We’ve been very busy at the Drupal Association. Between holding the largest European DrupalCon yet, launching Drupal Jobs, making improvements to Drupal.org, and much more, you wouldn’t think we’d have much time to get up to other mischief. But we’ve been busy networking, interviewing, and hiring, and now we’re thrilled to announce that six new employees have come on board (or are about to come on board!) in the past few months.

Here’s some information about our new teammates:

Amanda Gonser, DrupalCon Coordinator, Community Programs TeamAmanda (amanda.gonser) is joining the Drupal Association as the new DrupalCon Coordinator. In her role, she will provide support to the Drupal community and will help facilitate DrupalCons around the world. Previously, Amanda managed global education conferences for a Portland-based medical company, and before that lived in the Basque Country of Spain teaching English.

A native of Washington state, Amanda enjoys hiking in the Pacific Northwest, devouring books, traveling to new places, and learning new languages

Carrie Lacina, Digital Advertising & Monetization Product Manager, Sales TeamCarrie (clacina) has come on board as the Association’s Digital Advertising & Monetization Product Manager, and while her title is a mouthful, her duties are relatively straightforward: Carrie will be developing a digital advertising strategy for the Association and convert it into a healthy, growing line of business.

Carrie has worked in digital media for twelve years, with experience in advertising operations and sales, monetization strategy, account management and media buying. Prior to working at the Association, she worked as a Advertising Operations Manager for a mid-sized digital publisher network in Portland, Oregon, and as a Digital Media Planner/Buyer for an advertising agency in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When not working, Carrie enjoys gardening, working on home improvement projects, hiking, camping, and hanging out with her cats.

Tim Lehnen, Project Manager, Tech Team

Tim (hestenet) is the Drupal Association's new Project Manager. Previously, Tim worked in development and client services operations for a leading provider of websites for medical professionals. A long time user of Drupal, Tim is passionate about open source principles and the ethos of an open community. As Project Manager, Tim will help the Drupal Association technical team establish a process to prioritize and deliver on the technical roadmap the Association has established with input from the community.

When he’s not writing code, Tim is writing fiction - young adult fantasy, or near-contemporary science fiction by preference - and enjoys the work of Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, Elizabeth Peters, Bill Watterson, Lewis Carroll, Neil Gaiman, Bill Willingham, and C.S Lewis.

Jessica Nelson, Sales Operations Manager, Sales TeamJess (Jess Nelson) is based out of Niles, Michigan, where she resides with her family. As the Association’s new Sales Operations Manager, Jess will be focused on the Association's organizational systems and business process improvements.

Prior to joining the Association, Jess ran the National Center for Economic Gardening at the Edward Lowe Foundation, a non-profit foundation focused on developing programs that help second stage companies grow. While there, Jess grew the Economic Gardening program from operating in 3 states to 30 states and contributed to a 250% increase in net revenue for the program.

In her free time, Jess enjoys cleaning and reading, listening to NPR, watching pro-wrestling, playing with Legos, and spending time with her family.

Emilie Nouveau, Web Designer, Tech TeamEmilie (DyanneNova) is the Drupal Association’s new Web Designer. Previously, Emilie worked as a Drupal developer for MongoDB, advocating for a responsive design in every project she worked on. She’s an organizer for LinuxFest Northwest, and one of the maintainers of the Conference Organizing Distribution. At the Drupal Association, Emilie will be working on the Responsive Design initiative, along with general design and front-end improvements across the sites.

When not working, Emilie enjoys reading and collecting books, playing board games, drinking tea, and four wheeling in her Jeep.

Jakob Perry, Drupal Developer, Tech TeamJakob (japerry) has been in the world of Drupal for many years. As an in-house Drupal developer for the Drupal Association, he will concentrate on improving the DrupalCon sites, and will work on the groups.drupal.org migration. Jakob is currently the maintainer of COD, the conference organizing distribution, as well as co-maintainer for several Drupal 7 modules. Previously, Jakob worked at Acquia as a distributions engineer.

Outside of technology, Jakob can be found outdoors, on some mountain 4-wheeling, skiing or mountain biking. He loves to scare people by going up steep rocks in a vehicle that looks like it’s ready to take on the zombie apocalypse.

Other Big Changes
Beyond our five lovely new hires, we’ve also got big internal news, too: Rachel Friesen and Stephanie El-Hajj have both been promoted!

Rachel (racheldrupal) is now the Events Manager for the Community Programs Team, where she will be helping to guide the growth of the DrupalCon program. Rachel has been with the Drupal Association since April of this year, and is currently transitioning from her Sponsor Fulfillment position to the Community Programs Team

Many of you know (and love) Stephanie El-Hajj (stephelhajj), who has been a DrupalCon Coordinator since spring of 2012. We’re thrilled to announce that Stephanie is now the Community Programs Team’s Lead DrupalCon Coordinator, and will be working on operations management, research, and process improvement to better elevate the attendee experience at DrupalCon. If you’re a community volunteer, don’t worry-- Stephanie will still continue to manage the DrupalCon program and program teams, because working with the community to produce stellar content is what she loves to do best.

We’re incredibly excited for Rachel and Stephanie, and thrilled to have our new team members on board. Please help us show our new team members a warm welcome, and help us offer our promoted team members a big congratulations.