Well hi there, it’s nice to meet you!
Here’s the part of my site where I introduce myself to you on a more personal level.
South West based
So I’ll start with some basic stuff. I’m based in the beautiful Exmoor national park, in Somerset near Minehead. Prior to that I had lived in Bristol based for twenty years, starting my love affair with the city when I went to Bristol University to do a BSc in Computer Science.
I’m from Cardiff originally and after all this time I’m afraid that all hints of my welsh accent are truly gone. Apart from when I’ve had a few too many to drink, then my speech gets all sing-songy again and if you listen carefully you can tell by how I roll my ‘r’s!
Work history
For pretty much all of my career I’ve been able to work in the center of my venn diagram of expertise combining digital tech, sustainability and management in my roles.
Ever since I was a teenager I’ve been interested in computers and programming. As mentioned I headed to Bristol Uni as a bright eyed eighteen year old to pursue a degree in Computer Science, which I loved. Straight after uni I landed a role at start-up Team Rubber, and worked there for three years where I did coding, project management and ultimately studio management for a variety of digital things like websites, animations and digital democracy products.
After that I worked at the Environment Agency in a variety of project, programme and portfolio mangement roles for 8 years. Some of the roles were heavily involved with strategic management of the organisation’s ICT portfolio. Other involved managing teams of 8 – 15 people. I set up the first Project Support Office in the organisation using a resource pool model, and introduced portfolio management to the Environment and Business dept (basically handling policy that wasn’t flooding). It’s safe to say I know a thing or two about managing change, spreadsheets, and environmental politics after my time there.
I then came full circle, dusted off my coding skills and reinvented myself as a freelance web developer specialising in WordPress websites. I wrote a story all about my journey in programming for DevelopMe, who were a brilliant web developer bootcamp based in Bristol who I instructed with for three years. I got involved in running the Bristol WordPress community (more below) and started doing a lot of public speaking.
During that time my venn diagram became a bit narrower, as the sustainability angle wasn’t present in my day to day work. I set out exploring how to bring that in and became super interested in the impact, both positive and negative, that digital can have on the environment. A lot of people think because data is in the cloud, it doesn’t have an impact and that’s not true at all. There’s a lot of educating and work to be done, both within tech communities and civil society. I switched the things I talked about at events from WordPress coding stuff to digital sustainability stuff.
In 2021, that resulted in me doing a 10 month fellowship with Green Web Foundation, a non-profit with a mission for a fossil-free internet. I got on really well with the team and I transitioned into a full time role as GWF’s Director of Operations. Myself, Chris Adams and Michelle Thorne form the leadership team and we operate a co-leadership model. I lead on facilitating a culture of effective and joyful delivery as we work on our goal to see a fossil-free internet by 2030.
I still do a lot of speaking at public and private events, occassionally get to code, but mostly get to work on making some brilliantly impactful ideas real with a fabulously talented bunch of humans. Said with all seriousness, I am one lucky woman.
If you’re interested in seeing my CV, check my LinkedIn profile which is always kept up to date.
I love nature and sports
Most people that meet me socially are often surprised by what I do for a living, as I truly love being outside in nature doing something active. It is actually very difficult to find a picture of me taken indoors, unless it’s one taken at a conference.
When I’m not at my computer, I’m most passionate about gardening and permaculture. One of the reasons for moving to Exmoor was to get a place with a large garden outside of an urban area so I could experiment with some of my ideas for small-scale systems to grow food sustainability. In the early 2010s I did a permaculture course in Bristol and it really sparked my imagination. Right now my husband and I have experiments with hugel beds, solar and water power generation and growing food in no-dig, low effort ways. We also bought a beautiful wreck of a house that has needed a full renovation. We’re doing all the work ourselves and taking our sweet sweet time to reveal the charm of our home. Four years in, I’d say we’re about half way there.
I also really enjoy active sports things like running, cycling, swimming in the sea or going for a walk with our cute as you can imagine golden retriever dogs Lili and Orla.
Volunteer and community work
I’m a firm believer that you get out what you put into life, and that reciprocation can come back to you in all sorts of weird, unexpected and beautiful ways. Since graduating I’ve always tried to find at least a couple of days a month to practice this through running or just being involved in a variety of community groups.
Green Tech South West
At the start of 2020 I co-founded a new meetup group with the marvellous Mike Harley and Ellen Davies focusing on the Bristol area called Green Tech South West. We arrange events bringing people and ideas together on the topic of green tech in it’s widest sense, so not just digital but electricity production, food production, buildings, waste management and new inventions.
It’s fun building up the community and finding out what goes on in our fair city and who is behind it. We have over 2,500 members.
We’ve documented every single event, over forty and counting, on our website. There’s a video for each and slides when the speakers were ok with it. There you can find a wealth of knowledge and inspiration for people doing truly fabulous stuff.
WordPress community
When I was a freelance WordPress developer, I did a lot of voluntary work within the WordPress community, especially in Bristol. I did it because it’s was my way of saying thank-you to all the lovely people who have contributed to WordPress’s open source code base or who have freely shared their knowledge with me, and others, over the years.
Bristol WordPress people
From 2016 – 2019 I was the co-lead for the Bristol WordPress People, a free monthly meet-up in Bristol. I helped to arrange talks that appealed to all experience levels in all the different disciplines that might you find using or working with WordPress: developers, designers, user experience specialists, SEOers, marketers, bloggers and business owners.
Bristol WordCamp 2019
I was the co-lead for WordCamp Bristol 2019, which took place between the 17th and 19th May 2019. It consisted of a contributor day on the 17th and then a two-day conference of talks on Saturday 18th May and Sunday 19th May. We had a diverse array of speakers covering a wide breadth of topics and around 220 attendees in total. It was a great success and I am very proud to have heped make it all happen.
Anyway, that’s enough about me, tell me about you!
Hopefully that’s given you a bit of a flavour about me and the kind of person I am. Please reach out, get in touch and let’s have a chat about how we might work together.