Work
My passion for process improvement and helping others be happy in their work lives has led me 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 completed my PMI-ACP certification – Agile Certified Practitioner, from the Project Management Institute. I’m a big fan of agile as a mindset.
I’m not looking for a new role, but you can find my resume here.
Book and books
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.
I’m an avid reader of leadership and technology books. Feel free to check out my Goodreads or my Bookshop recommendations (affiliate link).
I volunteer once or twice a month with the Prison Book Program, which takes requests for books from people who are incarcerated and attempts to fill those requests from a library of donated books. It’s a great program.
Check out the donation guidelines here. If you have books to donate, I’m happy to relay them.
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’m a writer at heart, so I was surprised at first to discover that I love speaking too. But my writing skills let me guide an audience from where they are to somewhere new, and that’s magical to me.
When people approach me after a talk, they often use words like ‘resonate,’ ‘real,’ and ‘human.’ They tell me that they felt seen. I love helping people find shared humanity within our world of technology.
- Us vs. Them Thinking, LeadDev StaffPlus, New York, 2025
- Taming a Monster: Leading a Big Change as an Individual Contributor, Enterprise Technology Leadership Summit, Las Vegas, 2024
- Troubleshooting While Panicking, Inclusive Tech Hub, virtual, 2022
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.”
Well, more than 30 years later, pretty much everyone who knows me calls me Leaf.
Miscellany
When I’m not behind a keyboard, I am often found walking, listening to an audio book, or watching birds. Someone asked me recently what I was watching lately to relax, and I said I was watching American Kestrels. Sounds like a cool TV series!
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…