
Work
My passion for software development and helping others be happy in their work lives has led me to from working as a software developer, to being a tech lead, and then an application architect. Now I’m writing a book to share my knowledge from 25+ years in tech.
I’m not looking for a new role, but you can find my resume here.
Why Leaf?
When I was in college, a friend of mine called me by my email username (jroy, at the time). I said that was like calling me by my social security number. “If you’re not going to call me by my right name, at least come up with a new name for me.” They did.
Here we are, more than 30 years later. Pretty much everyone who knows me calls me Leaf.
Book
I’m writing a book! I’m a graduate of The Book Academy, a book writing and publishing intensive offered by 4x New York Times best-selling author, Luvvie Ajayi Jones. It’s been an amazing experience.

If you want to follow along as I write, or just keep in touch, sign up for my mailing list below.
Art

I’m also an Art-o-Mat artist. You can see more of my art here and even more at bouncingleaf.com.
Speaking
I was thrilled to speak at Enterprise Technology Leadership Summit, formerly DevOps Enterprise Summit, in Vegas 2024. You can catch that video here: Taming a Monster: Leading a Big Change as an Individual Contributor.
What an incredible conference and community! I’ll be there again in September, 2025 – perhaps speaking. I’ll also be at LeadDev in NYC in October, 2025, also perhaps speaking. Looking forward to both!
Miscellany
Someone asked me recently what I was watching lately to relax, and I said I was watching American Kestrels. Sounds like a cool Netflix series!
Je parle un peu de français, hablo un poco de español, vorbesc puțina românește, and m ap aprann kreyòl. You can find me on Duolingo.
The band They Might Be Giants wrote a song called “Jessica Roy” that is in fact in reference to me. I’m not sure it’s about me, exactly…