About Dawn
Dr. Dawn Foster is an OSS strategy consultant. She is also on the board of CHAOSS, OpenUK, and the Software Stewardship Lab. She is a TODO Group Ambassador and was previously a co-chair of the CNCF Contributor Strategy Technical Advisory Group. She has 20+ years of experience at companies like VMware and Intel with expertise in community, strategy, governance, and metrics. She has spoken at over 100 industry events and has a BS in computer science, an MBA, and a PhD. In her spare time she enjoys reading science fiction, running, 3D printing, and traveling.
You can see all of her past talks on her speaking page.
Speaking Topics
Strategic Approach to Demonstrating the Value of Open Source Efforts
This talk will help you reason about how OSS efforts allow your organization to achieve its goals along with framing and communicating that value in ways that resonate with your leadership team. Video
- Open Source Summit NA 2026
- CHAOSScon EU 2026
- OSPOlogy Live Lyon 2025
Power Dynamics, Rug Pulls, and Other Corporate Impacts on OSS Sustainability
Learn more about the power dynamics and steps that you can take to make better decisions about which OSS projects to embrace. Video
- SCALE 2026
- Open Source Summit EU 2025
- FOSSY 2025
- Monkigras 2025
Proactive Governance to Build Sustainable Open Source Projects
Details about the importance of governance, how to define project governance, using governance as a pathway to leadership, creating an intentional culture, and making project ownership (e.g., individual, organization, foundation) decisions. Video
- Open Source Summit NA, 2026