The advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion is looking to be taken to a new level under a new acquisition.

This consultant leveled up his career to tap into cybersecurity and wants to kick open the door for more to follow suit. Demond Cook transformed his finances shifting from corporate security at the National Basketball Association (NBA) to cybersecurity. Finding his footing took time and Demond Cook relied on self-study, networking, and trial and error before securing his first green light. While venturing into the field, Cook recognized a striking disconnect between hiring managers and recruiters in the cybersecurity space. This led to the creation of Cook Consulting Group (CCG) in June of 2020 to address the knowledge gaps. Now, Demond Cook operates as a beacon of hope for others, opening the doors for more minorities looking to venture into the field. “I noticed the disconnect between hiring managers and recruiters in cyber security,” Cook told AfroTech. “Most recruiters have no idea what cyber security professionals do for a living, so I started CCG to bridge the gap. This would...

Lana Denina is a Black woman artist who has made over $300,000 just in selling NFTs, CNBC reports. And not just any NFTs — but NFTs of her original artwork. By now, everyone is familiar with the NFT, or Non-Fungible Token, and its growing popularity in the tech world. Their popularity has sparked a revolution, especially among celebrities and creatives, too. And for this Montreal, Canada-based creative, NFTs has made her quite a pretty penny. And she told CNBC that she hopes her success story inspires other creatives of color to follow in her footsteps. “I hope to inspire more creatives who look like me to step a foot into tech,” she said. “When they saw the Mona Lana, they really wanted to buy an NFT. Before that, they were looking at other projects, and they didn’t feel fully represented maybe.” She also said that she plans to donate a portion of her sales to a charity that supports African artists, and to various women’s shelters in Canada. So, what else should we know about this...

Have you ever wanted to support your favorite HBCU, but didn’t have the means or the wherewithal to do so? This “spare change” app will help you do just that! AfroTech previously spoke with Dominique King — founder of the I Heart My HBCU app — who leveraged this technology to make donations to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) easy (they can be done in as little as 60 seconds) back in December of 2020. “When creating this app, it was important for me to encourage HBCU Alumni to support all HBCUs. Users can easily adjust how much or how little of the spare change they share to their five favorite HBCUs,” she said in a statement about the I Heart My HBCU app. “I Heart My HBCU became the first platform where users could donate spare change to any of the 104 HBCUs in one place.” King first launched her groundbreaking app in 2017 and became one of an elite cadre of Black female tech entrepreneurs in the space. A graduate of Howard University, King’s first goal was to...

Things are looking to be headed in the right direction for Black TikTok creators when it comes to getting their long-overdue credit with the platform’s latest team addition. TikTok recently announced Shavone Charles, former director of communications and creative partnerships at VSCO, as the platform’s first-ever head of diversity and inclusion communications. According to Adweek, the multi-hyphenate creative will “lead all diversity and inclusion communications globally, overseeing the video creation platform’s multicultural campaigns in collaboration with media and diverse creators.” Although Charles is stepping into a newly formed role at TikTok, the now Los Angeles-based executive is in familiar territory when it comes to being a trailblazer in major tech companies’ diversity departments. While at VSCO, she led strategic brand partnerships and product campaigns across key consumer interest verticals youth culture, community, diversity/inclusion, entertainment and fashion,...

Sisters and founders of Kids for Culture — Lamia Haley and Kristen O’meally — had a mission to create diverse and inclusive products for children, which has now received a stamp of approval from Walmart. Haley and O’meally created Kids for Culture in response to O’meally casually scrolling on Instagram and stumbling across ABC flashcards. Despite the great intention behind the product, she could not help but feel indifferent due to the lack of representation. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kids For Culture®️ (@kidsforculture) “I saw some ABC flashcards and I said well those would be nice if they also represented other races because it was just majority caucasian children that were on there and I said ‘Well I’m going to create some,'” O’meally shares in an interview with WHAS 11. After excitingly revealing the concept to her sister, Haley suggested the incorporation of affirmations to their products. The idea blossomed at the height of the pandemic and Kids for Culture...

Praxis Labs, a Black and Asian-woman-founded company utilizing the power of virtual reality (VR) for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) training, just raised $15.5 million in an oversubscribed Series A round. This is the second major funding round for the company, which raised $3.2 million in February 2021, AfroTech previously reported. According to their website, Elise Smith and Heather Shen, both Stanford graduates, launched Praxis Labs in late 2019 to leverage their unique experiences and perspectives to “build the most efficacious and impactful learning experiences.” In a press release, Praxis Labs indicated that the financing round was co-led by Norwest Venture Partners and Emerson Collective. Other investors in the round included Penny Jar Capital (anchored by Steph Curry), Precursor Ventures, Concrete Rose Capital, Ulu Ventures, SoftBank’s SB Opportunity Fund and Firework Ventures. “Our society is more segregated than ever, and the workplace is often the most...

Nearly 70 percent of young tech professionals say they have felt uncomfortable at work based on their identities and lack of inclusion. Wiley , a developer of digital education solutions, published this stat along with others in its Diversity in Tech: 2021 U.S. Report during the 2021 ASU+GSV Summit. The company surveyed 2,000 early-career tech professionals and 270 business leaders. Wiley found that 68 percent of businesses represented in the report said there is a lack of diversity in their tech workforces. These key findings may come as a shock since U.S. companies are spending a collective $8 billion a year on diversity and inclusion efforts, yet 50 percent of young tech professionals surveyed said they have left or wanted to leave jobs because of company cultures and unwelcome workplaces. “This report proves that investment alone isn’t enough to achieve equity in the workplace,” Todd Zipper, president of Wiley Education Services, said in a press release. “We need to take an...