diff --git a/.github/workflows/check-files.yml b/.github/workflows/check-files.yml
index 420fbf87d..08fb5eaf9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/check-files.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/check-files.yml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ jobs:
     env:
       # unfortunately we can't check if the approver is part of the CODEOWNERS. This is a subset of aws/aws-crypto-tools-team
       # to add more allowlisted approvers just modify this env variable
-      maintainers: seebees, texastony, ShubhamChaturvedi7, lucasmcdonald3, josecorella, imabhichow, rishav-karanjit, antonf-amzn, justplaz, ajewellamz
+      maintainers: seebees, texastony, ShubhamChaturvedi7, lucasmcdonald3, josecorella, imabhichow, rishav-karanjit, antonf-amzn, kessplas, ajewellamz, RitvikKapila
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v3
         with:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/semantic_release.yml b/.github/workflows/semantic_release.yml
index 33a2f16d8..1179ae560 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/semantic_release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/semantic_release.yml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ jobs:
     # there is no easy way in gha to check if the actor is part of the team, running semantic release is a more
     # privileged operation, so we must make sure this list of users is a subset of the users labeled as maintainers of
     # https://github.com/orgs/aws/teams/aws-crypto-tools
-    if: contains('["seebees","texastony","ShubhamChaturvedi7","lucasmcdonald3","josecorella","imabhichow","rishav-karanjit","antonf-amzn","justplaz","ajewellamz","RitvikKapila"]', github.actor)
+    if: contains('["seebees","texastony","ShubhamChaturvedi7","lucasmcdonald3","josecorella","imabhichow","rishav-karanjit","antonf-amzn","kessplas","ajewellamz","RitvikKapila"]', github.actor)
     runs-on: macos-12
     permissions:
       id-token: write