Oakland, California, United States
I am a writer, nonprofit consultant, and policy advocate working at the nexus of new technology and civil liberties. I help organizations achieve their long-term objectives while creating responsiveness to short-term opportunities. My goal is to create a technological future that upholds human rights.
I established Groundwork Consulting in September 2016 to provide transformative leadership training, management coaching, retreat facilitation and strategic planning. My focus is on the challenges facing mission-driven organizations, and I see a range of clients in the San Francisco Bay Area and remotely. I help clients develop impactful teams and create lasting organizational change. • Design and facilitate strategy retreats for mission-driven organizations. • Offer communications strategy, writing, and editing support for civil liberties nonprofits. • Provide management coaching to nonprofit leaders at all levels. • Offer temporary executive services for civil liberties nonprofits.
I co-founded Freedom of the Press Foundation, which defends and promotes press freedom using innovative methods, including the development of secure communication tools, documenting attacks on the press, training newsrooms on digital security, and advocating for the public’s access to government data.
The mission of FFDW is to ensure the permanent preservation of humanity’s most important information by stewarding the development of open source software and open protocols for decentralized data storage and retrieval networks.
• Served as acting executive director while the executive director was on sabbatical. • Worked closely with the general counsel, human resources director, and executive team to handle emerging issues related to employee relations, COVID 19 safety, budgeting, and fundraising. • Offered strategic guidance to ensure EFF’s programmatic work was mission-focused, adequately resourced, and ambitious.
• Spearheaded the development and execution of innovative programs addressing emerging threats to digital privacy, free expression, and online civil liberties. • Guided cross-functional teams to align programmatic goals to support EFF's mission while resolving conflicts over priorities and resources. • Offered guidance, mission-focus, and rapid decision-making as the direct supervisor for the directors of EFF’s four program teams, whose departments encompassed approximately 70 program staff members. • Served as acting manager for the fundraising team during a leadership transition and provided ongoing management for the grants team. • Served as the executive liaison to the diversity, equity and inclusion committee, facilitating development of a committee mission statement and staff-wide diversity trainings. • Organized staff education, management team training, staff retreats, team retreats, and the organizational strategic planning process. • Spearheaded a strategic restructuring and hiring for the cybersecurity team, the international team, and the fundraising department. • Revitalized and reconvened EFF’s advisory board. • Participated in bi-weekly executive team strategy meetings to handle emerging issues, with an emphasis around our COVID-19 response and our transition to a remote workforce. • Using feedback from program directors, collaborated with the finance director and human resources director on preparing the proposed organizational budget.
• Successfully led high-impact advocacy efforts, engaging with policymakers, industry stakeholders, coalition partners, and the public to influence legislation and policies on a range of digital rights topics with a special emphasis on digital privacy, decentralization, and press freedom. • Spearheaded advocacy campaigns that increased EFF’s email list fivefold and helped frame public and media coverage of national surveillance, copyright, and speech online. • Hired, managed, and mentored a diverse team of 11 digital rights activists, policy analysts, and investigative reporters. • Oversaw social media strategies across multiple platforms, an email newsletter, and a highly popular blog, ensuring all content was engaging and rigorously researched. • Developed and executed organizational strategies to defend civil liberties at the state and federal levels, and confront corporate abuses of power. • Wrote articles and gave presentations on civil liberties, spearheaded on-the-ground direct actions, and cultivated a passionate community of supporters around the globe. • Acted as a spokesperson, representing EFF in media interviews, public forums, and conferences.