WorkPride 2024: Embracing Neurodiversity in the Workplace

Speakers:

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  Devin Ibañez

  Customer Success Manager and Public Speaker
  myGwork

  Devin Ibañez is the first openly gay Major League Rugby player and is dedicated to LGBTQ+ advocacy in sport. He hopes to inspire the next generation of LGBTQ+ athletes and make sport an inclusive space for them. Raised in Boston, MA, Devin played for Major League Rugby team, the New England Free Jacks, in their 2019 exhibition season. He won a gold medal while representing Team USA at the 2017 World Maccabiah Games in Israel. He also won the 2018 D1 National Championship with his club team, Mystic River Rugby Club. When not playing, Devin has coached rugby at Westlake Boys High School in New Zealand, his alma mater Brookline High School and most recently with the Northeast Academy. He holds a degree in sport management and education from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Devin was announced Global Ambassador for International Gay Rugby (IGR) in May 2021. He is now looking towards a career in Public Speaking and Community Engagement. As of December 2023, Devin joined myGwork as a Customer Success Manager, the largest global business community for LGBTQ+ professionals and inclusive employers.

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  Jennifer Williams

  Senior Diversity & Inclusion Specialist
  Marsh McLennan

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  Lydia Bernsmeier-Rullow

  Business Analyst
  BBC

  Based in Manchester, I'm am an early career HR Product Business Analyst at the BBC. In 2023, I transitioned from a successful career in journalism, where I honed my skills as a creative thinker, known for solving problems with outside-the-box solutions. I'm also a Communications Officer for BBC Pride, our staff LGBT network. Beyond the corporate realm, I wear multiple hats - I'm an experienced public speaker, a writer, a stand up comic, and a drag artist. I proudly identify as a gay woman and I've been married to my wife for 10 years. My journey is uniquely shaped by my experiences as an autistic ADHDer, bringing a unique perspective and resilience to both my professional and creative pursuits. My story is a testament to the power of embracing neurodiversity, blending analytical acumen with the flair of a performer.

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  Ashley Hershey

  eLearning Experience Designer
  Autodesk, Inc.

  Currently a Learning Experiences Designer for Autodesk, Inc. and Global Co-Lead of the Autodesk Mental Inclusion, Neurodivergence, and Disability Employee Resource Group. Graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder with a Masters + Licensure in Secondary Humanities Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on anti-racist teaching and social justice pedagogy. Previous conferral of a Bachelor’s in English and Psychology with a minor in Sociology.

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  Duena Blomstrom

  Author, Founder, Podcaster, Agilist, Chief Product Officer
  People Not Tech

  Podcaster and author of “Emotional Banking”, “People Before Tech: The Importance of Psychological Safety and Teamwork in the Digital Age” and the critically acclaimed “Tech-Led Culture” books, Duena is also the originator of the "Emotional Banking™" and "HumanDebt™" concepts. She is an openly NeuroSpicy (late diagnosed AuADHD) individual, mother and wife to other autistic humans, artist, media personality, international keynote speaker and top technology influencer and commentator with over 250,000 followers and 122,000 newsletter subscribers, and the co-founder of PeopleNotTech, a global tech and media scale-up offering a human work platform that increases the Psychological Safety, EQ, performance and well-being of Teams through cutting-edge humanising solutions. Duena is, of course, the original HumanDebt™ fighter and her social entreprenuership now extends from researching and bettering the lives of software technologists with the software she designed, to amplyfying a message of change towards a world of work that has to open towards the "intensely human", the "emotional", the "different", the "queer", the "Neurodiverse" and all else that is authentic and real instead of the incessant masking that is hurting us all in the workplace today.

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