Q & A with Sara Chipps, CPC Director and newest OpenJS Board Member

Sara Chipps, the newest  OpenJS Foundation board member, took some time to give the OpenJS Foundation some valuable insights into her new role on the board. Sara Chipps is a JavaScript developer based in NYC. She has been working on Software and the Open Source Community since 2001. She is the cofounder of Jewelbots, a company dedicated towards drastically changing the number of girls entering STEM fields through play, and Girl Develop It, a non-profit that has taught over 100,000 adult women how to code. By day she’s the Director of Product, Community at Stack Overflow and works there to empower millions of coders to build and ship.

Q) Why is it important for the CPC to have a voice on the board of directors, in your opinion?

A lot of the work on the CPC is in service of the OpenJS projects. We work to make sure the individual projects have the resources and representation they need. The CPC having a voice on the board of directors means that the projects have a direct line to the people at the highest decision-making levels and that means as an organization we can provide effective governance. 

Q) What do you plan to focus on as a Foundation BoD member?   

I plan to focus on learning and listening from and to both the board and project organizations initially. As a person and a software developer, my focus is always on developer happiness, open ecosystems, representation, and inclusion. I imagine those things will reflect when I bring them to the board and I hope that I can be a positive voice.  

Q) What you hope your impact will be in this role?

I hope to continue the foundation’s work of sustainability in the open source JavaScript community. I hope I can bring the perspective of a long-time community member who cares deeply about representation and the ability to level up in open source development. 

Q) What advice would you offer others wanting to get involved with the Foundation?  

Join us! We have many open meetings throughout the week, you can just show up and listen. You don’t even need to do anything or have an opinion until you are inspired. People do it all the time and it’s great.