Public Speaking as a Catalyst for Professional Growth: A Panel with Yelp Women Leaders

Dee is an engineering manager that supports the Ad Platform Group at Yelp where she leads the teams working to connect users & businesses via contextually-relevant, innovative ad products that maximize revenue and growth by balancing short-term and long-term goals for Yelp. Dee is from Montreal and prior to joining Yelp she worked as a web developer and manager across multiple industries including e-commerce, marketing and fintech. With an educational background in design, Dee is an advocate for UX and accessibility.

Fatima is a senior software engineer at Yelp with a deep passion for mentoring early-career tech professionals. She has successfully guided many individuals through their first steps in the tech industry, helping them overcome challenges and achieve their career goals. An experienced speaker, Fatima has presented at leading conferences including Developer Week 2024, the Southern California Linux Expo (Scale) 2023 and 2024, NDC Copenhagen Developer Festival 2023, Women of Silicon Roundabout 2022, cdCon+GitOpsCon 2023 (as a keynote speaker), Momentum 2024, and the Black is Tech Conference in 2022 and 2023. Fatima holds a master's degree in data science from HEC Montreal and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Canada.

Rakhi Salanke is an experienced engineering manager with leadership in managing high-performing backend and data infrastructure teams. With 12 years of hands-on expertise in large-scale distributed systems, database reliability, and cloud infrastructure, she has successfully driven scalability and performance improvements. Previously, she held key roles at Electronic Arts, optimizing online datastores for large-scale gaming environments. Rakhi is also an active contributor to women in tech initiatives and open-source communities, advocating for diversity and leadership development. She holds a Masters degree in Information Management from University of Maryland and a Bachelors in Engineering from Pune University. As a mother of two toddlers, she embraces the daily challenge of answering nearly 600 curious questions, making her a true multitasking superhero both at work and home!

Sandra Fiske (she/her) is an engineering manager at Yelp, where she leads a team of engineers focused on building engaging user experiences for diners. With a background in web development and accessibility, Sandra is passionate about fostering inclusive technology. As an active mentor and a member of Yelp’s Women in Engineering (AWE) ERG, she is dedicated to supporting engineers and new managers in their career growth. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Toronto Metropolitan University and is a graduate of the Arise leadership program. Some of Sandra’s public speaking engagements include being a panelist on Thriving While in Hypergrowth, hosted by BenchSci, as well as a panelist at Yelp’s AWE Summit Fishbowl conversation on work-life balance. She is excited to discuss how public speaking has been a catalyst for her professional growth.