Coraline Ada Ehmke

Coraline Ada Ehmke is an American software developer, open source advocate, Founder and Executive Director of the Organization for Ethical Source. She is the author of We Just Build Hammers: Stories from the Past, Present, and Future of Responsible Tech, published by Apress in 2025. Currently based in Chicago, Illinois, Ehmke began her career as a web developer in 1994 and has worked in a variety of industries, including engineering, consulting, education, advertising, healthcare, and software development infrastructure. She is known for her work in Ruby, and in 2016 earned the Ruby Hero award at RailsConf, a conference for Ruby on Rails developers. She is also known for her social justice work and activism, writing the Contributor Covenant and Post-Meritocracy Manifesto, and promoting the widespread adoption of codes of conduct for open source projects and communities.