My Python Community Journey
My journey in the Python community began in 2019 as a room monitor at PyConf Hyderabad. It was a small volunteer role, but it gave me my first opportunity to contribute.
From there, my involvement grew gradually. In 2020, I became a core volunteer, helped organize online meetups and the virtual PyConf Hyderabad, and worked with the program committee. I later served as Co-Chair of PyConf Hyderabad in 2022, Co-Chair of PyCon India in 2023, and Chair of PyConf Hyderabad in 2025 and 2026.
Through these roles, I have worked across CFP and program management, sponsorship, technology, logistics, speaker coordination, volunteer management, operations, and Code of Conduct responsibilities. One lesson has stayed with me throughout this journey: a healthy community cannot depend indefinitely on the same few people.
At HydPy, we have worked to bring newer volunteers into organizing responsibilities and support them as they grow into co-organizers. For me, community growth is not only about increasing attendance or running more events. It is also about sharing knowledge and responsibility and creating opportunities for new people to take ownership.
Inclusion and Community Safety
My conference-organizing experience has shaped how I think about inclusive participation. At PyConf Hyderabad, our organizing team has focused on community outreach, encouraging first-time speakers, improving selection processes, and speaker mentorship. Over the years, we have seen broader participation in our conference program. This has reinforced my belief that inclusion is not only about who gets selected; it is also about creating the conditions that enable more people to participate in the first place.
Community safety is another important part of my work. For the past two years, I have been an active member of the NumFOCUS Code of Conduct Working Group, contributing to Code of Conduct matters and efforts to maintain safe and welcoming open-source communities. I have also taken on Code of Conduct responsibilities through Python conferences. I also participate in the NumFOCUS Small Development Grants program, reviewing proposals that support open-source projects and contributing to grant funding decisions. These experiences have given me practical exposure to both community safety and responsible allocation of resources/funds within an open-source nonprofit ecosystem.
I joined the PSF Diversity & Inclusion Working Group in February 2026 and have since participated in its monthly meetings and discussions. While my involvement is relatively recent, the group's work around supporting community organizers connects closely with challenges I have experienced through years of community organizing.
Learning Across Python Communities
My involvement in the Python ecosystem extends beyond Hyderabad and India. Since 2022, I have contributed through reviewing and program activities across Python and scientific-computing conferences in Asia and internationally, including PyCon US, EuroPython, PyCon JP, PyCon APAC, PyData Global, JupyterCon, and SciPy.
I have been part of the PyCon JP program team for the last three years and have reviewed scientific paper submissions for SciPy for three consecutive years. These experiences have given me opportunities to learn from communities operating in different regions while seeing many shared challenges: finding volunteers and sponsors, sustaining leadership, broadening participation, and connecting local communities with the wider Python ecosystem.
In 2026, I was honored to receive the Python Software Foundation Q2 Community Service Award. I see this recognition not as a destination, but as encouragement to continue serving the community and take on greater responsibility where my experience can be useful.
Professional Perspective
Professionally, I currently work as an AI & Data Science Practice Lead, with more than a decade of experience spanning operations, data, technology, and AI transformation. I am a self-taught data scientist, and my own career transition has shaped how I think about continuous learning, opportunity, and mentorship.
Over the years, I have built and mentored teams, worked across technical and business stakeholders, and contributed to strategic decision-making in complex organizations. I hope to bring this experience alongside my community perspective to Board discussions around strategy, organizational sustainability, partnerships, and Python's evolving technology ecosystem.
What I Hope to Focus On
If elected to the PSF Board, I would particularly like to contribute in three connected areas:
Sustainable local and regional communities. I would like to support efforts that help organizers build teams, share knowledge, develop future leaders, access useful resources, and reduce dependence on a small number of long-term volunteers.
Pathways into community leadership. My own journey began with a small volunteer opportunity. I would like more people to have opportunities to move from participant to volunteer, speaker, organizer, mentor, and eventually community leader.
Inclusive participation and access. I would like to help create stronger pathways for people from different backgrounds, regions, and levels of experience to participate meaningfully in the Python ecosystem whether through local communities, open source, community programs, speaking, mentoring, or leadership. I am particularly interested in reducing the barriers that can prevent people from moving from simply using Python to actively contributing to its community.
Local communities understand their own contexts best. I believe the PSF can help them access resources, learn from one another, build stronger connections across the wider Python ecosystem, and develop leadership that lasts.
Why I Am Running
I started my Python community journey by monitoring a room at a conference. Seven years later, I am fortunate to be helping newer volunteers take on responsibilities that I once had to learn myself.
That journey has shaped one belief I would bring to the PSF Board:
The strongest communities are not those that depend on great organizers, but those that continuously create new ones.
I would be honored to serve the Python community as a member of the PSF Board.