The ORCID Team

Natalia supports ORCID users in different languages.Natalia is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Italian. In her free time, Natalia enjoys embroidering, gardening, cooking, traveling and outdoor activities.

Francisco is Engagement Lead at ORCID, supporting organizations in adopting and integrating ORCID into their systems, promoting best practices and helping expand ORCID’s impact across the community. Based in Barcelona, Spain, Francisco is passionate about languages and has a background in translation

Rob maintains the ORCID Info site keeping it up-to-date, helps with Comms tasks and is the Tech and Product liaison for the Communications Team. He is also a Deep tissue holistic massage therapist.

Thamirys supports users who speak Portuguese and Spanish. She has a Bachelors in International Studies and her biggest passion is learning about and experiencing new cultures and ways of living

Ana is responsible for developing and promoting community adoption of ORCID across different regions in the world. She also focuses on growing and improving ORCID integration development and knowledge. She is always seeking for global collaboration, with emphasis on the Latin America and the Caribbean region. She has collaborated with several institutions from different sectors during their development, implementation and adoption of ORCID and has participated in several international conferences and training throughout her career. Ana is an enthusiastic and active promoter of Open Science and Persistent Identifiers (PIDs). She has an MBA from the Antonio de Nebrija University in Spain and is passionate about teaching and data analysis.

Estelle Cheng supports and engages with ORCID Direct Members, Publishers and Services and Vendors. Estelle works collaboratively with communities to promote adoption of ORCID, to establish communities of practice, and to drive more platforms or products supporting ORCID. She has an infectious enthusiasm for scholarly communication.

Pedro leads the QA process for the ORCID Registry managing manual and automated test plans for its UI, back end, and API. He’s also responsible for escalated (Tier 2) support requests. In his free time, Pedro enjoys playing bass, listening to vinyl records, and playing beach volleyball.

Tom ensures our technology is responsive to our community and aligned with our mission. He collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to identify innovation opportunities and manage ORCID’s technical roadmap. Tom likes to make and fire his own pottery.

Paula is responsible for gathering, managing and refining the requirements of the ORCID user community, with a specific focus on members and integrators.Paula manages the product roadmap.Paula is a keen equestrian and loves animals.

Dan is our UX designer. He works making sure we have usable, accessible products that are a joy to use. He’s happiest when shouting about accessibility, user-centred design, legible typography and flexible grid systems. Outside of the office he can be found playing football, reading comics, running D&D games or skateboarding. But never all at the same time.

Vlad is in charge of cyber security, ensuring that all information is secure and well-protected. He values fairness, stays true to his principles and follows a security mindset even when it would be easier to take shortcuts. He can’t really tell us more about it though; because, you know, it’s all about security! He’s also an avid sports enthusiast. Enjoys going to the gym, playing squash, football, windsurfing, or snowboarding. Additionally, he likes spending time on the water, whether it’s fishing, observing wildlife and nature, or simply relaxing.

As part of the IT team, Camelia develops back end functionality for new features, bug fixes, and maintenance of the ORCID Registry and APIs, and related projects. When not busy developing applications, Camelia enjoys trekking, dancing, and traveling.

I have a BA in Poli Sci from George Washington U. and an MA in International Affairs from American U. with more than 10 years of experience in operations and administration in both the for-profit and non-profit worlds.As Operations Coordinator, I am responsible for various aspects of the employee lifecycle, board/staff engagement, tech procurement and integrations, and any other needs that arise with our Finance and Ops Team.In my spare time I like to take my dog for walks, cook, work out, catch something on Netflix, and learn new skills.

Stephanie oversees ORCID’s strategic staff engagement initiatives, including professional development, training, staff feedback, virtual engagement programs and in-person retreats. She also leads our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, ensuring our values are reflected and supported in our organization-wide policies and procedures. In addition to her work with staff, Stephanie serves as ORCID’s Board Secretary and provides support to ORCID’s Board of Directors and its Committees.Before joining ORCID, she served as a program manager for a membership-based nonprofit and as a researcher for governmental and political organizations. Based in San Francisco, she enjoys hiking, cooking, and keeping up with her toddler.

Jordan provides first-in-class technical support for ORCID member organizations. In his free time, Jordan enjoys spending time outdoors, writing music and sewing.

