Team Spotlight: Dykki Settle
By Erika Amaya, Communications Associate, BID Initiative
Nov 23, 2015
Posted in General
The BID Initiative team works across three countries in the United States, Tanzania, and Zambia. This week, we learn more about Dykki Settle, Senior Technical Advisor in Seattle.
I am providing technical support and oversight to the architecture and development of BID’s technology solutions. My priority focus is ensuring the success of the immunization registry software deployments in Tanzania and Zambia, while fostering a vital ecosystem of immunization registry technology solutions for other countries seeking to address their challenges tracking and promoting immunizations at scale.
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? What do you like most about your job? Two in one! A technology innovator and entrepreneur. I was very lucky in the 70s that my father worked in IT for DuPont and had a terminal and (slower than you can imagine today) modem at home. He would sit me on his knee and teach me simple BASIC routines for making text spaceships fly up the screen. As I grew up, I would play on our Atari system and then go to my room and write games of my own. I enjoyed that ‘play’ so much I wanted it to become my ‘work’ as I grew up—creating new things using technology. I love working at PATH and with BID with my fellow innovators—together we don’t just have the opportunity to create new things, but also apply them to address some of the world’s most pressing problems.
What’s your favorite indoor/outdoor activity? Motorcycling. It’s my moving meditation. In my daily life, my mind is always far away (quite possibly with you dear reader ;)) with our work together around the world and casting into the infinite possibilities of the future, seeking always to chart the best course forward. My motorcycle brings me, necessarily, into the here and now—paying constant close attention to exactly where I am and what I am doing right then—with no quarter given to wool-gathering or distraction. Thus reminded, I can then bring that mindfulness and attention back to our work, keeping my center and staying grounded even as we tackle the challenges before us.
What is your favorite food? This is perhaps colored a bit by my recent trip to Ethiopia, but I really can’t get over Ethiopian cuisine. The texture of the bread injera and the use of it as both plate and utensil, the berebere spices of war (doro wat being my favorite), the delicious yirgacheffe coffee and crunchy grains of kolo… Ethiopian food is both delicious and different—a unique experience all around. Just be careful to stop eating before you are full—injera expands in the stomach—it’s no fun at all to overeat!
What is one of your favorite quotes? “And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” Little Gidding –T.S. Elliot
What is your proudest accomplishment? What was the last experience that made you a stronger person? What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done? Three in one! I’m still doing it! My baby daughter Helectavia is 20 months old—I have never attempted anything as challenging or rewarding as fatherhood. Being so important to someone and having them be so important to me, creates a constant wonder and vulnerability that is profoundly humbling. I have learned so much from all of the fathers and mothers around me and continue to every day—thank you to all of you who have shared (and will share ;)) with me your stories, experience, and learning as a parent. I have so much to learn!
Love learning about what you do and how you got there!