Webinar: The Journeys of 7 Black Scrum Alliance Coaches

Why has there been such an under-representation of Black people in the field of agile coaching? 

With only seven Black Scrum Alliance Certified Agile Coaches, how do we address the lack of diversity in our community and what can we do to support more Black coaches taking steps towards coaching certification?

Consider watching if you are:

• A person who identifies as Black and is aspiring to be a coach;
• An ally of people who identify as Black and consider yourself inclusive and empathetic toward the cause of bringing about equity;
• Someone who truly and genuinely does not know the obstacles that Black people and People of Color face in the corporate world and are interested in increasing diversity in agile or coaching communities;
• Someone who does not know a great deal about agile, but has a natural disposition for helping others maximize their potential and discover that true hidden purpose in life.

The goal of the panel was to:

• Encourage more Black coaches to embark on the journey to certification;
• Help people have an understanding of what it takes to become a coach;
• Introduce the Scrum Alliance Certified Enterprise Coach and Certified Team Coach certification journeys;
• Increase awareness in the coaching community to encourage more Black people to become great coaches;
• Support the underprivileged where there is potential for self-development of great coaches and help them bring their dreams to reality;
• Continue to support enterprises in their commitment to Culture, Values, and Ethics (CVE) because Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has become a great part of Business Agility;
• Dispel the myth that Certified Agile Coaching is only for “certain types of people.”

Resources for your journey to Certified Agile Coach: 

• Join the CTC Candidate or CEC Candidate Google Groups to collaborate with candidates and the CEC and CTC Review Teams, as well as stay informed on upcoming candidate information sessions!
• Learn more about the application requirements on the Become a CEC and Become a CTC application pages;
• Enroll in Path to Coaching, a FREE, online, self-paced course to begin building your coaching competencies;
• Reference a list of coaching study resources: books, tools, frameworks;
• Connect with a Scrum Alliance CEC/CTC mentor ;
• Read more CEC and CTC journey stories.

Want to stay informed on other Scrum Alliance events, news, or updates? Subscribe here.

Meet the Panelists

Aanu Gopald

Aanu shuttles between Nigeria and Frisco, Texas, United States, advocating for the expansion of agile and digital skills for youths in Africa. Her career started as a network engineer. She has worn many hats thereafter from team lead, project manager, program manager, scrum master, agile coach and enterprise coach. By trade, she works as a transformational catalyst for leadership teams in both private and public sectors.

Angie Pate

Angie is a Certified Team Coach® (CTC) with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration. Angie started her career as a software engineer and has since held many different roles, such as business analyst, scrum master, product manager, and agile coach. Her tenure at various Fortune 500 companies gave Angie the opportunity to coach with different types of leadership styles and team dynamics. She coaches scrum masters and product owners to become more productive. She also helps teams and people increase self-awareness and step outside their comfort zone to accomplish goals.

Brandon Raines

Brandon lives in the Washington, D.C. area. His journey is as a software developer as well as other roles in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), including project manager. Eventually, he became a coach after wanting to help make the world of work more enjoyable for everyone involved.

Femi Odelusi

British, born of Nigerian parentage, Femi lives in Essex, United Kingdom. His career started as a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. His route to projects and product management dates back to the time he was a financial systems analyst, and then a business analyst, which then led him to project management. After years of enduring the pains of the waterfall approach for project delivery, he embraced agile practices. Developing and growing in coaching practice, he has not looked back since.

Kemmy Raji

Nigerian-born and British, Kemmy is now based in Canada. Her background is in management and waterfall project management. She works as scrum master/agile coach and now an executive coach. Kemmy spends her spare time mentoring and coaching people who wish to explore ways to grow, and also supporting children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Nigeria to give them access and support to stay in education.

Kwasi Owusu-Asomaning

Kwasi is Ghana-born and now living in Oxford, United Kingdom. He has progressed from being an automation tester to scrum master to enterprise coach. He has been working with several organisations in different sectors and in different locations, predominantly in the UK, but also across Europe and Africa.

Tirrell Payton

Originally from Mississippi, Tirrell now lives in San Diego, California. He runs a small boutique consulting firm at the intersection of enterprise coaching and traditional management/strategy consulting. He came to the agile world from a previous life in technology and continued to leverage it as part of his professional and cognitive toolkit.

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