Dionne is an awarding winning Leader in Tech, Tech Career Coach, Speaker and Women in Tech Advocate with 20 years plus experience in the Tech industry and a background as a Software Developer.
Dionne is passionate about improving diversity in tech and increasing the number of women in tech, especially black women, as the stats are ridiculously low in an industry commonly viewed as very mature white male dominated (only 26% of people in tech related roles are women).
Tech Career Coach
As a Tech Career Coach, Dionne helps women who are frustrated in their jobs, build inner confidence to make a career change into tech, through a soulful exploration their mindset, skill sets and next steps. To facilitate this she launched The Confidence Coaching Programme for women to get clarity on their tech career goals, to identify limiting beliefs that may be holding them back, identify transferrable skills, to get support and guidance on roles in tech and tech stacks required, to create a realistic plan to achieve their goals within a realistic timeframe, and most importantly to be held accountable while kick starting their tech career journey. Click here to find out more.
Dionne also helps employers to build relationships with underrepresented communities to attract diverse tech talent and develop and retain their existing employees, through coaching, workshops, inspirational talks and consultancy (email us to find out more about this service).
Speaker
Dionne is a professional public speaker and delivers keynote talks for corporate companies who want to inspire and motivate their employees, and participates on panel discussions and fireside chats at tech conferences (such as Tech Inclusion at Google UK, Facebook Tech + Diversity event, Black Women in Tech at Condé Nast International, Precious Nights at the British Library) to encourage more Women and BAME people into the tech industry, and share her knowledge. Dionne speaks on topics such as Technology, Women in Tech, Mindset and Confidence, Career Change and Career Development, and Leadership. See more about Dionne’s speaking services here.
Technology Career
In her tech career, Dionne has recently taken on a new challenge as a Senior Application Development Manager – STEM responsible for the delivery of the Software Development Graduate and Apprenticeship schemes and the new Dev Ops Engineering Apprenticeship scheme at Transport for London (TfL), creating career opportunities for people who want to earn and learn to become a Software Developer in 18-24 months. She also sits on the Technology Development Senior Management Board at TfL.
She is also an Agile Development Lead (aka Engineering Manager) and manages 12 Android and iOS developers working to develop and deliver the recently launched TfL Go app, a travel planning app for the public with heavy focus on accessibility, as well as a team of developers using iOS and React Native to develop internal apps for staff.
Dionne previously specialised in Android app development, Java and open source technologies as a Senior Developer. She also has over 10 plus years previous experience in developing Java EE/web based large scale business critical applications and API services, in the public transport, education and local government sectors, and have worked on some high profile projects such as Job Centre Plus Vacancy Kiosks, TfL TPOMA (Transport Police Online Mapping Application), LondonWorks, TfL Oystercard Mobile services, and most recently TfL Go Android app.
Community Leader
Dionne is a co-lead of the award winning TfL Women Staff Network Group – Women in Tech committee and delivers inspirational talks, events and workshops to raise awareness of tech as a viable career for 200 members. She is also a member of the TfL RACE SNG (Raising Awareness of Culture and Ethnicity Staff Network Group) Leadership Team, and is focused on raising awareness of lack of diversity in tech and at senior leadership levels, and leads on the RACE SNG Career Development initiative where she creates opportunities for the community to learn skills needed for the future.
Dionne is the founder of an initiative called “Where’s the BAME in Tech?” (or @BAMEinTech for short), an initiative to highlight successful BAME professionals in tech corporate companies, and provide a safe space for open and honest discussions about BAME experiences in tech.
Dionne is also a core/founding member of UKBlackTech, an initiative set up to encourage and support more people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to consider a career in tech and support them once in the industry. We provide events, seminars, mentoring and networking opportunities.
Book Contributor
Dionne was fortunate enough to be featured in a book called The Voices In The Shadow, a collection of 51 stories highlighting amazing black women in tech, which has been sent to 300 schools across the UK and Ireland, and more to come. She has also contributed to a book called Black and Great: The Essential Workplace Toolkit by Rene Germain, the inspirational career guide for young and ambitious Black British professionals. You can get your copy of the Black and Great book here https://amzn.to/3NZTupG
If you are interested in making a career change into tech and need some support book a discovery call with Dionne today.
If you are interested in learning to code, but don’t know where to start Dionne has created a free guide to 8 brilliant resources to get you started with coding to help you kick start that journey a little bit quicker.