2015 Annual Conference

Christopher Wood is an entrepreneur in every sense of the word; author, speaker, adjunct professor, Executive Director & co-founder of two national non-profits, President & Founder of one regional non-profit, and COO of a small international business with B2B and B2C customers.

In 2012, Mr. Wood co-founded a new non-profit, the LGBT Technology Partnership which focuses on advocacy for LGBT individuals and communities as it relates to technology and the policies that govern it. Through Mr. Wood’s leadership, the organization has met with and continues to work with several Fortune top 20 technology, social media, and nonprofit organizations. The organization has also met with several government agencies including the White House and the Federal Communications Commission.

In 2014, Mr. Wood led the launch of another non-profit to work with the LGBT Technology Institute. The Institute is a tax-exempt not-for-profit organization conducting cutting-edge research at the intersection of LGBT communities and technology and creates resources, tools, and programs to support LGBT communities.

In 2017, Mr. Wood was appointed to the Federal Communications Commission's Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment for a two-year term. Mr. Wood was appointed for a second term in 2019 and has served the committee for a total of four years.

In 2015, Mr. Wood started another company with his husband, Redwood & Co. Serving as the Chief Operating Officer, together with several employees, Mr. Wood and his husband have grown their business from a small retail storefront to an international B2B and B2C business selling home fragrance, bath & body, and home décor. They are currently distributed in over 150 locations across the U.S. and have a flagship store in Staunton, VA.

In 2018, Mr. Wood noticed a serious lack of LGBTQ+ services available in the Shenandoah Valley of Central Virginia. In July 2018, he founded the Shenandoah LGBTQ Center and Staunton Pride. To date, he has led the organization as the Founder and past President and has grown it into an organization with over 5 committees working from Winchester, VA to Roanoke, VA serving the LGBTQ+ community with the support they need the most.

Previously, Mr. Wood served as a consultant to national LGBT organizations on various projects including transgender economic development programs. In this capacity, Mr. Wood provided project planning and strategic guidance to groups developing programs around jobs, legal programs, intake processes, localized statistics, and employer/employee training opportunities. His work has assisted several transgender communities across many US cities to move transgender assistance programs to the next level.

Prior to that, Mr. Wood worked at Discovery Communications creating social media and strategic marketing campaigns directed toward rural and LGBT communities. As part of his strategic campaigns, he was responsible for directing outreach programs at various LGBT Pride festivals across the country. From this work and previous experience, Mr. Wood brings a keen understanding of the needs of local LGBT organizations and how best to connect with them.

Mr. Wood has also owned a successful marketing consulting practice with clients such as the Washington Blade and Blackbarn Media to name a few. Mr. Wood joined his client, the Washington Blade, an LGBT newspaper, as the full-time marketing manager. In that capacity, Mr. Wood worked on creating strategic partnerships with various local and national LGBT organizations for advertising, events, and outreach.

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Benjamin Wittes is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution. He co-founded and is the editor-in-chief of the Lawfare blog, which is devoted to sober and serious discussion of "Hard National Security Choices," and is a member of the Hoover Institution's Task Force on National Security and Law. He is the author of Detention and Denial: The Case for Candor After Guantanamo, published in November 2011, co-editor of Constitution 3.0: Freedom and Technological Change, published in December 2011, and editor of Campaign 2012: Twelve Independent Ideas for Improving American Public Policy (Brookings Institution Press, May 2012). He is also writing a book on data and technology proliferation and their implications for security. He is the author of Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror, published in June 2008 by The Penguin Press, and the editor of the 2009 Brookings book, Legislating the War on Terror: An Agenda for Reform.

His previous books include Starr: A Reassessment, published in 2002 by Yale University Press, and Confirmation Wars: Preserving Independent Courts in Angry Times, published in 2006 by Rowman & Littlefield and the Hoover Institution.

Between 1997 and 2006, he served as an editorial writer for The Washington Post specializing in legal affairs. Before joining the editorial page staff of The Washington Post, Wittes covered the Justice Department and federal regulatory agencies as a reporter and news editor at Legal Times. His writing has also appeared in a wide range of journals and magazines including The Atlantic, Slate, The New Republic, The Wilson Quarterly, The Weekly Standard, Policy Review, and First Things.

Benjamin Wittes was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1990, and he has a black belt in taekwondo.

Tammy is the Chief Operating Officer at EverFi, a leading education technology company focused on teaching students the critical skills that life and work demand. As COO, Tammy helps oversees EverFi’s 175 team members across the U.S. and Canada, the development of EverFi’s digital learning platform, the implementation of the technology in over 10,000 K-12 schools and 700 college campuses, and supporting the over 500 foundations and companies that fund the digital learning in schools. Founded in 2008, EverFi is a venture-backed company with investments from Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos, Twitter Founder Evan Williams, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Rethink Education, and New Enterprise Associates.

Tammy’s career has always been at the intersection of workforce development, education and technology. After graduate school, she worked in South Africa and Egypt leading education and workforce development projects for Price Waterhouse’s International Strategy Group. She returned to the United States to run client services for a technology start-up in San Francisco, and at Diamond Technology Partners. After September 11th, 2001, Tammy was appointed to the U.S. Department of State, where she helped manage a $300 million fund focused on education foreign assistance to the Middle East. In 2006, she refocused on education technology in the U.S. working with leading education organizations including New Schools Venture Fund, and for-profit education companies. Tammy is also a Pahara – Aspen Institute Education Fellow and a Trustee at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C.

Tammy earned her Masters in Public Policy from the University of Maryland and her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia. She resides in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three children.

As president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), Pat leads the teams responsible for assigning age and content ratings to video games and apps, enforcing marketing guidelines adopted by the video game industry, and operating ESRB Privacy Certified, an FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor Privacy seal certification program.

She also serves as founding chairperson of the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), a non-profit organization that operates a ground-breaking global rating and age classification system for digitally delivered games and apps. Pat is a member of the Board of Directors for the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS), a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and recognition of the interactive arts and a former Chair and long-standing Director of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI).

Prior to joining the ESRB in 2002, Pat spent 18 years at Disney/ABC, with responsibility for the development of a broad range of new media and market initiatives, including the establishment of two video game joint ventures (Creative Wonders; OT Sports) and the management oversight of ABC.com, ABCNews.com, Oscar.com and Oprah.com in her capacity as Senior Vice President, General Manager of the ABC Internet Group.

Dan Tynan has been writing about technology since Mark Zuckerberg was in diapers. A former Contributing Editor for Family Circle magazine, Tynan's work has appeared in more than 75 publications, including Parade, Popular Science, Consumers Digest, Men's Health, and Playboy.com.

He maintains that he is not really a geek, despite what his wife and children may tell you.

Robert Traynham is a respected political veteran and communications expert, who, for nearly two decades, has designed and executed impactful programs for elected leaders, political organizations and major corporations. Traynham is currently the vice president of communications for the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), working with BPC’s policy experts to advance the organization’s mission to foster workable solutions for the important challenges facing the nation.
Throughout his career, Traynham has been a trusted counselor to political leaders and CEOs, including serving as senior advisor to congressional and presidential campaigns. He has earned the respect of his peers on both sides of the aisle as a savvy and effective strategist, spokesperson and crisis manager; and was frequently named as a top staffer by leading political publications.
Before joining BPC, Traynham served as Washington, DC bureau chief for Comcast Networks, where he originated the news and public affairs programming. During his eight-year tenure, Traynham established Comcast’s credibility in public affairs programming and served as host for Comcast Newsmakers and the Emmy®-nominated, Roll Call TV with Robert Traynham. Under Traynham’s vision and leadership, Comcast grew its nationwide audience for these programs and attracted top-tier advertisers.
Prior to his career in media, Traynham was deputy chief of staff and communications director for the Senate Republican Conference, roles that made him the highest-ranking African-American Republican staffer in Congress. Before his service in leadership, Traynham spent several years as a senior aide and press secretary for former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA). Well-regarded by members of Congress and his colleagues alike, Traynham served as president of the U.S. Senate Press Secretaries Association and was regularly ranked as one of the most influential staff members in Congress. Traynham began his career in public service as a White House intern during the Clinton administration.
Drawing on his unique experiences and access, Traynham has been a frequent political analyst and commentator to cable TV, radio and print media outlets—including NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, NPR, XM Satellite Radio and the Philadelphia Tribune—providing insightful analysis on the American legislative process and the politics behind it.
A native of suburban Philadelphia, Traynham holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Cheyney University. He earned his master’s degree in political communications from George Mason University and is a Ph.D. candidate studying presidential and Anglo-American history. Traynham was recognized by George Mason University with a Distinguished Alumni of the Year award, and honored as an alumnus of distinction by Cheyney University.
Traynham is a frequent public speaker and remains active in academia, having served as an assistant dean at Georgetown University and as a lecturer at George Mason and George Washington Universities. As an appointed member of the Council of Trustees of Cheyney University, Traynham serves the board of the oldest school of higher education among the country’s historically black colleges and universities.

