# Allison McMillan

> Allison McMillan is an engineering leader who turned a nonprofit-management career and a Rails Girls workshop into a life spent building teams. She runs Tavlin Consulting as a fractional VP of Engineering and facilitator, was Director of Engineering at GitHub and a leader at DEV/Forem and QuotaPath, served as President and board director of Ruby Central, and is known worldwide for her talk 'Baby Driven Development' and the podcast 'Parent Driven Development' about being a parent in tech.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Tavlin Consulting
- **Organizations:** Tavlin Consulting, Ruby Central, GitHub, DEV / Forem, QuotaPath, General Assembly
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Introductory Rails workshop (entry into coding), Rails Girls DC, B.A. Political Science, University (Political Science)
- **Known for:** Director of Engineering at GitHub, President and board director of Ruby Central, Internationally recognized keynote and conference speaker (RailsConf and others)

## Career timeline

- **Early career** — Worked in nonprofit management before tech
- **Mid-2010s** — Attended a Rails Girls workshop in Washington, D.C., and learned to code
- **2016** — Gave the talk 'BDD: Baby Driven Development' at Ruby on Ales
- **2016-2017** — Taught at General Assembly; active Ruby community speaker
- **Later 2010s** — Engineering leadership at GitHub (Director of Engineering)
- **2020s** — Leadership roles at DEV/Forem and QuotaPath
- **Ongoing** — President and board director of Ruby Central
- **Present** — Runs Tavlin Consulting as fractional VP of Engineering and facilitator

## Achievements

- Director of Engineering at GitHub
- President and board director of Ruby Central
- Internationally recognized keynote and conference speaker (RailsConf and others)
- Creator and host of the Parent Driven Development podcast
- Author of the widely shared talk 'Baby Driven Development'
- Founder & CEO of Tavlin Consulting, advising Series A-D engineering teams

## Latest updates

- **2024-11** — Featured discussing Tavlin Consulting's approach to leadership through continuous learning.
- **2023-09** — Published guidance on running purposeful team offsites and the hidden cost of cancelling them.

## Links

- Website: https://daydreamsinruby.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apmcmillan/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/allie_p
- GitHub: https://github.com/asheren
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZHTg3Hza1U
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alliep.bsky.social

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/allison-mcmillan
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-02