HI THERE! Kia ora
‍I'M ELINA ASHIMBAYEVA

I’m a Kazakhstan-born, New Zealand storyteller, facilitator, educator, speaker, board member, and experience designer.

I have two post-graduate degrees in Biomedical Sciences and Human Rights. Early on, I moved from the research world into the education, healthcare, and tech sectors, working in product management, strategy, and experience design (basically figuring out how to build services and products that are reliable, inclusive, and genuinely joyful for people).

In the last five years, I’ve founded Storyo, sharing 200+ stories of diverse folks in Aotearoa. I’ve run over 50 community events and talks, plus cohort programs to help people in tech apply inclusion and ethics to their work.

Through everything I do, I aim to create environments and cultures built on humility, inclusion, learning, and joy. Reimagining systems is tough work, but sharing kai, admitting what we don’t know, and telling stories? That’s my jam 😍

Right now, I’m in NYC, taking a mini-hiatus while fully immersed in a two-year acting conservatory at the Neighbourhood Playhouse. Outside of that, you’ll find me writing poetry, dancing, watching Love Is Blind, going to protests, therapy and navigating the realities of family and health.

If you’d like to collaborate, have me speak at your event, or just chat, get in touch (details below).

Love y’all!

Current

Projects

Storyo
Founder

Storyo is a storytelling platform and a community organisation that features 200+ stories of people (mainly women & non-binary) on topics like domestic violence, sexual health, poetry, careers and much more. I’ve run Storyo for 5 years, managed 20+ volunteers and contracts at different times throughout its journey, and organised 30+ community events, classes and workshops. You can see an impact report I made for our latest series here.

Ally Skills NZ
Co-Director & Facilitator

Ally Skills NZ is an organisation that offers a range of workshops, talks and consulting to NGOs, charities, tech and other organisations. We support people in developing their allyship skills and practises identifying and responding to marginalisation (of women, people of colour, LGBTQIA+ folks, caregivers, people with disabilities, those with experience of mental illness, people of different ages and body sizes, and others.) And last year, we run our first unconference!

Hello Access
Co-Founder

My four dear friends and I built on our previous experience in tech, inclusion, user experience and teaching to start Hello Access. A platform that connects your organisation with people who have lived experiences of disability. We help you improve your website & digital products by showing how diverse users navigate them, while empowering our testers to lead in this space.

‍NICE THINGS PEOPLE SAID

"As a founder, it was so inspiring to hear the different stories shared and was a great reminder of the importance of creating safe and inclusive workplaces. Elina communicates in a positive way that nonetheless challenges our underlying bias and stereotypes. There were so many important ideas from the stories that were shared! Highly recommend taking up the opportunity if your company has the chance to work with Elina and Storyo."‍

Mike, Brightly

"I knew this event was special from the amount of sheer feedback and interest from our company. Not only did over 160 people turn up to our event, but our audience was as diverse as Storyo itself. Some literally stood up and clapped halfway through the virtual session. Some finally saw their stories told. And some wish they had seen this session sooner.

Elina is deeply human – she will call stuff out, she will make you laugh and she will bring out beautiful and relatable examples. She will show what it means when we’re all in it together, peddling the same waka. Kia ora Elina!"

Pok, EY

"The point that has really stayed with me is how important it is to slow down, and not just immediately want to move to execution mode. Elina's enthusiasm and optimism for the topic of [inclusion in tech] were also incredibly infectious. It is so easy to feel terrified in this area, that somehow you will offend someone or do something wrong. Elina created an atmosphere and environment where you could come as you are, at the level of understanding that you are at, and take something away from it."‍

Workshop partcipant

HI THERE! Kia ora
‍I'M ELINA ASHIMBAYEVA

Current