About Me: 

I’ve been a web developer for over a decade. I graduated from Temple University in 2008, and worked in higher ed until 2013 when I began working for Chromatic. Last year, I left Chromatic and have taken up a variety of freelance and contract opportunities. When I’m not working or doing Drupal-related things, I’m doing animal rescue. You might have seen pictures of my guinea pigs or cats online - I have over a decade of experience with animal rescue, and have worked with several non-profits in that space.

My passion for inclusive tech spaces began in college when I realized that as a woman in tech, my career might hand me some extra challenges. I and a few other women in the computer science department decided we weren’t interested in stereotypes, but we did want to get more folks, especially women, seen and involved in our department. We gradually transformed our chapter of ACM (The Association for Computing Machinery) from a boring club into a bustling organization with events like movie and pizza nights, Mario Kart and Guitar Hero competitions, the latter of which had results which were so hotly contested we almost had to call security. (The final song was Dragonforce, Through the Fire and Flames, from GH 3). I was a TA for a few classes, as well as a tutor, and I loved helping people learn.

We went to Grace Hopper, for which we received undergraduate travel awards to attend. And I realized I wanted to keep paying it forward and get women involved in tech. This later brought me to Girl Develop It, where I served as a chapter leader and instructor. At the same time I began volunteering with various community events centered around women in tech, and finding my place in the Drupal community as I began speaking at camps.

Gradually, I realized that it was important to get not just women into tech spaces, but all marginalized folks. And that’s around the time when I was introduced to the Drupal Diversity and Inclusion (DDI) group. I dove in head-first and after a time was invited to the leadership team. I found that I had so much to learn, and that there were people who wanted to learn and grow with me.

As I have learned and grown with the Drupal community, I have listened to many community members and seen first-hand what Drupal needs to do as a project and as a community to keep thriving. Now I’d like to be a part of the board, the people who help direct the project, so that I can lend my voice and my experience to help ensure the success of Drupal.

Statement of Candidacy Video: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZBwZF32jKE&feature=youtu.be
Board meeting attendence: 
none
Have you served on a board or committee?: 
Yes
If so, tell us about it.: 
I’m currently on the leadership team of the Drupal Diversity & Inclusion group. In my capacity as a leader there, I’ve aided the group in our formation of several initiatives, a large fundraising effort, as well as our many day-to-day activities. I am the leader of our moderation team, as well as on the admin team for the Drupal Slack. This requires a lot of diplomacy, collaboration, and difficult decisions. I’ve also been on the track team for DrupalCon for the past two years, which is both stressful and rewarding. It requires a great deal of teamwork and collaboration to get several hundred proposals into one cohesive conference, and I have learned a lot from that experience. I have a lot of experience in the nonprofit world of animal rescues - from starting one from scratch and all the paperwork that goes along with it, managing and running existing organizations, fundraising, and working with volunteers, staff, events, marketing, and of course, the actual cat wrangling!
What perspective will you bring to the board when discussing strategic topics?: 
As a long-time Drupaller, I have a range of experience, from being an inexperienced Drupaller just learning the way things work, to now a track chair and community leader. I think this range of perspective helps me connect with a variety of folks within the Drupal community, and has exposed me to so many people and experiences that I have a really good grasp of how the community functions, what its needs are, and what could be better. As a leader of DDI, I have seen what our underrepresented community members need and want from the Drupal community, and how we can better serve them. My perspective as a developer will also be helpful because I have an understanding of what does and does not appeal to developers in terms of campaigns and marketing, conferences, and community events.
What existing board topics are you most passionate about? and why?: 
One of the topics is “Understanding what the Project needs to move forward and determine how the Association can help meet those needs through Drupal.org and DrupalCon” - this one is broad, but it interests me, because when I read this, I think “What does the Drupal community need to do that it’s not currently doing?” We need to make sure that everyone at every level of experience, from every corner of the world, is able to participate in the project and be welcomed. They should be able to find the information that they need, and they should be able to contribute back to the project. They should be supported in their efforts by both the community (at the national and local levels, as well as by their employer). Everything should be accessible and inclusive to all community members - all digital and physical spaces, and those spaces must be safe and welcoming. The Drupal project doesn’t exist without people, so people need to be our priority.
What additional strategic topics would you like to introduce?: 
Obviously, I’m passionate about diversity and inclusion, as well as accessibility - everyone in our community should be able to participate, since community is such a core part of Drupal itself. I want this to be the key value that we hold the most dear - because if everyone can’t participate, what are we doing? Here’s an example. There’s a video that we’re encouraged to watch if we’re nominating ourselves for the board. The transcript isn’t available freely. There’s a link to request it. But the link is an email link to someone who no longer works for the DA. That’s a major roadblock. We should be thinking about that kind of thing all the time.
What unique skills would you bring to the board?: 
I am thorough and detail-oriented, which will serve me well in reading and analyzing financial documents. I’m also creative and have experience with smaller nonprofits, mostly animal rescues, which has taught me how to think frugally and keep fundraising in mind, and how to utilize existing channels for promotion.
How have your past contributions to Drupal prepared you for board candidacy?: 
My experiences being on a collaborative team - whether that’s the track team for DrupalCon, or the DDI leadership team, will serve me well on the board. Being a developer also means I’ve developed a lot of critical thinking and problem-solving skills that require me to think creatively to find solutions to problems, often with constraints provided by the client - I believe those experiences will also help when working to find solutions to issues as a board member.
Why should we vote for you?: 
I’m passionate about Drupal. The Drupal community has been my professional home for over a decade, and I truly care about its well-being. I want to see this community thrive as both an open-source ecosystem, and as a non-profit organization. I want it to be the best place it can be for every developer who comes across Drupal.

