Who are you?
I'm Benjamin Manning, an engineer, educator, researcher, and lifelong learner who has spent much of my career working at the intersection of technology and people. I've worked across industry and higher education, building systems, teaching students, conducting research, and helping people become more confident using technologies that initially seemed out of reach.
Python has been a constant thread through much of that work. I've used it in data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, engineering, research, and education, but some of my most meaningful experiences with Python have come from teaching and mentoring others. I enjoy watching the moment when someone stops seeing programming as something reserved for "programmers" and starts seeing it as a tool they can use to solve their own problems.
Today, my work spans AI, engineering, cybersecurity, and education. Across those areas, I remain particularly interested in how we build technical communities that are welcoming to newcomers, valuable to experienced practitioners, and sustainable for the people who contribute their time and expertise to them.
What would you bring to the PSF Board of Directors?
I would bring a perspective shaped by working across several communities that increasingly depend on Python but don't always think of themselves as part of the Python community. I've worked in higher education, engineering, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, research, and large organizations, and I've seen Python serve as a common language connecting people with very different backgrounds and goals.
I also bring an educator's perspective. Teaching has taught me that access to a technology is not the same thing as feeling that you belong in the community surrounding it. Documentation, mentorship, community norms, educational resources, and opportunities to contribute can matter just as much as the technology itself.
On the Board, I would bring curiosity, a willingness to listen, and experience translating between technical and nontechnical communities. I don't believe a board member needs to arrive with all the answers. I believe the job is to ask good questions, understand the people affected by decisions, and help create conditions in which the community can succeed.
What motivated you to run for the PSF Board of Directors?
Python has given me far more than a programming language. It has been a tool for teaching, research, experimentation, engineering, and building ideas that otherwise might never have made it beyond a whiteboard. More importantly, it has introduced millions of people to the idea that programming can be approachable.
At this point in my career, I'm increasingly interested in contributing to the institutions and communities that make those opportunities possible. The Python Software Foundation plays an unusual role because it supports not only a programming language, but an enormous global ecosystem of developers, educators, researchers, maintainers, students, companies, and community organizers.
That creates both an opportunity and a responsibility.
I decided to run because I believe my experience across education, industry, research, and emerging technologies could be useful as Python enters its next chapter. I'm not running because I think the community needs to be reinvented. I'm running because I would like to help strengthen what already makes Python remarkable while helping the PSF prepare thoughtfully for what comes next.
What problem or challenge do you want to address if you are on the board?
One challenge I care deeply about is closing the distance between using Python and participating in the Python community.
There are millions of people who use Python in classrooms, research labs, businesses, engineering teams, notebooks, and personal projects who may never think of themselves as members of the Python community. The path from "I use Python" to "I contribute to Python" can feel surprisingly unclear. Contribution also means much more than writing code. Communities need educators, mentors, documentation writers, organizers, reviewers, translators, researchers, and people willing to help newcomers find their footing.
I would like to explore how the PSF can make those pathways more visible and approachable while continuing to support the contributors and maintainers who already carry enormous responsibility within the ecosystem.
For me, growth isn't simply about having more Python users. Python already has extraordinary reach. The more interesting question is how we turn some portion of that enormous population into people who feel ownership, responsibility, and belonging within the community that makes Python possible.
Where do you see the PSF 5 years from now?
Five years from now, I hope the PSF is recognized as strongly for sustaining the people behind Python as it is for supporting the language itself.
Python will almost certainly remain foundational across software development, science, engineering, education, data, and artificial intelligence. At the same time, the way people interact with programming is changing rapidly. AI-assisted development, new educational models, increasingly complex software supply chains, and the continued growth of open source will create challenges that we cannot fully predict today.
I don't think the PSF needs to chase every technological trend. In fact, one of its strengths should be providing continuity while the technology around Python changes.
I would like to see a PSF that continues strengthening the foundations of the ecosystem: sustainable open-source communities, healthy contributor pipelines, strong educational resources, global participation, responsible governance, and support for maintainers. If we do those things well, Python can continue evolving without losing the openness and community spirit that helped make it successful in the first place.
What areas of the Python community are you involved with?
Most of my involvement with Python has grown out of education, research, engineering, data science, and artificial intelligence. I've used Python professionally for years, but I've also spent a significant amount of time teaching and mentoring people who are learning to use it in their own disciplines.
That distinction matters to me because many Python users don't begin with the goal of becoming software developers. They may be engineers analyzing data, researchers testing an idea, students encountering programming for the first time, cybersecurity professionals automating a task, or scientists building a model. Python often becomes the bridge between their domain expertise and their ability to create something new.
My community involvement therefore tends to center on helping people cross that bridge: teaching, mentoring, developing educational resources, sharing technical knowledge, and encouraging people to experiment and build.
I'm also increasingly interested in the relationship between Python and the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem. Python has become one of the primary languages through which people encounter AI, which gives our community an important role in shaping how the next generation learns to build with these technologies.
------
Note from the election administrators:
Want to learn more about this candidate or ask them a question?
Check out their nomination statement.
Check out their AMA thread on discuss.python.org.