Associate Professor Amanda Third (PhD) is Principal Research Fellow in Digital Social and Cultural Research in the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney, Australia and Research Program Leader for the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre. Prof. Third’s research focuses on the socio-cultural dimensions of young people’s technology use, with particular emphases on the intergenerational dynamics shaping technology practice, and vulnerable young people’s technological engagements. SInce 2010, Prof.

Third has led Research Program 2: ‘Connected and Creative’, of the Young and Well CRC (youngandwellcrc.org.au).

The Young and Well CRC unites young people with researchers, practitioners, innovators and policy-makers from over 75 partner organisations across the not-for-profit, academic, government and corporate sectors to explore the role of technology in young people’s lives, and how technology can be used to improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged 12 to 25. The research program Prof. Third leads investigates how to better connect vulnerable young people with their communities by enhancing and leveraging their technology practices and their creative engagements. She is also Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Industry Linkage project entitled “Young People, Technology and Wellbeing Research Facility” that examines cross-sector knowledge brokering practices. She has been a member of the Australian-based ‘Technology and Wellbeing Cross-Sector Roundtable’ since 2008 and, in 2009, she was awarded the Murdoch University Medal for Early Career Research Achievement.

Twitter@ics_uws

Adam Thierer is a technology policy analyst who specializes in innovation, entrepreneurialism, and internet and free-speech issues, with a focus on the public policy concerns surrounding emerging technologies. Thierer has authored or edited ten books, and served on multiple online safety task forces, including the Online Safety and Technology Working Group during the Obama administration. He is currently serving as a Commissioner on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce "Commission on Artificial Intelligence Competitiveness, Inclusion, and Innovation." He previously worked as a fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the Cato Institute, and the Heritage Foundation.

Catherine Teitelbaum is the Head of Family Trust for Amazon Kids, where she directs initiatives that empower families to confidently navigate the digital world. Catherine is a former educator and industry veteran with over two  decades of experience in Trust & Safety and privacy. She previously led Trust & Safety at Twitch, Amazon’s live-streaming service, and Yahoo, where she oversaw the award-winning Yahooligans and Yahoo! Education products as well as global policy initiatives.

Joycelyn Tate is a strategist and policy advocate specializing in providing advocacy on telecommunications and technology law and policy issues. She is also the host of Telecom Talk on The FLOW Radio, where she discusses consumer technology and telecommunications issues. She is a staunch champion for the inclusion of women and minorities in the technology industry and affordable technology access in undeserved communities.

Joycelyn is the senior technology policy advisor for the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and the Black Women’s Roundtable, where she advocates on Capitol Hill and at federal agencies for laws and policies that increase access to technology and promote entrepreneurial and employment opportunities for minorities and women in the technology sector. Joycelyn is the authored of Black Women and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, which is included in Black Women's Roundtable report entitled, Black Women in the United States, 2014: Progress and Challenges.

Joycelyn served on the executive committee of DiversiTech, where she provided diverse communities with resources and educational programming needed to launch technology start- ups. She is also the former director of telecommunications policy at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), a public interest law firm, where she advocated for laws and policies that advance ownership and employment opportunities for minorities and women in the media, telecommunications and technology industries. She is a contributing writer to MMTC's, MMTC Roadmap for Telecommunications Policy, a set of legislative and policy proposals that would help women and minorities have a better opportunity to fully participate as owners, employees and content providers in the telecommunication, media and technology industries. At MMTC, Joycelyn was also an associate media broker at the organization's media brokerage firm, MMTC Media Brokers, where she brokered the sales of radio and television stations and advised clients on media transactions, financing and ownership issues.

Joycelyn's work in telecommunications and technology spans the business, government, broadcasting and education sectors. She was the chief operating officer at Multisoft Technologies, an information technology firm in Maryland. In the office of U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Joycelyn worked on telecommunications issues. She specifically worked with Representative Jackson-Lee on issues that addressed the “digital divide”. At the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Joycelyn served in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, where she worked on regulations for the wireless telecommunications industry. She also conducted research and analysis for the FCC on the problems experienced by small, women and minority-owned businesses trying to obtain capital financing in order to enter the telecommunications market. She was a television producer of local and national public and political affairs shows and an adjunct professor of communications law at Howard University’s School of Communications and Bowie State University’s Department of Communications.

As an established professional in the fields of telecommunications and technology law and policy, Joycelyn has been selected to serve in several capacities. She was chosen to serve as a member of the U.S. delegation to the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) held by the International Telecommunications Union (an agency of the United Nations) in Dubai. As a delegation member, she served as an advisor on proposals negotiated on behalf of the United States for inclusion in the International Telecommunications Regulations. In 2008, she was appointed by the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission to serve on the board of directors of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), where she was responsible for administering the Universal Service Fund, an over $8 billion fund that provides access to affordable telecommunications services throughout the United States.

Joycelyn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the School of Communications at Howard University, a Juris Doctor from Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America, a Certificate of Specialization from the Law and Technology Institute at the Columbus School of Law, and a Graduate Certificate in International Studies, with regional study focused on China, from the School of Advanced International Studies at The Johns Hopkins University. She has a working familiarity with Mandarin Chinese, French and Spanish languages.

As Vice President and General Counsel, Carl analyzes tech-related legislative and regulatory initiatives relevant to online companies. He monitors and analyzes Federal and state legislation including online taxation and privacy issues.  Carl is also an adjunct professor of privacy law at the George Mason Antonin Scalia Law School.

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Carl works at the NTIA Privacy Multi-Stakeholder process, speaks on panels about burdens to e-commerce, and testifies before state legislatures on proposed legislation. Recently, Carl met with FTC Commissioners on new COPPA regulations, presented on mobile-app privacy at the IAPP Annual Conference, and worked with the Maryland Child Privacy Taskforce.

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Before joining NetChoice, Carl was an intellectual property attorney at the lawfirm of Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon where he advised clients on privacy, Internet, e-commerce, and contractual matters. He also worked at the lawfirms of Venable and Arnold & Porter.
Carl also worked on copyright, trademark, and anti-piracy both for Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

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Before law school, Carl worked at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the staff of Commissioner Orson Swindle, where he helped create and implement the FTC’s Consumer Information Security Outreach Plan and assisted the White House in establishing the National Strategy for Cyber Security.

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Carl obtained his J.D. and Communications Law Certificate from the Catholic University of America, magna cum laude, and Carl obtained his B.A. in Economics, Managerial Studies, and Policy Studies from Rice University. Carl is licensed to practice law in Washington, DC and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US)

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Dan Stein is the Program Lead of the National Cybersecurity Education and Training Program (NCTEP) within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity Education and Awareness Branch. NCTEP’s portfolio includes the nationally focused Federal Virtual Training Environment and Cybersecurity Training Events (FedVTE/CTE) Program. NCTEP also oversees DHS’s partnerships with the National Security Agency on the National Centers of Academic Excellence programs and with the National Science Foundation for the CyberCorps®: Scholarship for Service (SFS) program.
Mr. Stein has supported DHS’s interests in cybersecurity education and training for eight years, both as a Federal employee and as a contractor. He has also been active in federal government information security efforts for the past eleven years.
Mr. Stein recently graduated from the U.S. National War College with a Master of Science in National Security Strategy. He also holds two master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester.

Tim Sparapani, Principal at SPQR Strategies, PLLC, is a legislative, legal and strategic consultant who helps companies understand and respond to the pressures created for businesses, consumers and governments by emerging technologies. Tim’s specialties are privacy, cybersecurity, technology and constitutional law. Tim’s clients are a diverse mix of industry leading companies, dynamic technology startups, and thought leading advocacy organizations.

Tim is a frequent public speaker on topics related to emerging technologies. He has testified before Congress five times and given more than 500 TV, radio and print interviews. Tim writes frequently for Forbes and other publications on these topics.

Tim’s SPQR Strategies clients have asked him to undertake important, ongoing responsibilities. For example, Tim served for 3 years as the Vice President, Policy, Law & Government Affairs for the Application Developers Alliance, a trade association serving more than 30,000 application “app” developers and 200 member companies. Tim has also served as General Counsel for several app company and tech startups. He advises other start-up tech companies on a range of policy matters including cybersecurity, patent reform, online safety and security.

Tim was the first Director of Public Policy at Facebook. Tim was responsible for developing and implementing the company’s interaction with the federal, state, local and foreign governments and with opinion and policy makers. He managed these roles as the company grew from 150 million to more than 900 million active users and from 350 employees to more than 3,000. Prior to joining Facebook, Tim was Senior Legislative Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, where he helped advance the constitutional principle of the right to privacy, representing the ACLU before Congress, the Executive Branch and the media. For the more than four years preceding his time at the ACLU, Tim served as an associate at the law firm of Dickstein Shapiro where he helped clients navigate interconnecting constitutional, statutory, political and policy challenges. Tim holds a bachelor’s degree with honors from Georgetown University and a J.D. from the law school at the University of Michigan.

