Who would think in 2022 we still have to announce the first Black (fill in the blank)? Well allow me to introduce to you to the FIRST BLACK FEMALE CIO (Chief Information Officer) of the White House Office of the United States Trade Representative(USTR), Celestine Pressley. Jump into this episode to hear her talk about working in the White House and how she went from fleecing the government to policing government IT. Connect with Deena for Career Coaching: https://calendly.com/deena-m-mckay/15min...
Mar 03, 2022•44 min
Connect with Deena for Career Coaching: https://calendly.com/deena-m-mckay/15min Failing upward can be a beautiful thing and Elise Swopes tells us how that's possible. She turned her rock bottom, purposeless life into an intentional, healthy, abundant, purposeful experience. That's powerful! Learn how Elise went from college dropout and couch crashing to working with some of our favorite brands (Apple, Adidas, Lady Gaga to name a few) and kicking ass in the NFT community. Oh and did I mention sh...
Feb 10, 2022•49 min
If you ever wanted to get inside the mind of a CEO, today is your lucky day. I had the pleasure to sit & chat with my company (Kin+Carta)Group Chief Executive, Kelly Manthey. We talk about her career path, the top tech topics including burnout and remote working, and dare I say we talk about RACE. Yes you read that right, we go deep on this episode! Enter the mind of Kelly Manthey, if you dare. Full show notes here: https://blacktechunplugged.com/2022/01/27/ep-054-kelly-manthey-unplugged/ In...
Jan 27, 2022•40 min
Have you ever wondered what your Scrum Master actually does at work? Well it's a lot more than you think. Join Black Tech Unplugged host, Deena McKay, for an episode where you learn more about her role as a Scrum Master, the responsibilities that come with the role, and how she wants to help you in 2022! (And also how you can help her.) Full show notes for this episode: https://blacktechunplugged.com/2022/01/13/ep-053-deena-mckay-unplugged/ Interested in receiving career coaching from Deena? Sch...
Jan 11, 2022•25 min
You may know Du'An Lightfoot as Mr. Lab Everyday, but on this episode he is my co-host. On episode 052, Du'An and I give a brief update on his current tech role and touch on several of the top tech stories. We speak about Elizabeth Holmes (CEO of Theranos) and her current fraud trial, the iPod turning 20 this year (this is where we show our age), Snapchat seeing a dramatic drop in it's stock price, and last but not least every woe that Facebook has going on right now (there's too many to list he...
Oct 28, 2021•36 min
One day this young woman thought she was going to work in finance, next thing you know she is working in tech at a major corporation. And that is the beginning of Hosanna Hali's story into tech. Even though she took the unconventional path into tech she is making a big impact on the UK tech scene. Not only is she an Azure specialist, she is also a big UK content creator (although I prefer to call her an influencer). Listen to episode 051 of the podcast and learn about Hosanna's tech role, her ow...
Oct 13, 2021•50 min
Black Tech Unplugged has officially hit 50 episodes! Thank you to every single person who listens to the podcast repeatedly, it doesn't go unnoticed at all. As a way to say thank you I have two treats for you: 1. Referral link to get more tech news in your inbox via emerging tech brew newsletter: morningbrew.com/emerging-tech/r/?kid=783aa044 2. A discount code for Hustle Crew (https://www.hustlecrew.co/membership#:~:text=Hustle%20Crew%20Membership%20Access%20new%20tools%20%26%20proven,your%20com...
Sep 30, 2021•34 min
Brandy Hays Morrison's mom had a dream. That her kids would one day work at IBM. Well she got her dream(and then some). Allow me to introduce you to Brandy, VP of Strategic Growth at Pluribus Digital, but more importantly a Black woman with resilience and a tech journey that you would never believe. Listen to episode 049 to hear the story of a woman who took a leap of faith into engineering ended up in the VP chair. Full show notes for this episode: https://blacktechunplugged.com/2021/09/16/bran...
Sep 16, 2021•44 min
VOTE FOR MY SXSW PANEL: panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/118371 *Note: You have to create an account before voting Africa and I are back together yall! Bringing you a good kiki and the latest tech news. To be specific in this episode we cover: - Deena's SXSW Panel - Code Switching: Lifestyle or Necessary Evil?: panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/118371 - How OnlyFans is removing sex worker content (the content that made them money): https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/21/tech/onlyfans-creators-react-sexually-explicit-b...
Aug 25, 2021•28 min
VOTE FOR MY SXSW PANEL: https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/118371 *Note: You have to create an account before voting On this episode I am joined by the outspoken, positive being known as Teri Green-Mason. She tells us the story about starting off her career as an intern (it sounds normal, but it's not what you think) and how she climbed the corporate ladder extremely quickly. Learn how this transformational CIO builds successful teams and has everybody wanting to join her standups. And most impor...