Kimberly manages the ORCID Events program that consists of webinars, workshops, trainings, and more for members, researchers, and the wider PID community. She aims to create exceptionally engaging events that educate the audience and foster community. She also manages ORCID swag with a focus on finding snazzy, yet useful items to help spread awareness of ORCID, along with developing outreach materials for the community. She is a certified Digital Event Specialist and a Certified Tourism Ambassador for the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Kimberly enjoys baking, reading, and spending time with her husband, son, and dog on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Karen drives the Automated testing effort for the ORCID Registry.She graduated as a Computer Science Engineer and has experience working in Java and QA for Software Development and Digital Production industries. She is fluent in Spanish and English. In her free time, Karen enjoys traveling with her family and putting to practice her self taught interior decorator skills.

She holds a degree in Physics, a masters degree in Scientific Information and Communication and a PhD in Information Science. As part of the Engagement Team, Paloma manages the consortia group and supports ORCID consortia worldwide, with a special focus in Europe and Brazil to develop new and existing integrations and workflows and to promote ORCID adoption.Before joining ORCID, she worked with non-textual research outputs and persistent identifiers in different research libraries.She is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, German and English and speaks Catalan at a conversational level. In her free time, Paloma enjoys knitting and crocheting, lifting weights and open-water swimming.

As part of our Open Source Team Leonardo specializes in UI development and JavaScript frameworks. Before ORCID he worked as Full Stack Developer in many other projects.Leonardo has a BS in Computer Science from the Tecnológico de Costa Rica and is fluent in Spanish and English.

Brian supports community adoption, fostering development and executing strategic goals of ORCID consortia, primarily in Asia Pacific and North America, for the ORCID Engagement Team.

Brian previously held the role of Scholarly Communications Librarian at Hong Kong Baptist University, has an M.A. in Asia Pacific Studies from the University of San Francisco, an M.L.S. from San Jose State University and speaks Mandarin Chinese.

As part of our Open Source Team, Angel is in charge of supporting existing ORCID infrastructure, helping the member services team in tech-related issues, and building new features for the ORCID registry.Angel has a BS in Computer Science from the University of Costa Rica and is fluent in Spanish and English.

Emilia’s role at ORCID is to lead projects to implement and optimize internal processes as well as to administer ORCID’s internal portfolio of information tools and systems. Emilia is also a graduate student in Art Psychotherapy.

With over a decade of experience working in the Academic Publishing and Educational Technology industries, Shivendra is passionate about supporting Research and Scholarly Communications. He holds a BSc in Physics with Astrophysics, and postgraduate qualifications in Business, and Accounting & Finance. As a Senior Engagement Lead at ORCID in the Global Direct Members team, Shivendra focuses on growing member & integration adoption, and collaborations with Service Providers and Publishers serving the wider research community.Shivendra is based in the Northeast of England and in his personal time he enjoys hiking, stargazing, photography, and listening to Rock & Metal music.

Mitra Najafi-Gheidari, Senior User Support Specialist, Mitra provides first tier support to researchers with queries about their ORCID records. Before joining ORCID, she worked as a support representative in the tech startup community.

George joined the team in 2016 having worked as a developer across a variety of industries including finance, retail, telecoms, media, and publishing, specialising in Java development.George enjoys football, films, and travelling in his spare time and plays a lot of chess. He once wrote an email based chess app and may or may not one day make it into a website.

As part of our Open Source Team, Daniel specializes in front-end and back-end development using JavaScript and Java. Before ORCID he worked in different sectors as a Full Stack developer as well. He has a Bachelors Degree in Computer Systems Engineering from the ESCOM IPN Escuela Superior de Computo and a Masters in Project Management from the Universitat de Barcelona and is fluent in Spanish and English.

As Director of Communications for ORCID, Julie is responsible for setting and guiding communications strategies to ensure messaging and outreach activities consistently promote awareness of ORCID’s value to all its stakeholder groups. She has spent most of her career in communications roles focused on the US National Science Foundation’s geosciences community at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, CO. She manages and guides the Communications Team as they promote awareness of ORCID with their writing, content management, social media, events, outreach, and web production activities.Julie can often be found at metal concerts, trail running (read: mostly walking), paddle boarding, kayaking, reading or working on her novel, or practicing yoga.

Ellen is ORCID’s data protection officer. She has a background in information management and spent several years as an academic librarian before moving into privacy and compliance work.Aside from being a data geek, Ellen is a keen cyclist and also enjoys waking up ridiculously early to roam the countryside with her dog.

