Vote to promote Emma Smith

Committers
1

As her mentor, I am very happy to propose promoting Emma Smith (@emmatyping on DPO and GitHub) to core developer. Emma has been a long time contributor to Python in many areas over the years, from mypy and typing, to packaging, and CPython itself. Emma has officially been a triager since April 2025, but has a long portfolio of contributions stretching back years. Most recently, she has contributed Zstandard support for Python 3.14. She has consistently demonstrated friendly, generous, and thoughtful contributions and collaborations.

Contribution highlights

  • Authored PEP 784, introducing Zstandard in the standard library for Python 3.14
  • Created the python-wasm repo containing build scripts for early Emscripten/WASM integration
  • Authored PEP 561, specifying how to package type information for Python
  • Authored PEP 777, proposing a new wheel format
  • Authored PEP 778 (deferred), proposing symlink support in wheels
  • Co-authored PEP 759 (withdrawn), proposing external wheel hosting for PyPI
  • Total of 36 merged CPython PRs, co-authored 1 more, 2 currently open

Contribution details

Click to expand

Summary

  • Total of 36 merged PRs, co-authored 1 more, 2 currently open
  • Authored PEP 784, introducing Zstandard in the standard library
  • Created the python-wasm repo containing build scripts for early Emscripten/WASM integration

Implementation of functools.singledispatchmethod

Implementation of PEP 585 (generics in stdlib)

Build system and test changes for WASM/Emscripten platform support

Zstandard / compression

Post-promotion mentoring

I will of course continue to mentor Emma after her promotion, although I am confident such direct mentorship will be primarily advisory and rarely needed.

Voting process

As a reminder from PEP 13 regarding voting rules:

It is granted by receiving at least two-thirds positive votes in a core team vote that is open for one week and is not vetoed by the steering council.

  • Promote Emma Smith
  • Do not promote
0 voters

The poll will remain open until Wednesday July 30, 2025, midnight UTC.

Additional feedback

As a new tradition, promotions also include an anonymous feedback form that core devs can use to provide additional feedback directly to the Steering Council and the PSF Executive Director. Constructive, actionable feedback is greatly appreciated, and shared by the SC with the mentor, although of course in this case I am both an SC member and Emma’s mentor.

24 Likes
2

I’ve been waiting for this day! For a while, I genuinely thought Emma was already a core developer, so this feels like a no-brainer to me. Emma is a stellar engineer whose contributions speak for themselves, but more than that, she’s an all-around wonderful person. I had the chance to chat with her over lunch and at the PyLadies Auction at PyCon US this year, and it was immediately clear she’d be an excellent fit for our team. She’s the kind of person who brings both technical excellence and a collaborative presence, which is exactly what we want in a core developer.

17 Likes
3

+1 Emma is great! She contributed the Zstandard PEP and implementation as mentioned above, including all the nuts-n-bolts related followup attention to detail that such additions require to work within the stdlib. She’s also been taking on more tasks elsewhere within the stdlib of late (such as wading into zipfile internals).

One thing I really like is that when Emma has run something by me for a reasoning check, I find she’s already gone through the kinds of stdlib & CPython focused thought process about the whats and why’s of a change decision in terms of how it would impact things from the CPython maintenance perspective. So I’m mostly there to confirm “yep, good thinking!” and go press approve & merge buttons.

I’m happy to continue being a quasi-co-mentor for Emma (I was her PEP-784 co-sponsor, so we’ve already been working together in that context) as seen fit after her promotion.

13 Likes
4

Huge +1 from me. Their collaboration and technical expertise makes them a valuable contributor who makes those around them better developers. Highly recommend. Truthfully, this made my day. Thanks @barry.

8 Likes
5

I don’t know that Emma needs another +1, but I’ll give it anyway! She’s really impressed me with how easily she’s picked up on project conventions, and digging into (and understanding) why things are done certain ways, along with everything everyone else has said.

9 Likes
6

The Steering Council has met and discussed the vote. We accept this vote (no veto). Welcome to the CPython core team Emma Smith @emmatyping (no relation)! @ambv can get you setup with all the relevant permissions.

22 Likes
7

Thank you all so much for your kind words!

There are many people I would like to thank for their guidance and support along my journey. I want to start with some folks who have been particularly welcoming: @savannahostrowski , @ambv, @willingc , and @thomas.

Eight years ago,@guido invited me to join mypy sprints in San Francisco despite the fact that I didn’t have much experience in open source and was pretty new to mypy. At the time it was a revelation. The phrase “come for the language, stay for the community” is perhaps a cliché already, but golly is it accurate! Guido was also a wonderful advisor while I was working on my first PEP, and PEP 561 would not have happened without his guidance.

I also want to thank @gpshead for for being an amazing sponsor for my work on PEP 784 (and contributions since). I am eternally grateful for his advice and responsiveness throughout the process, and particularly in the weeks prior to 3.14b1 (also right before PyCon US), despite that being such a busy time!

Finally, I want to thank @barry , who has been a fantastic mentor and colleague. His feedback and advice has been immensely useful, from PEP designs to core workflow customs.

Ever since I got into open source, the Python community has held a special place in my heart. I feel so lucky to be part of such a friendly and inclusive community. I am truly honored to be joining the core team and have an opportunity to give back more.

27 Likes