Hey, everyone! As one can probably guess from my username, I’m Missy (she/they) and I am the new Community and Social Media Manager for Home Assistant! 
I started last week and have been chatting with some of you in the HA Discord server already but consider this a formal introduction. Before I am called out for it, yes, this is copy/pasted across platforms. It’s just easier this way. 
Tl;dr – You have me around to help the team understand your needs as a community, I worked at Microsoft for 11 years in various capacities before joining Nabu Casa, I started in the tech industry as a software tester, and one personal fun fact: I almost broke my elbow at an Ashnikko concert last October by bashing it on a metal railing I was dancing next to.
So, there’s this person coming in to manage the community. What does this mean? Well, honestly, I’m hoping it doesn’t change what y’all do much! I’m here to help improve the community and coordinate your feedback back to the team. Does this mean changes? Yes, of course, but none will be done without a discussion, and we won’t be at that part until I learn more about the community! The biggest change that the community can expect is having a dedicated employee for contact. This doesn’t mean the rest of the team is going to stop engaging online, it just means they have more time to do the meaningful work they do for Home Assistant. 
Before joining Nabu Casa, I spent the past year job hunting after being part of the first-round layoffs at Microsoft in January 2023. I was at Microsoft for 11 years prior to that, starting as phone support for Xbox in 2012 and ending as the Community Manager for the Microsoft Edge product group. I’m a lurker HA user – I got into HA in 2021 when a coworker introduced it to me as I was looking for a way to control a DIY magic mirror I was building. I fell immediately in love with the dedication to local usage of the product, having a particular frustration with the devices I continue to use in my home. I utilized the community forums for help with building the integrations I wanted because I was still so new to GitHub which was way too overwhelming for me. 
But a lot of the problems I ran into were things others ran into and they were documented well across the communities. When the job posting for this role was shared with me, I knew I had to shoot my shot at a chance to work on a project that aligns so well with my own personal values. 
I’m not an engineer or developer but I am quite technical. I have a degree in Heavy Duty Power Plants and took extracurricular classes for automotive transmissions and gasoline engines to round out as many vehicle drivetrains as I could. Don’t ask me many questions, though, I graduated in 2005 and cars are not what they were. 
I’m a mom to an almost 10-year-old, married to my partner for 16 years but together for 20, an avid mental health advocate, and a lover of earth. I am often outside in my yard, crocheting, or playing the game du jour (which is currently Forza). A few fun facts about me: I’ve been learning Hawai’ian, it’s on Duolingo; I’ve befriended my local murder of crows by feeding them every morning at 9am PT; I find a way to injure myself in incredible ways, like the aforementioned elbow injury at a concert last year, but I’ve also broken the same toe 3 times walking into the same couch and ruptured 3 discs in my lumbar region using my body in generally normal ways.
This is already incredibly long, and I’m sure you all have jobs or family to get to. It won’t be hard to find things about me if you look, and I am happy to answer any questions you may have! You’ll see me floating around the communities, but if you want to chat and are in the HA server already you can ping me on Discord.
Cheers! 
thanks for a funny and personal intro. 
I definitely do not buy it often.
