about US

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Melanie King
Founder + Facilitator

Melanie started the Race After Technology Book Club for people working in tech + design in the midst of the pandemic and the George Floyd uprisings in the United States in the northern hemisphere’s Spring and Summer of 2020.

With a background in cultural anthropology and community arts, she’s currently working as a UX Designer at Hanwha Vision. Born in the United States and having lived in Honduras, Israel, China and Australia, she is currently living in Sacramento, California.

Melanie on LinkedIn
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Tara Hedayat-Zadeh
Facilitator

Tara is a UX designer and researcher. Her experience includes community-led projects, international development at the UN, and industrial design. She is interested in how design + tech can support collective processes of change.

She is currently based in Florida.

Tara on LinkedIn
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Jay Jones
Facilitator

Jay is the Founder and Lead Designer of his own design studio, notadesignstudio* where he specializes in making design accessible to underserved communities throughout the United States. Through the lens of Industrial Design, he has been able to innovate in the places that need it most; the realm of global equality. Being full-blooded Creek (Yamasee), his background and existence carves a path for changing the narrative of Native American Culture. He dedicates his life to balancing the scales of representation in all aspects of the world.

He is currently based in Savannah, Georgia.
Not A Design Studio

Jay on LinkedIn
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Sabine Thomas
Facilitator

Sabine works in the field of Education Technology, where she investigates users' holistic experience (parents/children/teachers) in engaging with educational software. She is a strong proponent of using qualitative research to engage the collaboration among communities and industry. She is based in Tacoma, Washington.

Sabine on LinkedIn
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Jackie Wijaya
Facilitator

Jackie is a UX designer/engineer with a passion for accessibility and inclusive design. She is interested in facilitating spaces to reflect and collectively reimagine our futures. Born and raised in Indonesia, she's lived in Hawaii, California, and Chicago, and is currently based out of Seattle, Washington.

Jackie on LinkedIn
JerrieFu

Jerrie Fu
Facilitator

Jerrie joined the first round of the bookclub as a way to meet new people and to deepen her understanding of the social inequities perpetuated by the tech industry.

She is a Product Designer for Etsy, where she’s solving problems for international buyers. As a second-career designer, she’s interested in helping make tech careers more accessible to folx from all socio-economic backgrounds.

She is currently based in San Francisco.

Jerrie on LinkedIn

OUR WHY

Designers + Tech folks want to understand racism - how it is reflected, reproduced – and in worst cases amplified – by the technologies we help create.

Academic Activists (a.k.a social science researchers) in higher education institutions are producing exciting and insightful analyses to help us understand racism and how it functions via the technologies we produce.

But there is a disconnect between what these researchers are teaching us and what people in design and tech are learning via their design certificates, boot camps and online courses.

The Race After Technology book club is a space for connecting industry folks with current academic inquiry, where we can gain the tools and vocabulary to understand the dynamics at play when it comes to technologies produced in societies entrenched in racism; the insight and instincts to question the immutability of a future determined by technology; and where we grow relationships to support our ongoing individual and collective actions to address these challenges within the design + tech communities.

Contact Us