OSPO Fellows Program

Overview

GW OSPO Fellows are open source advocates across industry, government, NGOs, and academia who are invited to share their expertise and help educate and grow our open source community. We are thrilled to have exceptional collaborators helping to:

educate our community as mentors and speakers
provide meaningful opportunities for students in the form of capstone projects, internships, and networking
join together to research new and disruptive technologies
volunteer time to support hackathons, conferences, student awards, and other events

We believe open source is the glue that can strengthen the bonds between many diverse organizations. This prestigious group of GW OSPO Fellows is committed to working together to have a positive impact on our broader community.

Introducing the 2026/2027 Inaugural Cohort of GW OSPO Fellows

Rosemary Pauley

Rosemary Pauley serves as the Project Administrator for the Research Software Support Network. Her graduate work in library and information sciences led her to the Open Source Program Office at George Washington University, before landing here at JHU’s OSPO and Sheridan Libraries. She works from her home in Fredericksburg, VA and enjoys reading, animals, and nature.

Saad Elbeleidy

Saad Elbeleidy is the Executive Director of Peerbots, a tech nonprofit building social robots for everyone, powered by experts. Dr. Elbeleidy completed his PhD at the Colorado School of Mines where he researched how teachers and therapists use robot end user interfaces in practice. Prior to Peerbots he held various roles across Product Management, Machine Learning Engineering, Data Science, and Full Stack Software Development in startups spanning digital media analytics, e-commerce, and renewable energy.

Sunil Shah

Sunil Shah is a recent graduate of GWU with an M.S. in computer science. He is currently working with the OSPO as a fellow volunteer. His interests lie in tech, open source, AI, software, and systems.

Helen Glover

Helen Glover is a consultant at Lewis-Burke Associates, where she works on emerging technology and federal science policy. She also leads Civic Tech DC, a nonprofit community advancing open-source technology to address civic and social challenges. Her research focuses on open-source, open innovation, and the policy frameworks that influence how emerging technologies move from research into practice.

Max Turer

Max Turer is the Senior Web Developer at GW Libraries & Academic Innovation. Max has a software and arts background, having transitioned into development work as an artist and designer after getting involved in Creative Coding. Max has a particular interest in sharing the power of tech with the creative community, which they explore by teaching programming to beginners, emphasizing the potential of programming in visual art, and contributing to and advocating for the use of open source tools. Through running workshops and public projects, Max encourages coders and non-coders alike to bring the powerful creative force of their favorite DIY art and music spaces to the open web, and runs an ever-growing communal self-hosting lab for artists and musicians built mostly out of repurposed salvaged PC parts.

Brandon Tabaska

Brandon Tabaska is an Open Source Developer Evangelist at Nava, where he works on the simpler.grants.gov project, helping connect developers to open source opportunities and fostering a growing contributor community. Prior to that, Brandon contributed to the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave project, improving accessibility and streamlining benefits delivery. Before joining Nava, he worked at NASA Ames Research Center on the Mission Assurance Systems project, focusing on enhancing software reliability for critical missions. Outside of work, Brandon enjoys gardening and diving into a good book.

OSPO Fellow Collaboration Opportunities

Benefit	Industry Partner	Gov't & NGO Partner	Individual OSPO Fellows
Official GW OSPO affiliation, GW OSPO network access, and invitations to events	Yes	Yes	Yes
OSCON	Featured or regular speaker (depending on sponsor level), attendee, and/or volunteer.	Regular speaker, attendee, and/or volunteer.	Lightning talk, attendee, and/or volunteer.
Student Award Ceremony	Invited	Invited	Invited
OSPO Ambassador Student Sponsor	Student support for one open source initiative as selected by the industry partner.	Mentor	Mentor
GW OSPO Stakeholder	One hybrid meeting per semester - Invitation to attend.	One hybrid meeting per semester - Invitation to attend.	One hybrid meeting per semester - Invitation to attend.
GW Coders	Invitation to attend & present.	Invitation to attend & present.	Invitation to attend & present.
George Hacks Hackathon	Invitation to include a problem statement, and/or be a mentor or judge.	Invitation to include a problem statement, and/or be a mentor or judge.	Invitation to be a mentor or judge.
Capstone Marketplace	Access to submit open source projects to capstone courses. GW OSPO will provide management support.	Access to submit open source projects to capstone courses. GW OSPO will provide management support.	Mentor
Research Connections	Introductions to GW TAI, GWIPP, & other GW Faculty & researchers. Introductions to OFAI, United Nations, CURIOSS, CHAOSS, and other open source organizations.	Introductions to selected internal and external GW OSPO partners.	Introductions to selected internal and external GW OSPO partners.