Aug 10, 2021•51 min
Black Tech Unplugged is back with a new episode and a new format! On this episode Deena welcomes guest co-host, Africa Miranda, and together we discuss a few of the top tech stories of the past week. We want to share with you how tech decisions affect our community as well as share events that are happening in the tech space. In this episode we cover: • Atlanta being the breeding ground for tech startups (http://techcrunch.com/2021/05/02/how-did-atlanta-become-a-top-breeding-ground-for-billion-d...
May 20, 2021•31 min
Remember my mama I made it moment from this year, getting to speak at SXSW? Well now I get to share the experience with you! That's right today I get to release my SXSW set titled "Diversity & Inclusion: Buzzword, Movement or BS?" to all of you! So join myself, Lisa Magill of Aleria, and Lisa Godwin of You Are Tech & the The New York Times, as we discuss the importance of diversity and inclusion in tech as well as we finally decide what is D&I. Full show notes are available at: https...
May 06, 2021•50 min
Have you met a Black woman who made the six figure club in tech before they turned 30? Have you seen a Black woman dominating the tech industry in various ways? Well let me introduce you to episode 044's guest, Kanika Tolver. Kanika is a project manager, career coach, and author who is showing us how to run game in tech. On this episode we talk about her 15+ year journey in tech, she schools us in how to get to six figures (spoiler alert: it's hard work!), and she talks to me about why it's impo...
Apr 15, 2021•51 min
Not many know about the world of tech culture reporting, so I decided to dive deep into that world. On this episode of Black Tech Unplugged I interview Nitasha Tiku, tech culture reporter for the Washington Post. We go deep on her latest article for the Washington Post titled "Google's approach to historically Black schools helps explain why there are few Black engineers in Big Tech". You don't want to miss us getting down into the nitty gritty details of what went wrong (and right) with Google'...
Mar 11, 2021•56 min
If your internship company left you in the lobby for 4 hours on your first day would you still be there? Well this happened to Jay Hammonds and let me tell you his 4 hour wait helped turn him into an award winning technologist. On this episode of Black Tech Unplugged, Jay Hammonds, Executive Support Engineering Team at Facebook, talks about how he went from the guy who had to leave college after the first quarter of his freshmen year to the man bringing in over 400 diverse interns to Facebook (v...
Feb 04, 2021•44 min
On this episode of Black Tech Unplugged I want you to meet Zeryn Sarpangal (Chief Financial and People Officer at Code for America), Chris Kuang (Co-Founder and Director of Operations of Coding it Forward), and Andréa Viza (Director of Talent for the United States Digital Service (USDS)). These 3 individuals are leaders in the civic tech sector and it is about time that you not only learn about these civic tech rockstars, but also learn about civic tech as a career path. So on episode 041 you he...
Nov 12, 2020•45 min
Serial Entrepeneur. Inventor. First female founder to raise over $1M in a Reg CF campaign. You heard her on episode 011 (https://blacktechunplugged.com/2018/03/27/episode-11-dawn-dickson-unplugged/), but Dawn Dickson is back again! On this episode of Black Tech Unplugged we chat about Dawn's company Popcom, a tech company that is innovating how we look at vending machines. We talk about her company, how she's about to change the vending game, the lessons she has learned from being a tech entrepr...
Oct 08, 2020•39 min
On this episode I speak to Everett Harper, CEO & Co-founder of Truss (https://truss.works/). Everett leaves nothing on the table as we talk about his journey in tech as an entrepreneur, how we can use our race issues to finally address diversity in tech, & he even gives extensive advice on how you can get on the board of your dream. And that's honestly in just the first half of this episode. Grab a pen and some paper because this episode has advice that is going to change your life!(alon...
Sep 17, 2020•53 min
Devon Prince grew up thinking that being a police officer or his job at KFC was enough for him. Boy was he wrong! Thanks to his uncle, who called him with the chance of a lifetime, he was introduced to the organization called Year Up and his whole life changed in a flash. He went from frying chicken to working as a IT Global Service Desk Analyst at Salesforce. On this episode of Black Tech Unplugged you learn about Devon Prince's nontraditional journey into tech. He tells us about his time at Ye...
Jul 28, 2020•42 min
Episode 037 features Caren Young, who for the past 14 years helped Fortune 1000 companies build, market, and sustain products that are user-centric and based in research. She has helped organizations craft compelling stories, execute, iterate, and get results. Blending a background in the social sciences, advertising, product management and diversity/inclusion management, I am able to pull disparate items together, build a cohesive solution and inspire teams to get the job done. Now she has her ...
