For me, the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, is a time for rest, reflection and gratitude. True, the basis of the holiday can be a reminder of the harm of colonization, but it is the aspect of practicing gratitude that stands out the most for me. In my reflection, it is important to me to give thanks to those who are often left out of the conversation and whose contributions are forgotten, often women, often people of color, often LGBT peoples.

I am thankful for the indigenous men and women who cultivated the land I now reside on in the US and my African ancestors male and female, who were stolen and toiled the earth, cooked and cleaned, and raised the country’s children, white and black, while dreaming for freedom for themselves and the generations to come. We are a country of immigrants and grateful for the stories, language, food, and customs that make the mosaic of our world.

🍂This Thanksgiving we are practicing gratitude, restoration, and reflection.

• We rest, because as leaders committed to diversity and inclusion in tech we know we can’t pour from an empty cup.
• We reflect, because as leaders we are continually learning and growing equitable businesses, teams, and products.
• We practice gratitude, because as leaders we cannot do this work alone and it’s important to celebrate the successes, big and small with our teams of diverse perspectives and backgrounds.

⭐Nerdy Diva 3 Year Anniversary I am so grateful for the support you have shown over the past 3 years as I grew Nerdy Diva from small mustard seeds to the blooming plant reaching new heights each day. I am excited to share that we are growing our team and searching for a Marketing guru with an interest in UX and experience with newsletters and virtual events. You can share the job description with your network and help us find talented candidates for our team! One of the best parts of my work is witnessing the seeds of growth and connection that are planted and watching the amazing things that leaders trained by Nerdy Diva go on to do locally and globally.

⭐Highlights from the past 3 years:

• We hosted 40+ workshops and talks on diversity in design and technology. We hosted workshops and talks for Black Designers Ignite, NSBE Boston, UXPA International, UXPA Boston, STLX Meetup, ConveyUX, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), Lesbians Who Tech, Interaction Design Association (IXDA), Women in Cloud, Women Tech Founders, Harvard University, Saint Louis University, Denver Startup Week, API Days, and many more.

• • Watch the Designing Inclusive APIs talk from API Days London.
  • ▶️Watch the Designing Anti-Racism talk from STLX Meetup.
  • 📃Get the handout from the HFES Workshop.

• We wrote in 2 anthologies and 3 articles to share knowledge and lessons learned to inspire others to make an impact: 

• • 📘On the Rise
  • 📘97 Things Every UX Practitioner Should Know
  • 📝UXPA Magazine Article
  • 📝UK Black Tech Article
  • 📝Women Tech Founders Article.

• We served 16 clients from Universities to Non-profits to Conferences and Entrepreneurs with a focus on inclusive design for websites and education apps and coaching for women starting their tech businesses.

• We hired 3 staff members for short term projects including updating our logo, branding, automation systems, and marketing strategy for intentional communications and partnerships.

• We completed training with 9 organizations to grow in leadership, networking, angel investing, and business development. These organizations included Greater STL Inc Diverse Business Accelerator, BRAND Startup League, BALSA Foundation, Arlan Hamilton’s Investing as a Catalyst Program, Pixels for Humans, BrainSpace Optimized, FOCUS St. Louis Emerging Leaders Program, ScrumAlliance, MIT Leadership Certificate.

• We were featured in 2 press articles by:

• • 📝Greater STL Inc
  • 📝St. Louis American

• We were featured on 2 podcasts:

• • 🎧Networking, It’s Your Superpower Podcast by Kesha Kent
  • 🎧The Casually Mollie Podcast by Mollie Amburgey

• We were awarded 7x by the Side Hustle Honors, Greater STL Inc Diverse Business Accelerator Scholarship Fund, BALSA Grant Fund, BRAND Startup League Grant Fund, Anita B. Org Grace Hopper Celebration Scholarship Fund (2x), For Now Retail Innovation Conference Scholarship Fund.

• We are angel investors and invested in 7 businesses by women and people of color using tech in creative ways to impact the community.

• • CurlMix
  • Side Hustle Honors
  • Nap Ministry
  • Creative Reaction Lab
  • The Potter’s House LA
  • OSTEM
  • Black Girl, Bleu

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