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

For Jenny Nguyen, Founder and CEO of The Sports Bra, taking the personal risk of opening the world's first women's sports bar meant looking beyond her own fears and toward the seven-year-old version of herself.

Growing up without a space where she and her friends felt fully seen and celebrated, she realized that creating one for the next generation was 1,000% worth the risk.

And what a powerful impact that leap has made!! ❤️‍

Join the conversation on YouTube (🎙️ https://t.co/dUliT3fUy0) or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

Jenny Nguyen shares the exact moment that sparked the successful movement that we know today as The Sports Bra!! After celebrating the incredible 2018 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship game in the corner of a bar with a tiny screen and no sound.

She realized the only way to watch women's sports the way it truly deserves is to build a dedicated space for it! 🙌

Join the conversation on YouTube (🎙️ https://t.co/dUliT3fUy0) or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

🎙️ NEW EPISODE ALERT 🎙️

https://t.co/dUliT3fUy0

We’re so happy to have Jenny Nguyen, the trailblazing founder and CEO behind The Sports Bra on the pod!! The world’s very first sports bar dedicated to women’s sports. A sneak peek into her incredible journey:

👩‍🍳 Going From Kitchen to Couch: Leaving an exhausting chef career for a 5-year reset to find her true calling after a Vietnam trip with her parents
🏀 Spark at the Sports Bar: How watching a muted college basketball game on a tiny television tucked away in a bar corner with her friends sparked a revolutionary movement
⛹️‍♀️ 2020 Catalyst: Aligning her twin passions for food and basketball to make a tangible social impact
💼 Scrappy Entrepreneur's Playbook: Overcoming biases, securing handshake loans, and building a business from an iPad pitch deck
🚀 Power of Community & Kickstarter: Shattering her crowdfunding goals to raise over $105K with massive local support
🔓 Unlocking the Franchise Vision: Empowering communities with an investment cohort made up of 98% women
📍 "Starting Five" Expansion: The exciting next wave of locations opening soon across the country

"My dreams for The Bra feel like they outweigh my fears for The Bra. If one kid walks through the door and feels like they belong, they feel seen, they look on the screen and they see grown-a** women playing a sport that they love, and they see grown-a** adults cheering for said women - if that made her feel like she could play, and then the whole place burned down, would it be worth it? In my mind, 1,000% yes." - Jenny Nguyen

Join the conversation on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

Conversations drive culture, and culture drives access.

Back in September, an interview with Jenny Nguyen, founder of The Sports Bra, reframed how I view representation in sports media.

Right after our chat, the gap became impossible to unsee:

🍴At a sports restaurant with my family, I asked to put on a women’s game, only to find they didn’t carry the channel.
🏀 I became completely invested in the Golden State Valkyries and got seats to Game 6.
🔥Had a great conversation with my friend that owned a local restaurant to broadcast Game 7 and he text me the next day and said come over, the game is on and my mom is coming too!

I’ve attended NBA games before, but feeling genuinely represented creates an entirely different level of fandom and emotional connection. The demand for women’s sports isn’t just emerging, it is undeniably here.

What needs to catch up is everyday broadcast visibility, sponsors and investors.

Massive kudos to people like Alexis Ohanian Sr. who proactively reached out to invest. This is how you do it! 💪

Real change happens through intentional spaces like The Sports Bra and every fan who simply speaks up and asks: "Can we put the game on?"

And Easter egg: in this shot is a video I took at game 6 and the Valkyries making a shot and winning the game with my friend Meeta Roy 🔥🔥

#WomensSports #WNBA #Valkyries #TheSportsBra #RepresentationMatters #Leadership #InclusionInSports

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

I loved how this turned out!! Major thanks to Pankhuri Sharma for reaching out and offering to help (go getter!! And we got to reunite!) and Jovanna Lugo for executing on all the last minute purchases. Dream team!!

You might have noticed a major upgrade in our latest episode… the podcast studio had a major makeover and deserves it’s own post!

Swipe through to see some of our favorite new details and keep watching the pod to see the gorgeous new set in action. 😍

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

What is that one topic you could talk about for hours without getting tired?

Lillian Samuel, President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area, shares a powerful reminder about finding your purpose… if you light up when talking about something, “that might be your thing.” 🥹

Pay attention to those moments because that genuine excitement can be pointing you to where you’re truly meant to be. And the truth is in these photos, I mean look at all those beautiful smiles 😍

📸 Thank you Alina Tyulyu for always capturing these stunning photos!

Join the conversation on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts
🫂 Join the community: https://t.co/iFCd0i0ZtH

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

Did you ever have a mentor growing up who just got you in a way your parents couldn't? Or that one adult who simply showed up and gave you a space to be yourself?

