[Nominations Open] Top CDF Contributor Award 2026 🏆

[roxannejoncas]

This issue is to receive nominations for the Top CDF Contributor Award 2026.

This award recognizes excellence of technical contributions to the CDF and its projects. This individual commits key pieces to projects and, more importantly, contributes in a way that benefits the project neutrally as a whole.

➡️ Nominate someone, by replying to this issue with the following:

1. Full name of the person you’re nominating
2. Short description of their contributions to the Continuous Delivery Foundation and why they should win.

Nomination Deadline: Wednesday, April 2, 2026, 11:59 pm PT
Please note: Last year's winner, Garima Bajpai, cannot win the award for Top Contributor again this year.

Read the CDF Award Guidelines

[TracyRagan]

Kris Stern - CI/CD Cybersecurity SIG
Kris Stern has made meaningful contributions to the Continuous Delivery Foundation through his work advancing secure software delivery practices and supporting the broader CI/CD community. As a primary contributor to the CI/CD Cybersecurity Guide, Kris played an important role in helping develop guidance that educates practitioners on how to secure modern delivery pipelines and reduce software supply chain risk.

Kris brings a unique perspective to the community, combining a strong analytical background with hands-on engineering experience. With a PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Hong Kong and ongoing studies in the UPenn MCIT Online program, he applies rigorous thinking and problem-solving to complex software engineering and security challenges. His work on the CI/CD Cybersecurity Guide has helped translate emerging security concepts into practical, actionable guidance for developers, DevOps engineers, and platform teams.

Beyond his technical contributions, Kris has shown a deep commitment to the open source ecosystem through his volunteer work with Jenkins and the Continuous Delivery Foundation, as well as his participation in Google Summer of Code in 2019 and 2020. Through these efforts, he has consistently supported initiatives that strengthen the reliability, security, and sustainability of open source CI/CD tooling.

Kris’s dedication to community collaboration, technical excellence, and advancing secure delivery practices makes him a strong candidate for the CDF Enthusiast Award. His contributions continue to help the community better understand and implement secure CI/CD pipelines in an increasingly complex software supply chain landscape.

[TracyRagan]

Tracy Ragan
Tracy Ragan has made sustained and impactful technical contributions to the Continuous Delivery Foundation and its projects over many years. Her work spans code, content, infrastructure, and technical leadership, making her a key contributor to several of the foundation’s most important initiatives.

Tracy has been a long-time contributor to the Ortelius project, helping drive both the technology and the community forward. Her work has supported the development and adoption of Ortelius as a platform for understanding software supply chains and managing post-deployment vulnerability risk within modern CI/CD environments.

She has also made substantial contributions to the CI/CD Cybersecurity Guide, where she helped establish the project’s early technical infrastructure by standing up the initial website and Docsy documentation server used by the community to collaborate and publish the guide. In addition to the infrastructure work, Tracy has contributed both technical content and code, helping shape the guidance that practitioners now use to secure CI/CD pipelines and address software supply chain risks.

Beyond direct project contributions, Tracy serves as Co-Chair of the CDF Technology Oversight Committee (TOC), where she helps guide the technical direction of CDF projects, supports project incubation, and mentors emerging initiatives within the foundation. Her technical leadership helps ensure that CDF projects maintain strong engineering practices and deliver real value to the broader CI/CD ecosystem.

Tracy has also supported the foundation through event leadership and community engagement, serving as the Chairperson for CDCon 2026 and contributing to numerous CDF initiatives that bring practitioners and contributors together.

Through her extensive technical contributions, infrastructure work, and leadership within the community, Tracy Ragan continues to play a critical role in advancing the projects and mission of the Continuous Delivery Foundation. Her contributions exemplify the spirit of the CDF Top Contributor Award.