Questions for the Candidate

rachel_norfolk’s picture
rachel_norfolk:
Comment: 

As Dries stated in his Driesnote at DrupalCon Seattle 2019 (https://youtu.be/BNoCn6T9Xf8?t=2149), work on diversity & inclusion is a key priority of the project (https://youtu.be/BNoCn6T9Xf8?t=5793).
How can your knowledge or experience of diversity & inclusion help the Drupal Association meet Dries' call to action?

aburke626’s picture
aburke626:
Comment: 

As a leader of the Drupal Diversity & Inclusion group (note - we met with Dries to help him put together that piece of the keynote, and it was great to see him so passionate about it!), I've gotten to work with a lot of underrepresented folks in the Drupal community. We have been striving to figure out what the needs of the community are, and what we can do to help make the community a better and safer space for those people who are not traditionally represented and supported in open-source spaces in tech.

This experience has helped me to understand what Drupal's weaknesses are - for example, not understanding that one of our core needs, which is contribution to the project, is a privilege. We need to create spaces and paths to contribution, which is something DDI has been doing with our contrib team - helping people learn the ropes and get started. This is something the DA needs to think about, as well - is there a place to fund this work? Is there an initiative we can push for companies to be funding this work by employees during work hours? (I believe that would be ideal).

mherchel’s picture
mherchel:
Comment: 

As a board member, you would be responsible for directing strategies for the DA. What changes would you like to make? What strategic initiatives would you like to start/continue/discontinue?

aburke626’s picture
aburke626:
Comment: 

As I wrote about above, I'd like to see a bigger strategic push towards accessibility and inclusion as a project - not just within the code of the project. I want the entire community constantly thinking of how we are making everything accessible and inclusive to every person. Every facet of every event, every online space, everything we post, every interaction - how does that reflect our values? How will that be perceived by underrepresented folks? Can everyone participate? If one of our strategic goals is also to increase adoption, we must assure that the community and everything around it is as accessible as the code of our project. \

prairiedog’s picture
prairiedog:
Comment: 

Your background is certainly impressive in a number of areas, Alanna. Could you share what priorities you feel are important about furthering the adoption of Drupal, and how entry-level and intermediate developers might be addressed in the face of competitive CMS platforms (like WordPress, of course)?

rivimey’s picture
rivimey:
Comment: 

I am concerned for Drupal in two ways at present:

- that the project is becoming "enterprise only" (the small users and SME users are being forced out by Drupal's development costs c.f. Wordpress / Wix / ...)

- that contrib projects, even "important" ones, are being left unmaintained far too often, usually because the maintainers are busy earning money elsewhere. This is perhaps a symptom of the first point.

How would you meet these challenges?

travellercon’s picture
travellercon:
Comment: 

Good question.

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