From Chennai to San Francisco, With Drupal in Between

Srikanth Danapal almost never says yes to interviews. As a seasoned technologist who has spent years building accessible, user-centered web platforms, he prefers to build quietly, mentor consistently, and let the impact of his work speak for itself. But when this TDT interview opportunity came through, Professor Sameer Verma, someone he holds in high regard, Srikanth made an exception. What followed was an honest, engaging conversation about technology, community, and the values that have guided his journey.

Srikanth led major web initiatives at San Francisco State University for over a decade before stepping into a technical leadership role with the City and County of San Francisco.

In this interview, Srikanth opens up about his early years in Chennai, his path to San Francisco through an MBA at SF State, and how a student assistant role introduced him to Drupal. That introduction would shape the next decade of his career. He talks about leading large-scale Drupal migrations, mentoring students who went on to careers of their own, and finding fulfilment in making technology more accessible and meaningful for real users.

What you will read here is the written format of that interview. The video will be published soon. Until then, this transcript offers a clear window into Srikanth’s mindset, his work ethic, and why he believes technology should always be about enabling people.

TDT [1]: So we'll get right into it. How would it go if I'm asking you to introduce yourself, Srikanth? Where are you from? What is your passion? How did you end up in the United States?

Srikanth Danapal: I recently moved from San Francisco State University to the City and County of San Francisco. The work I do remains similar. I am a technical lead focused on Drupal development, now within city government. Before this, I spent around 14 years at SF State doing similar work.

I’m originally from Chennai, India, where I grew up and completed my Engineering degree. After graduating, I worked at Infosys for three years, mainly on web application development and other technology-related projects. I later came to the U.S. to pursue my MBA at SF State. That was the starting point of my journey here.

I did not plan to stay in the U.S. long term, but one thing led to another. I found that my skills were valued and put to good use, so I continued doing what I do best.

I usually introduce myself as someone who is passionate about enabling people through technology. I see technology as a tool that improves everyday life. That is what I strive to deliver in my work.

TDT [2]: When did you first get introduced to Drupal? Was it while you were in India, or after you moved to the U.S.?

Srikanth Danapal: In the U.S. In India, most of my work was on enterprise-side Java applications and ColdFusion. I was also doing a lot of WordPress website development. When I came to the U.S., I started working at my university as a student assistant, helping the technology department with their websites. That is when I got introduced to Drupal.

At first, it seemed like Drupal would be similar to WordPress, so I figured it would not be too difficult and decided to give it a try. That is how it started, and from that point on, I have been working with Drupal almost exclusively.

TDT [3]: So how did you find your first introduction to Drupal? What would you say the experience was like, and how did it stick with you all these years?

Srikanth Danapal: Initially, I was trying to compare it with WordPress. In everything I did, when I was building a module, I would think, "This is like a plugin." When I was adding content through the CKEditor, it felt similar to WordPress. Then I slowly started realizing the power of what Drupal does, and why it is a lot more scalable and enterprise-friendly.

The permission sets it brings, the content types, the Views, I started meeting people in the community as well. I saw that open-source spirit. There was always this drive to do good for the community, for society, to help people. All of that started connecting with me. So I started diving deep into it. I kept learning more and more. 

TDT [4]: So, did you ever want to go back to WordPress? I often hear people say that once you get in touch with Drupal, it’s hard to go back.

Srikanth Danapal: It's very hard. But there are one-off projects I do here, where it doesn’t make sense to have a full-on Drupal installation, such as some very lightweight applications.

TDT [5]:  Do you attend Drupal events such as DrupalCons or DrupalCamps nearby? Are there any Drupal meetups that you go to? How have these events built your relationship with Drupal??

Srikanth Danapal:  Yes, I attend. I attend a lot. I’m fortunate to be in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the Bay Area Drupal Camp takes place, and I’ve attended it almost every year for the past decade. It used to be held more often at UC Berkeley, and now the locations vary, but it has always been a place where you see how large and active the Drupal community really is. You get a sense of how widely Drupal is used, especially in higher education and government, and how much people are willing to give back.

