Written by Christa Hasenkopf, co-founder and director of OpenAQ
TL;DR: I will be leaving my position as director this fall to make way for some new awesomeness at OpenAQ. Thank-you SO MUCH to the community for an amazing five years. While I’m departing this position, I am not departing the community and excited to cheer it on into the future. Be on the lookout for a new director position posting on OpenAQ’s blog and in your inbox!
OpenAQ has been a labor of love, from its conception with my co-founder (and husband) Joe Flasher five years ago, to its execution with OpenAQ’s amazing team and advisory and governing boards today.
And wow, OpenAQ has come so far! What started out as an entirely bootstrapped home-grown effort of two people has become a non-profit organization that wrangles half a billion data points from 93 countries, built and maintained by a profoundly passionate, diverse open-source community.
We have seen the data accessed on the platform used to power efforts large and small — from organizations like NASA forecasting air quality to a citizen scientist calibrating their low-cost sensor. OpenAQ has been referenced on Google Scholar over 100 times and data accessed from the platform has been included in various media pieces across the world. We have observed the simple power of an open, harmonized dataset to convene disparate sectors in local and international communities through OpenAQ Workshops. Participants have gone on to do a policy-relevant field campaign in Bosnia, lobby their government for open data in Ghana, and continue to engage with one another and our global community years afterward.
The work has made me believe more firmly than ever that it takes the many-faceted efforts of multiple sectors to advance air inequality work and that harmonized open data can be a unique convener to make that happen. And as the world is dealing with COVID-19, I think it has never been more crystal clear that providing core data-sharing infrastructure so that people have the necessary information on fast-enough timescales is critical for solving big problems.
As OpenAQ’s work has been growing, OpenAQ’s leadership needs have been evolving, too. To best meet these growing needs, I have determined that OpenAQ should bring on new leadership to meet its mission to fight air inequality going forward. With new leadership, strong governing and advisory boards, a fantastic team, and an amazing open-source community, OpenAQ will be supported better than ever before. And after five years, I am excited to find new ways to advance efforts in international environmental and open data spaces.
This transition will happen in Fall 2020. OpenAQ will be announcing the opening for the director position soon on the OpenAQ Blog and through our listserv, so please help us get the word out! We’re on the lookout for an awesome leader in the environmental tech non-profit space who is fired up about open data and air inequality!
On a personal level, OpenAQ has been a once-in-a-lifetime journey. I estimate it’s taken me on 50 trips to nearly 20 countries over the past five years. In that time, I have met government officials, entrepreneurs, software developers, journalists, educators, medical doctors, students, scientists, activists and so many different types of people from all over the world — but all with the same driving passion to bring clean air to their community. Words cannot describe what a personal and professional privilege it has been to do this work alongside such passionate, dedicated people.
Thank-you so much. While I am departing this position in the fall, I am not departing the community. I am so excited for OpenAQ to grow in many more ways to support this wonderful community in fighting air inequality.
PS. On an unrelated air inequality note, please join us for OpenAQ’s Community Series Event #3 on 30 June, 11am ET! We’ll be unveiling the state of play for governments’ air quality open data and discussing new platform averaging tools and the relationship between air quality and COVID-19.
