November Spotlight On… Kathryn Reagan!
Kathryn Reagan is a force to be reckoned with.
After spending years at ThoughtWorks being on-site with clients Monday through Thursday, Kathryn switched gears earlier this year to focus more on development and data engineering at rewardStyle. You can usually find Kathryn raving about some cool API she found, bragging about knocking out a huge bug at work, or excitedly showing off some new clothes she bought because she is quite the fashionista! She has been a member of Women Who Code Dallas/Ft. Worth for three years now, and we can’t imagine the network without her.
How did you get into your field?
Neopets.com! And a love for math that led me to initially major in it in college, take the required CS 1 course for the major, an encouraging professor who told me that my HTML/CSS (from neopets, and later myspace/xanga) experience was valid and it mattered, and a really strong CS department that had diversity, strong professors, and lots of support.
What made you want to join Women Who Code?
My last company, ThoughtWorks, regularly hosted WWC meetups in our Addison office back in 2016–2017, and when our main TW event host started on a traveling project, I filled in a few times. There was one meetup where we completely dropped the ball — there was no speaker or event planned at all, and my office manager and I committed to hosting the event and… figuring it out. So we just had a roundtable discussion that turned into people just getting to know each other. That’s where I met Caree Youngman and Vanessa Alvarez. After that, I went to dinner with them a couple of times, but then I started on a traveling project myself, and lost touch with them, and TW stopped hosting meetups.
Fast forward to mid-2018, where I was contacted by a recruiter, had coffee with someone from their company, and was invited to a WWC meetup on a Wednesday night where someone from that company was speaking. I decided to go — which meant buying an early flight home that week, and working remotely — and showed up to the meetup at Alkami straight from the airport, luggage and all.
Imagine my surprise to see Caree running the show as one of the DFW network directors! (That’s also the night I met Claire Tolbert, and my life has never been the same.) Caree made sure to get me on slack that night. I saw the way the community had grown and become SO active, supportive, encouraging, and close in only a year. And here I am!
What is something you’ve accomplished recently that made you proud?
Back in July my best friend and I started a blog showcasing our love for matching outfits and affordable fashion on our vastly different body types (I’m plus size, she’s not). We have been gearing up a lot of our content for the holidays, so I’ve been writing a lot and I’ve really enjoyed it. We also just got accepted to be rewardStyle bloggers (Yes, for the platform I work on! We wanted to be approved for our content, not because I work there.) and I’m really proud of us for that. Not to mention, it has been really cool getting to explore the products I help develop from the other side!
What do you do when you’re not coding/working?
Hanging out with my husband (!!!! I just got married in September, that word is still new); cuddling our cat; watching an insane amount of prime-time television; having a drink by the pool (although the pool part of the equation is quickly coming to an end for this year); going to kickboxing, city surf, or spin classes; chatting on the WWC slack; or spending time with friends and family.
What motivates you? What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Learning and developing new skills is definitely a motivation of mine. But I think my relationships motivate me more than anything. I am an enneagram 2, “the helper”, and in the past few months I have REALLY seen a lot of that in my behavior and actions. Honestly the thing that makes me wake up in the morning the best is a text from someone I care about.
What’s next for you? What are your goals?
Right now, I still feel like I am gaining context in my new(ish) role at rewardStyle. I got to grow very broadly and felt very much like a generalist from my time at ThoughtWorks, and I think my biggest goal at present is to figure out where I want to grow deeply.
In the past I have thought I want to become a data engineer, although now I feel like I’m questioning that a little bit more. So being on this team focusing on data is helping me figure that out! In 3–5 years I’d also love to become a tech lead, although I am still learning what that might mean and look like at rS — this was a big goal I had at TW where that role was more defined.
