Introduce yourself here!

[Micky Curtis]

Hello! 

I am a Product Manager with SupplyShift. I am passionate about inclusion and diversity in corporate environments. As a female in tech and previously in the Army, I have often been the only female in the room. As a previous mental health counselor, I recognize the need to make sure everyone at the table has a voice. I am a big supporter of the neurodivergent movement and struggle with ADHD myself. 

I am looking for great conversation around a topic I am passionate about. I look forward to checking out what this group has to offer. 

Thanks!

Micky

[Erica Moss]

@Micky_Curtis We're glad you're here, Micky!

[Dara]

Hi Everyone!

Awesome that there's a group like this here!  Like many here I deal with the 'being a woman in IT'-thing. I work in a small company, and we do have a couple of women, but I am the only one in the technical department. I haven't had to deal with any sexism (that I've noticed), but have been bothered a bit by a general lack of understanding of social issues by some of my colleagues (all straight white men).

What makes me a more diverse person, I guess, would be the following:

• I mainly listen to metal and more punk/rock music (I'm bad with genres, but that corner of the music world in any case) and my clothing style would best be described as alternative/goth. I also have partially coloured hair (used to be purple, slowly washed out to blue, will soon be purple again).
• I am a huge nerd and part of just about every nerdy fandom: fantasy, sci-fi, anime, comics, games (computer, tabletop, soon LARP), literature, and science.
• I am poly-amorous. Recently broke up with one of my boyfriends, so I'm back to one at the moment, but that usually doesn't last long.
• I have clinical depression. I also dislike taboos and stigma's, so I'm always quite open about it. My work is very okay with this and allows me to work from home a bit more occasionally. 

So that's me, well a few of the highlights. It's nice to be here and I'm interested to see and follow the discussions that will come :)

[Erica Moss]

@Dara Thanks for joining us, Dara! Looking forward to seeing more of you. 😄

[Kerry Wano]

Greetings and salutations, fellow hoo-mans!

I'm a long time software developer making a move to get away from coding. Currently, I'm a Technical Analyst at a financial institution (a whopping 1.5 months on the job so far). Throughout my development career, I've utilized JIRA and Confluence as an end user many times, and I recommend these products to anyone who'll listen.

What drew me to this group, first, was simply the name. I'm ALL about diversity and inclusion. It's always brought a smile to my face to see a prominent representation of women, POC, and varying sexualities.

As for my own uniqueness, I sort of butt heads with the "system." I have bright blue hair in a faux-hawk, I don't generally subscribe to gender roles, I have unicorn and rainbow stickers on my laptop, and I'm asexual.

I'm a late schooler, finally finishing my Bachelor's degree. I'm married with no children (and no plans for any). My wife successfully had a brain tumor removed in late 2016. We have three ridiculous cats that we love dearly. We are members of a local board game group that meets every Thursday evening to play all sorts of board games. We also play some World of Warcraft when we have time.

[Dara]

Sounds like a pretty awesome life you got together! Nice to have you here :)

[J van Leeuwen]

Welcome, Kerry! 

[Erica Moss]

@Kerry Wano Welcome, welcome, Kerry! Fun fact: @Thomas Schlegel is a big games guy, so maybe y'all can connect. 😄

[Kerry Wano]

I saw that he posted about Wingspan (which I finally played this past weekend, love it) and about the lack of diversity in the respective design field. :)

[Kerry Wano]

Are you attending Spiel Essen this year, @Thomas Schlegel ?

I backed a game called Tang Garden that will be presenting there. At least the creator, Thundergryph Games, will be there.

[Monique vdB]

@Kerry Wano he is going! I told him he has to get a look of the new Wingspan expansion for me, because I think that team is at Essen too.

Tang Garden looks beautiful! Reminds me a little of Takenoko or even Tokaido. 

[Chris Whitehead]

Hi there everyone,

I'm Chris and work for a company called Appsbroker, as a Business Analyst. I believe diversity and equality are very important in all walks of life so I was happy to see that this group, and the Atlassian community in general, is so welcoming and like-minded.  

Something that makes me unique is that I'm not just a Business Analyst, in my spare time I am your typical Disco/Karaoke DJ and host of 2 very popular Pub Quiz nights! It's a lot of fun and has led to me running regular company quiz nights here at work as social events too.    

So stay tuned for my 1st turn on "Friday Fun" (March 27th) where I will share some fun quizzes with you all. 

Cheers!

[Erica Moss]

@Chris Whitehead Great to meet you!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Wonderful to meet you @Chris Whitehead - looking forward to your posts!

[Sajit Nair]

Hello Everyone, new joiner to this group.

