For Hire

• "Zero to One: Getting Started with Label Studio": Used existing knowledge in Python, Machine Learning, Docker, and Data Labeling to help folks go from zero to one with our product
• "How to use our Generative AI templates": Created a friendly product feature tutorial using existing knowledge of our API, data science, Python, and Docker to help folks get started with these generative AI templates.
• "Understanding the Label Studio JSON Format": Helped to provide a solution for our top user struggle through breaking down our JSON used in pre-annotations.
• "Using the Segment Anything Model Integration": Walked through how to connect an ML backend, and use the popular Segment Anything Model to improve the efficiency of dataset development for computer vision.
• RLHF Collection from PyData Berlin: Popular GitHub repo that includes materials, graphics, and tutorials including a Python CoLab Notebook that will help take users from zero to hero with reinforcement learning and fine-tuning using GPT-2's API, the Label Studio ML backend and ranked choice labeling.

Check out my reel on YouTube.

Most recently, I spoke at PyData Berlin on Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback.

Previously I've spoken at How To Web, CodeLand, PyCon, GitHub's Open Source Friday, CFE.dev, Ignite Reno, and more.

Scroll through this site to explore them all, or subscribe for updates in your inbox.

Here are just a few recent samples:

• From Talk to Takeoff: harnessing the PyData Berlin presentation as a catalyst for our larger content efforts.
• Enabling User Adoption through Education
• From Zero to Hero: Creating Beginner-Friendly Content for Label Studio
• What do community builders need to know about security?
• What you can learn by rickrolling your audience.
• How to create your own "for hire" page.

I'm passionate about learning and learning from one another. Whether it's in the classroom at NYU, through community, via content, or at a workshop — I'm an expert instructor in a multitude of mediums.

Don't just take my word for it — check out what others have to say:

• "Thank you - this topic is so so important. You had great suggestions and actions we can take. Also, love that Carl Sagan quote!" (CodeLand 2022)
• "Sitting down for my 1st episode of #DevRel book club, hosted by @matthewrevell & @hola_soy_milk w/ guest @erinmikail ... I am only 10 minutes in, have already ordered discussed book, and have had my mind blown at least four times!" (Leslie Hawthorn from DevRel BookClub)
• "An excellent session on community moderation @erinmikail and @brob... thank you so much for hosting it" (Simon Tomes)
• "@erinmikail was fantastic @how_to_web she is a role model for community builders worldwide. Go, Erin!" (Savian Boroanca)
• "If you want to learn more about the power of building a community, and how to do it right, you should be following @erinmikail She's often sharing her knowledge on this subject but also, she's such a beautiful person, really." (Karla Fernandez)

Jenifer De Figueiredo, Community @ Iterative.AI
"I've worked with Erin in a partnership capacity in a couple of her roles. She is a collaborative partner who embodies a sincere commitment to community and education. Erin not only brings strategic thinking to the table but also infuses her projects with an infectious energy that elevates every endeavor. Her passion for building community and her ability to foster connections are truly commendable, making her an invaluable asset to any team looking to grow a community. I look forward to working with her more in the future!"

Elyse Krikorian, Customer Success Manager @ HumanSignal
"Erin never passed an opportunity to collaborate and share her knowledge about Open Source. We had a great, mutually beneficial working relationship where we shared best practices and found ways to enhance both our paid and unpaid customer experiences.

Erin created great content and I was really impressed by her technical education skills, the way she was able to manage all of our Community contributors, and her ability to manage and foster relationships in the broader Machine Learning ecosystem.

Erin is eager to learn, whether it's about Machine Learning, Customer Success, or your favorite type of food. It was a pleasure working with her and wherever she goes next will be lucky to have her!"

Ramón Huidobro, Developer Relations @ Suborbital
"I’ve collaborated with Erin in various open source community-oriented events, and her ability to be thoughtful, strategic, as well as highly technical, all with an overall empathic care, is nothing short of inspiring.

She leverages her existing educational and core skill mastery to not only create effective, but inclusive content around communities in a technology-agnostic fashion.

Any team with a focus on education and pedagogy would be lucky to have her."

Kelly Liu, Product Manager @ Orbit
"Erin is such a talented individual and an absolute joy to collaborate with. She draws from her background in media, product, community, and being an internet being and uses all of these skills to effectively connect various teams together at work. She taught me that a community advocate doesn’t hurt communicate with the community, she also voiced community needs, provided product feedback, made sales intros, aided the support team, and taught non-community team members how to be good community participants.

Erin truly brings her all to her work and her energy and work ethic are infectious. I highly recommend Erin for whatever work she does in the future because I know she is adaptable, a fast learner, and will seek out ways to provide more value than you had thought possible."

