Merge branch 'current' into mirnawong1-patch-26

website/docs/community/spotlight/johann-de-wet.md

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+---
+id: johann-de-wet
+title: Johann de Wet
+description: |
+  I'm forever indebted to my manager, John Pienaar, who introduced me to both dbt and it's community when I joined his team as an Analytics Engineer at the start of 2022. I often joke about my career before dbt and after dbt. Our stack includes Fivetran, Segment, Airflow and BigQuery to name a few.
+  Prior to that I was a business intelligence consultant for 16 years working at big financial corporates. During this time I've had the opportunity to work in many different roles from front end development to data engineering and data warehouse platform development.
+  The only two constants in my career have been SQL en Ralph Kimball's Dimension Modeling methodology...which probably makes me a bit partial to those.
+image: /img/community/spotlight/johann-dewett.jpg
+pronouns: he/him
+location: Paarl, South Africa
+jobTitle: Staff Analytics Engineer
+companyName: Yoco
+organization: ""
+socialLinks:
+  - name: LinkedIn
+    link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johann-de-wet-21a6128/
+dateCreated: 2024-05-07
+hide_table_of_contents: true
+communityAward: false
+---
+
+## When did you join the dbt community and in what way has it impacted your career?
+
+I joined the dbt community at the start of 2022 when I joined my current company. Having the community available to me from the start of my dbt career was invaluable not only in helping me get up to speed on dbt quickly but also in making me aware of so many capabilities, optimisations and solutions to problems that others have implemented. The knowledge gained here goes much further than just dbt itself.
+
+## What dbt community leader do you identify with? How are you looking to grow your leadership in the dbt community?
+
+It feels almost unfair to single out members where there are so many but people like Dave Connors and Benoit Perigaud really represent what this community is about in my opinion. Prompt, proficient, passionate and polite...all the P's you could want. Someone like Sara Leon also deserves a shoutout for keeping us abreast of the newest developments in dbt and also making us feel even more connected to the community.
+
+As for myself, I would like to make some contributions to dbt's codebase in the future to be able to assist the dbt engineers who have offered so much to us dbt users over the years.
+
+## What have you learned from community members? What do you hope others can learn from you?
+
+I learned that community members are incredibly passionate about dbt as well as helping other members by sharing their knowledge and also contributing to dbt itself which is to everyone's benefit ultimately.
+
+I try to help regardless of how "simple" a question may be. Even if it's been asked and answered a thousand times before for that person it's new and potentially a real blocker in their world. I remind myself that we were all new to dbt at some stage and every bit of help along the way got us to where we are now.
+
+## Anything else interesting you want to tell us?
+
+I'm hoping to attend my first Coalesce event in Las Vegas later this year.

website/docs/community/spotlight/juan-manuel-perafan.md

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+---
+id: juan-manuel-perafan
+title: Juan Manuel Perafan
+description: |
+  Born and raised in Colombia! Living in the Netherlands since 2011. I've been working in the realm of analytics since 2017, focusing on Analytics Engineering, dbt, SQL, data governance, and business intelligence (BI). 
+
+  Besides consultancy work, I am very active in the data community. I co-authored the book *Fundamentals of Analytics Engineering* and have spoken at various conferences and meetups worldwide, including <a href="https://coalesce.getdbt.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Coalesce</a>, Linux Foundation OS Summit, Big Data Summit Warsaw, Dutch Big Data Expo, and Developer Week Latin America.
+
+  I also love meetups! I am the founder of the Analytics Engineering Meetup and co-founder of the <a href="https://www.meetup.com/amsterdam-dbt-meetup/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Netherlands dbt Meetup</a>.
+image: /img/community/spotlight/juan-manuel-perafan.jpg
+pronouns: he/him
+location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
+jobTitle: Analytics Engineer
+companyName: Xebia
+organization: "Co-author: *Fundamentals of Analytics Engineering*"
+socialLinks:
+  - name: LinkedIn
+    link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmperafan/
+  - name: Amazon Profile
+    link: https://www.amazon.com/author/jmperafan
+dateCreated: 2024-05-05
+hide_table_of_contents: true
+communityAward: false
+---
+
+## When did you join the dbt community and in what way has it impacted your career?
+
+I've been a dbt user since 2020, but it wasn't until I attended Coalesce 2021 in New Orleans that I truly felt part of the community. The experience inspired me to start a dbt Meetup in Amsterdam.
+
+I thoroughly enjoy organizing Meetups! They provide a platform to network and learn from some of the most experienced data professionals in your area. Additionally, it's rewarding to see how attendees bond. Often, in our day-to-day jobs, we're surrounded by people who don't fully grasp our work, so having deeper conversations at Meetups is refreshing.
+
+## What dbt community leader do you identify with? How are you looking to grow your leadership in the dbt community?
+
+I am not the most knowledgeable Analytics Engineer out there, but I'm good at building communities. Starting from scratch is daunting. So, for me, leading means doing the hard work to make it easier for others to join. When it comes to Meetups, it means being ready to handle every aspect of an event alone, but also letting team members pitch in where they're comfortable. It's okay if they only want a small part at first, but maybe eventually, they'll feel comfortable running anything (not just meetups) on their own.
+
+## What have you learned from community members? What do you hope others can learn from you?
+
+Along the way, I've gained insights into technical areas like data ops, data modeling, and lots of SQL best practices, as well as broader fields such as stakeholder management and data strategy.
+
+It is easy to focus on the things you don't know. But each of us brings unique expertise and skills to the table. Analytics engineering is a diverse field, and mastering every aspect is not expected.
+
+## Anything else interesting you want to tell us?
+
+I am always up for a chat. If you see me in a conference or want to DM me, please don't hesitate. It is always a pleasure to network with other fellow data professionals.