I've been in the Project management / Agile space for 8+ years now and head the New Delhi Atlassian Community. I have a passion for touring on my Royal Enfield and am an part time musician under the moniker 'Vishkyun'.

I work with a couple of local NGOs to teach underprivileged kids on weekends and have been a loud voice shouting for equality and diversity in my small circle, thus proud to join this group.

Looking forward to connect with you all.

[Erica Moss]

@Sajit Nair Welcome, welcome, Sajit!

[Fernando Bordallo]

Hello everyone!

My name is Fernando Bordallo. I'm an Atlassian team lead, dedicated full-time to the improvement of the experiences around issue creating, interaction and flow. My main areas of interest lie in understanding how ideas come to life through collaboration, planning, and execution.

Great to be here 😄

[Alison]

Hi!

I'm Alison and I'm a program manager on Atlassian's Marketing team.

I'm interested in this group because I'm a huge advocate for inclusivity and am getting more involved in Atlassian's online community. 

Something unique about me is that I attended circus school when I was younger. Circus is a more accessible recreational activity than you think; if you've ever been curious about Olympic trampoline, flying trapeze, or just general flexibility classes - look up where the nearest Circus Center is to you.

D&I is important to me because I believe you can learn something from anyone - whether it's technical knowledge or about a new hobby, I'm glad to work for a company that's open-minded and encourages us to be authentic at work.

Thanks for reading- looking forward to getting more involved with the Community!

Alison

[Fernando Bordallo]

Welcome! 🚀

Looking forward to learning from all you have to share :)

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Welcome and lovely to meet you @Alison :) That's really neat about going to Circus School, that would be so much fun, but hard work too!

[Esme Crutchley]

Evening Everyone :)

I work at a UK University and am part of my department's EDI Working Group (Equality, Diversity & Inclusivity). EDI is important to me and I was very pleased to see that there was a D&I group in the Community, as I advocate for it daily at work.

Something about me is that I'm trying to be more intentional about my life. Some call it minimalism, I don't. I'm intentional about what I say, what I write, how I behave, what I buy, what I keep & what I give to charity. I try to be intentional about everything in my world that I can be, and I try to encourage others to be the same. (Not going to lie, Trello has helped me leaps and bounds with being intentional!)

I try to see the good in any situation or conversation and accept people no matter what, everyone is beautiful and wonderful, simply because they are them!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Grateful you joined the D&I group @Esme Crutchley - I look forward to learning from you!

[J van Leeuwen]

Welcome, Esme! 

[Mickie]

.

[J van Leeuwen]

Welcome, Mickie! 

[Carlos Garcia Navarro]

My name is Carlos Garcia Navarro. I'm from Spain but I've been living and working in Colorado, US for almost 13 years now. I love my job but something I miss is working in a more diverse environment. In my years of University and my early career I was blessed with the opportunity to work with people very diverse, from different countries and cultures. I studied one year in Germany and I fell in love with the experience of learning about other cultures. For a number of years I worked for a Swiss company and in  every project I was involved there were people from several countries. The world seems a more interesting place when you can hear English, French, German, Spanish and more! in the same group setting. See you around!

[J van Leeuwen]

Welcome, Carlos! 

[Vero Rivas]

My name is Verónica Rivas, I am from Zaragoza, Spain. I love my profession I have been computer science for almost 25 years.
I have family in Italy, USA and Spain, I love being able to share various customs and especially food.
  I hope I can contribute to this community and that it is an interesting experience.
  Greetings to all.

[Carlos Garcia Navarro]

Welcome, Vero! Me encanta Zaragoza, es una de mis ciudades favoritas! :-)

[Vero Rivas]

Hola Carlos,

 Gracias, igualmente !!!

 Que bueno que te guste, es una ciudad acogedora, con el tamaño justo, aunque ultimamente esta creciendo bastante.

 Si pasas por aquí avisas y así nos ponemos cara real, que tal por Colorado, vaya salto eh ...

 Yo tengo una prima en Denver, tengo pendiente visita...

Un saludo ... 

[J van Leeuwen]

Welcome, Vero! 

[Vero Rivas]

Thanks Jennifer 😄

[Miguel Jesus _Team Files_]

Hi everyone :) 

I'm Miguel. I'm a designer at ikuTeam. We're a small team in Portugal, unfortunately not so diverse, but not really by choice. We tried to hire women in the past and we never limited applications in any way, but still here we are: all guys and I'm the only gay in team (read like "I'm the only gay in the village" from the Little Britain show). 

I'm joining the group to get some insights on how we can grow the team to be more diverse and inclusive, but also to keep my assumptions and biases in check when I'm designing.

Besides being a bit of a geek with a thing for baking, I also do volunteer work, mostly with design work, for an animal rescue association and the occasional collaboration with friends working for LGBT+ associations and Universities to create reports.

