Member since May 2025
Deanna Jones brings over 35 years of experience in the technology sector with a focus on sales, operations, and project management. She spent 25 years at a Fortune 100 technology company leading initiatives, building partnerships, driving innovation, and supporting growth. As President of the Harmony LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce, she champions inclusion and belonging. She also serves on the DEI Committee for Meeting Professionals International and on the Membership Committee for the National Speakers Association Carolinas.
Deanna helps organizations build and support a diverse workforce by rethinking how they recruit, retain, and raise talent—especially those too often overlooked. Her work creates cultures where people bring their full gifts to work and thrive. When people do what lights them up, it lifts the entire organization. Drawing from both corporate leadership and lived experience, she uses storytelling and insight to guide others through change and toward lasting impact.
She holds an MBA from Elon University and a Master’s in Instructional Technology from the University of Maryland Global Campus. She also completed DEI and Women in Leadership Certifications from Cornell University. In her spare time, she speaks at The Monti in Durham and coaches T Ball.
My passion is helping people be fully themselves, feel truly seen, and grow into the gifts they already carry. I light up when I can create spaces on a stage, in a workplace, or through a conversation where inclusion becomes real, where stories connect us, and where transitions, no matter how messy, become opportunities for transformation. I am driven by guiding others to rediscover their spark, to be supported in what matters, and to step into their strength with confidence. At the heart of it, I am passionate about turning recognition, support, and empowerment into action that changes lives.
I remember being in the crawlspace under my house, squeezed into the dark, feeling the weight of everything I had been hiding pressing down on me. For years I had buried who I was, playing the part the world expected, holding back the pieces of myself that didn’t fit. As I crawled out, dust on my hands and knees, I felt something shift. I wasn’t just leaving the crawlspace, I was stepping into myself for the first time, letting the version of me that had been quiet and hidden finally take up space. That moment didn’t fix everything, but it was the first step toward being fully seen and living the life I was meant to live.
I had been in corporate life for decades, and one day a manager looked at me and said, “If you don’t like it, you can leave.” I did. Not in anger, not in a moment of rebellion, but in a quiet, clear decision that I was done living a life that didn’t light me up. Walking away wasn’t about leaving a job, it was about stepping toward the work and the life that made me feel alive, the work that mattered to me and could help others feel seen, supported, and strengthened. That moment became the beginning of my company, the place where I could build a space that reflected the way I wanted the world to feel, energizing, authentic, and full of possibility.
I remember being in the crawlspace under my house, squeezed into the dark, feeling the weight of everything I had been hiding pressing down on me. For years I had buried who I was, playing the part the world expected, holding back the pieces of myself that didn’t fit. As I crawled out, dust on my hands and knees, I felt something shift. I wasn’t just leaving the crawlspace, I was stepping into myself for the first time, letting the version of me that had been quiet and hidden finally take up space. That moment didn’t fix everything, but it was the first step toward being fully seen and living the life I was meant to live.
I had been in corporate life for decades, and one day a manager looked at me and said, “If you don’t like it, you can leave.” I did. Not in anger, not in a moment of rebellion, but in a quiet, clear decision that I was done living a life that didn’t light me up. Walking away wasn’t about leaving a job, it was about stepping toward the work and the life that made me feel alive, the work that mattered to me and could help others feel seen, supported, and strengthened. That moment became the beginning of my company, the place where I could build a space that reflected the way I wanted the world to feel, energizing, authentic, and full of possibility.