Ambassadors

Principal Engineer at The New York Times, specializing in building and scaling internal developer platforms on Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies.I actively contribute to the tech community, frequently sharing insights at conferences like AWS re:invent, KubeCon, and KubeCrash. Also, I lead the organization of Kubernetes Community Days (KCD) New York and share his expertise on CNCF technologies through his blog at abebars.io

Ana Margarita Medina is a Staff Developer Advocate at Lightstep, where she speaks on all things SRE, DevOps, and Reliability, and is a podcast host for On-Call Me, Maybe (oncallmemaybe.com). She is a self-taught engineer with over 12 years of experience, focusing on cloud infrastructure and reliability in the last few. She is also part of the Kubernetes Release Team (v1.25 – v1.27) and has been advising CNCF’s Keptn (keptn.sh) project since 2019. When time permits her, she leads efforts to dispel the stigma surrounding mental health and bring more Black and Latinx folks into tech.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I want to continue giving back to the CNCF community, I see this as another great opportunity to connect with other developers (open source and end users) and learn about their struggles with current tooling to help shape where this industry moves toward. I’m also very excited to empower others to see that they too belong in tech, that there is space for them to work in cloud-native, and become open-source contributors, and for folks to join in and help us grow this community and build responsible tech.

Angel Ramirez is an accomplished technology leader and entrepreneur with a strong background in software product development, cloud-native technologies, and Kubernetes Kubestronaut. Angel is a CNCF and TODO OSPO Ambassador, known for his exceptional public speaking skills, effectively communicating intricate technical ideas engagingly and understandably. His dynamic approach seamlessly integrates technology with business strategy, helping organizations achieve robust, scalable solutions while promoting a culture of ongoing learning and community engagement.

Chad is a Senior Platform Engineer at Civo, and author of the book “Acing the Certified Kubernetes Administrator Exam”. Chad has been an instructor for over six years on platforms such as A Cloud Guru (now Pluralsight) and INE. Through KubeSkills, he helps people find fun and interactive ways to learn Kubernetes, Linux, and containers.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I really enjoy helping people get involved in open source software. I have realized the power of community, in lifting others up and succeeding together, and I love to share it with others. I believe it is my duty in life to share what I’ve learned in order to make intellectual progress as a human race.

Daniel Oh is Java Champion and Senior Principal Developer Advocate at Red Hat. He works to evangelize building cloud-native microservices and serverless functions with cloud-native runtimes to developers. He also continues to contribute to various open-source cloud projects and ecosystems as a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) ambassador for accelerating DevOps adoption in enterprises. Daniel also speaks at technical seminars, workshops, and meetups to elaborate on new emerging technologies for enterprise developers, SREs, platform engineers, and DevOps teams.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: It will give me more opportunities to meet more technical folks who want to adopt/learn new cloud-native technologies and tools. Also, the ambassador makes me a more proactive person to evangelize non-tech people in terms of how/why they move forward to the cloud.

Danielle has worked in the cloud native industry since 2016 helping organizations adopt the technologies that make cloud native enterprise ready. She co-authored and launched the CNCF Cloud Native Maturity Model and continues to maintain it as part of her leadership of the CNCF Cartografos Working Group. Danielle is a co-author of the CNCF book Admiral Bash’s Island Adventure with Phippy + Friends. She is currently focused on getting organizations to understand how cloud native achieves business objectives.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Having been part of the cloud native community since 2016, I’m excited to welcome new members and help them understand how to participate. I’m particularly interested in becoming an ambassador to help all members do better at communicating why cloud native is not just technology, but makes innovation and business goals achievable.

I’m Jim Angel. I love solving problems and working with incredible people! I’m primarily involved with upstream Kubernetes (SIG-Release and SIG-Docs). Currently working on restarting our local Austin meetup and a Texas KCD. You can follow my latest projects at jimangel.io

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: It’s awesome to get to know so many great people and work with leading technology that’s responsible for changing multiple industries. The community that keeps Kubernetes open and welcome is a special thing, and I hope to maintain such standards myself. I also enjoy helping connect the folks using open source tooling with the resources they need to be successful, and being an ambassador keeps me connected.

