About Robin Monks

I've always believed in the value of using technology to embrace progress and to inspire positive change. With that in mind, throughout my career I've worked on technology and standards that focus on their net positive impact on humanity.

My open source roots go deep. I contributed early on to the Mozilla Firefox project and the Spread Firefox initiative. I also worked as a community coordinator for Drupal from versions 4.6 to 6, culminating with being a community co-author for the Definitive Guide to Drupal 7.

Today I am the Chief Technology Officer for Praia Health, where we bring personalized, superior experiences to people using health care through open technology (namely, FHIR and OIDC). Previously I worked to bring education company Thinkific to IPO, develop advanced financial AI through Finn AI (acquired by Glai in 2022), made city streets safer by giving those who drove themselves to bars a safe drive home with HotSpot Parking (acquired by Arcadis in 2022), and ran my consultancy that focused on non-profits and unions.

As an independent journalist, I write about matters of technology, governance, and topics that I feel are important to help make the world a better place. You can read my writings on food mergers, being a good engineering manager, and AI.

I live in the PNW with my husband and two very needy huskies. Here, I'm surrounded by nature; which I enjoy often through my photography that's heavily featured with my blog posts.