Serena Chana

Since graduating in Education and Psychology I’ve built a career in marketing and communications across different industries, mainly with a focus on working with companies and start-ups that are driving social change.

I started my career at an international NGO and assisted on several fundraising campaigns including a Syrian refugee appeal which was nominated for a JustGiving award. Here, I learnt the art of storytelling and why it’s so important to always work with a passionate team. After being immersed in the world of International Development, I decided to work abroad and actually work on an international project myself. I spent three months working in Bangladesh working alongside local people and created campaigns and programmes that promoted women’s rights’ and preventing child marriage.

Following on from this I entered the London startup scene with Digital Mums, a social media training company enabling mums to work flexibly. I played a pivotal role in the national #CleanupFword campaign which snowballed from a petition to our campaign posters arguing for better flexible being displayed across billboards and shopping centres across the UK. I now currently work for 23 Code Street, a women’s coding school – under my leadership the brand has grown significantly and we successfully launched our pilot webinar course, enabling more women to learn to code.

Outside of work, I’m a mentor on the Digital Pipeline scheme and have supported a WOC for the past 6 months to secure a tech job and I’m the STEM editor for the Lucy Writer’s Platform and commission/ edit stories to inspire more women to work in STEM. Working with a group of women, I have also helped start a monthly Punjabi female forum; it’s a safe and confidential online and offline space for women to talk about their wellbeing.