We Can Code IT CEO & Founder Mel McGee Shares Her Thoughts on Diversity & Inclusion Best Practices During Panel Discussion
In the past months, we have seen a national uprising in protest concerning police brutality and systemic racism. The uprising itself has forced many individuals to reflect on their role in the injustice that exists in our country. Perhaps now more than ever before organizations have come to understand the impacts diversity and inclusion have not only on economic growth, but also on the growth and well-being of our communities.
The Downtown Cleveland Alliance invited our founder, Mel McGee, to speak on a panel discussing diversity and inclusion best practices. As an organization whose mission is “championing social equity through technology,” we strive to be an example for others, which is why it was extremely important to be apart of a conversation that could influence change amongst leading organizations in our communities.
It starts from the top… 70% of our leadership team are women and/or POC. It’s one of the things that we could do as an organization to gain different perspectives. Every single one of our programs has those perspectives and ideas at the forefront. – Founder & CEO Mel McGee
The We Can Code IT Bootcamp was founded on the idea that everyone deserved to feel welcomed and included in the community of software development regardless of race, gender, or cultural differences.
I was pretty much the only woman in my classroom of Computer Science. It felt very exclusive and it took me a while to get back into Computer Science because I felt so different, like so much of an outsider. So we’re trying to change that at We Can Code IT in a big way. – Mel McGee
We Can Code IT has continuously made committed efforts towards improving diversity and inclusion in the tech community. By offering scholarships, grants, and programs such as Pre-Bootcamp it is our hope that individuals can feel more comfortable considering IT as a career, and see that there is a place for them within the tech community.
We need to be able to compete and attract people with different perspectives, different views, and bring different software into existence without bias. – Mel McGee
Watch the entire panel discussion and hear more from our founder Mel McGee here.
