Kaya Thomas

About Me

I'm a technologist, writer and public speaker. I love sharing knowledge and empowering people with skills, products and connections to solve problems. I'm a lifelong learner and avid reader. Currently, I work as a Technical Customer Success Manager at PostHog helping customers build successful products. I'm also the founder and developer of Milk Diary a mobile app supporting new parents in their infant feeding journey.

I graduated from the Leader for Global Operations program at MIT and obtained my MBA from the Sloan School of Management and an SM in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Formerly I worked at Bain as a management consultant in Boston and as a iOS engineer at Calm and Slack in the Bay Area. I graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Computer Science and did software engineering internships at Apple, Intuit and Time Inc.

In August 2014, I launched We Read Too, a book resource app that features books for kids and teens with main characters of colors written by Black, Latinx, Asian and Indigenous authors. The app had over 150k downloads on iOS and Android and was featured in the Apple App Store multiple times throughout the years. In 2023, I decided to sunset the app.

I freelance write and have bylines in various publications. I enjoy writing about technology culture, product development and leadership. I have done public speaking for several years and have spoken at conferences all around the world. I give technical & non-technical talks, keynote speeches and occasionally MC events.

Interviews & Press

Media outlets where I've been interviewed or quoted.

Interviews

  • Kaya Thomas Knows That Success In Tech Starts With A Genuine Thirst For Knowledge, Bustle, 2020
  • The Developer Debrief on WWDC 2020, MacStories, 2020
  • 12 years of the App Store, TechRadar, 2020
  • Virtual Conferences Mean All-Access—Except When They Don't, Wired, 2020
  • How I Thrive: We Read Too Founder Kaya Thomas, Silk & Sonder, 2020
  • Swiftly Speaking 4, Hacking With Swift, 2020
  • iOS Developer Working to Achieve Inclusivity in Tech, Welcome To The Jungle, 2020
  • Create & Cultivate 100: STEM & Finance, Create & Cultivate, 2019
  • Entrepreneur Kaya Thomas '17 builds a virtual library, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, 2018
  • Meet The Developer: A Book Lover With a Cause, App Store, 2018
  • How This App Developer Is Reminding Minority Kids That Their Stories Matter, Forbes, 2017
  • The Software Developer Bringing Diversity to Your Reading List, Motherboard, 2017
  • Kaya Thomas Brings Authors of Color to Young People, Teen Vogue, 2017
  • 'We Read Too' app connects young readers of color, Mashable, 2017
  • Why Can't Silicon Valley Solve Its Diversity Problem?, The New Yorker, 2016
  • 2016 College Women of the Year, Glamour, 2016
  • STEM Student Spotlight, Scientific American, 2016
  • How Coder Kaya Thomas Wants to Bring #BlackGirlMagic to Tech, Essence, 2016
  • The Future of Tomorrow, Complex, 2015
  • Black Girls Rock M.A.D. Girl Highlight, BET, 2015

Podcasts

Featured Lists

  • Best Apps from Black Developers, iPhone Life, 2020
  • Stand Up to Racism, Apple App Store, 2020
  • 5 Afrotech leaders bringing diversity to Silicon Valley, Revolt TV, 2018
  • 6 Young Black Women Making a Difference in Tech, New Relic, 2017
  • 21 Black Girl Bosses Who Slay All Day, Buzzfeed, 2016
  • 10 Black Women Changing the Face of Tech, The Root, 2015
  • 2015 Young Futurists, The Root, 2015

Speaking

Conference talks, keynotes, and presentations.

Upcoming Talks

Upcoming talks will be listed here as they are announced.

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

  • Consumer to Coder: A Journey of Empowerment, Grace Hopper Houston