Nicole dedicates both her work and free time to open source.

She served five years as editor for Superuser, a publication dedicated to open infrastructure and as Editorial Director on the Intel Open Ecosystem team. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism (San Francisco State University) and a Master’s in Media and Communications (Università degli Studi di Firenze).

For years, she’s been active in open-source communities, volunteering at a Linux user group and the Free Software Foundation Europe, handing out cookie recipes outlining the Four Freedoms and donning a plushy penguin costume on a few occasions, like any true believer would. Her side project, Resiliency Maps, an open-source toolkit to help people navigate their surroundings in emergencies, grew out of humanitarian mapping she’s done since 2015 with OpenStreetMap.

A San Francisco, California native, she’s spent about half her life in Italy, which means she’s always too hungry for dinner at eight and loves the theater but never comes late.