Steering Committee Nomination: Rita Zhang (@ritazh)

[Mo Khan]

Hello Kubernetes Community,

I would like to nominate Rita Zhang @ritazh, for the Steering Committee election.

Rita’s impact on the Kubernetes and CNCF ecosystem is both broad and deep. She has consistently demonstrated technical leadership, mentorship, and a commitment to community values across many key projects and working groups.

She is a Kubernetes SIG Auth chair, a member of the Kubernetes Security Response Committee, an organizer of the new WG AI Conformance, and a maintainer of the Open policy agent Gatekeeper project.

Rita's contributions to Kubernetes span across SIG Auth, SIG Node, WG Device Management, SIG Testing, SIG APIMachinery, and WG LTS. She’s driven features like DRA AdminAccess, KMSv2, and StructuredAuthz, and has contributed bug fixes and enhancements that improve reliability and security for every Kubernetes user. As a member of the Kubernetes Security Response Committee, she is an active participant in security process improvements, CVE handling, and disclosure policies.

A few highlights:

• DRA AdminAccess
• Structured Authorization Configuration
• KMSv2
• A founding member and a maintainer of kubernetes-sigs/secrets-store-csi-driver
• A founding member and a maintainer of open-policy-agent/gatekeeper
• A reviewer for Validating Admission Policy

Rita also mentors contributors, champions inclusion, and helps drive consensus in the community’s most challenging technical discussions. Her positive impact is felt by contributors and users alike, and her leadership is evident in both the codebase and the culture of our community.

If you are an eligible voter interested in endorsing Rita, you can do so by replying to the nomination issue saying: "I endorse this nominee, and I work for " or "+1". Please state that you are an eligible voter and include your employer's name so that Election Officers can recognize qualified endorsements.