Jon Zeolla is the founder of Zenable, where they are revolutionizing corporate governance by integrating cloud-native security and compliance with artificial intelligence. Previously he co-founded Seiso where he received the 2021 Start-Up Innovator of the Year Award and currently serves as strategic advisor, guiding key business decisions and company growth.

He is also a CNCF Ambassador, SANS Instructor for SEC540: Cloud Security and DevSecOps Automation, and an active member of CNCF TAG Security.

Josh is passionate about enabling project builders and end users to succeed with cloud computing. He’s a solution architect for Red Hat and leader of CNCF’s TAG App Delivery and WG Platforms. He also leads the CNCF Chicago community group and other Chicago-area groups. Check out Josh’s blog at https://blog.joshgav.com/!

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I’m thrilled to continue enabling beginners and experts alike to make the most of cloud computing! As an ambassador I’ll be even more empowered to educate and support Chicago-area developers in our local communities. I’m looking forward to sharing knowledge myself, but most of all I’m looking forward to enabling people in my communities to share their knowledge with each other!

Julia Furst Morgado is a Global Technologist – Office of the CTO at Veeam Software. With over five years of experience in the industry, her focus is on simplifying Cloud Native technologies by sharing her expertise and experiences. She is also committed to empowering communities as the organizer of the NY Code & Coffee Meetup and KubeHuddle conference, and by being an AWS Community Builder, a Women Techmakers Ambassador and a Girl Code Ambassador.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I strongly believe in raising awareness about how people can help the CNCF community beyond just coding, and encourage more individuals to get involved in whatever capacity they can. I am excited to produce content, promote cloud native technologies, participate in major events, and connect with global communities.

Karen Chu is an Apple OSPO PM focused on Swift language community initiatives. Having participated in the cloud native community since 2015, she is a CNCF Ambassador, Helm community manager/maintainer, emeritus Kubernetes Code of Conduct Committee member, meet-up organizer, and conference organizer. She has also worked on The Illustrated Children’s Guide to Kubernetes book series. When she’s not connecting dots in the community, you can find her pursuing photography, cooking, and sipping on chai lattes.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Having help build this community since 2015, I’m fascinated by how far the ecosystem has come and how much further it can go. I’m extremely excited to see CNCF participate in new spaces and so with my continued work as a CNCF Ambassador, I look forward to helping bridge the gap between the cloud native and Webassembly communities.

Kaslin Fields is a Developer Advocate at Google Cloud, CNCF Ambassador, and a contributor to Open Source Kubernetes. She is passionate about making Cloud Native technology exciting and fun to learn for everyone from seasoned pros to total newcomers. In addition to her work supporting the development of cloud native technologies as a contributor, she also aims to spread the word about this awesome field by producing talks, videos, blogs, documentation, comics, and more.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: The Cloud Native ecosystem is active and growing, which can make it difficult for community members building awesome things to get the support they need. As an ambassador, I am passionate about providing support to folks building their own Cloud Native communities, technologies, and more.

Lin is the Head of Open Source at Solo.io, also serving as a CNCF TOC member and ambassador. She has been actively involved with the Istio service mesh since its inception in 2017, holding positions on both the Istio Steering Committee and Technical Oversight Committee. Prior to her current role, she was a Senior Technical Staff Member and Master Inventor at IBM for 15+ years. She is the author of the book “Istio Ambient Explained” and has more than 200 patents to her name.

Lisa is a developer advocate and community architect, and is Head of Developer Relations at Intuit (home of Argo Proj). Lisa is also a CNCF Ambassador and Silicon Valley Cloud Native User Group organizer (with over 7000 members). Lisa is an advocate and frequent speaker for open source technology and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives, a writer, an avid sports fan, and loves wine and dogs. Follow Lisa on Twitter @SWDevAngel and LinkedIn @lnamphy.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: It has been a great pleasure to be a CNCF Ambassador for the past several years and I am thrilled to continue the journey. I love working with this particular group of colleagues to evangelize open source and cloud native technology, to mentor new community members, to give a platform and a voice and to encourage participation in ALL areas of the cloud native ecosystem. And to have the support of the CNCF to extend the reach of cloud native technology to “the last mile” has been an extremely rewarding experience that I am grateful and excited to continue! 🙂 Looking so much forward to working with all of you in the coming years! 🙂

Mars is a telecom engineer with ~20 years of experience. He’s a co-organizer of Dallas Kubernetes meetup group and is active at #sig-contribex, helping with Kubernetes Contributor Summits. In the past he’s also been part of KubeCon Program Committee and helped develop some of CNCF exams (KCNA, CKAD, PCA etc).

