Deb Nicholson
Executive Director at Python Software Foundation
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolDeb Nicholson is an experienced nonprofit technology leader who has spent 14+ years stewarding open source communities and operations, currently serving as Executive Director of the Python Software Foundation. She combines hands-on community-building—founding SeaGL and managing volunteer-driven projects like GNU MediaGoblin—with organizational leadership roles at OSI, Software Freedom Conservancy, and Open Invention Network. Her strengths span staff and resource management, volunteer coordination, fundraising, event planning, and public speaking, with a knack for improving board communication and modernizing outreach. Based in Cambridge, MA, she pairs practical operational skills (from running events and membership programs to updating technical inventories) with deep policy and patent-awareness for FOSS projects. Not obviously technical but unusually effective, she connects developers, funders, and institutions to translate grassroots community needs into sustainable organizational strategy. Her track record shows a rare blend of diplomacy, program execution, and long-term commitment to increasing participation in free and open source software.
14 years of coding experience
16 years of employment as a software developer
BA Visual Arts, BA Visual Arts at Bradford CollegeIntelligent.lyInformation Technology, Information Technology at Harvard Extension School
French
Github Skills (23)
linux10
static-site10
gnu10
converting9
event-manager9
djangocon8
rails8
ruby7
django-blog7
python7
programming-language6
django-project5
tricks4
procedures4
django4
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
eximious/2023.djangocon.us
Aug 2023 - Aug 2023
🫐 The DjangoCon US 2023 conference website
Contributions:2 pushes, 1 branch in 1 day
SeaGL/seagl.github.io
Oct 2014 - Oct 2017
Website for the Seattle GNU/Linux Conference
Contributions:167 commits, 9 PRs, 162 pushes in 3 years
gnu-linuxlinuxstatic-sitegnu
Find and Hire Top DevelopersWe’ve analyzed the programming source code of over 60 million software developers on GitHub and scored them by 50,000 skills. Sign-up on Prog,AI to search for software developers.