Cindy Southworth, Executive Vice President at the U.S. National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), leads the communications, development, technology, finance, and international efforts of NNEDV. She joined NNEDV in 2002 when she founded the Safety Net Project to address technology and Violence Against Women. Through the Safety Net Project Ms. Southworth works with private industry, state and federal agencies, and international groups to improve safety and privacy for victims in this digital age. She has testified before Congress and is on many task forces and committees that address justice, privacy, technology, and safety in the Justice, Elections, Defense, and Human Services arenas.

Ms. Southworth has a Masters Degree in Social Work and has worked to end violence against women for 24 years at national, state, and local advocacy organizations. She has spent the past 16 years focusing on how technology can increase victim safety and how to hold perpetrators accountable for misusing technology. Ms. Southworth also serves on the Airbnb’s Trust Advisory Board and the Advisory Boards of MTV’s A THIN LINE digital abuse campaign, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and the Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference. The NNEDV Safety Net Project is one of 5 organizations internationally that serves on the Facebook Safety Advisory board.

Matthew Soeth is Head of Trust and Safety and Global Affairs. Matt brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to All Tech Is Human. With over 10 years of experience working in online safety, Matt has worked on the ground in schools, at platforms, and at nonprofits advising and developing policy, tooling, and safety resources for global audiences. In addition, Matt is a respected leader in the field of Trust & Safety who has helped build a more cohesive field and helped open up pathways for new voices to enter the fray.

Matt spent the past two years as Head of Trust and Safety at Spectrum Labs supporting gaming, dating and social platforms with their policy, tooling, workflows, and outreach. Matt also served as head of community for the #TSCollective where he helped to grow a community of online trust and safety professionals across the globe. Matt was also an active part of Atlantic Council’s recent Task Force for a Trustworthy Future Web, speaking at their Washington, DC launch event for its related report, Scaling Trust on the Web.

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Chip Slaven is counsel to the president and senior advocacy advisor for the Alliance for Excellent Education (Alliance). He provides strategic and legal advice and leads special projects for Alliance President Bob Wise, a former West Virginia Governor. Working directly with Governor Wise, Mr. Slaven co-originated and developed Digital Learning Day, a major grassroots education campaign that includes participation in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. He currently coordinates the Alliance’s data and privacy portfolio and specializes in personalized learning issues. He is the author of “Understanding Student Learning: The Need for Education Data,” “Federal Student Privacy Protections: What Is FERPA and Who Does It Protect?,” and “The Each Child Learns Act” which is model legislation for states on personalized and digital learning.

Before joining the Alliance, Mr. Slaven was engaged in private legal practice representing complex business organizations in the areas of government contracts, government affairs, and white-collar compliance and defense. Prior to his legal career, he was a senior level state government official, congressional employee, and political campaign worker for more than twelve years in the employ of Governor Wise. He served on Governor Wise’s senior staff as director of federal policy and intergovernmental affairs and was his chief point of contact with the White House and federal executive branch—including the U.S. Department of Education, Congress, and other governor offices. Mr. Slaven served as chair of the National Governors Association’s Natural Resources Staff Advisory Council (SAC) and the Southern Governors’ Association’s SAC. When Governor Wise was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mr. Slaven served as his district director. Mr. Slaven also has considerable experience in federal and state political campaigns and fundraising.

Mr. Slaven earned his JD and BA degrees from West Virginia University. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and West Virginia.

Gary Shapiro is president and CEO for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®, the U.S. trade association representing more than 2,000 consumer electronics companies, which owns and produces CES® – The Global Stage for Innovation.

Shapiro leads a staff of 160 employees and thousands of industry volunteers and has testified before Congress on technology and business issues more than 20 times. In 2012, and in prior years, Washington Life magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in Washington. Under Shapiro’s leadership, CEA also annually wins many awards as a family friendly employer, the healthiest workplace in D.C., one of the best places to work in Virginia and as “a green” tradeshow producer.

CEA focuses on innovation as a national policy to spur the economy, create jobs and cut the deficit. CEA advocates for a lower deficit, skilled immigration and free trade. CEA does not seek any government funding for industry.

Shapiro led the industry in its successful transition to HDTV. He co-founded and chaired the HDTV Model Station and served as a leader of the Advanced Television Test Center (ATTC). He is a charter inductee to the Academy of Digital Television Pioneers, and received its highest award as the industry leader most influential in advancing HDTV.

As chairman of the Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC), Shapiro led the manufacturers’ battle to preserve the legality of recording technology, consumer fair use rights, and opposing legislation like PIPA and SOPA, harmful to a robust Internet.

Shapiro has held many exhibition industry leadership posts, and received the exhibition industry’s highest honor, the IAEE Pinnacle Award.

He sits on the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the Economic Club of Washington, as a member of the Commonwealth of Virginia's Commission on Information Technology and on the Board of Visitors of George Mason University. Shapiro also has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a “mastermind” for his initiative in helping to create the Industry Cooperative for Ozone Layer Protection (ICOLP).

Shapiro authored CEA’s New York Times best-sellers “Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World’s Most Successful Businesses” (Harper Collins, 2013) and “The Comeback: How Innovation will Restore the American Dream” (Beaufort, 2011). Through these books and television appearances, and as a columnist whose more than 400 opinion pieces have appeared in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Washington Post, Shapiro has helped direct policymakers and business leaders on the importance of innovation in the U.S. economy.

Prior to joining the association, Shapiro was an associate at the law firm of Squire Sanders. He also has worked on Capitol Hill, as an assistant to a member of Congress. He received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate with a double major in economics and psychology from Binghamton University. He is married to Dr. Susan Malinowski, a retina surgeon.

Stephen Seitz is a Senior Privacy and Online strategist in Microsoft’s Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA) group. In this role, Mr. Seitz is responsible for managing the company’s internal policies and governance strategies for privacy and online safety.

For two decades, Mr. Seitz has worked at the intersection of communications, law, and policy, where he has advanced privacy, safety, competition, and consumer protection issues.

Prior to joining Microsoft in 2012, Mr. Seitz held senior roles in a disruptive technology company (Vonage), supported government (The White House, Federal Trade Commission, and Michigan State Legislature), advocated for public safety (National Emergency Number Association (“NENA”) and lifesaving technologies (The ComCARE Alliance) and trained future political leaders (Michigan Political Leadership Program (“MPLP”).

In 2007, the Congressional E-911 Caucus named Mr. Seitz “Industry Professional of the Year” after he helped the VoIP industry solve a number of technical and policy hurdles to enable emergency calling.

Mr. Seitz is an attorney and member of the Washington State Bar. He resides in Seattle, with his daughter.

Dr Erin Marie Saltman is a Senior Researcher and Networks Manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. She oversees research and project development on ISD's Women and Extremism (WaE) initiative as well as the Youth Civil Activism Network (YouthCAN). Both networks bring together civil society activists with tech and creative sectors to scale up innovation and credible voices within the counter-extremism space. Her primary research looks at online extremism, gender dynamics and the development of targeted counter narratives. Dr Saltman’s background and expertise includes both far-right and Islamist processes of radicalisation, counter-extremism and political socialisation. She regularly advises governments and security sectors across Europe and North America on issues related to online extremism and the role of the internet in radicalisation.

Jonathan currently leads two projects for Quilliam. The first is to campaign for cross-party commitment to human rights in counter-terrorism legislation and policy. The second is to promote clarity, consistency and cohesion in counter-extremism policy across the 28 EU member states. He features regularly in the UK print and broadcast media, having written in The Independent, The Times and CNN International and appeared on BBC Breakfast, the Sky Debate and Al Arabiya, amongst others. He has delivered presentations and training workshops to schools, local government officials, academics, and national representatives, both in the UK and all around Europe, most notably on Online Radicalisation at the Council of Europe, Parentzone’s Digital Families Conference, and at fringe events at the Conservative Party Conference.

Tom is STOPit’s cyber safety expert and key spokesperson for student and parent rallies, where he encourages the creation of positive school communities. His presentations cover cyberbullying and how technology fuels this epidemic, including detailed looks into the most popular social media sites of the moment and incorporating real-life examples. Tom’s engaging presentation drives home how these forms of communication are affecting our youth everyday and making it easier to be mean to each other. He provides relevant, effective cyber-safe strategies to help children use social media in positive ways and promote safe, kind school communities. Always Connected grew out of Tom’s previous venture, Generation Text.

Tom is also a Sergeant with the Summit Police Department in New Jersey, where he has worked as a Patrol Officer, Detective, Juvenile Detective, Juvenile Sergeant, and Patrol Sergeant. Tom is the Owner and Presenter for AlwaysConnected.org, and has been the keynote speaker at over 700 events nationally, reaching over 500,000 students. Tom has a BA in Criminal Justice from Monmouth University.

