Core Team on The Carpentries

Carpentries Core Team Promotions: Congratulations Angelique and Danielle!

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A Message From SherAaron Hurt

Cheerfully, I get to share some exciting news! Two of our outstanding and well-deserving Core Team members have advanced in their roles at The Carpentries, Inc.

Danielle Sieh, Workshops & Training Manager

Danielle Sieh, who joined The Carpentries in February 2021 as a Workshop Administrator, has been promoted to Senior Program Manager for the Workshops and Instruction Team. Over the past year as Junior Program Manager, Danielle has showcased exceptional leadership within the Instructor community, demonstrated outstanding organisational skills in shaping content for our new website and Handbooks, and successfully managed the Self-Organised Workshops project. In her new role, Danielle will take on additional leadership responsibilities, focusing on planning and process improvement within her areas of oversight.

Changes to support from the Core Team at The Carpentries

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday, we released a blog post re-introducing to the community the nine members of The Carpentries Core Team. This comes after we recently announced the departure of seven valued members of The Carpentries Core Team and celebrated the accomplishments, heart, and vision of our legacy team members. The financial necessity of these recent changes also requires us to look closely at our workload. We must determine which of the many activities supported by our Core Team lie at the heart of The Carpentries vision to be the leading inclusive community teaching data and coding skills.

Re-introducing The Carpentries Core Team

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Until recently, The Carpentries and its community were supported by a 16-member strong Core Team, but due to financial constraints, the organisation let go of seven members of this staff cohort, reducing the Core Team members to nine. This reduction in staff has necessarily entailed a reduction in the programs and activities the team can continue to lead and support, and tomorrow, 1 February 2024, we will share what continued work for the Core Team will look like moving forward. However, we are confident about and committed to carrying forward our vision and mission; this is not the first time a small team has supported The Carpentries, and for 25 years the organisation has grown into its vision of being the leading inclusive community teaching data and coding skills.

With Gratitude to our Legacy Core Team Members

Fri, 12 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In the ever-changing landscape of the non-profit sector, we often find ourselves faced with unexpected challenges, like the recently announced layoffs at The Carpentries. These moments are never easy to deal with, and striking the perfect balance between pausing to reflect on what has been lost and moving forward soon enough to maintain stability and build on what remains is a struggle that persists for months afterwards. All the colleagues who have transitioned from our organisation were very valuable members of the Core Team, and their contributions over the years to the long-term sustainability of our mission have left an indelible mark on our programs and operations.

Saying Farewell to 7 Carpentries Core Team Members: Navigating Change Together

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Dear Carpentries Community,

Today, I write to share the news that profoundly impacts our community and Core Team. With a heavy heart, we announce a series of layoffs within our organisation.

Change is never easy, especially when it affects the talented individuals who have contributed so much to our community. Each Core Team member has played a crucial role in shaping the welcoming and inclusive environment we cherish. Their dedication and hard work have been instrumental in bringing our vision of being the leading inclusive community teaching data and coding skills to life.

Updates on The Carpentries Lesson Infrastructure

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this bitter-sweet blog post, I want to start by noting that we quietly passed a milestone last month. On 15 May, we successfully rolled-out our new lesson infrastructure, The Carpentries Workbench to all 43 of our official lessons. The Workbench, which has been featured regularly on our blog brings major improvements to how our community creates, maintains, teaches, and learns our lessons.

Building Success

The Workbench Prioritises accessible design principles and uses automated testing to validate lesson content for compliance with WCAG AA+ accessibility best practices, Is built on tools we teach in our workshops and that are commonly used in our community, reducing barriers for new lesson developers, maintainers, and contributors, More accurately reflects lesson authorship by clearly separating the tools needed to build the lesson from the content. Employs a modular design that is intended for future growth to support our community.

Honoring Omar Khan, The Carpentries Communications Manager

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Omar Khan joined The Carpentries in 2020 to support all aspects of communications for our organisation. He was the primary driver of getting the community the information they needed by developing our annual communications strategy and implementing our internal workflows. His work included, but was not limited to, compiling content for our newsletter, engaging the community on social media, and identifying important, timely, and interesting content for our blog. Omar is also an extremely talented graphic design artist who developed emojis, logos, templates, reports, and some really cool hex stickers.

Honoring François Michonneau - Senior Director of Technology

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

François is exceptionally gifted and a phenomenal leader. On his last day, we share some of his wonderful accomplishments over the past 4+ years.

François joined The Carpentries in 2018 as Curriculum Development Lead in an effort to scale our collaboratively developed curriculum, though he was no stranger to the community. François has been a Data and Software Carpentry community member since 2014, serving in multiple roles including Maintainer, Instructor, and Trainer. As Curriculum Development Lead, he co-organised Data Carpentry’s first Bug BBQ, developed GitHub labels for The Carpentries lessons, and was instrumental in publishing Data Carpentry’s Social Sciences lessons. He has provided strategic oversight for The Carpentries lesson infrastructure, advising on the technical and community engagement aspects of this work. His expertise has proven invaluable in preparing several grant applications and engaging with potential partners. For example, François co-led the Carpentries Lab grant proposal development and implementation funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). Additionally, he was co-PI on our CZI grant to advance The Carpentries equity, inclusion, and accessibility goals, helping to secure $399,300 over 24 months.

Introducing Sher!, Director of Workshops

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A Message from Erin Becker

I am thrilled to announce that SherAaron Hurt is advancing to a Senior Team Lead role and will now be serving as The Carpentries first Director of Workshops. SherAaron joined the team in 2017 in a part-time administrative support capacity. Over the past four and a half years, SherAaron has epitomized The Carpentries value of “Always Learning”, growing her teaching skills, technical abilities, and leadership skills immensely throughout her tenure with The Carpentries. I know that SherAaron will continue to lead the Workshop Administration Team with heart and confidence, and am excited to follow her as she blazes a new path for The Carpentries workshop of the future.