Lillian Samuel breaks down the incredible data behind their impact. She shares that 65 to 70% of the youth they serve are young boys. Having a positive male role model provides a powerful alternative to negative influences, guiding these young men to make positive and proactive life choices. 🤝

✨ Programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters of America prove that just showing up as a caring adult can completely shift a child's life.

Support their mission:
👉 https://t.co/wYF6ynUUW6

Join the conversation on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
🫂 Join the community: https://t.co/iFCd0i0ZtH

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

Lillian Samuel, President & CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area, shares why the most important part of fundraising is actually listening. 👂Finding out what people are passionate about and authentically connecting with someone through a shared vision. 🤝 It all starts with connection!

Support their mission: 👉 https://t.co/wYF6ynUUW6

Join the conversation on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
🫂 Join the community: https://t.co/iFCd0i0ZtH

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

Do you ever battle that feeling that you’re not enough, no matter how hard you work? You’re not alone!

Lillian Samuel, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area, shares a vulnerable moment, explaining that when you’re navigating neurodivergence, you feel like you're working twice as hard while battling self-doubt.

But she leaves us with this reminder… we’re our own worst critics and when you get good feedback, believe it! YOU are enough and you’re doing amazing!✨

Join the conversation on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
🫂 Join the community: https://t.co/iFCd0i0ZtH

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

True leadership is about how we respond when plans fall apart.💡

Grace Hopper may not have happened as planned, but the community showed up anyway.

Huge shoutout to companies like Uber for stepping in to host a mini GHC, ensuring so many incredible speakers still got the stage they deserved. It was a powerful reminder: if you don’t have a community, build one.

I had the chance to sit down for a fireside chat with my good friend and former colleague, Aarathi Vidyasagar reminiscing and diving into the real vulnerabilities and opportunities of leading at scale. And it was such a highlight to also share some of the common learnings I've had from speaking to so many women across so many industries on the HumanizeHer podcast.

The best bonus? An unexpected reunion with old LinkedIn teammates, Praveen Neppalli Naga, Joann Wu, and Rahul Sule!

A huge thank you to everyone who made this happen. It’s another great reminder that progress doesn't stop when things don't go as planned, and real commitment to inclusive cultures is shown through action. ✨ Cecile Wu Mona Hinamanu

#TechLeadership #InclusionInTech #Resilience #Networking #WomenInTech

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

🎗💕 It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I’m sad to share that many of our podcast guests on HumanizeHer have been diagnosed with breast cancer. But the great thing is, they’re all sharing and talking about it.

The fact is, 1 in 8 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime.

1 in 8. Think about the women in your life. That’s someone you love. 💝

But here’s the hopeful part. When breast cancer is caught early, before it spreads, the 5-year survival rate is 99%.

That’s why prevention and getting your mammogram and checks is really the first step to protect us all.

I’ll be honest. I am a year and a half behind on my mammogram. With some beautiful pressure from my friend Nidhi Gupta, I just scheduled mine for November to get an earlier appointment with another provider.

I understand. We all get busy, and we take these appointments and push them off. That’s exactly what I did, and I regret it.

So this time I’m getting my mammogram and an ultrasound. If any of you get your results back saying you have dense breast tissue, an ultrasound can help detect things the mammogram might miss. I am doing this for the first time as well.

Being a person who had skin cancer, I know how much this matters. I had squamous cell carcinoma literally in the middle of my face and had to have plastic surgery on my nose due to a 11 mm hole. That’s a story for another day, but it taught me that early detection is everything.

So here’s a friendly reminder to all the beautiful women in my life: get checked. Do all the checks. Make all those appointments. And please take care of yourself.
Thank you to the brave women who shared their stories with us. Deborah Liu Mauria Finley Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga and more. 💗
#BreastCancerAwareness #EarlyDetection #GetChecked

[Erica Lockheimer @EricaLockheimer]

So thankful to have met so many incredible people across your community! It was truly a moment to celebrate and recognize all the great work being done at Uber and beyond.
Having spent nearly 30 years working in tech, and through my experience interviewing so many incredible women on HumanizeHer, including the amazing Aarathi, it was so much fun to bring that perspective to the room. It’s inspiring to see leaders like Praveen set the tone, but even more powerful to watch the entire team come together to build such an inclusive culture.
It was a true honor and a gift to be with all of you. Keep doing amazing work, I’m always rooting for you! 💙

[Uber Engineering @UberEng]

Technical talks, fresh perspectives, and a community ready to connect. Our mini GHC day at Uber had plenty to celebrate!

After the cancellation of GHC, the Uber community rallied to talk engineering and have some fun. We were especially excited to welcome @EricaLockheimer from HumanizeHer to share her experience and perspective.

Thanks to everyone who took the stage and joined the conversations!