Dr. Rich is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, at Harvard Medical and practices Adolescent Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Rich is also the Founding Director of the first evidence-based medical program addressing physical, mental, and social health issues associated with digital technology, the Clinic for Interactive Media and Internet Disorders​ (CIMAID). As The Mediatrician®, Dr. Rich offers research-based, balanced, and practical answers to parents’, teachers’, and clinicians’ questions about children’s media use and the positive and negative implications for their health and development. Understanding the power of screens to engage, connect, and change us all, he is bringing together pediatricians and software engineers, educators and designers, psychologists, and screenwriters in the Digital Wellness Lab to synergize in researching, responding to, and innovating a digital environment in which we can raise healthy, smart, productive, and kind children.

Dr. Rich came to medicine after a 12-year career as a filmmaker, including apprenticing to Akira Kurosawa as assistant director on Kagemusha. His experience and expertise in medicine and media synergize in his health research and clinical work. Dr. Rich earned his B.A. in English and Film from Pomona College, his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and his M.P.H. from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Among his many awards are the Society for Adolescent Health and Media (SAHM) New Investigator Award (1978) and the Iris Litt Visiting Professorship in Adolescent Health Research (2017) and the American Academy of Pediatrics Holroyd-Sherry (2005) and Adele Dellenbaugh Hoffman (2017) Awards. See here for recent press

Longer bio and CV can be found here: https://digitalwellnesslab.org/team/michael-rich/​​

I trained as a clinical psychologist at Queen’s University Belfast before completing my doctorate at Surrey University. During this time I was employed in a variety of clinical positions in adult mental health in the UK and Ireland before joining University College Cork in 1995. In Cork I was responsible for post-graduate training in CBT (MA and HDip) as well as director of the COPINE Project. As a practitioner I had worked with both sex offenders and their victims and for the last fourteen years have been working in the area of Internet abuse images, collaborating internationally with government and non-government agencies. The COPINE project took as its focus children made vulnerable through the new technologies.
My primary research interest relates to Internet sex offending, and in particular to the role of abuse images in the offending process. This is collaborative work, largely funded by the EU STOP, DAPHNE and SAFER INTERNET programmes. Projects have included the development of a therapeutic programme for Internet sex offenders, a web-based self help (currently managed by Lucy Faithful Foundation), an analysis of adolescents displaying problematic sexual behaviour related to the Internet, a victim identification and the study of p2p networks. Our most recent study relates to the experiences of children exposed to online grooming. This next year we have funding for a project of user-generated content and mobile technology. I am also interested in qualitative research, in particular how people make sense of their experiences as it relates to diverse areas such as online behaviour, hepatitis C and hearing voices.

Kobie Pruitt serves as the Education Policy Manager at the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF). He operates as the program manager for FPF’s work in student data privacy and ed tech. Kobie works with advocates, industry leaders and privacy experts to promote the growing need for education privacy standards. Prior to working at FPF, Kobie was a Legislative Assistant for Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09). He handled an issue portfolio that included education, financial services and homeland security. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and the University of Pittsburgh, School of Business Administration.

Chris Priebe is the founder and CEO of CommunitySift, a big data content filtering service designed to combat cyber-bullying. A father of 3, he is deeply passionate about making the world a safer place for kids to grow up online. Chris has over 18 years’ experience working with young people to build healthy communities. After building the backend for Penguin Chat 2 and helping his brother with the early days of Club Penguin, Chris finished his career with Disney to start his own company.

As CEO he leads his team in solving the complex problems of toxic behaviour, bullying and child exploitation on online communities; these include anonymous networks, social media, virtual worlds and games. To do this, CommunitySift partners with universities in performing statistical and natural language processing of anonymized data to model the real behaviour of cyber-bullies.

Dr. Shelley Prevost is co-founder and CEO at Torch whose mission it is to make the internet a wonderful place for kids to grow up. In 2010, she left her psychotherapy practice for the world of startups. She is a partner at venture capital firm Lamp Post Group and the JumpFund, an angel fund investing in female-led startups with high growth potential. Shelley writes about her work on purpose, relationships, and leadership in columns for Inc. and The Huffington Post. Her work has also appeared in Time, Yahoo Business, Fast Company, LifeHacker, and Business Insider. Passionate about helping women develop authentic leadership, Shelley gave a 2015 TEDx talk entitled “Lead Like a Girl.”

Trisha Prabhu is the 23-year-old inventor and Founder and CEO of ReThink™, a patented app that stops cyberbullying before the damage is done.

The ReThink app detects offensive content and gives youth a chance to “ReThink” sending it, stopping cyberbullying before it happens. Today, in collaboration with schools and educational organizations, ReThink’s technology, educational materials, and anti-cyberbullying advocacy have been shared with youth worldwide. The app is also now available in 8 international languages on the Google Play Store (where it was named one of Google Play's Most Innovative Apps).

For her work with ReThink, Trisha is the humbled recipient of many awards, among them, the WebMD Health Hero Prodigy Award and the Princess Diana International Anti-Bullying Award; she was also selected to present ReThink at The White House. Trisha has also made waves as a contestant on ABC’s Shark Tank and as the winner of Harvard University's President's Innovation Challenge and the Elevate Prize. In 2021, she was the youngest honoree named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 Social Impact list.

Trisha is a TED speaker and has delivered 100+ talks in 30 cities about the power of “ReThinking." Her debut book, “ReThink the Internet,” the world’s first-ever “by-youth, for-youth” guide to the Internet, was released in May 2022 from Penguin Random House.

Trisha is a summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University. She is now pursuing her postgraduate study at the University of Oxford as a United States Rhodes Scholar.

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David Ryan Polgar is a pioneering tech ethicist, Responsible Tech advocate, and expert on ways to improve social media and our information ecosystem, along with increasing the ethical considerations regarding emerging technologies. He specializes in uniting a diverse range of stakeholders in order to tackle complex tech & society issues, cultivating conducive environments for forward progress.

David is the founder of All Tech Is Human, an organization committed to connecting and expanding the Responsible Tech ecosystem; making it more diverse, multidisciplinary, and aligned with the public interest. As the leader of All Tech Is Human, he has created a unique grassroots-meets-traditional-power-structure model that is uniting thousands of individuals across the globe to co-create a better tech future.

In March 2020, David became a member of TikTok’s Content Advisory Council, providing expertise around the delicate and difficult challenges facing social media platforms to expand expression while limiting harm. He appears in the upcoming documentary, TikTok, Boom. David is an expert advisor for the World Economic Forum's Global Coalition for Digital Safety.

An international speaker with rare insight into building a better tech future, David has been on stage at Harvard Business School, Princeton University, Notre Dame, The School of the New York Times, TechChill (Latvia), The Next Web (Netherlands), FutureNow (Slovakia), Infoshare (Poland), the Future Health Summit (Ireland), NATO, and many more. His commentary has appeared on CBS This Morning, TODAY show, BBC World News, MSNBC, Fast Company, The Guardian, SiriusXM, Associated Press, LA Times, USA Today, and more.

David is a monthly expert contributor to Built In (writing about the Responsible Tech movement), and an advisory board member for the Technology and Adolescent Mental Wellness (TAM) program, and a participant in multiple working groups focused on improving tech and aligning it with our values.The main throughline throughout David’s work is that we need a collaborative, multi-stakeholder, and multidisciplinary approach in order to build a tech future that is aligned with the public interest.

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David Pierce has been with the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) in Washington, DC since November 1990. Currently serving as Vice President, Public Affairs, his primary responsibilities include creating, implementing and coordinating industry-wide public affairs efforts, communications strategies and messaging.

Previously at NCTA he served as Director, Research and Policy Analysis where he directed quantitative and qualitative research projects relating to the cable television industry and its public policy efforts.

In addition to his current position, Mr. Pierce also serves as Executive Director of the Cable Hope Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity established by the cable industry after Hurricane Katrina to aid relief and rebuilding efforts in the wake of natural disasters.

Before joining the NCTA, Mr. Pierce was with National Economic Research Associates (NERA), a consulting firm specializing in microeconomic analysis, in their New York, NY and Washington, DC offices. While at NERA, he provided economic analysis and expert testimony for use in antitrust litigation and worked extensively on issues surrounding competition and privatization in the telecommunications sector domestically and abroad. Mr. Pierce also served in the office of the Director-General at the International Telecommunications and Satellite Organization (INTELSAT).

Mr. Pierce holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Public Policy.

Tina coordinates educational outreach efforts as a program manager for the engineering education team at Google. She manages various computer science online learning initiatives and partnerships and has contributed to many of Google’s open online courses. Previously, she led the Google Geo Edu group, where she was an advocate for geographic literacy through the use of technology like Google Maps and Google Earth. Prior to Google, Tina was a principal technical writer specializing in administrator and developer documentation for companies like Netscape, Tandem, Motorola, and Good Technology.

Tina earned her Master of Education degree with an emphasis in Educational Technology from the Boise State University and her Bachelor degree in English from San Jose State.

