We’re very proud of Dee Luo, our Director of Product and Business Operations for Aselo, for winning the Impact Maker award from Okta at the recent global Oktane developer conference. Okta, as a tech vendor, places a significant emphasis on data security. They have not only been a supporter of Aselo (our child helpline platform) with their technology, but also through grant funding. It’s hard to imagine more sensitive data than information about children in crisis.

Dee is a great exemplar of what Tech Matters aspires to do: take world class technology and apply it smartly to big social problems. I’d like to share more about what Dee has done over the past three years to be deserving of this kind of recognition.

Dee was the very first full-time product manager for our Aselo crisis response platform, joining our team in 2020, well before Aselo launched with Childline Zambia in February 2021. Dee took over the crucial relationships with our child helpline users and ensured that the voice of the user was the primary driver of Aselo’s development. Aselo is now live in sixteen countries spanning the entire globe, such as India, Canada, Thailand, South Africa, Jamaica, Chile and Hungary. And the Aselo product has come such a long way under Dee’s leadership alongside Nick Hurlburt, the Aselo Director of Engineering. Every feature in Aselo is there because one or more helplines doing counseling, referral and/or case management has asked for it. Aselo is now winning partnerships with helplines who were considering working with major for-profit companies like Salesforce. Not because we do 1% of what they do, but because Aselo is such an outstanding fit for the needs of crisis response helplines.

Along the way Dee’s responsibilities grew as she first become a Senior Product Manager, and earlier this year, Director of Product and Business Operations with a team of four people.  In essence, Dee’s in charge of everything except engineering when it comes to Aselo. That includes product management, solutions engineering, tech support, and outreach (also known as “sales” in for-profit tech companies!). As a result, Dee and her team are the authorities on the voice of the helplines, driving our product development and strategy.

Like most of the Tech Matters team, Dee came to us from a “regular” Internet tech company, looking for an opportunity to use her product skill for the greater good. We are so glad she made the move from money to meaning and has developed into a recognized senior field leader so quickly!