Pride in DevOps - Your Authentic Self


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Authenticity means accepting who you are, your needs, and how you communicate and influence the world. There is nothing as liberating as self-acceptance and being your true authentic, unapologetic self. Organisations have the power to enable employees to feel a sense of belonging, psychological safety, and security to thrive. Do you show up authentically in your place of work?
Join us for a discussion to acknowledge that even though the DevOps industry is ‘progressive’, there is more work to be done to achieve true gender inclusivity. Our aim is to discuss experiences and unite the LGBTQ+ DevOps community in a light-hearted but meaningful discussion. Hosted by NewDay.
Discussion points:
- Lobbying for genuine change
- Rainbow-washing and the consequences
- Policy making for LGBTQIA+ employees
- Psychological safety – bringing the whole self to the environment
- Coming out in the workplace
Our panel:
- Francesca Pollard - Host @ Women in DevOps
- Stefania Chaplin - Solutions Architect @ Gitlab
- Amy Allen - DevOps Engineer @ Feeld
- Jaipal Sachdev - Lean Six Sigma Black Belt @ 3M
- Idelkys Quintana - DevOps Engineer @ NewDay
- David Whitney - Principal Engineer @ NewDay
Stefania Chaplin
Over the last five years, Stefania has spoken at over 100 events globally and virtually including DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES), RSA Conference, OWASP 20th Anniversary, Women of Silicon Roundabout and many meetups including Women in DevOps.
Stefania worked a variety of careers in her 20s, make-up artist, pole fitness teacher, sales, recruitment, HR, python developer and finally a cybersecurity solutions architect - she gave careers talks to teenagers about how it's okay to change your mind! Founded Women at Sonatype, improved diversity from 4% to 11% in two years and helped to shape global recruitment strategy.
Amy Allen
London College of fashion Fashion grad turned Software Developer turned Devops, neurodiverse, STEM Ambassador and passionate about championing for equality and change within the tech sector. She also has one of the UK's biggest Hello Kitty collections and loves hiking, remote nomadism and retro gaming.
Jaipal Sachdev
He joined 3M in 2019 after working as a process engineer and project manager for Procter & Gamble; and before that studied chemical engineering at Imperial College, London. Jaipal and his partner, Jamie, relocated to the North East of England when he accepted the role at 3M.
Today he is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (a black belt in science, rather than taekwondo!). My job involves working with our engineering, quality, and maintenance teams to run projects on the Six Sigma methodology – a set of process improvement tools that eliminate waste and reduce variation.
He identifies as a Gay Cis-Male and when choosing the engineering route, there was a distinct feeling that science and engineering weren’t for queer people. This is a stigma and another stereotype that he would like to ‘smash’ once and for all.
Idelkys Quintana
She has strong platform experience in cloud environments. Started working as a DevOps engineer in 2018, before that she focused her career on network design and architecture. Passionate about new technologies and making things easier for others. Proudly support all efforts to minimise the gender gap in IT, mainly for technical roles. Love running and weightlifting! 😉
David Whitney
David is a Distinguished Architect at NewDay, based in London focusing on software delivery, developer mentoring and cultural change. David is the author of the best-selling kids programming books Get Coding, and Get Coding 2, a Microsoft MVP, and a frequent conference speaker. You can get in touch by visiting: [https://www.davidwhitney.co.uk/now](https://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s/AaPkC28QvSEMQ2zULpE8m)

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Pride in DevOps - Your Authentic Self