Nuala O’Connor is president and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology, a global nonprofit committed to the advancement of digital human rights and civil liberties, including privacy, freedom of expression, and human agency. O’Connor has served in a number of presidentially appointed positions, including as the first statutorily mandated chief privacy officer in U.S. federal government when she served at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. O’Connor has held senior corporate leadership positions on privacy, data, and customer trust at Amazon, General Electric, and DoubleClick. She has practiced at several global law firms including Sidley Austin and Venable. She is an advocate for the use of data and internet-enabled technologies to improve equity and amplify marginalized voices.

Emily manages communications and special programs for FOSI, as well as assistance in development strategy. Having spent ten years in online safety, she is passionate about the fast-moving fields of technology and child protection. Following years in both FOSI's US and UK offices, her most recent positions have involved research, communications, and program management with an international focus. Emily has consulted independently with various nonprofits and small businesses on press, social media strategy, fundraising and other projects.

In her academic career, Emily completed internships and work studies with various public relations firms in both America and the UK. She graduated from Kingston University London with a First Class degree in Media & Cultural Studies.

Rosa Mendoza Dávila is the Founder, President and CEO of ALLvanza and it is her vision, experience, both personally and professionally, and knowledge of underserved communities that gave birth to the organization and set the tone for the organization’s critical mission of ensuring Latinxs and other underserved communities have an equal opportunity for success in our technology-driven world. Rosa’s own experience as a first generation college student incited her passion and gives her the insight to advocate for this equal opportunity.

Prior to founding ALLvanza, Rosa served as the Executive Director of the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP) where she informed administration officials, congressional staff, state and local representatives and other stakeholders on how telecommunications and technology policy issues impacted the Latino community. She represented HTTP at meetings, conferences, conventions and industry gatherings. Rosa expertly analyzed telecommunications and technology policy to develop advocacy briefs that brought the needs of Latinos to the forefront.

Prior to joining HTTP, Rosa served as the Manager of Special Projects for The Raben Group, where she assisted clients with coalition building, strategic planning and research, with a particular focus on the firm’s LatinStrategies division. Rosa worked with clients such as MasterCard and Hispanics for a Fair Judiciary.

Formerly, Rosa served as the Assistant Finance Director for Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX). As the primary point of contact for Congressman Cuellar, Rosa communicated with donors and constituents, coordinated fundraising events and managed logistics.

Previously, Rosa was hired as the Media Relations Executive for the Hispanic Communications Network (HCN), which designs customized radio, television and print media campaigns for the Latino market. In this role, Rosa built relationships with media affiliates, assisted with program development, and helped execute the firm’s large-scale media campaigns.

Before coming to Washington D.C., Rosa was the Coordinator for the Chicano/Latino Cultural Center and the Principal Assistant to the director of the Office of Multicultural Student Services at Washington State University.

Rosa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication with an emphasis in Public Relations and a Master’s Degree in Education with an emphasis in Higher Education Administration from Washington State University.

Benjamin is founder of My Campus Health, an online platform that focuses on the intersections of college and mental health and other disabilities.

Benjamin graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in International Relations. He was awarded the Gates Millennium Scholarship and is an alumnus of the Management Leadership for Tomorrow Business Fellowship. He also is the youngest serving Board member of 2Gether-International, an organization that focuses on disability justice. He has been given the opportunity serve on a panel at Georgetown, meet Demi Lovato, and speak at the Gates Millennium conference for his work in the mental health field. Benjamin also has written about mental health on the new social platform called Rizzarr. Finally, Benjamin was recently published in BP magazine, which is one of the most read magazines in the nation on mental health and bipolar disorder.

Benjamin worked at the national office of Mental Health America, and he is particularly grateful to Debbie Plotnick and Antionette Means as they helped give him the right encouragement to pursue his passion.

In his spare time, Benjamin loves reading, working out, dancing, and playing video games. He will be getting his Master’s Degree in Public Health concentrating in Mental Health next year at Emory.

Larry Magid, EdD,  is CEO of ConnectSafely.org and a veteran technology journalist. He writes a weekly column for the San Jose Mercury News and is the host of the twice-weekly ConnectSafely Report for CBS News Radio and a frequent quest on national and local TV and radio programs in the US and UK.  He served for 20 years as the on-air technology analyst for CBS News and host of the popular CBS show, Eye on Tech

He’s been a contributor to the New York Times and was, for 20 years, a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times with columns appearing in the Washington Post and numerous other papers around the world and has appeared on Good Morning America, the Today Show and CBS This Morning.

He has written several books including the best-selling Little PC Book and Larry Magid’s Guide to the New Digital Highways and has written or co-written numerous online safety guides.

Larry served on the Obama Administration’s Online Technology Working Group and the Harvard Law School Berkman Center’s Internet Safety Technology Task Force and the board of directors of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and advisory boards of PBS Kids, Internet Congressional Caucus and Family Online Safety Institute as well as safety advisory councils for Meta, Google, Snapchat, Twitter, Comcast and Roblox. He has a doctor of education degree from the University of Massachusetts and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

As CEO of DoSomething.org, the largest organization for teens and social change in the world, Nancy Lublin is able to name all 4 members of One Direction without a smidge of sarcasm. An expert on youth, social media, and pop culture, brands like Pepsi and Chase and several tech start-ups have sought her advice and Fast Company has named her to their Most Creative People list. In 2013, while still CEO of DoSomething.org, Lublin turned her popular TED talk (http://bit.ly/1elbveM) into her third company, Crisis Text Line (CTL). CTL is the first 24/7, free, nationwide text line for teens.

Prior to leading DoSomething.org and CTL, Nancy turned a $5,000 inheritance into Dress for Success, which helps women transition from welfare to work in more than 125 cities in 15 countries. Before leading two of the most popular charity brands in America, she was a bookworm. She studied politics at Brown University, political theory at Oxford University (as a Marshall Scholar), and has a law degree from New York University. She is the author of the best-selling business book Zilch: The Power of Zero in Business and is one of the top 50 Influencers on LinkedIN. Nancy was recently named Fortune’s “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” alongside the Pope and Dalai Lama (We know, she thinks it’s funny too!). Nancy is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum (attending Davos multiple times), was named Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2014 and has been named in the NonProfit Times Power and Influence Top 50 3 times. She is married to Jason Diaz and has two children who have never tasted Chicken McNuggets.

Emma Llansó is the Director of CDT’s Free Expression Project, which works to promote law and policy that support users’ free expression rights in the United States and around the world. Emma leads CDT’s work in advancing speech-protective policies, which include legislative advocacy and amicus activity in the U.S. aimed at ensuring that online expression receives the highest level of protection under the First Amendment. Recognizing the crucial role played by Internet intermediaries in facilitating individuals’ expression, she works to preserve strong intermediary liability protections in the U.S. and to advance these key policies abroad.

Emma also leads the Free Expression Project’s work in developing content policy best practices with Internet content platforms and advocating for user-empowerment tools and other alternatives to government regulation of online speech. The Project’s work spans many subjects, including online child safety and children’s privacy, human trafficking, privacy and online reputation issues, counter-terrorism and “radicalizing” content, and online harassment. Emma is also a member of the Freedom Online Coalition’s Working Group on Privacy and Transparency Online, which is developing best practices for transparency reporting by governments and companies regarding government demands to Internet companies for content removal and access to user data. Emma works with CDT’s Global Internet Policy & Human Rights Project on advancing policies that promote free expression in global fora; she also works with the Global project in advocating for decentralized, multistakeholder approaches to Internet governance.

Emma earned a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Delaware and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Emma joined CDT in 2009 as the Bruce J. Ennis First Amendment Fellow; her fellowship project focused on legal and policy advocacy in support of minors’ First Amendment rights in the US. She is a member of the New York State Bar.

Sonia Livingstone DPhil (Oxon), OBE, FBA, FBPS, FAcSS, FRSA, is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Taking a comparative, critical and contextualised approach, her research examines how changing conditions of mediation reshape everyday practices and possibilities for action. She has published 20 books on media audiences, children and young people’s risks and opportunities, media literacy and rights in the digital environment, including “Parenting for a Digital Future: How hopes and fears about technology shape children’s lives” (OUP 2020). Since founding the EC-funded 33 country “EU Kids Online” research network, and Global Kids Online (with UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti), she has advised the Council of Europe, European Commission, European Parliament, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, OECD, ITU and UNICEF. She chaired LSE’s Truth, Trust and Technology Commission and is currently leading the Digital Futures Commission with the 5Rights Foundation. See www.sonialivingstone.net

Amanda Lenhart studies how technology affects human lives, with a special focus on families and children. A quantitative and qualitative researcher, Amanda is the Program Director, Health and Data at the Data & Society Research Institute. Over decades, she has examined how adolescents and their families use and think about technology, how young adults consume news, how harassment has thrived in online spaces, and how automation will impact workers. Most recently, as deputy director of the Better Life Lab at New America, Amanda focused on the ways technology affects workers’ jobs and lives, as well as the family-supportive policies that enable balance between the personal and the professional. She began her career at the Pew Research Center, studying how teens and families use social and mobile technologies.

