A Window into the LGBT & IT world.

 

As a Transgender Woman who transitioned later in Life, Debbie has experienced life as a Heterosexual man, a Bisexual Man, a Gay Man, a Transgender Woman, and a Lesbian. As such she has experienced most of the issues experienced by LGBTQ people.

Most of her books are focused on the experiences of LGBT people.

Debbie has written 12 books, as well as numerous articles for the LGBT community.  Debbie has also written thousands of articles in support of Linux and Open Source.

 
Deborah Ballard Picture

Debbie has also been a leader in the IT industry while maintaining a low public profile due to her transgender status.  As Rex Ballard, she started by selling some of the earliest computers, including the TRS-80, Atari, & Apple computers.  As an engineer, she worked on directory assistance for North America & the UK, 911 response systems & FedEx supply chain technologies, including the handheld tracker, making it more reliable.  As an IT Architect, Rex integrated many large corporations and business-to-business, especially within the investment, banking, and insurance industries. 

As Rex, Debbie worked for FedEx, Dow Jones, McGraw-Hill, Prudential, & IBM Global Services.  She was regularly on "Special Forces" teams, solving "impossible" problems, putting failing projects back on track, & creating solutions that pioneered new technologies.  Then she moved on to the next challenge. 

As Rex, Debbie also worked with many companies, organizations, & NGOs to make the Internet available to the general public, to help 8,000 publishers put content on the internet, to commercialize the internet, and to make it available globally by helping third-world countries put Linux on millions of discarded Windows PCs.  More information on this is included in the Open4Success tab.

Debbie is now retired.