People are not just there to take what Drupal offers. They are constantly asking, “How can we add to this? How can we contribute? How can we teach each other?”

There were higher education summits at Stanford and Berkeley where we would have open discussions like, “What are you doing at your university? What can we borrow or learn from you? How can we support each other?” I remember back in the Drupal 7 days, we were working on building shared feature sets across universities, and that kind of collaboration was always encouraged.

I think that sense of community is probably the biggest reason I’ve stayed involved with Drupal. Beyond the technical capabilities, it’s the people and the shared purpose that keep me coming back.

TDT [6]: Have you always been passionate about technology? Did you always plan to pursue an engineering degree and then transition into the business side of it?

Srikanth Danapal: Yeah, I was very good at math at school, so I was always drawn toward anything that had to do with math. So engineering was a big draw for me. When I got into the College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University it was one of the top-rated schools in Tamil Nadu.

I was involved heavily in things that were technology-oriented. I used to participate in robotics competitions. I also did a small part in a microsatellite that the university was building in collaboration with ISRO. It was called Anusat—University Satellite.

And I also did some weather satellite reception projects and stuff. So technology always interested me. And when Infosys came around and they were picking people from campus interviews, I thought it was a good place for me to start and explore and go deeper into technology. Yeah, I think it was always there, and the career just kept lining up with it.

TDT [7]: Were there any challenges that actually deepened your passion for technology? Was there a moment when you thought, “This particular challenge brought me closer to what I’m doing now”? Something that pushed you further in this direction?

Srikanth Danapal: Back in the early days, I was trying to help small business owners in India establish a presence on the web. At the time, having a website was not a big deal for most businesses. It was just starting to catch on.

For the few who saw the potential of the web as a way to promote their business, there were not many tools or resources available. That is when I thought, this is something I can do to help. I saw it as a way to support people and small businesses. I think that is what first sparked my interest and pulled me in.

TDT [8]: You have been at San Francisco State University, for more than a decade. That is quite a long time. You mentioned it was not meant to be that long, but one thing led to another and you ended up staying. Could you share a brief overview of what happened? What made you stay for over 10 years?

Srikanth Danapal: Oh yes, it was a combination of things. Initially, my plan was centered around workforce development. I was drawn to Silicon Valley. I wanted to come to the U.S., study business administration somewhere in Silicon Valley, build a network, then go back to India and run a business from there. That was the original goal.

But once I got here, I interned at a few startups and also worked as a student at SF State. Over time, I found myself connecting more with what SF State was doing. It was not what I had expected. I thought everything would be shiny and fast-paced, that I would gain experience and people would mentor me. Instead, I found that many people were working within very limited constraints.

The university did not have large budgets. They could not easily attract top-tier talent to help with their internal applications. That is when I realized this was a place where I could make a real impact. When I had to choose between a startup offer and continuing with the university, I decided to go with the university and see how much I could contribute.

Once I got in, I had the opportunity to mentor students on Drupal. We had student programs where we would take students from the university every semester, train them, and then they would also help us with our work. That role started being very fulfilling.

Not just Drupal, but technology in general, although most of it was Drupal-related.

We would start by training students. Once they were ready, they began building modules, templates, and themes for us. These projects went on their résumés, and then they would go out and find jobs. It was very fulfilling. We were able to do a lot of things, including hosting hackathons. Even back in 2017 and 2018, we were working on AI chatbots that could be integrated into our Drupal websites. There was a lot of autonomy, a lot of freedom, and it was meaningful. You could see that you were contributing to the next generation. There was also a lot of energy in the work.

The team I was working with was really strong and very diverse. At one point, we had people from seven or eight different countries on the same team. The diversity and the knowledge exchange were both refreshing. 