Patrick Woods, Founder + CEO @ Orbit
"Erin is a deep thinker and strong people connector who’s as great at hosting a live stream or MCing an event as she is writing long-form content. Internally, she’s great at bringing community voice and insight back to the rest of the company. She's awesome at jumpstarting conversations in Discord with incredible energy, and in addition to all that, she always has a pulse of what’s going on with key folks across the community."

Ramón Huidobro, Developer Relations @ Suborbital
"I’ve collaborated with Erin in various open source community-oriented events, and her ability to be thoughtful, strategic, as well as highly technical, all with an overall empathic care, is nothing short of inspiring.

She leverages her existing educational and core skill mastery to not only create effective, but inclusive content around communities in a technology-agnostic fashion.

Any team with a focus on education and pedagogy would be lucky to have her."

Matthew Revell, founder of Hoopy / DevRelCon
"I worked with Erin when Orbit sponsored some of Hoopy's events and content.

Erin offers a great combination of skills and insight that would make her an asset to any developer relations/community team. Her background in journalism, combined with her empathy and experience building technical communities, give Erin a rare ability to be able to communicate across experience levels, functions, and backgrounds. In my own experience working with Erin, I saw how she was able to:

* Build education efforts at Orbit that consistently targeted both developers and product owners
* Understand and empathise with the needs of both developers and other personas in the technology decision process
* Balance the needs of community with the commercial need drive product feature adoption.

I'd love to work with Erin again."

Christina Monti, Developer Relations Lead @ PayPal
"Getting to work with Erin was nothing short of amazing. Her ability to demonstrate her technical knowledge through cross-functional communication was always top-notch. She brought a strong knowledge of product development and was always willing to advocate on my behalf. The key educational programs that Erin created were filled with informative content that showed her true understanding of her audience consuming the information and the environment she creates is always grounded in a safe learning space."

Tony Blank, Community @ Orbit
"Holy shit, I had the privilege of working with Erin for a scant 7 weeks as her leader at Orbit and I wish it was 7 years.

Don't get me started on macroeconomic climate and startup fundraising cycles...
My loss is your gain. Erin worked at Orbit for over a year before I joined, and the amazing work she did here will resonate throughout our community for a long time. Let me explain why:

• Erin (correctly) understands how community touches all aspects of a business. She'll boost the voice of your customers to the right internal stakeholders, ensuring that you're focused on what is important.
• Biased to action: Fastest "hey, I wonder if we should blog about BLAH" to "post under review" I've seen. Not just blogs - Erin's amazing at translating high-level directions to tactics. Every community team's fast-paced, and the ability to execute with many moving parts is a rare skill.
• Empathy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that Erin wouldn't be applying to an org that doesn't GET what makes a community tick, so you know that empathy is important. What you don't know is that I've seen Erin's deep relationships forged in Orbit's community... She's been able to connect with our diverse community and bring everyone together.
• Technical empathy: Erin knows developers - not just from building dev communities, but she can talk the talk and walk the walk. Erin owned all the community ops plumbing during her time here at Orbit and not just helped get data into our own Orbit instance but helped our community with integrations too. Erin's technical experience directly translates into her ability to connect with a technical audience.

Leia Dudek, Senior Account Executive @ Orbit
"I had the pleasure of working with Erin during our time together at Orbit. She was one of the first teammates to reach out to me directly to offer help as a new hire. She is incredibly kind, patient, thoughtful, and cares deeply about fostering relationships within community. Erin is always willing to offer assistance with any part of the business, whether it's creating developer content for marketing or making a warm introduction for the sales team, she's a true team player.

I'm so thankful our paths crossed professionally; she provided me with the community lens for my sales process. She will be an incredible addition to any company looking to build a meaningful community."

Amanda Quintero, Senior Manager, Business Ops @ Orbit
"Erin is a powerful human connector, strong communicator, and curious explorer. She's not afraid to test the product in all possible ways and listens with empathy to users' needs. She's also gifted with a contagious energy that ignites teamwork and makes her fun to work with."

Malki Davis, Senior Full Stack Engineer @ Orbit
"Erin was a gem at Orbit. She always filled the company with cheer, optimism, and a catchy smile. She has a good word for everyone, no matter what team or department. Erin always comes up with new and creative ideas and is never scared to ask questions on everyone's minds. She works with her heart and soul and genuinely cares for all her teammates."

Cory A. Shrengost, Content Producer @ Dropbox
"As I was developing my skills in the world of strategic communications, I was struggling with complacency for social media and couldn't find my passion for it. I reached out to Erin to get some feedback and mentoring on what I could do to try to shed my "legacy" social media perspective and pivot to find something I could get excited about.

Erin was immediately responsive and helpful. She helped by giving guidance on the world of SM and changing my perspective on how I view SM and how I interact with it professionally. She also gave me some great reading material and resources to be able to access more information. With these tools, I am in the beginning of my fledgling stage of SM love and it's been great! Not only does Erin offer great suggestions, but she is consistently providing feedback, mentorship, and insight every day. I couldn't recommend Erin more!"