Jun 30, 2020•38 min
Arlan Hamilton shook the tech world when she hopped on the scene in 2015. She took what once used to be the 'good old boys' club and made room for a new group in town by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT via her company Backstage Capital. Now her life wasn't always rainbows and butterflies (hell she was homeless before this all started). BUT, Arlan uses her hustle mentality and resilience to not only survive, but thrive in the world today. On this e...
May 09, 2020•28 min
There’s many paths you can take in law, but have you ever thought about being a lawyer in tech? Bärí A. Williams didn’t KNOW that would be her route in life, but many years later she has worked at startups and companies (including Facebook and Stubhub) to make sure they are protected. Oh! And did I mention on top of being a lawyer she is a diversity warrior? Her passion for making people see every side of a situation is what makes Bärí... well Bärí. Listen to episode 035 Bärí A. Williams Unplugg...
Apr 14, 2020•47 min
Imagine starting your career thinking you are going to write scripts and act in movies, then.... that doesn’t work out. So now what? With a little help from her guidance counselor, Pariss found her new career path, TECH. Find out how joining a coding boot camp helped elevate Pariss to become a woman who wears many hats in the tech industry including being the founder of #BlackTechTwitter & Black Tech Pipeline as well as killing it in her current role as recruiter/marketer/ social media extra...
Jan 23, 2020•50 min
Sometimes we think 'if I just fit in with the rest of the group I'll be alright'. Some call it Leaning In, others call it survival mode, in this case no one was the winner. Allow me to introduce Yassmin-Abdel Magied, a young Black women who tried to lean into her tech job, but found herself fighting to shine her extraordinary light with the world! On episode 033 of the podcast Yassmin and I discuss her time in tech, how being in a toxic environment psychologically affected her, and how leaning i...
Nov 25, 2019•51 min
Who would've thought a boy from the hood of Stanton Island would end up in the White House? We did, but I digress... On episode 032, David Holmes shares his story of how his love for computers at an early age led him to become the Director of Engineering at USDS. From being called the n-word (it wasn't intentional) to hackathons to his dream role, this is David Holmes story. Full story notes here: https://blacktechunplugged.com/2019/10/31/ep-032-david-e-holmes-unplugged/
Oct 31, 2019•48 min
Greg Greenlee is the man we all want to be... the man who has over 17 years of experience in tech. The person who has used his personal experiences in the industry as a motivator to create change in the industry. And furthermore, that's why I had to have him on episode 031 of Black Tech Unplugged, it was time to share his knowledge with us so we can be motivated too. On episode 31, Greg & I discuss: * The evolution of his organization, Blacks in Technology (BIT) * What a Dev Ops Engineer is ...
Oct 09, 2019•51 min
When I tell you that Charles Kuykendoll has been on a ride and yet doing the most, I'm not exaggerating! This man went from an operations internship at Barclays, which he had no experience to do, to now leading engineering recruiting at AirBNB. On episode 030, Charles breaks down his unique journey into tech, why being a good person is going to get you far, and how he has a business that doesn't interfere with his 9-5. Full show notes at: https://blacktechunplugged.com/2019/09/24/ep-030-charles-...
Sep 24, 2019•58 min
Episode 029 features Latesha Byrd, the Founder & CEO of Byrd Career Consulting — a consulting firm on the mission to help millennial professionals turn their dreams into careers that allow them to live life on their own terms. On this episode Latesha and I discuss: * Stigma around career switching * Why you need to take control and "manage up" today * The importance of LinkedIn and why you should update your profile weekly Make sure to sign up for Latesha's FREE salary negotiation masterclas...
Sep 10, 2019•48 min
Like many of us, Jessica Williams had no idea that she would end up working in tech. Learn how Jessica went from following people in the office to managing a team in episode 028 of Black Tech Unplugged. Full show notes: https://blacktechunplugged.com/2019/08/13/ep-028-jessica-williams-unplugged/ Vote for Black Tech Unplugged's SXSW Panel: https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/99023 Connect with Jessica: Website: https://www.techbizgurl.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicalavernewilliams...
Aug 13, 2019•52 min
Last week Black Tech Unplugged celebrated 2 years of podcasting!! In order to celebrate I had a live podcast in Chicago! Listen to the live episode that includes my 4 panelist: Will McNeil, Jane Hamner, Giovanni Perez & Vunzai Yeazel. This episode is full of amazing advice from these Chicago techies and of course the full show notes have all the cliff notes and links you need. Full show notes: https://blacktechunplugged.com/2019/06/18/ep-027-black-tech-unplugged-live-in-chicago/ Special shou...
Jun 18, 2019•1 hr 19 min
