Amber Taus

Hello! I’m Amber and I’m the Community Manager at iFixit! I’m from the Central Coast of California, about 10 minutes down the road from iFixit in SLO. I’ve grown up on the internet and have always been a bit of an extroverted introvert–which is a perfect mix for managing online communities!

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been headstrong and interested in doing everything myself. My mom's favorite story to tell about me is that my first widely used phrase was “Me do” which has now, coincidentally,  turned into a career with “iFix” it. I am by no means a fixing master like some members on our site, but I am a decently confident tinkerer. My first big project was when I was  4 or 5 and I decided to take apart our family VCR so I could watch the tape spin inside instead of the movie it was playing. And yes, I did put it back together successfully. My most recent fix was replacing the joysticks to my JoyCons because of two cases of the dreaded Nintendo JoyCon Drift.

In high school I was the only girl in 2 years of programming and computer repair classes. I love seeing  that more girls and women are taking on repair projects. This lead me to become interested in advocating for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) in primary grades. The goal was to help more kids who wouldn’t generally be exposed to the idea learn to love it, so I originally went the direction of working towards working with kids. I did that for about 10 years–I was writing and teaching at summer camps (almost always science or nature based) and over the last few years I wrote and ran all of the teen programs at my local Y. Academically speaking, I have a BA in Child and Adolescent Development with a focus in Non-Profit Administration.

My interest in technology and never left me so when I found iFixit I knew I had to get onto the team!

In my off time I have a couple of hobbies. I like cooking and baking, reading fantasy and science fiction in any form (text, graphic novels, audiobooks, webcomics), listening to podcasts, taking care of my chickens and dog and garden, and lastly (but certainly not leastly) chasing around my toddler.