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: There’s a famous quote by William Gibson: “The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed”. Well, I hope to help distribute it.

Digital product leader. Speaker, author, advisor. KDC organizer in Washington, DC and Medellín, Colombia. KCD fiscal sponsor through my company NāOM Lab.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Excited to promote CNCF projects, initiatives and culture through community events and meetups.

I am a member of the technical oversight committee for Istio, where I have worked full time for four years. I regularly contribute to the Istio blog and lead conferences like IstioCon, helping new users and veterans alike to get connected.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I have been unofficially doing the work of an ambassador for Istio for several years now, and look forward to continuing this work officially now that Istio has joined the CNCF.

Paige Cruz is passionate about cultivating sustainable on-call practices and believes that open source instrumentation has a bright future. She isn’t afraid to admit that distributed traces are her favorite 😛 and will talk to anyone about adopting OpenTelemetry. After retiring from SRE she brought her zest for bringing people their aha moment with observability to Chronosphere where she works as a Senior Developer Advocate. Read her blog posts over on https://chronosphere.io/learn/category/blog/ or her personal blog at https://www.paigerduty.com/. Off-the-clock you can find her scouring fiber apprenticing at a local sustainable yarn mill or watching trash TV.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Excited to be an ambassador to demystify observability concepts and practices for all levels of technologists. Looking to grow the OpenTelemetry community from end-users to contributors and maintainers while sparking collaboration across company boundaries.

I’m Ramesh Kumar, a dedicated advocate and mentor in the dynamic realm of cloud-native technologies. With a genuine passion for empowering others and a commitment to fostering meaningful connections, my journey is not just about the technology, but about the profound impact I make on the lives of those around me.

At the forefront of my endeavors are the CNCF/Kubernetes meetups I lead in Sacramento and Penang. These gatherings are not just about technical learning, they are about building a community where individuals find support, encouragement, and a strong sense of belonging. I aim to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing, especially caring for the newbies navigating the landscape. Through my patient guidance and steadfast support, I help over 500+ students and professionals navigate the complexities of Kubernetes certifications, empowering them to achieve their goals and pursue their passions.

My specialties lie in mentoring, teaching, training, and collaborating, and I take pride in my ability to inspire and guide others in their learning journey. I love encouraging and inspiring others to reach for their dreams and embrace new opportunities using CNCF Technologies. Whether guiding a career transition or championing initiatives using CNCF technologies, my compassionate approach has a lasting impact on all who encounter me.

Join me on my mission to build a more inclusive and supportive tech community with the help of CNCF. Let’s create a future where collaboration thrives, knowledge is freely shared, and everyone is supported and empowered on their journey to success.

Rey Lejano is Solutions Architect at Red Hat and currently serves as co-chair for Kubernetes Special Interest Group (SIG) Docs and helps maintain the upstream Kubernetes documentation. Rey leads the Kubernetes SIG Security Third-Party Security Audit subproject and helped release the last Kubernetes security audit in April 2023. He is a member of seven Kubernetes Release Teams, including serving as the 1.23 Release Lead and 1.25 Emeritus Adviser. Rey was awarded the CNCF Community Award for Top Documentarian in 2022 and Kubernetes Contributor Awards in 2021 from SIG Release and 2023 from SIG Security. He is working on KCD San Francisco Bay Area and cloudnativeessentials.com to help the people to start on their cloud native journey.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Community propels open source projects to flourish. I’m excited to be an ambassador to help grow the cloud native community by providing mentorship to new contributors, guidance to those starting on their cloud native journey, and amplifying the excitement for cloud native technology.

