Presented at
Diana Initiative 2020 Virtual,
Aug. 22, 2020, 2 p.m.
(30 minutes)
Updated Title: "**What I Learned About Bias From Crossing the Gender Divide"**
Five years ago my career was skyrocketting upwards, but that changed when I brought my gender expression inline with my gender identity. As a result of transitioning, I experienced a shift in bias that no one could have prepared me for -- but it's not what you're thinking. In the two years that followed, I received over 30 rejections for roles and levels that I had previously held. I anticipated that I would run into stereotypes and negative bias, but the most surprising change in bias was internal.
Years of practicing meditation gave me a direct awareness that our perceptions are coloured by our past experiences, but as this body's hormones changed, so too did my own perception of the world! The interplay between memory and sensation, which occurs continually in each of us, is known as "perception bias", and I have some news for you: we're all biased -- and that's OK.* ** **
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* **What matters is what we do with it.*
Presenters:
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Aeva Black
- Microsoft
Aeva is a technology architect, team leader, mentor, and industry veteran with a successful career spanning 20 years, several startups, and multiple Fortune 500 Companies, including IBM, HPE, and Microsoft. Aeva’s areas of expertise include open source strategy, database development and consulting, advertising, cloud computing, hardware and security. They currently focus on Confidential Computing at Microsoft Azure, building the next generation of secure cloud-native application services. Aeva is known for cutting through complexity with precision, articulating simple, clear solutions for customers, partners, and developers. While at HPE, they led the creation and productization of an open source hardware automation framework which now powers millions of cores of clouds around the world. In former lives, Aeva held the titles of Vice President Engineering, Senior Staff Research Engineer, and Master Engineer. Aeva was the founding member and technical lead for OpenStack’s Ironic Project, and held a seat on the OpenStack Technical Committee. In their spare time, Aeva is a member of the Kubernetes Code of Conduct Committee, and a board member of a Seattle-area non-profit that advocates for consent culture. Aeva is also lifelong student of the Dharma and an aspiring writer, advocating to make the world more ethical and more inclusive.
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