Profile
At Google for the launch of VR Action Lab's virtual reality anti-bullying experience (New York, 2017)
Tech & Innovation
Twelve years working in digital tech, including social media, data science and virtual reality. My methods incorporate the latest in startup strategy and design thinking.
At Obama campaign HQ typing email as New Media Operations Manager (Chicago, 2008)
Activism & Politics
Eighteen years on the frontline of social change, whether working on a political campaign or marching in the streets. I am happiest when working for and with visionary change-makers.
Leading a team of researchers on the Global Digital Activism Data Set (Seattle, 2013)
Leadership
Nine years helping activists set goals, take evidence-based action, and develop theories of change, leading small teams in nonprofit, academic, and voluntary contexts.
Experience
Do Big Good
Human-centered design firm helping clients create with Community
Founder and Principal (November 2016 - Present)
Manage the collaborative development of a measurement system for Code for America, including co- design with over 140 volunteers and piloting in more than 10 geographically diverse chapters from LA to Buffalo.
Develop and implement an impact assessment for the Center for Technology and Civic Life, including collecting feedback from three dozen election officials across the US and designing the analysis of 1,500 social media posts.
Help a Fortune 50 tech company develop and pilot a program incentivizing hypothesis-based iteration for rapid learning.
Advise 15 international media grantees of the Mozilla Foundation in creating impact plans to guide their work on data privacy and artificial intelligence (AI).
Harmony Labs
Nonprofit analyzing and creating media in support of an open, resilient, and democratic society
Impact Design Director (October 2017 - February 2018)
Impact Strategist (February - September 2017)
Communications Director (November 2016 - January 2017)
Coordinate Virtual Reality Action Lab, a $100K+ Google-funded project to rapidly prototype new social impact uses of virtual reality; managed a diverse team of filmmakers, nonprofit and corporate partners, and academic researchers to produce three anti-bullying VR experiences currently being piloted in schools
Manage team of industry-leading Microsoft researchers and junior data scientists to create Ratio -- software that pulls articles from 2,000 news sources to understand, at scale, the dysfunctions of the US media ecosystem following the 2016 election
Digital Activism Research Project
Research Group at the University of Washington focusing on the effect of digital technology on contentious politics Globally
Co-Founder and Associate Director (2012 - 2014)
Designed and managed the creation of the first global digital activism data sets; secured over $180,000 in grants to support this work
Managed a six-person team of graduate research assistants who compiled the data sets, which included 1,500 cases of digital activism from 151 countries
Obama for America
Barack Obama’s first campaign for the presidency
New Media Operations Manager (July - November 2008)
Assisted Director and Deputy Director of New Media in managing logistics for 80-person department at campaign headquarters in Chicago
Initiated and managed e-card experiment targeting thousands of senior citizens on Grandparents Day
Education
Master of Arts in Communication, University of Washington in Seattle, WA (2014)
Certificate in the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict, ICNC Summer Institute in Medford, MA (2010)
Master of Public Policy (1st year only), Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, MA (2009)
Bachelor of Arts in History with a minor in Africana Studies, Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, and study abroad at the University of Ghana in Accra (2004)
Design should not only generate a solution to a problem, but also shift the power dynamics that caused it.
