After being invited to speak at many conferences over the years and noticing the lack of diversity and great need for sponsor support, I switched gears from being in the spotlight to behind the scenes to help increase both fronts. Creating opportunities to give others a way to share their work on a public, and supportive platform helps improve both the participants and the effects compounds on the overall community. I’ve spent the bulk of my free time since 2013 helping the PyData Conferences and the annual SBP Conferences and then later creating the first HacNYC and C◦mp◦se :: Conference to help bridge Functional Programming languages with industry.
In addition to encouraging diversity in open source, I plan many tech events that connect folks from all backgrounds for networking and educational purposes. Most of my strategies come from my dissertation research that blends theories about designing and evaluating communities and support groups. I volunteer often to organize Open Source Community events both locally and globally. Some of the organizations she helped in the past and continue to support in presently include the following: