Erica Vogel
Title: Transgender Advocate and Technologist
Human Rights
Education: Western Governors University
Reston, VA, USA
Biography
Erica Vogel is a queer trasngender woman, a wife, a parent, and a member of a family with strong LGBTQIA roots. She has spent most of her life solving a wide variety of trials and tribulations as both a closeted and out transgender woman. Drawing from her experiences, her education, and her interactions with thousands of transgender people, she provides a point of view focused on personal agency as a transgender individual. Described as resilient, authentic, and fearless, she meets people where they are with grace and warmth.
Erica is a 20-year veteran of design and product management technology for start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. She holds a master’s degree in business leadership and management and a DEI certification. Her recent tenures in tech also include serving on the national leadership team of corporate LGBTQIA employee resource groups with up to 5,000 members and as a board member of a transgender-focused tech nonprofit. She’s a frequent public speaker on trans affairs both in and out of workplaces across the United States.
Passion
DEI, LGBTQIA advocacy, Ethical Technology efforts, & personal growth
Best Story
on choosing my name as a transgender woman, from my book Advice from Your Trans Aunty:
Choosing a name can be quite a debilitating exercise. I made this easier for myself by setting some boundaries for guidance. As someone who has difficulty deciding, I made three rules that helped me narrow the list: (1) it couldn’t be a name shared with someone I knew well and still interacted with because I worried that might look like I was taking their name, (2) my name should be age appropriate; as a child of the 1970s, I wanted a common name at the time of my birth and to try to land on something my mom might have chosen, and (3) I would find a way to honor a family member with my name because I knew that was a choice my mom would make. The end goal I focused on was landing on the name I might have received had all involved known I was a girl.
Following this simple rubric, I narrowed my list down to three names I liked, of which Erica was one. The actual decision came down to what felt right at the moment my therapist asked what she should call me. Interestingly, Erica was my third choice, but it’s the name I blurted out. Today, I don’t recall the other names I was considering. Erica stuck, and it feels very much like home to me at this point.
Even so, I was unsure of the name and decided to ask my mom what she had planned as a girl’s name. She had told me the name years prior, but I could not recall it for the life of me. So when I asked this question after coming out, she got excited in assuming I would take up the original name she had planned. Dear reader, the name was Marinella (mare-eh-nel-ah). I burst out laughing because I was sure my mom was joking; she has a great sense of humor, so I thought this was a bit. She was not kidding, and things got really awkward. She intended this name to combine her adored mother’s and favorite aunt’s names. I couldn’t do it; I could not take this name. “Marinella” wasn’t me, and I knew I would’ve gladly shortened it to Mary or Ella in school had I been given that name as a child.
Still wanting to honor family members somehow, I pivoted to my grandmother, whom I never met. My grandmother Mary was an army nurse in WWII, serving in a MASH unit, and was supposedly the first woman in the US Army to be injured in the line of duty. I can’t find any info to confirm that, but I have an excellent photo of her on a hospital flight with many soldiers that was used in Life magazine during the war. She met my grandfather, a naval lieutenant serving alongside John F. Kennedy, while she was caring for him in the hospital after his injury. Sadly, she died of breast cancer when my mom was thirteen. Grandma Mary is my mom’s hero. Mom also went into nursing to follow in her mother’s footsteps, despite my grandfather insisting she become a literature professor like he was. My mom was a damn good nurse and worked alongside some of the best surgeons for years. I know she made Grandma Mary proud. Ultimately, after being raised on my grandmother’s legend, I chose a play on her name as my middle name, which made my mom very happy.
Finally, I used my partner’s last name in the process because I never felt connected to my father’s name. My wife is my person, and I knew her last name would do very well for me. She didn’t take mine because she’s a feminist badass with a PhD and a published author who proudly chose to keep her last name. My name fits me so well; I adore it.
Origin Story
50 years of a very hard life that required me to cultivate my resilience and toughness finally allowed me the ability to be my whole self as a trans woman. Authenticity and vulnerability are the most powerful aspects of myself that I talk about. I've also spent 25 years in tech, working for startups and Fortune 25 companies alike. My work building the retail banking platform at Wells Fargo has been used by 70 million people over 4 billion times a year. And yet I've been laid off 4 times in my tech career.
I am willing to travel
More than 100 miles
When it comes to payments
I generally get paid for speaking but make exceptions
Topics
Best Story
on choosing my name as a transgender woman, from my book Advice from Your Trans Aunty:
Choosing a name can be quite a debilitating exercise. I made this easier for myself by setting some boundaries for guidance. As someone who has difficulty deciding, I made three rules that helped me narrow the list: (1) it couldn’t be a name shared with someone I knew well and still interacted with because I worried that might look like I was taking their name, (2) my name should be age appropriate; as a child of the 1970s, I wanted a common name at the time of my birth and to try to land on something my mom might have chosen, and (3) I would find a way to honor a family member with my name because I knew that was a choice my mom would make. The end goal I focused on was landing on the name I might have received had all involved known I was a girl.
Following this simple rubric, I narrowed my list down to three names I liked, of which Erica was one. The actual decision came down to what felt right at the moment my therapist asked what she should call me. Interestingly, Erica was my third choice, but it’s the name I blurted out. Today, I don’t recall the other names I was considering. Erica stuck, and it feels very much like home to me at this point.
Even so, I was unsure of the name and decided to ask my mom what she had planned as a girl’s name. She had told me the name years prior, but I could not recall it for the life of me. So when I asked this question after coming out, she got excited in assuming I would take up the original name she had planned. Dear reader, the name was Marinella (mare-eh-nel-ah). I burst out laughing because I was sure my mom was joking; she has a great sense of humor, so I thought this was a bit. She was not kidding, and things got really awkward. She intended this name to combine her adored mother’s and favorite aunt’s names. I couldn’t do it; I could not take this name. “Marinella” wasn’t me, and I knew I would’ve gladly shortened it to Mary or Ella in school had I been given that name as a child.
Still wanting to honor family members somehow, I pivoted to my grandmother, whom I never met. My grandmother Mary was an army nurse in WWII, serving in a MASH unit, and was supposedly the first woman in the US Army to be injured in the line of duty. I can’t find any info to confirm that, but I have an excellent photo of her on a hospital flight with many soldiers that was used in Life magazine during the war. She met my grandfather, a naval lieutenant serving alongside John F. Kennedy, while she was caring for him in the hospital after his injury. Sadly, she died of breast cancer when my mom was thirteen. Grandma Mary is my mom’s hero. Mom also went into nursing to follow in her mother’s footsteps, despite my grandfather insisting she become a literature professor like he was. My mom was a damn good nurse and worked alongside some of the best surgeons for years. I know she made Grandma Mary proud. Ultimately, after being raised on my grandmother’s legend, I chose a play on her name as my middle name, which made my mom very happy.
Finally, I used my partner’s last name in the process because I never felt connected to my father’s name. My wife is my person, and I knew her last name would do very well for me. She didn’t take mine because she’s a feminist badass with a PhD and a published author who proudly chose to keep her last name. My name fits me so well; I adore it.
Origin Story
50 years of a very hard life that required me to cultivate my resilience and toughness finally allowed me the ability to be my whole self as a trans woman. Authenticity and vulnerability are the most powerful aspects of myself that I talk about. I've also spent 25 years in tech, working for startups and Fortune 25 companies alike. My work building the retail banking platform at Wells Fargo has been used by 70 million people over 4 billion times a year. And yet I've been laid off 4 times in my tech career.