Amanda specializes in translating rigorous research for a broad national audience. Dedicated to public communication, she has testified before congressional subcommittees and the Federal Trade Commission. Amanda’s work has been featured in numerous national publications and broadcasts, including the PBS Newshour and NPR’s All Things Considered.

Meghan Leahy is the mother of three young daughters. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Secondary Education from The Catholic University of America and taught English Literature in a gifted & talented curriculum at an all-boys school for 5 years. Meghan also holds a master’s degree in school counseling from Johns Hopkins University. She's a Parent Educator with PEP (Parent Encouragement Program) in Kensington, MD, and is certified as a Parent Coach through the Center for the Challenging Child, LLC in Roseville MN. She is certified as a Renée Trudeau Personal Renewal Group Facilitator (Mother’s Groups). Meghan is a columnist for The Washington Post, writing about all things parenting and is currently working on her certification to be a facilitator through the Neufeld Institute.

Officer Holly Lawrence has 10 years of experience with the Sunnyvale Public Safety Department, serving in the dual role of a Police Officer and Firefighter. She is a qualified Background Investigator, an advisor for the department's Explorer program, and a member of the Crisis Negotiations Team. Holly was recognized by her department as Sunnyvale’s 2011 Officer of the Year and by the Santa Clara County board of supervisors as CIT officer of the year.
As a Neighborhood Resource Officer in the Crime Prevention Unit, Officer Lawrence works with local schools and neighborhood groups on law enforcement and crime prevention issues. It was the absence of resources and training in the cyber safety area that motivated Office Lawrence to create a program for school and law enforcement personnel that is now certified for Police Officer Standards Training.

Jim Kohlenberger is a national technology and innovation policy leader who has long been at the forefront of national policy initiatives to harness innovation to improve people’s lives as technology policy advisor to two U.S. Presidents, and through a series of national initiatives.   In the Obama White House, he served as Chief of Staff for the Office of Science and Technology Policy where he helped the administration drive a transformative innovation policy agenda, advised the President’s national cybersecurity review, put our nation’s space program on a bolder trajectory, helped initiate the President’s mobile broadband initiative, and championed new presidential initiatives around scientific integrity and open data.  

He also served 8 years in the Clinton White House as a Senior Domestic Policy Advisor where he helped formulate U.S. policy around innovation, technology and telecommunications and led major initiatives focused on closing the digital divide, establishing a national consumer privacy bill of rights, and advancing children’s online safety.

In addition to his role as a Legislative Assistant for California’s senior U.S. Senator, he also helped lead and advance several major national non-profit initiatives.  For example, coming out of the Great Recession he helped launch and lead Jobs4America — a successful effort to create more than 100,000 broadband enabled jobs over 2 years.  He later helped drive Education SuperHighway’s successful effort to extend gigabit broadband to every U.S. school, Wi-Fi to every classroom, and make the promise of digital learning available to 46.3 million students. He also worked with the Department of Transportation to help design, develop and launch an innovative SmartCities initiative to catalyze more than $500 million in private sector investments to pioneer innovative ways to improve people’s lives.  He led a non-profit internet multi-stakeholder organization to harness consumer education to address online piracy and what had previously been one of the more challenging policy issues on the internet.  In 2004, he helped launch and served as Executive Director for the Voice on the Net coalition to give voice to more people on the Internet.

He currently serves as President of JK Strategies, a public policy consulting practice, serves on the board of the Benton Institute for Broadband focused on expanding broadband access to ALL Americans, serves on the board of Measures for Justice to drive data-driven criminal justice transparency, accountability & reform, and serves as an advisor to EqualAI to reduce bias in artificial intelligence systems.  In 2001, he received NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal for work advancing U.S. space policy.

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Sara Kloek is the Software & Information Industry Association’s (SIIA) director of Education Policy, Programs and Student Privacy. Most recently, Sara was the senior privacy and technology fellow at the U.S. Department of Education in the Office of the Chief Privacy Officer. Much of her time there was spent leading interagency discussions and subsequent negotiations on joint guidance on student privacy and educational technology. She also provided technical assistance to states, districts, schools and companies through ED’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center. Prior to her fellowship, she led the development of privacy and transparency best practices at Know What’s Inside and served as an education policy advisor to a senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Sara is an International Association of Privacy Professionals Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States (CIPP/US) and is an enthusiastic advocate for education technology, clear privacy policies, and bees.

Charita M. Johnson is an advocate for and practitioner of expanding technology to rural America, with emphasis on targeting youth and individuals with learning disabilities. She is the principle of the MattiOssie Group, a consulting firm focused on assisting others in turning visions into manifested realities. Charita also currently serves as CEO and CAO to numerous non-profit organizations that provide services to rural and impoverished communities through direct assistance and education.

Nicolas Jimenez is the Senior Manager of Outreach & Partnerships for Internet Essentials, Comcast’s signature community investment initiative aimed at connecting low-income Americans to the power of the internet. In this capacity, he maintains relationships with an extensive network of community, nonprofit and government partners. Nicolas joined Comcast in 2007 as an Intern in the External Affairs department and was most recently Senior Manager of Political Affairs. He was as the Founding Chair of UNIDOS, the Hispanic/Latino Employee Resource Group at Comcast, and currently serves as their National Liaison responsible for developing chapters in other Comcast markets.

Prior to joining Comcast, he successfully ran a small business while earning his BBA from Temple University’s Fox School of Business.

Very active in his community, Nicolas serves on the Board of Directors of the Pan American Academy Charter School. He serves as Co-Chair of the Advisory Board for the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Professional Mentoring Network. He is also involved with Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Southeastern Pennsylvania, serving both as a Big Brother and Chair Emeritus of their Philadelphia Regional Advisory Board. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, he resides in Philadelphia with his wife Janett and their two children.

Ms. Jeleniewski is the Research Analyst for the Exploited Children Division at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). She is responsible for conducting various in-depth analytical projects in the division to determine the current and future trends in the reports of sexual victimization against children. In addition, she was the Research Analyst for NCMEC’s Global Research Project, a global survey of international non-governmental organizations working to combat online child sexual abuse. Prior to coming to NCMEC, Ms. Jeleniewski received a doctorate in Social Psychology from the University of New Hampshire.

David L. Hill, MD, FAAP is the chair of the AAP Council on Communications and Media, a member of the AAP Children, Adolescents, and Media Leadership Working Group, and a scientific advisory board member of the Institute of Digital Media and Child Development as well as a board member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. An adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at UNC School of Medicine, he served as the 2014 Media Visiting Professor at Duke University.
Dr. Hill is also the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like a Pro (AAP Publishing, 2012) and has appeared in Hank Azaria’s Fatherhood online series for Disney, AOL, and mom.me. David has been a commentator for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and a regular contributor to NPR member stations WUNC and WHQR as well as RadioMD’s “Healthy Children Radio.” He appears regularly on news stations WECT and WWAY and has been featured on CNN Headline News as well as in numerous online videos about pediatrics and parenting. A humorist and (very) occasional standup comedian, David maintained a regular humor blog (“Needles”) for Pediatric News from 2011 to 2014. Dr. Hill has worked as a medical content advisor for parents.com, Sharecare, Inc., and Pediacare Brands. Dr. Hill graduated from Rice University and attended medical school at the University of Texas Houston before completing a combined internal medicine/pediatrics residency at the UNC School of Medicine. He practices at Coastal Pediatric Associates in Wilmington, NC, where he lives with his wife, three children, and two step-children. For fun he runs and practices Tae Kwon Do with his children.

Laura Higgins is Senior Director of Community Safety and Civility at Roblox & Visiting Senior Fellow in Digital Safeguarding at University of Suffolk. With years of experience building safeguarding, online safety and civility programs, Laura speaks on digital safety topics across the globe & regularly appears in the media sharing her expertise with industry, regulators, parents and kids.

Ms. Hawkins is a passionate advocate for the protection of children both online and in the real world. With more than 20 years’ child safety experience in both for profit and nonprofit sectors, she has developed national prevention programs, designed best practices for youth protection and privacy, and built national awareness campaigns.

Ms. Hawkins currently serves as a strategic consultant for the Family Online Safety Institute providing oversight and direction to FOSI's Good Digital Parenting, fostering deeper engagement and audience growth.

Ms. Hawkins also serves as iKeepSafe’s Chief Safety and Privacy Officer. She leads iKeepSafe’s privacy program with a focus on strengthening protections for student data within educational environments, among other areas.