The work kept evolving each year, and it never felt repetitive. Eventually, I made the decision to move on. I felt I had contributed enough to the university, and the Drupal environment there was in a strong place. That was when I found my next opportunity with the City and County of San Francisco.

TDT [9]: You mentioned mentoring many students and training them in Drupal. When they graduate and leave the university, do they usually stick with what they learned? Do they go on to build a career in Drupal? How often does that happen?

Srikanth Danapal: Some of them did. But I think most of them, even if they didn't find Drupal-related work, they're still in the tech field. They will interact with Drupal at some point in their career, and when they do, they’ll be ready. So I think that's the hope. But yes, some of them did end up in Drupal-related work.

TDT [10]: I was just curious because, during conversations on board, this topic comes up often. There is a huge learning curve. It is something people talk about regularly. There are even statistics out there that highlight this challenge. The steep learning curve can turn people away from Drupal.

As someone who has mentored students in Drupal, how do you see this issue? Do you think it is a real problem when it comes to onboarding new people into Drupal?

Srikanth Danapal: Yes, that part is true. I do not sugarcoat it. Drupal definitely has a learning curve, but that is because of the level of capability it offers.

Once you are fully onboarded, it becomes much smoother. But until that point, there is always that question in your mind: “Why are we using Drupal? Why not something else?” That phase is real.

It has improved a lot since the Drupal 8 rewrite, and Drupal 9 introduced component-based design and support for tools like Pattern Lab. Things are moving in the right direction. But in the earlier days, there was definitely a steep learning curve in Drupal.

TDT [11]: : I wanted to ask about something that is getting a lot of attention right now. Drupal Starshot is the talk of the town, and everyone seems to be discussing Drupal CMS. A version update is expected soon. What are your thoughts on that? How are people reacting to it?

Srikanth Danapal: It's a brilliant, brilliant idea, and it's done really well. Like, at my current job, my product owner, who works in Drupal because she has to, it’s not like she loves working on it, went to one of the BADCamp events and looked at the Drupal CMS demo. When the product launched, she was totally won over. She said, “This is awesome. This is where we should be.” So I see people who are not very welcoming to Drupal also starting to take notice of what the Drupal CMS can do.  So very exciting. I think it was a very brilliant move

TDT [12]: You received the Golden Gator Award for your work on the Drupal 9 migration. What was that experience like, both receiving the award and the work that went into it? Could you give a brief overview of what that journey looked like?

Srikanth Danapal: It was a long time in the making. The shift from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 came with a lot of pain, but things have been much smoother since Drupal 8. Most of the work I did was converting sites from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8. We made solid architectural choices during that process, even though it took longer to get everyone moved over. 

We had confidence in the direction because Drupal.org and the Drupal Association had already laid out a clear vision for where things were heading, which made it easier for us to stay on course during the migration. That actually set us up really well for the Drupal 9 migration. Once we were properly set up in Drupal 8 and had our architecture aligned with what was recommended, including how we handled development workflows, how we used composer-based upstream setups, and how we separated those across all the sites we were hosting, those choices made a big difference. When the time came to move to Drupal 9, it was not that hard. It just required a few patches and some updates to custom modules, but it was not a big issue. My campus had already experienced the pain of going from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8, so when we were able to move from 8 to 9 so quickly, everyone was impressed. That was what we had been working toward, and I believe that success, along with some related work, is what led to the award.

TDT [13]:  Since the Drupal community has always placed accessibility at the center, and the people in the community play such a key role. You’re someone who has consistently shown a strong interest in contributing, no matter where you’ve been. So how do you make sure users stay at the center of what you build, whether it’s a website, a module, or anything else? How do you keep their needs in mind throughout the process?

Srikanth Danapal: To be honest, that was the hardest part for me, because it was not in my DNA to keep users at the center early in my career. When you are young and full of energy, your focus is all on the technology. You chase the latest tools, aim for the best coding architecture, and try to see how quickly you can build something. The user only comes in at the very end of your thought process.

