Lorena Mesa
Senior Software Engineer at CoBank
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolLorena Mesa is a Senior Software Engineer and open-source advocate with 12 years of experience building data and machine-learning infrastructure at companies like GitHub and Sprout Social and now at CoBank. A former Chair of the Python Software Foundation and co-founder of PyLadies Chicago, she blends technical leadership with community building to democratize contributions to open source. Her work spans Python-heavy ML and data pipelines, dependency-graph security features (including SBOM work tied to federal cybersecurity directives), and front-end contributions to high-impact community projects like PyLadies. An educator and conference speaker, she also designs curricula and mentors engineers, having taught advanced Python at the University of Chicago. Rooted in political analysis and public-interest work, she brings a strong ethic of responsible, accessible technology and measurable impact.
12 years of coding experience
10 years of employment as a software developer
Certificate Data Science, Certificate Data Science at Georgetown University School of Continuing StudiesWeb Development, Web Development at Dev BootcampBachelor of Arts (B.A.) Political Science & International Studies, Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Political Science & International Studies at Northwestern UniversityMaster of Arts (M.A.) Latin American and Latino Studies, Master of Arts (M.A.) Latin American and Latino Studies at University of Illinois Chicago
Spanish
Github Skills (8)
html10
css10
web-development10
py10
python9
deploying9
javascript8
git8
Programming languages (14)
Github contributions (5)
pyladies/pyladies
Aug 2016 - Oct 2020
PyLadies is a global mentorship group focused on helping more marginalized genders become active participants & leads in the Python open-source community.
Role in this project:
Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:8 reviews, 157 commits, 99 PRs in 4 years 2 months
Contributions summary:Lorena primarily focused on front-end development, updating the website's structure and content. They removed outdated links and community information, and integrated new features, such as a netlify badge. Additionally, the user made updates to the location pages with the new badge assets. They also modified and updated the fabfile for deployment.
pythonpyladiesleadsdiversity-inclusion-in-techdiversity-in-tech
lorenanicole/lorenanicole
Jun 2020 - Aug 2024
Contributions:8 pushes, 1 branch in 4 years 2 months
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