Notice: While JavaScript is not essential for this website, your interaction with the content will be limited. Please turn JavaScript on for the full experience.

Nominee for 2025 Python Software Foundation Board Election

Sydney Runkle

  • Previous Board Service: New board member
  • Employer: LangChain
  • Other Affiliations: Pydantic, PyLadies, Boston Python, MadPy (Madison Python)
  • Nominee Statement:

      Hi there! My name is Sydney Runkle, and I'm excited to announce my nomination for the PSF Board. I'm primarily known in the Python community for maintaining open source projects, most notably pydantic and tools in the langchain suite. I'm also an active member in the talks circuit and a frequent Python/AI podcast guest. I'm eager to bring a passionate perspective to the bigger picture of Python's development.

      Background

      Interestingly, my fascination with Python all started because of a sledding accident. One broken leg later, I was confined to a wheelchair and in desperate need of a new hobby. My dad handed me an introductory Python book, which quickly evolved into a deep dive in courses on data science, machine learning, and applied stats.

      I began working on projects like plotting bird migration tracks, analyzing US election data with streamlit, and generating plotly visualizations for articles I was writing for the local newspaper. One of the most rewarding projects was working with a local nonprofit PORCH to optimize non-perishable pickup routes with an interactive map application.

      Service

      My career has been largely focused on open source development. I take a unique approach to open source maintenance, a "kill 'em with kindness" philosophy, if you will. Open source is grounded in relationships, conversations, and effective collaboration. I'm looking to bring this same approach to the PSF Board.

      Open Source Contributions

      Miscellaneous

      • PyConUS 2025: Reviewed 600+ talk proposals with detailed ratings and feedback
      • School Improvement Team Board Member: Served a 2 year term, learning effective governance
      • Hunger Relief Club President: Recruited volunteers, organized fundraisers, and coordinated advocacy campaigns

      Initiatives

      If elected, I plan to lead work on the following initiatives:

      1. AI Education: Python is the top language for AI development, but the PSF has yet to significantly invest in educational resources surrounding emerging patterns for AI use with Python. My experience with both pydantic-ai and the langchain suite of tools makes me uniquely qualified to help advance this initiative.
      2. PyPride 2026: Python has many groups bringing together underrepresented communities (like PyLadies), but I don't think enough has been done to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in Python. I'd like to help organize and fund a PyPride event in June of 2026 (and future years) to bring together a community that's not often represented fully or seen.
      3. "Zero to Speaker" Pipeline: I feel lucky to have spoken at a variety of Python conferences, but I don't feel like there were adequate resources encouraging young speakers to get involved. I'd like to change that. My experience both giving and reviewing talks will help me to demystify this process.

      Speaking and Media

      Talks

      Podcast Appearances

  • Nomination Statements:
    • Nomination by:

      Sydney is an industrious and diligent member of the Python community eager to pay it forward. I have understood she has also nominated herself and am showing my support for her here. She would be a great member of the board.

    • Nomination by: Carol Willing

      I endorse Sydney Runkle for the PSF Board. Her work with Pydantic and LangChain, her enthusiasm in sharing her knowledge through talks and writing, and organization skills would benefit the PSF.

    • Nomination by: Savannah Ostrowski

      I'm excited to endorse Sydney Runkle for a PSF board seat.

      Sydney embodies the passion, care, and collaborative spirit that I believe sustains and grows the Python community. Her leadership in our open source ecosystem via Pydantic, LangChain, LangGraph, etc., demonstrates a rare blend of technical excellence and human-centered leadership. Sydney approaches open source with what she describes as a “kill 'em with kindness” philosophy, grounded in the belief that relationships and empathy are just as meaningful as code. This mindset is precisely what we need on the PSF Board: someone who understands that community health, inclusion, and sustainability are inseparable from the future of the language itself.

      I wholeheartedly support her nomination and would be excited to see her on the board.

    • Nomination by: Paul Ganssle

      In addition to being technically adept and patient, Sydney is very community-minded, with exactly the right kind of pragmatism that we need on the PSF board. In her relatively short time as member of the Python community (~2y), she has been extremely active — speaking at conferences and meetups, appearing on podcasts, reviewing submissions for PyCon US and doing community management in open source projects such as Pydantic. In every endeavor I've seen her undertake, she has done so with diligence and dedication, taking the care to do things the right way.

      I also believe that Sydney would do an excellent job serving as a bridge between the Python world and the next generation of ML libraries and frameworks. With her devotion to the open source Python community, I would expect her to put the world of Python first in her role on the PSF board, but with her previous role working on Pydantic AI and her new role at LangChain, I also would expect her to be ideally positioned to represent the new class of users who are now coming to our community from the world of AI.

    • Nomination by: Marlene Mhangami

      I'm nominating Sydney for the 2025 PSF board election! As a contributor to LangChain, I first met Sydney online through her open source work on both LangChain and LangGraph. She has consistently created friendly and open spaces for discussion and feedback in the LangChain community. We then met in person at LangChain's conference, and it was great to hear about how involved Sydney has been in the Python community, giving talks and volunteering at PyCon US! We are in exciting times, as Python has grown to become the most popular programming language in the world and big part of that growth recently has come from developers building with AI. Even with this growth, I think the Python community still has a long way to go to welcome and engage new AI developers. Sydney's unique experience as a maintainer for an AI project as large as LangChain, as well as other popular Python projects like PyDantic and Streamlit will be valuable to the board and the community. I'd encourage anyone reading this to vote for her!

    • Nomination by: Dawn Wages

      It has been a pleasure to get to know Sydney. She has a clarity of purpose, authentic interest in the health and safety of the Python community and consistent contributions to the health of projects in the Python ecosystem.

      We have chatted about what makes Python, Python. We discuss where we see the community and where it should go -- her vision stems from her expertise in emergent technologies including, but not limited to Python data tools, AI, and developer tools. Then without skipping a beat, we are able to discuss equity, inclusion, and access. I look forward to working with her on the future of the PSF and how the financial health and safety of the organization requires strategic collaboration with organizations that are at the forefront of cutting edge technologies.

      I'm happy to give my nomination statement in support of Sydney Runkle.