2023 Developer MVP Announcement
Welcome back everyone! You might notice that things are a little different this year, so let’s start with a recap. Back in 2020, WomenNow.Dev arrived on the scene with one goal: To shine a light on women in our industry. It was thanks to the 2020 Developer MVP cohort’s lack of women that we realized what was missing and what we had to do to close that gap. In 2021, we met our goal. The first four women Developer MVPs were awarded the title, with Paige and myself included, but we weren’t going to stop there. In 2022, we grew that number to 7.
Today I’m proud to announce that among the class of 2023 we now have 4 new women, with 3 returning from last year.
(Also, Shout out to Nia McCash for being the first woman Community and Developer MVP!)
Paige and myself have joined ServiceNow and passed the baton on to the next generation of women MVP to represent our community. These women have worked hard to provide for our community in the past year - they have written blogs, created videos, helped our community grow through leading by example and showing the world what women can do in this industry and that’s why they are being recognized. They have worked hard to get to where they are, and they will continue working hard to show everyone in our industry that we are here.
It feels almost sad to not get to be among such an amazing group of ladies, but I hope to support them and our community through my new role at ServiceNow. I will still work to advocate for women in our industry, I will still aim to lift up our voices and help us be heard. I have left an amazing group that has given me immense opportunity and graduated on to the next step in my career, but I will always be grateful to the Developer Advocates and my fellow MVPs and MVP Graduates. I have learned so much from you and I will always cherish the memories we have shared.
Breaking boundaries
Something else that I’m incredibly proud to highlight is that we have three amazing “firsts” this year. We officially have our first openly non-binary Developer MVP, our first openly transgender Developer MVP and our first Black Woman Developer MVP!
Ebony’s post will come later this month, but Chris and Astrid have given me some comments they’d like me to share:
Pronouns: They/Them
It is such an incredible honor to be accepted as a Developer MVP for 2023. If you know me, you'll know I'm a pretty outspoken person but I've always had a tendency shy away from the spotlight.
I've always said that it was because I preferred helping other people and amplifying their voices rather than my own, but all the women running and contributing to WomenNow.dev have shown that the stronger your voice is the more you can use it to uplift people and shout their names.
As the first openly nonbinary Developer MVP, I'm here to represent all the nonbinary and gender nonconforming devs and to show that we're here and we exist.
Pronouns: She/Her
Becoming a developer MVP was a bit of a shock, in the best way. I am so proud, grateful, and excited to be amongst such an incredible group and to be accompanied by 6 other women.
I’m also very excited to be ServiceNow’s first openly transgender Developer MVP. Being both trans and a woman has been a formative part of my career, particularly in terms of roadblocks that has presented. I hope my selection and my voice will help uplift both other trans folk and women in the industry or wishing to join the industry.
Spaces like WomenNow and people like MGOPW and Paige helped give me the confidence to put myself out there for this year, and I hope that we see more and more women and minorities represented as a reflection of the vastly diverse group we all are.
Thank you, Astrid and Chris!
Congratulations to every Developer MVP! I’m super proud of you and I can’t wait to see what you do this year. For those of you who want to become Developer MVPs in the future, stay tuned as I’ll be sharing tips on what you can do starting today to prepare yourself for greatness in 2024!
2023 ServiceNow Developer MVPs
Anders Figenshow (‘21, ‘22)
Ashutosh Munot (‘21, ‘22)
Cory Wesley (‘22)
Dhruv Gupta (‘21, ‘22)
Ishaan Shoor (‘22)
Mark Roethof (‘20, ‘21, ‘22)
Nia McCash (‘21, ‘22)
Paul Morris (‘21, ‘22)
Philip Swann (‘21, ‘22)
Sarah Toulson (‘22)
Sharon Barnes (‘22)
Travis Toulson (‘20, ‘21, ‘22)
