From 7b40b0e6738df89f4fb185e92c45a9c4ecb230ed Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Sandra Gesing Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2023 11:22:43 -0600 Subject: [PATCH] Create executive-director.md Create Executive Director page --- pages/about/executive-director.md | 55 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 55 insertions(+) create mode 100644 pages/about/executive-director.md diff --git a/pages/about/executive-director.md b/pages/about/executive-director.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..41f6f9db2 --- /dev/null +++ b/pages/about/executive-director.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +layout: page +title: Executive Director +permalink: /about/executive-director/ +subtitle: Sustainability for the US-RSE Association +menubar: about +menubar_toc: true +set_last_modified: true +--- + + +### Executive Director + +Sandra Gesing +[sandra\@us-rse.org](mailto:sandra@us-rse.org) + +### Message from the Executive Director October 2023 + +Dear US-RSE members and allies, + +I’m honored and thrilled to be appointed the inaugural Executive Director of US-RSE. My whole work life has been +immersed around software with me starting already at high-school with programming. I enjoyed working in industry as +an administrator, system developer and head of a systems programming group for over a decade and then I switched +from industry to research completing my PhD in a bioinformatics group. I have been an RSE, research faculty and +senior research scientist with a major focus on research software in the last 17 years. This moment is very special to me +because it is about a community I’m incredibly passionate about, and this community feels like home. Being a part +of it means having a space for discussions, a space for learning and support of a non-traditional career path. +With my resume, I often felt like a unicorn – not within US-RSE though. + +The last five years have shown how much we all can achieve together as a community, and we went from around 20 members +in 2018 to nearly 2000 in 2023. US-RSE is a vibrant community evident in the activities on Slack, working groups, +organized workshops, participation in community calls – to name just a few. Next week will be our first in-person +conference ever and I am so impressed by the energy of contributors, organization committee members, volunteers and +the sponsors. The conference is sold out and as a General Chair I am relieved and grateful for everyone’s patience as +we navigated these unchartered waters. + +We have more unchartered waters in front of us - with a lot of support that will kick-off our exciting journey. +Thanks to the Alfred Sloan Foundation, we have for the first time substantial funding for community activities, grants +and awards. Additionally, we can hire staff, which is a full-time soon-to-be-announced Community Manager and me as a +half-time Executive Director. I am convinced that our spectacular growth of membership and volunteer work needs this +support to keep the grass-root character of US-RSE without burning out volunteers and get measures in place that can +facilitate innovative ideas and activities – especially also assuring the sustainability of the organization. + +Much of my work will be focused on the sustainability of the organization and my vision is that we achieve financial +sustainability with different tiers of funding and contributions. Volunteer work will stay a cornerstone of US-RSE. +Together with the community manager I will contribute to this thriving community to address pain points and support +activities that the community would like to accomplish. We are not alone in this journey. The world-wide movement is +impressive with RSE associations in Africa, Australia/New Zealand, Belgium, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Nordic +countries and the UK. Though at times, we may feel like unicorns, we are part of an ever-expanding, diverse and extraordinary +community. + +I’m looking forward to this journey with you and I’m grateful for any ideas and input! Please don’t hesitate to contact me. + +Sincerely, +Sandra Gesing