Ms. Hawkins comes to FOSI and iKeepSafe after serving most recently as Vice President of Programs and Outreach at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). In her role at the NCMEC, Ms. Hawkins was the leading force behind the development of KidSmartz, a national abduction prevention program for children in grades K-5. She also oversaw the expansion of NetSmartz, a leading Internet safety program, and the development of trainings for law enforcement, educators and other professionals focused on reducing child sexual exploitation and preventing child victimization.
Prior to NCMEC, Ms. Hawkins served as AOL’s Director of Global consumer Policy and Child Safety where she worked closely with both domestic and international child protection and Internet safety organizations to develop best practices for the protection of children online. She was responsible for a wide range of consumer protection and risk management issues for AOL brands including children’s safety and privacy, programming and advertising policies as well as community standards and moderation.

Ms. Hawkins served on the National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation, the board of the Family Online Safety Institute and was an advisor to Enough is Enough. She was also a member of the European Commission’s Social Networking Principles Task Force, Internet Watch Foundation and the UK Council for Children and Internet Safety (UKCCIS).
Holly Hawkins joined NCMEC in 2013. She is responsible for community outreach and prevention education programs as well as NCMEC’s branch offices in Florida, New York and Texas.

Ms. Hawkins is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP).

A Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist™, Paige Hanson has been with LifeLock since June 2006. As the Senior Manager of Educational Programs, Paige is responsible for the management of the award-winning identity theft training for law enforcement. Since October 2008, Paige has been part of training nearly 12,000 law enforcement representing over 4,000 agencies in 50 states. Paige has also been interviewed for publications and media new stories as an expert in identity theft protection tips for consumers and law enforcement.

As Assistant General Counsel and head of the Global Privacy Law & Privacy Policy team, Ghita manages both the legal privacy and the privacy policy teams at Yahoo. Under Ghita's leadership, these teams engage in Privacy by Design at Yahoo, providing the business with privacy risk analysis and recommendations and developing Yahoo's user data policies.

Jennifer Hanley is the Vice President of Legal and Policy for the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI). Jennifer directs FOSI’s government outreach and policy strategy. Jennifer helps FOSI build relationships with government officials as well as external partnerships and advises leading technology companies on best practices, policy developments, and emerging issues around online safety. Jennifer implements FOSI’s global projects and initiatives and manages the Washington, D.C. staff team. She also leads FOSI’s research work. Jennifer develops policy positions on Internet safety issues including online privacy, mobile safety, cyberbullying, sexting, controversial content, student data privacy, encouraging positive online content for kids, and federal and state legislation and regulations. Jennifer also represents FOSI on panels and in the press.

Marsali Hancock is the founding president of iKeepSafe.org, an international network of more than 100 policy leaders, educators, law enforcement workers, technology experts and advocates that help track internet-connected devices’ effects on children. The nonprofit group conducts research and convenes stakeholders in order to provide resources and guidance for parents, educators, industry and policymakers.

In her role, Ms. Hancock engages with both national and international groups on digital citizenship issues, which include cyber safety, security, ethics and responsibility. She manages iKeepSafe’s business development, strategic plans, and partnerships. In 2009, she received the FOSI Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Ms. Hancock has directed initiatives with the Department of Justice, Deparment of Education, the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT), EduSummit, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Child Online Protection Group (COP) and others. She has developed content and initiatives in multiple states across the county. Additionally, Marsali has served on industry consumer advisory boards and participated with online safety committees for industry leaders: AT&T, Verizon, CCI, Comcast, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, AOL, Symantec and others.

Ms. Hancock has assisted in the development of safe internet practices in multiple countries around the world, overseeing the development of tools that help create a positive digital culture for youth online. She interviews regularly with major media outlets on digital citizenship issues and lives in Arlington, Virginia. She enjoys violin performance, gardening, and traveling with her children.

David A. Gross, former U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. Department of State, is chair of Wiley Rein’s International Telecommunications Practice. One of the world’s foremost experts on international telecommunications, he has addressed the United Nations (UN) General Assembly and led more U.S. delegations to major international telecommunication conferences than anyone in modern history.

At Washington, DC-based Wiley Rein, David Gross draws on his more than 25 years of experience as a global policy maker and corporate executive to assist U.S. companies seeking to enter or expand international businesses, as well as non-U.S. companies and organizations seeking to invest in, monitor and understand the U.S. market. He also advises foreign companies on non-U.S. countries and opportunities and informs clients regarding the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperative (APEC) and other international bodies.

During his tenure at the State Department (2001-2009), David Gross had overall responsibility for the formulation and advocacy of international communications policy for the United States. Prior to this position, he served as Washington counsel to AirTouch Communications (now Vodafone), then the world’s largest wireless telecommunications company. He was in private law practice from 1979 to 1993.

David Gross received his J.D. from Columbia Law School and his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nate Glissmeyer is the Director of Product Management for Kids and Families, Kindle at Amazon. Nate joined Kindle in 2011 to create a team explicitly focused on this segment, which led to the creation of Amazon FreeTime, FreeTime Unlimited, and with our latest generation of devices, the Fire HD Kids Edition tablets.

Nate has spent over 14 years at Amazon, holding a variety of roles including leading software and technology teams and running retail businesses as a Category Leader. Nate has a M.A. in Languages and Literature from the University of Utah.

Brian reports on technology and tech policy at The Washington Post. Before joining the Post, Brian led the tech coverage at National Journal. He was also previously an associate editor at The Atlantic, where he oversaw the international and health sections of the website. Brian also helped launch Atlantic Media's business publication, Quartz.

He has written previously for Foreign Policy Magazine, Talking Points Memo and The American Prospect.

He holds a BA in Political Science from Middlebury College and an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics. His interests include food, technology and politics.

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Ms. Fraser provides a deep understanding of the complexities of privacy issues and the marketplace challenges facing advertisers and brings extensive experience in the self-regulation space with a track record of helping companies do the right thing for consumers. Ms. Fraser has been instrumental in driving progress in a variety of organizational initiatives, including leading the organization’s first ever PrivacyCollective Roundtable, an event that brought together privacy experts to discuss issues facing the marketplace and craft solutions. She has also overhauled and expanded services provided by BBB National Programs’ Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), growing membership and nearly doubling participant numbers for the CARU COPPA Safe Harbor program— the first FTC-approved Safe Harbor program.  Dona is a recipient of the 2023 Top Women in Media and Ad Tech Award for her work in leading best practices in the ever-changing landscape of privacy regulation. 

Susan Fox serves as Vice President, Government Relations of the Walt Disney Company. Ms. Fox represents all of Disney’s operating divisions before the federal government, with a particular focus on the issues that affect Disney’s media interest, including ABC, ESPN, Disney Channel and the ABC Cable Networks, and the ABC Owned Television Stations. Prior to her present position, Ms. Fox served as Senior Legal Advisor to former FCC Chairman William Kennard and as Deputy Chief, Mass Media Bureau and the FCC. In these capacities, she handled all media policy issues before the FCC. She also served as Special Counsel in the FCC’s General Counsel Office, where she advised the General Counsel on constitutional Issues and litigated cases on behalf of the FCC. Prior to the FCC, Ms. Fox was an associate with the law firm Hogan & Hartson. She also served as a law clerk to the Honorable H. Robert Mayer, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Fox is a graduate of Lafayette College, where she received, with magna cum laude distinction, a BA in engineering. She earned her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law where she was Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Law and Politics, and winner of the Stephen Pierre Traynor Moot Court Award. She is married to Jeffrey Markowitz. They live with their four children in Arlington, Virginia.

Ann Flynn has supported NSBA’s leadership in education technology to advance teaching & learning, administrative operations, and outreach to parents and local communities since 1992. Most recently, she was named as one of the country’s top 30 Technologists, Transformers and Trailblazers for 2014 by the Center for Digital Education.

She is active in DC coalition groups and continues to work with the corporate community and local educators through the Technology Leadership Network (TLN). Dr. Flynn was instrumental in the creation of NSBA’s “20 to Watch” and Technology Innovation Showcase recognition programs. She manages the TLN site visits that showcase exemplary technology practices, designs programming for the TLN-hosted sessions at the NSBA annual conference, and leads research projects like Creating and Connecting that encouraged open dialogue among K-12 policy-makers and educators about the use of Web 2.0 tools for learning. She authored “The Role of a School Board in the Purchasing Process” for The Experts' Guide to the K-12 Market and is a frequent columnist for ASBJ. Dr. Flynn has represented NSBA on international technology delegations and as an invited participant in the 2010 and 2013 World Innovation Summits for Education (WISE) in Doha, Qatar.

Prior to joining NSBA, she was on the faculty of Louisiana State University and worked in the education travel industry. Her degrees include a BSE and a M.Ed. from the University of Arkansas and an Ed.D from the University of Virginia.

