I'm Leah 👋

Executive Director & Founder of pyOpenSci

I build inclusive global programs that harness the power of community to break down barriers in open science—so scientists can spend less time struggling and more time solving the world's greatest problems.

I'm Leah 👋

Building Open Science Infrastructure.

pyOpenSci

Founder and Executive Director of an inclusive non profit organization. Together, our community that supports scientists in building, discovering and maintaining better scientific software. Together, we make open source accessible to everyone, everywhere. Learn More

  • 350+ contributors & maintainers
  • 50+ packages supported

Passionate about Open Source

Accessible Open Education

I have 20+ years experience in designing technical training that tackles the hardest technical pain points—equipping scientists with the skills to work openly, reproducibly, and collaboratively. I have built over 300 open lessons for workshops, bootcamps, and semester-long courses at Universities and non profit organizations.

Community Matters Most

I have spent the last 9 years, creating and nurturing a vibrant scientific open source community of practice from the ground up—building the human infrastructure needed to ensure open science practices thrive. Helping people is at the heart of all of my work.

What I've Built

Thousands of researchers trained • Hundreds of open lessons built • Hundreds of package maintainers supported
1000s researchers trained
350+ contributors empowered
400+ open lessons published
120+ maintainers supported

Recognition & Awards

Education & Impact

  • PhD Ecology – Penn State
  • 300+ open education lessons reaching millions of learners globally
  • 20+ years designing inclusive technical training that tackles the hardest pain points

Programs That Scale & Empower

Creator of national data science programs focused on access and inclusion:

  • pyOpenSci (Founder & Executive Director) – Building diverse community supporting open science through Python. 350+ contributors, 120+ maintainers supported. Learn more →

  • Earth Data Analytics Professional Program (CU Boulder) – Designed graduate program training students in earth and environmental data science with industry-relevant skills

  • Earth Data Science Corps (NSF Award) – Expanded data science teaching capacity at tribal colleges, building inclusive pathways to tech careers

  • NEON Data Skills Program – Created training program helping ecologists work with large-scale, complex time-series data from National Ecological Observatory Network

Recent Thoughts

Community

On Being Named a PSF Fellow

I recently was honored as a Python Software Foundation Fellow. I am humbled and honored by being nominated and receiving the award.

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