Hi, my name is Dele Downs Kooley.  Sounds like Deli and is short for Ayodele which means “joy comes to the home”.  I am a mom to five amazing humans and bonus mom of two.  They range in ages from 29 to 13 years and collectively make me a better person.  I have two dogs Winston, a four year old Maltese and Bentley a ten month old Australian labradoodle.  We have fun every day because if you aren’t having fun, you are doing it wrong. I moved to the Seattle area eight years ago from Germany and enjoy all that the Pacific Northwest has to offer.  I can often be found outdoors at live sporting events, cheering my family on or training for my next long distance run, but until the pass of Covid I will be working on my Peloton streaks.

My Why: As a career and life coach I help people get clarity on the life that they want to live and helping them to achieve their goals as quickly as possible. I have a diverse background compliments of my twenty year Air Force Adventure prior to joining the corporate workforce. I would describe my career path as squiggly which required next level resilience and reskilling. I have worked at three separate law enforcement agencies in communications and training before going back to the Air Force Civil Engineering and Logistics world. My most interesting role outside of the Department of Defense was at Nintendo in product testing and development where people actually get paid to play video games! Throughout my career my roles focused on training, leadership, development and most importantly the ability to be flexible and learn quickly. My super power is networking and connecting which is driven by my desire to learn and be curious.

I was the leader of Amazons Global Mentoring Program before making the decision to move to Microsoft where I focus on diversity and inclusion strategies to support inclusive hiring practices. This is where my why combines with my super powers to increase resilience and the opportunity to reinvent for future opportunities.