Meet the DAO: Luna, Threshold DAO's Project Manager

One of the most exciting aspects of Web3 and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) is the way they empower people to see a an opportunity or need, propose a solution and then build consensus around it (and in most cases, that alignment process itself improves the solution).

Threshold DAO has attracted many dynamic and committed community members who are doing this every day. We are very fortunate to have one who saw the need for "fluent and smooth collaborations and communications between the following entities: the DAO community, Threshold's Integrations, Treasury and Marketing Guilds, and the Keep, NuCypher and thUSD contributor teams" and made this successful proposal for our first DAO-wide role, Project Manager.

For nearly a year, Luna has been an indispensable addition to Threshold, not only coordinating among our various teams and work groups but also leading important and cumbersome projects, such as persuading token listing sites to update their tBTC token naming and KPIs and managing the process of gathering the extensive data they require to do so.

Luna avoids the spotlight, preferring to work behind the scenes to make everything move more smoothly, so it took a bit of persuading for her to do this Meet the DAO interview - but we're happy to bring the community these insights into her role.

Can you give us a short intro about your background?

I am a computer scientist with a PhD in cyber security. I currently hold the position of project manager for the Threshold Network DAO.

In the early stages of my career, I worked as a researcher at the university, first in AI and the in cybersecurity. There I worked in many national and international projects and meanwhile, I prepared my PhD thesis.

My thesis was focused on the protection of information in critical infrastructures. After I finished my PhD and postdoc research, I moved to a project management position, which I truly enjoy. First freelancing for small projects, then I moved to a tradtech software development company, and then stepping into Web3 with Threshold.

I truly enjoy founding positions, where I can start process from scratch, learning from the teams and people needs, and working together to build a new way of work that fits and makes things easier for everyone (avoiding bureaucracy and overhead as much as possible). There is always a stimulant factor of puzzle / problem solving that tunes with my engineering background.

What was it that drew you to Threshold?

I have been in contact with Threshold since its inception, I have been a participant in the NuCypher community from the beginning, being in the cybersecurity environment. Several colleagues of mine participated in the NuCypher Staking Program initiative, and therefore was really interested in how the project and technology was developing.

What are your primary responsibilities with Threshold DAO?

I am Threshold DAO Project Manager. My main responsibility is supporting the community members and facilitating a fluent communication through documents infrastructure, meetings support and projects support.

My role evolves with time and community members that join the inner circle. Phases so far have included:

• Onboarding and learning the ways of the community in depth
• Creating infrastructure - working with Notion, process
• Working with the teams, interfacing with different stakeholders to align work
• Working to understand the community, the needs of the guilds and support process and procedures
• Establishing processes and owning tasks
• Collaborating with the Marketing Guild and joining their weekly meetings
• Collaborating with the Integrations Guild and joining their weekly meetings

From the beginning I had to bring the best of me to help coordinate people and efforts towards achieving their objectives, avoiding things falling through the cracks. "Cat herding" has been one of the main activities, but I also keep documentation, support process creation, manage the DAO tools, support governance, manage different stakeholders, even I provide tech support sometimes.

What about Threshold Network excites you the most?

In the beginning I fell in love with the ideas and the cool projects behind the teams and the community. I love the concepts of privacy, decentralization, permissionless use of services, a free world ideal. But what I am most excited about Threshold is how all our efforts are bringing those ideals to materialise. We are creating high-quality products that have the right standards. And we are seeing them come true.

Beyond the products, I am specially proud of the community built around Threshold, how the environment of collaboration is flourishing and what used to be two different companies with different cultures, and a group of highly motivated people scattered around the globe, now has become an efficient community capable of undertaking big efforts under the same ideals and culture.

Anything else to share about yourself with the community?

I am very artistic; I dance and paint in my spare time.

I work full time, but I am also a full time mother of 3. My kids are 3, 5 and 7 years old, and managing a relatively big family is much more of a challenge than managing our many projects at Threshold.

I am very thankful to be part of the Threshold community and I would love to share with other persons out there that it is possible and highly rewarding to have a family, being very involved with them daily and also have a successful career.

Beyond cybersecurity and project management, I have interests in a variety of fields. I had been very attracted by data mining and machine learning (before the big explosion of deep learning). I used to be very fond of decision trees and modeled different types of intelligent learners for different purposes. I also am fascinated by biochemistry and genetics, and after getting my PhD I enrolled in the university to learn cellular biology and genetics. I used to go there with my kid being a baby until they learnt to walk and started ‘participating' too much in class.