But I mentioned earlier how great my team at SF State was, and I want to give a shout-out to Julio Feliciano. He is the UX and accessibility expert there, and he mentored me early on. He brought me into user experience research sessions and showed me how he talks to users, gathers feedback, and understands what they are looking for. That started to shift my thinking. I realized that whatever I build, there is a real human being on the other side who has to use it. I had to start caring about that.

Julio also showed me that not everyone uses the web the same way. Some people rely on screen readers. Some do not use a mouse and depend entirely on keyboard navigation. That taught me never to assume how someone is going to interact with a site. Accessibility and usability have to be built in from the start.

That shift happened early in my career, and once it did, it became second nature. 

Now I do not think about users at the end of a project. I start by asking, “How will someone interact with this? How will they use it?” And that becomes the foundation for how I design and build.

TDT [14]: Are there people you are especially grateful to for the career path you have taken? Are there individuals you would like to thank for their support, guidance, or influence along the way?

Srikanth Danapal: Oh yes, several people. But for my Drupal journey, I want to call out Professor Sameer Verma, of course, because his classes also had Drupal in them. What he does in the classroom, trying to promote open source and trying to promote Drupal and what it does for the campus, is very inspiring. I don’t know how he handles so many things. And part of that team is also Julio Feliciano, who is like the partner in crime for Professor Verma. They both do things together, and I try to just tag along and help wherever I can.

And my first boss at SF State, Kevin O'Brien, who later on went to Kiva.org and worked there for a long time. Now he is helping a lot of health tech startups and fintech startups.

These three people, I would say, definitely shaped and guided my career. Each of them brought unique aspects. Professor Verma brought the open source spirit. Julio brought user experience and accessibility. And Kevin O'Brien brought the mindset of contributing back to the community. Like, you cannot just keep taking. You should start contributing modules back, start putting documentation back.

So yes, these are the three people I would like to highlight. I think a combination of those three kind of put it in my head that my job in the tech area is to enable people with technology. I am not here just doing stuff randomly. Whatever I am building should enable somebody to do something in their lives.

TDT [15]: What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who is just starting out in tech? Whether it is in Drupal, WordPress, or any other area, what is something you would tell a newcomer to the tech community that could really help them?

Srikanth Danapal: I think I would say, explore as many areas and as many technologies as you can in the beginning. Do not drop your anchor too early. Start by broadening out. See what you connect with, what you enjoy, and what really calls out to you.

Once you figure that out, then you can start to go deeper into that domain, that technology, or that field. But the tech world moves fast, and it is important to keep an open mind. You should always be ready for change.

You might really like something and work hard on it for three years, but then things shift quickly. You need to be willing to accept that. You cannot keep holding on to the same thing forever. Instead, ask yourself, “What’s new? How can I adjust to it? How do I move forward?”

That open-minded attitude and the habit of constant learning are what will keep you going in this field.

Also, never forget that there is an actual human being at the other end of whatever you're creating. So don't get too carried away with the beauty of your code or whatever you're working on. Always keep in mind that there's a real person on the other side.

TDT [16]: What are your interests outside of technology, Drupal, and open source? What do you enjoy in your day-to-day life? What keeps you motivated and energized?

Srikanth Danapal: I lean a lot into spirituality for my personal growth. I was a sports person too. I used to play division cricket back in India, so I try to stay active and keep playing whenever I can. Those two are a big part of my life outside of work.

And then there is my daughter. She is eight years old and keeps me busy. Out of everything I have done in my life, parenting has to be the hardest. I try to keep learning in that area. It pushes me to grow and makes me a better person as I work to become a better parent.

On an ending note, I usually do not do interviews. I almost always say no. But this one came through Professor Verma, and I have a lot of respect for him.

I am someone who does not put myself out there very much. I prefer to work quietly within the community. But I do think this was a good opportunity. Like you said, if someone watches this and feels inspired to get started with Drupal, I would truly welcome that.