Diedre Downing, Chief Learning Officer at StoryIQ, believes charisma and influence are skills, not personality traits, and that the quietest person in the room is often the strongest communicator. She has led learning and custom program design at the business communication firm since 2019, training more than 10,000 people at companies including Cisco, Chevron, HSBC, CNA, Gallagher Re, and Intuit, from individual contributors to senior executives.

Her core argument: communication belongs at the front of problem solving, not the last step before a deck goes final. Too many smart people, she says, lose the room by telling us what they know instead of why we should care.

Her path started in the classroom. Diedre spent 14 years with the New York City Department of Education, beginning as a high school math teacher and later building a professional learning platform that reached more than 100,000 educators. That combination of teaching craft and large-scale learning design shapes how she works with analysts, managers, and executives today.

She speaks and keynotes on practical business storytelling, drawing on the frameworks she uses inside client organizations. Her signature talks include "Tell Me Why I Care, Not What You Know," "Data to Decisions," and "Get to the (Data) Point." Diedre has presented at the ATD International Conference and delivered keynotes for corporate audiences in the US and abroad.

Supporting female leaders and helping them build the bench behind them. Mentoring, especially watching someone find the confidence to say what they actually think. Finding joy in learning something new. Helping professionals be more efficient and effective at what they do. Leading with empathy. Skiing. Belting out karaoke, badly. And the difference between thriving in your career and just surviving it, a conversation I will have with anyone who wants to have it.