Cindy Gross leads Befriending Dragons as a Workplace Thrival Coach and Race + Gender Equity Adaptive Leader. She spent most of her career deep in technology, largely at Microsoft. She was known both for her technical depth in SQL Server and Big Data and her ability to talk with customers at their level of understanding – from executives to boots on the ground implementers – to truly understand and mitigate roadblocks. So she speaks that tech language and understands the rhythms of software development. In recent years Cindy has done a deep dive into how to create more equitable environments, both at work and through political advocacy. She has certificates in Adaptive Community Leadership jointly from Saybrook and Leadership Eastside & in Leadership Strategy for Violence and Abuse Prevention from the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Social Impact Strategy. As the Culture Chair on the Women of Windows board she co-created “The Power of Three” as a nudge to include more decision-making women and other underserved folks in impactful planning decisions. And now Cindy coaches and advises full-time, working with tech leaders who want to create anti-bullying work cultures and teams like yours designing a new culture for your own workplace. Cindy combines her decades of insight and wisdom together with her experiences in tech, good and bad, to deliver an impactful culture change process.