Introducing my 2019 mentees

Published

11 Mar 2019

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3 min

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Late last year, I opened applications for my 2019 mentorship cohort.. To say I was overwhelmed by the response is a drastic understatement. I got so many awesome applications, that I decided to increase the slots from two to five! In the end, I’m really excited about the folks I’ll be working with this year: Adewale Abati, Olu Niyi-Awosusi, Marcy Sutton, Sara Wegman, and Desirée Zamora García.

I’ve been working with all five of them for a few months now and wanted to highlight a bit about who they are and what we are working on.

Adewale Abati

Adewale “Ace” Abati hails from Lagos, Nigeria. He and I connected after I presented at Concatenate last year. He’s eager to write, speak, learn, and share, especially when it comes to accessibility. I love the passion and enthusiasm I’m seeing from the dev community in Nigeria right now and Ace is a pure distillation of that.

Over the course of the next year, we’ll be working on his technical skills (especially accessibility), his technical writing, and his speaking skills. Ace has a lot of energy and I’m excited to be along for the ride.

Follow Ace and check out his work

Twitter: @Ace_KYD
Blog: acekyd.com
LinkedIn: @acekyd
Github: @acekyd

Olu Niyi-Awosusi

Olu is based in London, works for the BBC, and is a champion for accessibility. I love their passion for the web and that they share a ton of what they learn. So far, we’ve focused much of our time discussing diversity & inclusion and their importance in building the web we want. Olu is focused on improving their JavaScript and accessibility chops and is looking to become a better speaker (they are already a great writer). If you’re looking for a really awesome talk on the intersection of accessibility and social justice, hit them up!

Follow Olu and check out their work

Marcy Sutton

I was so honored when Marcy Sutton reached out to me and asked me to mentor her. I have a ridiculous amount of respect for Marcy and have learned a ton from her over the years. How could I say no‽ Marcy and I will be spending the bulk of our time discussing work/life balance and career advancement. She’s actually based about an hour north of me too, which means we can get together in person every now & then. Bonus!

Follow Marcy and check out her work

Twitter: @marcysutton
Blog: marcysutton.com
LinkedIn: @marcysutton
Github: @marcysutton

Sara Wegman

I have to admit I fell in love with Sara’s writing immediately. She’s got a way with words and a sincere kindness that just pours from every project she works on. I use her new tab page in Chrome to give me a little pick-me-up several times a day. Together, we’ll be working on career development, leveling up her dev skills, and looking for opportunities for her to share her knowledge. In the short time we’ve been working together, she’s demonstrated incredible commitment, tenacity, and talent. I even brought her onto the editorial team at A List Apart, where she’s already jumped in and proven herself a valuable contributor to that esteemed publication.

Follow Sara and check out her work

Desirée Zamora García

I’ve the great pleasure of working with Dezzie for a while now on A List Apart. She’s incredible—both as a writer and an editor. She’s got strong, well-grounded opinions and knows how to articulate them. She’s also supremely talented when it comes to UX and design, which is unsurprising given her career path thus far. We’re spending our time talking about her career (and our kids).