[Erica Moss]

@Miguel Jesus _Team Files_ Welcome, Miguel! We are so glad you're here. 😄

[Miguel Jesus _Team Files_]

Thank you Erica. It's good to be here. ^^,

[M.Fad]

Hi, My name is Moyoforeoluwa (Nigerian living in the US). I believe our origin is part of our identity, and contributes to our uniqueness. I joined this group to gain knowledge from peoples experiences, see how people have resolved and understood each individuals uniqueness to foster unity.

I love to try new recipes, even though I had to take a break due to a change in diet.

[Erica Moss]

@M.Fad Welcome, welcome!

[Vero Rivas]

Welcome M_Fad !!!

[Esther Strom]

Hi, everyone! My name is Esther, and I'm a process integration engineer in Chicago. During all of the civil unrest in the U.S., my company is holding online workshops on increasing diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism both professionally and personally. We are already quite diverse, but now we're being intentional about it.

I didn't know this group existed until today, and am glad to see the Atlassian community has been working towards this for years. I'm hoping to read about how other companies, both American and otherwise, foster diversity.

About me: I have purple hair (yes, my avatar looks like me!), a number of non-standard piercings, and many tattoos, which surprises people who don't know me well. I'm a choral singer and former theater professional; when the world isn't quarantined I volunteer as a scene designer and set building mentor for a local high school theater group. 

[Erica Moss]

@Esther Strom Welcome, Esther! This is certainly one of my favorite groups in the Community, with regular thoughtful posts from folks like @Mary Ramirez and @Jodi LeBlanc that I recommend you check out. 😄

[Esme Crutchley]

Hi @Esther Strom it's great to have another purple-haired friend here (although my avatar is in black and white so you can't see mine, but I promise you, it's purple!).

Welcome!

[Kristin Lyons]

I'm Kristin, I've been working with Atlassian products since 2014. I'm a big advocate of diversity and inclusion and just realized that this group exists!  Excited to be a member

[Erica Moss]

@Kristin Lyons Welcome to the group, Kristin!

[Terri Broome]

Hey y'all - 

I'm Terri. I'm a long time (feels like it anyway) Software Project & Program Manager with a small experience in InfoSec (fascinating but not my cup of tea). I've known about Jira and the Atlassian products for as long as I've been in IT for the most part. I don't think you can be in the IT space and not know the Atlassian Suite. 

I don't know that there's much unique about me. I have a half Vietnamese son (yes, he's mine - not adopted lol) who is an adult now (he survived making it to 21 - I must have done something right.  My youngest son is 12 with a lot of spunk, comedy, and sarcastic humor. 

Diversity and Inclusion has been important to me my entire life. I grew up in Baltimore just outside of the city.  While my Mom didn't teach me the differences about other races, I just knew it was important to love people for who they were and how they treated you. I didn't understand the importance of being a white little girl and spending the night with a Black family. I don't think my Mom understood it either.  She just saw a woman who was her best friend and their children loved to hang out together.  I just saw another woman who was like a mom and I loved her and her children.  Getting older, I started to understand the differences and how a white girl spending the night with Black families was an unusual occurrence. I knew I defended my friends in school and out in public but still didn't get the significance.  Age will do things for you. I'm very vocal on social media. I've put myself in harms way when those I love who are not protected by white skin are in potentially dangerous situations with authority and other white people.  

I hate that it's taken us so long as a Nation to understand that Black and Brown communities have built this country. It breaks my heart when people can't understand that they aren't thriving in the diminished conditions we created for them and continue to keep our hand over them to keep them down.  Unfortunately, it's a daily fight with white people, especially living in North Georgia.  I try to educate and provide data and facts, especially historical data and fact and it's still met with resistance. I can't and won't be silent. I have to keep trying to educate ignorance and closed minds for all BIPOC until we are all equal. My Asian son doesn't want to have children because of the state of the world and how systemic racism continues to perpetuate. How sad is that?  So I'll keep fighting for diversity and inclusion in the workplace and in my personal life.  If you've made it this far through my ramblings and feelings, thanks for listening. 

[J van Leeuwen]

Welcome, Terri! I also grew up not far from Baltimore, in Columbia. I feel blessed that I was able to grow up in such a racially diverse area, and it was sometimes shocking when I left that little bubble and saw how 'different' things were outside. Thank for you for sharing your story and fighting for Black and Brown communities. This is a great story about Columbia: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/07/21/a-haven-for-interracial-love-amid-relentless-racism-columbia-turns-50/. Although I'm not there anymore, I feel blessed to have grown up in an environment where racial diversity was embraced. 

[Erica Moss]

@Terri Broome We're so glad you're here, and we're so grateful that you've shared your story! It really underscores the work we still have left to do.

