Why neurodiversity and mental health matter

Neurodiversity has been defined as the way people interact with the world, and there is no ‘right way’ of thinking, learning and behaving (Forbes, 2022). According to Learning Disability Today, neurodiversity can lead to secondary mental health issues for many individuals, where they may have struggled to meet social expectations, or found difficulties to excel in their careers. Join us for our next London event where we will address these challenges that nearly 20% of the population face, while considering ways in which organisations can be neurodiverse-inclusive, and best practices to attract neurodiverse talent during the hiring process.

RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/women-in-devops-save-the-date-tickets-382819743157

Discussion points/themes:

• Creating a neurodiverse-Inclusive workplace
• Why representation matters
• How to support mental wellbeing
• Reasonable adjustments in the recruitment process
• The power of terminology – ‘mad’, ‘mental’, ‘crazy’ what to replace these words with
• Not a one-size-fits-all approach

Our Panel:

• Francesca Pollard - Host @ Women in DevOps
• Georgina Shute - Chair, Tech and Kindness Consultant @ Equal Experts
• Ruth-Ellen Danquah - Chief Innovation Officer @ Exceptional Individuals
• Angeline Mulet-Marquis - Engineering Manager @ Funding Circle
• Mhairi Hislop - Software Developer @ Huboo

Georgina Shute
Georgina is a digital leader, charity founder and consultant who champions kindness in technology teams. She has led multiple digital and DevOps transformations for some of the UK's biggest brands. All whilst having undiagnosed ADHD. A chance conversation led her on a discovery journey about her ADHD brain which has helped her significantly. She is passionate about creating safe spaces for teams to thrive, solve complex problems, build interesting products and do their best work. She's been involved in environments where this has been challenging and now spends her time advocating for others (and herself!).

Ruth-Ellen Danquah
Ruth-Ellen is a former business development manager for Expedia Group where she generated £115 million in new business sales. In 2009 Ruth-Ellen discovered her son was on the autistic spectrum. Then in 2012, Ruth-Ellen discovered she was dyslexic, dyspraxic and later, ADHD and autistic, and was excited to learn about other people who were on their neurodivergent journey. So, she created a platform for neurodivergent individuals to come together to collaborate and share their success stories.

There was also a passion for helping herself and others heal so she could stop operating from the wounds from years of masking from trying to “fit in”. She is certified as a consultant, trainer, speaker, master coach, hypnotherapist, NLP Master Practitioner, Dialectical Behaviour Therapist, EFT Practitioner, life coach, Reiki Master, Mental Health First Aider and self-taught website developer.

Angeline Mulet-Marquis
Angeline has 15 years of experience as a Software Engineer, Tech Lead and more recently Engineering Manager.

Angeline loves solving problems through tech and strives at building strong and diverse teams. However, during her career Angeline has dealt with depression and anxiety, she is also an aunt to a 9-year-old girl with autism; both experiences have led her to be passionately involved in creating a more diverse and accepting industry and society.

In her spare time, she is an avid baker, a Disney Geek, a Musical Theatre enthusiast, and a mountain and ski fanatic.

Mhairi Hislop
Working in male-dominated spaces all her professional life, Mhairi has transitioned through engineering, operations, programme management and strategy, eventually changing her career completely in 2020. Now a software developer of only two years, Mhairi works for Huboo delivering solutions for international customers, whilst aiming to complete her part-time master's in business analytics.

She has done this whilst being on prescribed antidepressants used to treat the symptoms of anxiety and depression, for most of her adult life. As a result of this experience, she strives to normalise conversations about mental health, speak openly about alleviating the shame and stigma that can come attached to it, and carry that into the workplace.