Celebrating Pride Month at Strava — Meet our Pride@Strava Team!
This year the Pride@Strava Employee Resource Group (ERG) is excited about the official launch of our ERG, which brought together a cross-functional team of people to help us build community and contribute to the overall sense of belonging for our LGBTQ+ teammates.
To recognize Pride Month, we honor the history and impact of leading figures like Marsha P. Johnson and many others during the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. Their fearlessness continues to inspire us to take action toward achieving equitable rights, particularly now with the amount of recent legislation targeting the trans community.
So while Pride Month will always be a celebration of our people and the progress we’ve made, we’re focused this year on our theme of Allyship: the commitment to ongoing learning and taking courageous action to create more equity and inclusion (Paradigm). We ask you to think about how you will use your voice, your power, and your privilege to be an active ally and advocate to make a difference in the lives of others.
Read on to get to know our Pride@Strava team, what allyship means to us, and what we’re most excited about in 2023.
Patrick Trillo
Front End Engineer, 2.5 years
ERG Role: Pride@Strava Co-Lead
Ally is not a noun. It’s a verb. In this day and age, it’s not enough to just be there and say you are an ally. What helps the most is the actions you do to help out the community, be it big or small. My favorite small step forward I like to tell people is to use the word ‘y’all’ instead of `you guys`. It may not change the meaning all that much, but it becomes inclusive to everyone and is a bit more fun to say
What I’m looking forward to in 2023: When I joined Strava, we were just a club where we met every so often. Now we are an official ERG! I’m excited for us to build an engaging and welcoming space for our community that can provide opportunities and a lot of fun long the way. We have a bunch planned for the year and it’s exciting to see it all come to life!
Eddie Carrillo
Senior Copywriter, 2.5 years
ERG Role: Pride@Strava Co-Lead
We need allies. Every oppressed group does. The first ally I knew was my grandmother. She marched in Pride parades before I was born (and long before it was socially acceptable) in support of her queer friends. Her actions taught me that allyship wasn’t just about words, but about taking meaningful action, especially when it’s not an easy thing to do.
What I’m looking forward to in 2023: This is our first year as a formal ERG, and we’ve got a thriving community and a whole leadership crew! It’s been a blast building Pride@Strava together this year, and I’m excited to keep making this a special place we all get to lean on at work.
Jeff Woo
Product Manager — Groups, Community, Social, 8.5 Months
ERG Role: Professional Development Chair
Allyship often requires action — a curiosity to actively learn and grow rather than passively support. For me, I’ve always appreciated those with a genuine curiosity to learn about different experiences from marginalized communities and are receptive to taking action when asked upon by those communities.
What I'm looking forward to in 2023: I’m excited about all the great programming this team has in store for this group. I’m excited to build community amongst our ERG and provide the group with opportunities to build up our careers and our personal selves.
Jesse Brooks
Global Talent Partner, 1.5 years
ERG Role: Pride Month Committee
“Allyship is not self-defined — your work and efforts must be recognized by the people you seek to ally ourselves with.” — Anti Opression Network.
People of marginalized communities don’t need people to call themselves an ally; they need people who are more focused on doing the work to become one. Don’t talk about it, be about it!
What I'm looking forward to in 2023: Pride Month because it’s going to be a great time! There will be celebration, we’ll hear stories from members of our community, and people will ultimately be able to walk away from it more informed and better equipped to become a better ally.
Katie Olsen
Sr. Manager, Community Management, 9 years
ERG Role: Pride Member Operations Chair
True allyship can be many things, but it must be actionable, with empathy, compassion, and sincerity at its core. Though we may never be able to fully appreciate the lived experience of someone whose circumstances or needs are different from our own, we can explore with curiosity and respect another person’s challenges, desires, fears, or opportunities. A genuine understanding of one another is the stepping stone toward realizing what it truly means to be an ally.
What I’m looking forward to in 2023::The inaugural leadership crew of Pride@Strava are so inspired and encouraging (not to mention an absolute pleasure!), I’m excited about all the learnings, connections, and opportunities for myself and the group at large.
Naomi Austin
Product Research Lead, 9 months
ERG Role: Pride Month Committee
There are many definitions for Allyship out in the world but what it means to me is just being there for others who may differ from yourself. It means being open to learning and growing, knowing you’ll potentially make mistakes along the way. Those mistakes are okay as long as you’re trying and you learn from them.
What I’m looking forward to in 2023: The world is a strange place at the moment. Without this sounding like a ‘Miss World’ pageant answer, I hope that as we go further into 2023 we’re able to create more empathy, understanding, and protection for marginalised folks who are aggressively having their rights taken away from them across the world. I’m so pleased we have these safe spaces at Strava, both for those in the community and our allies, and I’m excited to see them grow
Frazer Riley
Partnerships, Manager UK, 9 months
ERG Role: Pride Month Committee
To me, Allyship towards the LGBTQIA+ community looks like using your voice to advocate for us when we’re not present, taking action to support us without expecting a reward, and creating space to listen, understand, & self-educate. Allyship is a continuous journey.
What I’m looking forward to in 2023: With the ever-growing hostility towards the LGBTQIA+ community amounting globally this past year, I’m grateful for spaces & communities like this ERG I get to access through my workplace and through Strava. I’m looking forward to leaning into this space at Strava, connecting, and recharging — so I can continue to advocate for my community outside of these spaces.
