D'Yanna Craighead

D’Yanna Craighead is a senior technology manager with over 20 years of experience at various large corporations. With a background in software engineering, business analysis, and technical program management, she has spent the past 10 years delivering large, highly visible projects at Disney Parks. She played key roles on the teams that launched MyMagic+ technology at Walt Disney World, MaxPass technologies in Disneyland, Digital FastPass in Tokyo Disney Resort as well as Virtual Queue for Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. Most recently D’Yanna has joined Disney Cruise Line where she manages the delivery and sustainment of 20+ shipboard applications, as well as product management and data enablement strategies.

D’Yanna’s biggest passion is inspiring others. As a Black woman in technology, she is an advocate for women and underrepresented communities in tech. She was instrumental in championing and successfully founding the first cross segment/enterprise-wide Black Technologist at Disney Affinity Group, which she now leads. She is also a Walt Disney Legacy Award recipient for inspiring others. She regularly mentors others in technology, does STEM outreach in the community and participates in Disney Dreamers Academy each year as a Technology Careers facilitator that exposes high school students to technology careers at Disney.

When not working, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her daughter.

Key Accomplishments:
- 2021: Featured Speaker at Grace Hopper Celebration and AfroTech
- 2021: Managed the delivery of the Guest Service Suite for Disneyland Paris
- 2021: Managed the development of Cast Tools for Magic Mobile
- 2021: Managed the development and launch of the Digital Tell-A-Cast
- 2020: Founded and launched Black Technologist at Disney resource group.
- 2020/2019: Selected as a Grace Hopper Celebration Speaker
- 2020: Delivered Park Pass reservation system via the Guest Service Suite for park re-opening
- 2019: Recipient of Technology Excellence Award for Tokyo Digital FastPass and CTO Award for Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge
- 2019: Managed the software development and delivery of the Guest Service Suite in Disney World and Disneyland.
- 2019: Managed the software development and delivery of Cast applications that support Digital FastPass in Tokyo and Virtual Queue for Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge
- 2017: Selected as a Walt Disney Legacy Award Recipient
- 2017: Managed the development, delivery, and launch of CastTools for the Disneyland MaxPass
- 2012: Contributed to the launch of Walt Disney World’s MyMagic+ technology for FastPass+ and the CastAPP