Introducing our new Director of Partnerships

We are delighted to welcome Al Obayuwana to The Carpentries team as our new Director of Partnerships. In this role, Al will focus on further developing our Membership program, supporting current Members, and expanding our membership base across a diverse range of institutions. Al comes to us with extensive experience working with community-based non-profits. In his most recent position as Vice President of Youth and Community Development for the YMCA, he successfully established new programming and greatly expanded fundraising revenue for the organisation. We are excited to add Al’s skills in relationship-building, program development, and fundraising to the team.

A few of the things Al will be working on from our Strategic Plan include:

Developing an onboarding for Member Organisations, Strategically engaging libraries and research computing centres as Carpentries hubs for their institutions, Developing opportunities for more communities to participate in workshops and Memberships through programs that plan for and offset associated costs, and Updating our Membership model to match the needs of different types of communities.

Al is based in Ohio, USA and can be reached at alobayuwana@carpentries.org. Welcome to the team Al!

Message from Al Obayuwana

Joining The Carpentries family as the Director of Partnerships is truly an amazing opportunity to merge my passion for equity and education, while growing and strengthening our community programs and partnerships worldwide. As a former YMCA Vice President with 20 years of community service my approach has been to meet individuals where they are at, and to work ‘with’ not ‘for’ the communities we have the privilege to serve in. I am encouraged by the organisation’s strong foundation of transparency and access for all.

I am so humbled by the warm welcome, and excited for the opportunity to do impactful work on a global scale. They say if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together!

Cheers to the journey :)