Ricardo is a Cloud Native AI Lead at Snowflake. He’s an open source enthusiast, co-chairing the CNCF TAG-Runtime, lead for the Cloud Native AI Working Group and CNCF Ambassador. Recently, he led the publication of the Cloud Native AI Whitepaper and is currently leading various initiatives in the Cloud Native AI Working Group. He has worked in tech and software engineering roles for over 25 years. He comes from a diverse professional background, having held different roles at large companies such as Rakuten, Cisco, and VMware and startups such as Truera, Branch Metrics and Coupa.

Rynn Mancuso is the developer community manager at Honeycomb, one of the maintainers of OpenTelemetry’s End User SIG, and the creator of the OpenTelemetry in Practice meetup & the OTel Unplugged unconference. Before joining Honeycomb, they led developer communities at New Relic, Tidelift, Mozilla and Wikimedia. They also contribute to the Organization for Ethical Source.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I am excited to be an ambassador because I’m getting to connect with lots of great people across all of the CNCF projects to make the cloud native ecosystem better. In my ambassadorship year, my goals are to take the great speakers we are cultivating in the observability community and help place them in as many general cloud native meetups as possible to spread the word about cloud native observability, to start a streaming series where we work with different CNCF projects to instrument them, and to get the word out about the end user work we’ve been doing within OpenTelemetry so other projects can better serve end users.

Savitha Raghunathan is a Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat, currently focusing on Application Modernization and Cloud Native adoption. Her role as a maintainer for the CNCF Sandbox project Konveyor has provided her with valuable insights into the growing demand for modernizing critical applications to align with cloud-native technologies, thereby deepening her understanding of the application lifecycle. In her previous position, Savitha worked as a platform engineer, where she dedicated herself to building internal developer platforms using Kubernetes and other cloud native projects.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: Contributing to CNCF projects has been incredibly fulfilling, and the support and positivity I’ve experienced from the community during difficult periods, including the pandemic, have deepened my bond with this community. This role as a CNCF Ambassador has given me a chance to reciprocate that support, share my valuable experiences, and facilitate the onboarding of new contributors and adopters into the CNCF ecosystem.

Scott is a Brooklyn based interdisciplinary artist and Developer Advocate. He co-founded the Basekamp art and research group in 1998 and the massively collaborative Plausible Artworlds international network. In technology he enjoys helping develop open source software that anyone can use, most recently projects in the cloud native landscape including co-maintaining Helm, Flux, and OpenGitOps. He helps organize groups such as NYC Kubernetes meetup and CNCF GitOps Working Group under TAG App Delivery. In daily decisions large or small, he tries to help make the world a better place for everyone.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I deeply enjoy helping members of the wider open source community, specifically the CNCF and LF project communities. I try to lift others up whenever possible: through co-presenting talks, replying in Slack, amplifying the work of others, welcoming new people to meetings, helping ensure meetings run smoothly, helping with CNCF Working Group and project governance, and generally being an ally. I’m particularly interested in continuing to encourage cross-project collaboration and alignment between people in CNCF TAGs, WGs and projects. I’m also very dedicated to continuing to help new people step up contributor ladders (and encouraging the creation of those ladders when not present), specifically getting involved in things like project pull request reviews, design discussions, and communication processes around projects and WGs.

Taylor Thomas is an Engineering Director working on WebAssembly platforms at Cosmonic. He actively participates in the open source community and is one of the creators of Krustlet and Bindle. He is an org maintainer for the wasmCloud project and a participant in the CNCF Wasm Working Group. His work at Intel, Nike, and Microsoft spanned various containers and Kubernetes platforms as well as WebAssembly platforms.

Why I am excited to be an ambassador: I am extremely excited to help the Cloud Native community grow, especially with Wasm. I have been involved in the CNCF for years and am happy to be giving back to a community that got me deeply involved in open source.

Whitney is a kind and welcoming human who enjoys understanding and using tools in the cloud native landscape. Creative and driven, Whitney has created and delivered two KubeCon keynotes, a VMware Explore keynote, and countless fun, funny, and informative community conference keynotes. You can catch her lightboard streaming show ⚡️ Enlightning on her YouTube channel, she co-hosts the streaming show You Choose! – a ‘Choose-Your-Own-Adventure’-style journey through the CNCF landscape alongside Viktor Farcic, she is one of the hosts of Cloud Native Live on the CNCF YouTube channel, and she co-hosts the podcast Software Defined Interviews with Michael Coté.