[Terri Broome]

@J van Leeuwen Wow that is a great story! Thank you for sharing. I don't get to Columbia very often.  I'm headed home next month to visit my Mom for her birthday.

[Lisa Mounteer]

Love! Love! Love! Love that this group is here. Thank you so much!

I have always struggled to find my tribe. I grew up in South Florida, am a woman in and out of tech, neurodiverse (with a neurodiverse son), of mixed-race, and love to make order in the chaos. I'll speak out more as I find comfort here. 

Thank you again for this group! <3

[Kat Warner]

Welcome to those who have joined this group so far in 2021:

@Lisa Mounteer has already introduced herself in the comment above this one.

@Soumyadeep Mandal - SaM @Nate Whitehead @KAGITHALA BABU ANVESH  - please share why you're interested in this group, and (if you're comfortable) name something about you that's unique, unusual, or diverse! 

[Capi [resolution]]

Hi,

I'm Jaime Capitel, I'm  the content marketing manager at resolution, a German Marketplace Partner.

I studied philosophy and languages in college, then life took me to the Atlassian world where I've been developing my career for about 3 years now. I guess that says some about my understanding of how important it is to bring people with a diverse background to work together. Sometimes having a rookie can be an asset :).

I'm very sensitive to gender diversity in particular. I'm still struggling with the basic fact that tech companies are always predominantly male and tend to have female presence only in non-technical areas, so I'm looking forward to find what others are doing to counter this.

Looking forward to having conversations over here!

[Soumyadeep Mandal - SaM]

Hi,

I'm Soumyadeep and I'm really happy to be here!

I have been using Atlassian products for the last couple of years!

I believe that the characteristics that make people unique and the behaviors that make feel everyone welcomed is the best thing.

Atlassian community is a great place & gives a really good opportunity for everyone to help & solve each other's issues & problems with Atlassian products.

Here I got the opportunity to help various users from various places. It really feels great when I help or solve the issues/problems of any users.

Regards,

Soumyadeep

[Kat Warner]

Welcome to our newest group members!

@Srikanth Ganipisetty @Eva Kasiak @Xel_Selenius @Kamil Mackowski @Natasha Kinder @Katelyn Botts - please share why you're interested in this group, and (if you're comfortable) name something about you that's unique, unusual, or diverse! 

[Monika Rani]

Hi @Monique vdB ,

My Name is Monika Rani and I live in India. I am a YouTuber, entrepreneur and Atlassian products lover 😊. I love to share my knowledge with others and that's why I create videos on Youtube. Here are my playlists where you can learn the basics of Jira Software and Jira Permissions.

Jira Software Tutorials: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaFzfwmPR7_KEFu3-mvdxQC4gsoiEOMNu

Jira Permissions: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaFzfwmPR7_JO4uOAhb_mN1CUrmoWtgTZ

Please have a look if you want.

Cheers

[Fabienne Gerhard]

Hi @ everyone in this group,

totally forgot to introduce myself in this group! Even though I'm a member and community leader for a longer time.

My name is Fabienne, I'm 38 (nearly 39) years old and I live in the south of bavaria with my wife which means I'm gay. Working in advertising agencies and in tech I never really had problems with that - I thought - but I made my bad experiences with conservative and unsupportive people. 

Now I try to support others on their way no matter what kind of support they need! Really love who supportive and open minded everyone here is! 🌈

[Kat Warner]

Welcome to our newest group members!

@Monika Rani has posted already which is great to see.

@Hana Kučerová @Donnie Grooms @Manoosh Majdzadeh @Samie Kaufman - Your Gal at Gliffy @jessicakenn - please share why you're interested in this group, and (if you're comfortable) name something about you that's unique, unusual, or diverse! 

[Manoosh Majdzadeh]

Hi everyone! 

Well let me first say that this group truly rocks!🤘

I'm Manoosh (35) and I'm the content manager at iDalko, an Atlassian partner.

I'm an Iranian who travelled around a bit and finally settled down in Antwerp, Belgium. I'm genuinely interested in a world without borders and with diversity and tolerance. I just love meeting new people and learning all about their cultures/ challenges/ life stories. I believe there's still so much we need to do to make this world a better place for everyone. 

I'm quite new to IT as I come from an artistic/ educational background (studied English literature and architecture, was an English teacher/ journalist for half my life, used to be an English theatre actress and an interior designer as well). But I love everything about this new field I'm working in as I'm learning something new every day. 🤓

Thank you for creating this amazing group and looking forward to reading your stories!  

[Capi [resolution]]

Welcome @Manoosh Majdzadeh!

It's great to have you here :)

[Manoosh Majdzadeh]

Thank you @Capi [resolution]! :)