Python has been an important part of my life for a quarter of a century, so I would be grateful for a chance to serve its community as a member of the PSF board. I believe my experience has prepared me for doing so effectively: I co-authored the PEP that added sets to the language, am a Fellow of the PSF, helped make Python the first-year teaching language at Canada's largest university, and have written several books showing how to apply it to real-world problems.

I also launched and then led a non-profit organization called Software Carpentry that now has thousands of instructors running workshops on basic computing skills in dozens of countries. Building that gave me first-hand experience of the challenges that non-profit organizations face; I hope that what I learned about fundraising, governance, community management, committee work, and managing changes in leadership will allow me to contribute to the PSF in meaningful ways.

My other reason for nominating myself is that I don't like to leave things half-done. The first generation of open source contributors proved that volunteers working together can create world-class infrastructure and tools, but we are still struggling to make such work a viable career. Many people struggle to balance their desire to contribute with their need to pay their bills, while other simply burn out. If elected, I hope to help the PSF take the lead in tackling the sustainability crisis, and by doing so, help ensure that the Python community grows and thrives.