Who are you?
I am the volunteer project lead for Drupal Forge and a member of the community health team. I joined the Drupal community in 2005 and have been contributing ever since. Until 2026, I maintained the Drupal platform for Estée Lauder Companies as a senior software engineer at Cognizant. I live in Lakeland, Florida with my wife, three sons, and two cats.
What does building community mean to you?
Building community means two things:
- Removing obstacles to participation.
- Developing new leadership.
We all own every Drupal project. We should continue to prioritize accessibility for people of all abilities in our products, tools, and events. We need to do a better job of responding to behavior that makes people feel unwelcome. We should not treat volunteers who maintain projects as if they were paid employees maintaining something we bought.
We need to improve our ability to work with people of different languages, skills, and availability. Many issues have been ignored for years because a contributor did not provide a requested test or change notice. We should establish a norm of assuming people have given their best; and, if more is needed, it’s up to the rest of us to move it forward.
What does advocating for Drupal mean to you?
To me, advocating for Drupal means spreading its value widely and making it easy to discover. Advocating for Drupal includes promoting the wider open source ecosystem and helping more vendors distribute ready made, fully customizable experiences to users. Everyone has a stake in Drupal; they just need to realize it.
Why are you running for a board seat at the Drupal Association?
I have a vision for making the value of Drupal easier to discover. In 2024 I moved to fulfill this vision by founding Drupal Forge as a community platform for zero-friction trial experiences. My vision includes developing ready-made kits for launching Drupal businesses. I want to ensure that Drupal experts like me always have work and that Drupal benefits projects that are too small for big agencies but introduce it to a wider audience.
I believe the Drupal Association is ready to lead us to this vision. After two years of leading from outside, it is time for me to try leading from within.
Why should members vote for you?
I have proved my effectiveness by leading the Drupal Forge project. I know the Drupal community from 20 years of contribution. I also know the challenges facing new members from volunteering as a mentor for Discover Drupal, the Open University Initiative, and Drupal events.
Like many of you, I lost a secure, well-paid job when the company I worked with switched to a different platform. I am committed to regaining the ground we have lost. I understand the value of Drupal. Drupal is not only more open but also ahead of other platforms in many ways. In many cases where Drupal is not the right solution, it is very close to being the right solution and just needs a push to get there.
What is your favorite Drupal moment or memory?
My single favorite moment is the first time I installed Drupal and learned how many features I could enable without writing code.