website/docs/community/spotlight/mariah-rogers.md

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+---
+id: mariah-rogers
+title: Mariah Rogers
+description: |
+  I got my start in the data world helping create a new major and minor in Data Science at my alma mater. I then became a data engineer, learned a ton, and propelled myself into the clean energy sector. Now I do data things at a clean energy company and geek out on solar energy at work and at home!
+
+  I attended my first Coalesce virtually in 2021 when my former colleague Emily Ekdahl gave a talk about some cool things we'd been working on. She inspired me to propose a talk the following year, so I submitted two topics and, surprisingly, both were accepted! I ultimately chose to speak about Testing in dbt in New Orleans in 2022, and the community's reception of that talk continues to be a highlight of my career.
+
+image: /img/community/spotlight/mariah-rogers.jpg
+pronouns: she/her
+location: Irvine, California
+jobTitle: Senior Analytics Engineer
+companyName: Arcadia
+organization: ""
+socialLinks:
+  - name: LinkedIn
+    link: https://linkedin.com/in/mariahjrogers
+dateCreated: 2024-05-04
+hide_table_of_contents: true
+communityAward: false
+---
+
+## When did you join the dbt community and in what way has it impacted your career?
+
+My colleague and I discovered dbt in mid-2020 while hunting down documentation for Jinja2 because we had just spent four months writing our own Jinja2-powered SQL templating tool. We immediately backtracked that project, migrated everything to dbt, and never looked back.
+
+I joined the dbt Slack community in shortly after we started our migration (fun fact, my first access log into the community Slack was on October 12, 2020). The tool, and the wonderful, supportive community around it, changed the way I work with data every single day and has helped me launch a career more successful and fulfilling than I could have imagined. 
+
+I have spoken at Coalesce and a local Meetup, made countless online and IRL friends that are a blast to run into each year at the various conferences and events, and paved a path for my career long-term that I did not know could have existed before I found dbt and became an Analytics Engineer.
+
+## What dbt community leader do you identify with? How are you looking to grow your leadership in the dbt community?
+
+Sometimes it feels hard to exist in this space as "just" a practitioner living in a vendor-ruled world. I am most inspired by my fellow practitioners who have their day jobs and still make the time and exude passion for the analytics craft both in- and outside of work, and share that with the community. I also greatly appreciate and aspire to be the type of community leader who crafts safe spaces and supportive networks like the women leading Data Angels, Women in Data, and other such groups. I have found so much profound community in these groups, and I hope to give back to these networks everything I have gotten out of them and more.
+
+## What have you learned from community members? What do you hope others can learn from you?
+
+They say that there are builders and there are optimizers. I am firmly in the optimizer camp. Everything I do, I do to make my life easier, the lives of my collaborators or stakeholders easier, or to help others in the community do the same for themselves. 
+
+At least half of the expertise I have working with dbt or as an Analytics Engineer I learned from community members' blog posts, substacks, tweets, Coalesce talks, or even casual conversations at Meetups. The other half I earned out of curiosity about whether there was a better or more efficient way to accomplish the task at hand than the way I first learned to do it or first tried to complete it (and there usually is!). 
+
+It is my goal to help spread this sense of curiosity and wonder around the community, as well as to share some of my more substantive learnings and opinions in the form of articles or conference talks in the future! I still feel like a caterpillar in my cocoon, trying to figure out what shape I'll take before I make my imprint on the world, but I will emerge soon!
+
+## Anything else interesting you want to tell us?
+
+Catch me in the purple jean jacket covered in data patches in Vegas this October at Coalesce 2024!