Andrej helps to improve and maintain the codebase of the ORCID registry and related projects. Andrej has a BSc with honors in Music Technology, having graduated the University of Hertfordshire in 2014.In his free time he writes music, experiments with audio-visual installations, shoots film photography, rides his bicycle and explores nature.

Shawna heads up Outreach & Partnerships at ORCID, building strategic relationships worldwide and exploring new opportunities for adoption and growth.

With more than 25 years of experience in product and platform development in scholarly communications and STM publishing, Chris brings to ORCID his deep expertise in product and technology strategy in a time of rapidly changing business models, technological advances, and increasing expectations from users and customers. He previously held a number of leadership positions at Elsevier, and has served on the boards of Crossref, ORCID, the International DOI Foundation and the National Information Standards Organization. Outside work, Chris enjoys travel, music and movies.

Matt has over 10 years experience of working in technology within the education sector. Matt has a passion for putting the user first and using technology to improve daily life. This has now spilled over into making a smart home and Matt can often be found shouting at Google and Alexa whilst sitting at his desk. When not geeking out with the latest tech he can be found spending time with the family, badly playing guitar and watching as much sport as time allows.

Will is responsible for ORCID’s technical strategy, infrastructure, and scalability, and manages the technology team.Will graduated in 2000 with a first class honors degree in Physics from University College London, and is also a qualified teacher of English as a foreign language.

Greta is originally from Lithuania, equipped with a diverse skill set and a strong educational background, she holds a bachelor’s degree in both Psychology and Nutrition, obtained in the UK. Her professional journey has seen her excel in various roles, including robotics teacher and customer support specialist. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing, hiking, surfing, or simply enjoying the outdoors.

Lombe is responsible for improving equity of participation in ORCID in currently underrepresented areas, especially the Global South. She is also responsible for growing membership and adoption in currently underrepresented regions whilst ensuring member satisfaction and value. She has a BA in Economics and an MA in Development Studies.Outside of work, Lombe enjoys reading, travelling and cooking.

Responsible for supporting ORCID’s operations in caretaking of core financial processes, books, and records. Outside of work, I love travelling, live music, trying to train my cat and my educational background is in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies.

As a Member Support Technical Specialist (MSTS), I provide technical support to ORCID member organizations, assisting them with system integrations and ongoing maintenance.I am fluent in Spanish and English, and I am based in Costa Rica. Before joining ORCID, I worked in the editorial sector, primarily in academic publishing and literature.In my spare time, I enjoy gardening, baking pastries, and spending quality time with my family.

Tommy oversees all aspects of ORCID’s internal operations, including financial management, planning, and reporting, accounting and compliance, people operations management, and general administration and operations.Before joining ORCID, Tommy’s career has centered on providing strategic, operational and financial counsel for a variety of organizations, largely as CFO, COO or as a member of the Board of Directors including The Ocean Conservancy, The Wilderness Society, SOS Children’s Villages, EarthShare, Bikes for the World, Washington Freedom Soccer, TVG Network, C-SPAN, and Gateway Canyons Resort. Tommy also served and was instrumental in the growth and evolution of Discovery Communications and National Geographic Society. A Washington, D.C. native and graduate of The Catholic University of America and reformed CPA, Tommy now resides in Maryland with his partner Jennifer and children, which range from two to twenty-five years old. When he isn’t running family air traffic control with Jen, he loves to explore the world, through their shared legacy in their brand Transient on Purpose http://sapillocreekescape.com h and their catamaran Ouroboros, as well as through biking, sailing, scuba diving (as a Divemaster), traveling, or finding inner peace through yoga (as a certified yoga teacher).

Giles is an experienced engineer and manager in operations with over 15 years of experience architecting and maintaining infrastructure, following principles of configuration management, infrastructure as code and immutable infrastructure. When not wrangling computers he likes outdoor sports like snowboarding and mountain biking.

Heading up Engagement at ORCID, Ivo is responsible for our global community member adoption & support, as well as our sustainability strategy and its alignment with our core strategies and values.Based in The Netherlands, Ivo speaks Dutch, German, English, and Spanish, (excludes ordering in restaurants as he can do that in French and Italian as well) and in his spare time enjoys exploring the arts, theatre, and picking a new hobby every year.

Élan creates and manages the distribution of content for ORCID’s blog, website, social media accounts, and other channels to promote awareness of the organization and foster engagement with ORCID’s community. Outside of work, she can be found hiking, reading, writing, organizing in her community, and spending time exploring outdoors with her husband and son.