Hi! I’m Dani, and this is where I awkwardly figure out what to write about myself.

I was born in South Africa, but I grew up in China and Japan, attending international schools and learning alongside people from all over the world. I loved school and learning, which is why – after getting my BSc (Hons) in Occupational Therapy in 2012 from Oxford Brookes University – I felt wholly unprepared for a world without classes and homework and the joy of learning something new. Lucky for me, 2012 was also the year Coursera was founded, allowing me to keep studying while I tried to find my feet in the productive, capitalist world of work.

I’ve been learning ever since, expanding to other learning platforms, willing to try all of them at least once. I even threw in another formal degree to the mix, earning my MBA in 2017 from Hult International Business School (London) with a Specialisation in Project Management.

I did also work, mind you, getting started in IT for a company specialising in ePoS (electronic point of sale) systems before happily realigning with my passion for learning by working for a series of education and learning technology companies.

As for my career, I don’t really like to box myself in! I’ve done a bit of everything, preferring opportunities that allow me the flexibility to do what is needed rather than fitting into a single role. Some of the work I’ve done falls into these domains:

• technical support and complaint management
• technical project management
• technical product management
• technical account management
• knowledge management and maintenance
• learning / HR technology consultation
• neurodiversity coaching
• mentoring

In my free time, I like doing online courses, listening to podcasts (mostly non-fiction), reading (mostly fiction), and crafting. I live in South Africa with my cat, Bonsai, and my trusty inverter to keep the power on during loadshedding.