website/docs/community/spotlight/safiyy-momen.md

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+---
+id: safiyy-momen
+title: Safiyy Momen
+description: |
+  I've been in the dbt community for ~4 years now. My experience is primarily in leading data teams, previously at a healthcare startup where I migrated the stack. The dbt Community was invaluable during that time. More recently I've built a product, Aero, that helps Snowflake users optimize costs with a Native extension. I'm exploring ways to automate analytics engineering workflows.
+
+  I've spoken at various meetups, including the <a href="https://www.meetup.com/nyc-dbt-meetup/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York dbt Meetup</a>, on data warehouse cost optimization.
+image: /img/community/spotlight/safiyy-momen.jpg
+pronouns: he/him
+location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
+jobTitle: Founder
+companyName: Aero
+socialLinks:
+  - name: Twitter
+    link: https://twitter.com/safiyy_m
+  - name: LinkedIn
+    link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/safiyy-momen/
+dateCreated: 2024-05-02
+hide_table_of_contents: true
+communityAward: false
+---
+
+## When did you join the dbt community and in what way has it impacted your career?
+
+I joined a few years ago. It's helped me level up on best practices while making new friends and connections along the way.
+
+## What dbt community leader do you identify with? How are you looking to grow your leadership in the dbt community?
+
+I remember Claire Carroll early on being a great example for community mentorship. I identify with leaders who bring constructive, opinionated, experience-driven insight to conversations.
+
+## What have you learned from community members? What do you hope others can learn from you?
+
+I've learned lessons on scaling a large community and creating a culture of curiosity. Hoping others can learn new ways to be useful and build the courage to get themselves out there—to give talks, share their ideas, and engage in debate!
+
+## Anything else interesting you want to tell us?
+
+If you're not doing the basics to control costs on Snowflake, you should be! Try out [Aero Cost Optimizer](https://app.snowflake.com/marketplace/listing/GZT1ZYS85V/aero-aero-cost-optimizer).

website/docs/community/spotlight/tyler-rouze.md

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+---
+id: tyler-rouze
+title: Tyler Rouze
+description: |
+  My journey in data started all the way back in college where I studied Industrial Engineering. One of the core topics you learn in this program is mathematical optimization, where we often use data files as inputs to model constraints on these kinds of problems! Since then, I've been a data analyst on both small and large teams, and more recently a consultant shepherding our firm's dbt-based projects towards success.
+
+  Since joining the dbt Community, I've spoken at the <a href="https://www.meetup.com/chicago-dbt-meetup/">Chicago dbt Meetup</a>, <a href="https://coalesce.getdbt.com/speakers/tyler-rouze">Coalesce</a> (a milestone for my career!), dbt's Data Leaders Series, and even made open source contributions to `dbt-core`! It has been the joy of my career to be a part of this vibrant community.
+image: /img/community/spotlight/tyler-rouze.jpg
+pronouns: he/him
+location: Austin, TX, USA
+jobTitle: Managing Consultant
+companyName: Analytics8
+organization: Chicago dbt Meetup
+socialLinks:
+  - name: Website
+    link: https://tylerrouze.com
+  - name: LinkedIn
+    link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerrouze
+dateCreated: 2024-05-06
+hide_table_of_contents: true
+communityAward: false
+---
+
+## When did you join the dbt community and in what way has it impacted your career?
+
+I joined the dbt community a few years back, and if you've seen me speak you'll know that discovering dbt was a very "lightbulb on" moment for me as a data analyst in a past life. Making the data transformation process more visible and accessible to less technical backgrounds made a lot of sense to me, data analysts understand best how to derive value from your organization's data!
+
+While I do still get to be hands-on with dbt, I now spend more of my time thinking about architecting dbt implementations and building analytics teams around it. The beautiful thing about this industry is that we've made great strides in solving our technical problems, the biggest challenges we now face are more socio-technical and process-based which is just as interesting to me!
+
+## What dbt community leader do you identify with? How are you looking to grow your leadership in the dbt community?
+
+Leadership is a weird thing because you don't really realize you are a leader until you've been performing "leadership activities" for a while, so I'm honestly not sure what kind of leader I am yet. I made a commitment to myself a while back to share and talk about the things I was working on publicly in the event that someone else might find it useful, and hopefully had ideas of their own to offer me. The benefit of this is that it opens up a dialogue for our industry to evolve our best practices over time. If you've seen me speak, it's not uncommon for me to posit ideas during the talks I've given that aren't fully developed. My hope is that through a little bit of vulnerability others will feel that there's a place for them to share what they're working on and thinking about too, regardless of how polished it is!
+
+## What have you learned from community members? What do you hope others can learn from you?
+
+In similar thinking to the kind of leadership I try to exemplify, I've found that the more I give to the community, the more I get in return. Contributing to the dbt Community has given me the ability to have numerous conversations with other practitioners about the problems they face in their role and how they've solved them, which in turn makes me better at my job. There is so much we can learn from others, but someone has to start the conversation!