Move README and CHANGELOG to markdown and update deployment notes

[nllong]

Any background context you want to provide?

RST is getting a bit long in the tooth. Moved a couple of our resources to markdown.

What does this PR accomplish?

• Migrated RST to MD using panda (not the docs folder)
• Added other recent authors to the list
• Added the m2r2 dependency to have our documentation include MD files automagically
• Added a few notes on the steps to deploy

How should this be manually tested?

n/a

What are the relevant tickets?

n/a

Screenshots (if appropriate)

[nllong]

@vtnate -- I think the tests will pass now... ready for your review and merge when you get a chance!