Amanda Engstrom Eversole is president of the Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation (CATI) and senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC). She is also a senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber and a member of the Chamber’s Management Committee.
As president of CATI, Eversole leads the Chamber's efforts to expand engagement with high-tech industries on policy development, regulatory issues, and international opportunities and challenges. Through advocacy, research, events, and partnerships, CATI seeks to unleash entrepreneurship and technology development in high-tech centers across the nation.
As senior vice president of CCMC, Eversole is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Center's agenda dedicated to making U.S. capital markets the most fair, efficient, transparent, and attractive in the world. This effort addresses domestic and international securities regulation and implementation of the Dodd-Frank law, as well as challenges to the auditing profession, proxy rules, business due process, and a host of other issues.
Eversole joined the Chamber in 2003. She has served as chief of staff, led efforts to fight counterfeiting and piracy globally, oversaw marketing and communications for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, and managed communications for association and chamber of commerce members. Earlier, she worked for RTC Relationship Marketing, a WPP Group company, in business development.
Eversole graduated cum laude from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, with a bachelor's of business administration and a minor in French. She earned an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School where she was a Palmer Scholar and graduated first in her class.
Eversole lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Eric, their daughter, Ellie, and their dog, Gus.

Mark Eichorn is an Assistant Director in the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection (DPIP), where he supervises privacy and data security matters. He joined DPIP in 2009 from FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz’s office, where he served as an attorney advisor for Chairman (and previously Commissioner) Leibowitz on consumer protection issues. Upon joining the Commission in 1998, Mark worked for many years as an attorney in the Division of Advertising Practices and served a six-month stint in 2003 as an attorney advisor to FTC Commissioner Thomas Leary. Mark went to law school at the University of Virginia.

Anna Davis is an attorney advisor to Maureen K. Ohlhausen, Commissioner at the US Federal Trade Commission. Prior to returning to the FTC in April 2012, she worked 10 years at the Commission, heading up the Office of Congressional Relations (2001 - 06), and the Office of Public Affairs (1987 – 89) and working as an attorney in the Division of Advertising Practices (1986 – 87). From 2006 to 2012, she was the Executive Director for Government Relations at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. She earned her JD from Georgetown University Law Center, and her BA from Scripps College.

A writer and youth rights advocate, Anne Collier is founder and executive director of the nonprofit Net Safety Collaborative and has been chronicling developments around youth, technology and wellbeing at NetFamilyNews.org since 1999. She has served on three national task forces on youth and digital safety in the US; spoken on the subject in many countries; advised numerous tech companies and youth-serving NGOs around the world; piloted a social media helpline for schools; contributed to many books, news publications and academic journals; and, with scholars at Stanford University, co-edited a book on youth, social media and mental health published this year by the American Psychiatric Association (https://www.appi.org/Products/Child-and-Adolescent-Psychiatry/Social-Media-and-Youth-Mental-Health).

As the Chief Executive Officer, Martin leads the Netsafe team. He oversees the development of partner relationships in NZ and internationally – and can often be seen or heard in the media explaining online challenges and opportunities for New Zealanders. Martin’s knowledge is sought out by many in NZ and beyond.

Henry Claypool currently works as an independent consultant. His clients include a unique mix of technology companies and organizations working on health care policy. His work with the technology sector allows companies and organizations to build a deeper appreciation of the user experience from a disability perspective. He serves as a Senior Fellow at the Future of Privacy Forum. At the American Association of People with Disabilities, he facilitates the organization’s technology forum, which is a monthly meeting developed to foster dialogue between industry and the national organizations that represent people with disabilities. He is affiliated faculty at the University of California San Francisco where he works as the policy director for Community Living Policy Center at the Institute on Health and Aging.

Claypool has an extensive record of public service with his most recent appointment in January 2017 to serve on the Department of Transportation’s Advisory Committee on Automated Transportation. In 2013, President Obama appointed him to serve on the Federal Commission on Long Term Care while at AAPD. From 2009-2013, he served as the Director of the Office on Disability and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. He has over two decades of experience with the Social Security Act entitlement programs - Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income.

Desiree currently volunteers as coordinator and facilitator for GenSexNYC, an anti-oppression gender and sexuality workshop for all identities, as well as assists a Women and the Media course at Hunter College. In 2014 she graduated from Columbia University School of Social Work with her Master’s in Social Work, and holds a bachelor’s in Sociology from Hunter College. In her free time Desiree enjoys binge watching tv, reading, and dismantling the patriarchy.

Mia Bloom is Professor of Communication at Georgia University and an affiliate with the Center for International Media Education (CIME). She conducts ethnographic field research in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia and speaks eight languages. She has authored several books and articles on terrorism and political extremism including Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (2005), Living Together After Ethnic Killing [with Roy Licklider] (2007) and Bombshell: Women and Terror (2011). She is a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has held research or teaching appointments at Princeton, Cornell, Harvard and McGill Universities.

Under the auspices of the Minerva Research Initiative (MRI) of Department of Defense, Bloom is currently conducting research with John Horgan on how children become involved in terrorist organizations. Bloom and Horgan's findings with be published in a book for Cornell University Press entitled Small Arms: Children and Terror next year (2016). She is regularly interviewed by MSNBC and CNN for terrorism and national security related issues. Bloom has a PhD in political science from Columbia University, a Masters in Arab Studies from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a Bachelors from McGill University in Russian, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.

Steve Black is a serial entrepreneur who founded Techboomers.com while looking for an entrepreneurial opportunity that brought purpose into his life. Launched in January 2015, Techboomers.com is a free educational website that teaches older adults and others with limited computer skills how to use the most popular and trusted websites on the Internet.

Lara A. Ballard serves as the special advisor for privacy and technology in the Office of Communications and Information Policy, Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs (EEB/CIP). She is on detail from the Office of the Legal Adviser, where she has worked as an attorney-adviser since 1999. She has litigated claims in the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, advised the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs on arms export control and various aspects of international criminal law, and defended the Department before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in federal court. Lara has most recently served as the Department’s primary source of legal advice on a wide variety of privacy and technology issues. She helped draft the Department’s guidance on use of social media and provided legal advice to the administrators and designers of the Sounding Board. She has also served as the Department’s primary representative to several interagency groups dealing with issues related to privacy, surveillance, and global Internet freedom.

Prior to her arrival at the State Department, she clerked for the late Hon. Fred I. Parker, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She is a graduate of Columbia Law School (J.D. ’98) and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (B.S.F.S. ’91). From 1991 to 1995, she served on active duty in the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery (PATRIOT) in Kaiserslautern, Germany and Kuwait City, Kuwait, leaving in 1995 with the rank of captain.

For the past 30 years, Stephen Balkam has had a wide range of leadership roles in the nonprofit sector in both the US and UK. He is currently the Founder and CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), an international, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC. FOSI’s mission is to make the online world safer for kids and their families. FOSI convenes the top thinkers and practitioners in government, industry and the nonprofit sectors to collaborate and innovate and to create a “culture of responsibility” in the online world.

Prior to FOSI, Stephen was the Founder and CEO of the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) and led a team which developed the world’s leading content labeling system on the web. While with ICRA, Stephen served on the US Child Online Protection Commission (COPA) in 2000 and was named one of the Top 50 UK Movers and Shakers, Internet Magazine, 2001.

In 1994, Stephen was named the first Executive Director of the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC) which created a unique self-labeling system for computer games and then, in 1996, Stephen launched RSACi – a forerunner to the ICRA website labeling system. For his efforts in online safety, Stephen was given the 1998 Carl Bertelsmann Prize in Gutersloh, Germany, for innovation and responsibility in the Information Society and was invited to the first and subsequent White House Internet Summits during the Clinton Administration.

Stephen’s other positions include the Executive Director of the National Stepfamily Association (UK); General Secretary of the Islington Voluntary Action Council; Executive Director of Camden Community Transport as well as management positions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London) and Inter-Action. Stephen’s first job was with Burroughs Machines (now Unisys) and he had a spell working for West Nally Ltd – a sports sponsorship PR company.

Stephen received a BA, magna cum laude, in Psychology from University College, Cardiff, Wales in 1977. A native of Washington, DC, Stephen spent many years in the UK and is now has dual citizenship. He writes regularly for the Huffington Post, appears often on TV and has appeared on nationally syndicated TV and radio programs such as MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC and has been interviewed by leading newspapers such as the Washington Post, New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, radio and in the mainstream press. He has given presentations and spoken in 15 countries on 4 continents.

Katya Andresen is the CEO of the education media company Cricket Media. Prior to joining Cricket Media, Ms. Andresen was COO and CSO of Network for Good, a technology platform and SaaS enterprise for digital giving and social actions that was founded by AOL, Yahoo! and Cisco. From 2009-2013, Ms. Andresen was also an adjunct professor of strategic communications at the American University Key Executive Leadership Program.
Previously, Ms. Andresen was senior vice president of Sutton Group, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm. She has worked with the Institute for Sustainable Communities in Ukraine and at CARE International in Atlanta, GA. Earlier in her career, Ms. Andresen was a foreign correspondent for Reuters News and Television in Asia and for Associated Press and major U.S. newspapers in Africa.
Ms. Andresen wrote the book “Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy for Just Causes” and is
a contributor to several books on social causes, marketing and social media.