Keynote: Let's Open Source Diversity and Inclusion!
Channel: Open Source Program Office, UC Santa Cruz
Date: 2022-10-06

Demetris White Cheatham, Senior Director, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Strategy, GitHub

Talk Description:  Diversity and inclusion within open source is being approached the way software development was prior to the creation of open source. Most efforts, in spite of significant resources and financial investment, are very fragmented, not openly shared, only address part of the challenges, and are not collaborative with those outside of a single organization or very few partnerships. We have to approach this differently in order to yield different results. We must drive diversity and inclusion as an open source community, utilizing relevant data and building on existing research and initiatives.

About the Speaker: Demetris Cheatham is the Senior Director for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Strategy at GitHub where she leads a diversity and inclusion strategy focused on four key pillars: People/HR, Platform, Philanthropy and Policy. Beyond strategy development and execution, she spends her time working with external partners to advance diversity and inclusion within the open source ecosystem. In 2021, she launched the GitHub All In open source community, organizing a wide-reaching listening tour with contributors, maintainers, and leaders throughout the open source community with the aim of better understanding the experiences, challenges and opportunities ahead for developers. Prior to joining GitHub, Demetris was the Global Diversity and Inclusion Lead for Red Hat where she was responsible for implementing the diversity and inclusion strategy for the company and its 15,000+ employees located around the world She earned a B.S. in Computer Science with honors from North Carolina A&T State University and a JD/MBA from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and the University of Maryland Robert F. Smith School of Business, respectively. She is a licensed attorney in the State of Maryland and a certified Executive Coach. Demetris lives in North Carolina with her daughter Zahra Joy.