Personal Democracy Forum

Aaron is a growth-hacker and co-founder of Lincoln Initiative. Lincoln’s mission is to build a community of liberty-oriented technologists from Silicon Valley to Silicon Alley and connect them into the civic process. He has deep experience in technology and product development. His expertise is blending data, philosophy, and behavioral sciences in product design. From this passion, he was one of the first writers on growth hacking movement. He led growth at Everlane, StumbleUpon, and Romney’s 2012 campaign. In 2016, WIRED name him one of the top 20 influencers in politics. In 2015, he was named one of the top digital marketers in America. He was elected to the CAGOP Executive Board in 2014 and serves the CTO of the California Young Republicans.

Aaron Sherinian is the Chief Communications and Marketing Officer for the United Nations Foundation. Aaron has led the Foundation’s public relations efforts, media relationships, strategic outreach, and online presence since 2009, managing an award-winning team of communicators and digital pioneers who believe that innovative communications can help change the world. He has helped build some of the most talked about milestones in digital global engagement around causes and UN issues over the last few years including the Social Good Summit, #GivingTuesday, Rio+Social, International Day of Happiness, and the Momentum1000 global social media rally. He is a passionate supporter of efforts to build a new era of global activism and philanthropy among a younger generation that is emerging on the global scene. Before joining the UN Foundation, Aaron Sherinian served as Managing Director of Public Affairs for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. Government development assistance agency administering $7 billion in poverty reduction grants in 40 partner countries. He oversaw the agency’s strategic communications portfolio, media relationships, public relations agenda and a global re-branding.

His professional background includes a decade of service as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Department of State. Before returning to Washington, his diplomatic service included tours at U.S. Embassies in Ecuador, Armenia, Costa Rica, Colombia, and in Washington serving two Assistant Secretaries of State. Aaron’s experience also included work at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See (Vatican).

Before joining the Department of State, Aaron worked at the Washington International Trade Association (WITA). He also held positions as a marketing consultant for the Italian distributors for Apple Computer and as a freelance interpreter and writer in Italy.

Aaron is proud to be a part of the public relations community as a member of the Arthur Page Society, the Seminar, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC). Aaron won the PRWeek Global Professional Award in 2016. His team won three consecutive honors by PRNews as “Public Affairs Team of the Year” in 2012, 2013, and 2014.

While he has lived in a lot of places, Aaron’s heart is always in his native Pasadena, California. He holds degrees from the Johns Hopkins University (School of Advanced International Studies – SAIS) and Brigham Young University. In addition to Spanish, he speaks (or at least does his best) at Italian, Armenian, and French. He and his wife have four children. Aaron served a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints in Milan, Italy. He loves cooking, travel, and connecting with friends all over the world. He is a proud Eagle Scout, although wonders some days how he ever got through all the merit badges…then he realizes it was all about a dedicated Mom and Dad! He blogs at GlobalExtrovert.com about fatherhood, public relations and social media.

Abdi Nor Iftin is a current member of The Telling Room, a non profit writing center in Portland, Maine. Abdi’s story was shared in real-time on This American Life in July 2015, and it was a 2015 Peabody story finalist. Abdi is currently working on his own book project, named “Call me American”, which will be released later in 2016. Abdi has contributed to Refugees International, American Public Media and the BBC. He told his own stories as a refugee in Kenya and Somalia. His stories have been documented on several media outlets that have touched the hearts and minds of many people across the world. Abdi is a natural story teller. As a former refugee, a recent immigrant to the US, and a Muslim, Abdi is frequently asked to speak at public events, including TEDx and universities. Abdi has just finished a radio producing workshop in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and hopes to advance his story telling skills to the next level.

Abhi Nemani is the Chief of Staff at Code for America, a national non-profit dedicated to reinventing government for the 21st century. Abhi has led CfA’s strategic development and growth, including the development of multiple new programs including the launch of a first-of-its-kind civic startup accelerator and the CfA Peer Network, designed to connect cities to help them work together. Under Abhi’s direction, CfA’s national outreach and awareness campaigns have been recognized in the New York Times, Mashable, and CNN, and he has been featured as a speaker at SxSW, the World Bank, and various universities and conferences around the world.

Adam Green is Co-Founder of the Open Debate Coalition and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), a grassroots organization with a million members that engages in electoral and issue advocacy work building the “Elizabeth Warren wing” of American politics. From 2005 to 2008, he led MoveOn’s media reform and Internet freedom campaigns. Previously, Adam served as the Democratic National Committee’s press secretary in Oregon for the 2004 presidential campaign, communications director for the New Jersey Democratic Party in 2003, and press secretary for the top winning Democratic U.S. Senate race of 2002 in South Dakota. He has a B.A. from George Washington University and a law degree from University of Virginia. He is a frequent contributor on both MSNBC and CNN.

Adam Greenfield is Senior Urban Fellow at LSE Cities, founder and managing director of the New York-based design practice Urbanscale, and author, most recently, of “Against the smart city” (2013).

Adam Harvey is an artist, technologist, and designer focused on privacy issues. His countersurveillance art projects have earned recognition in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wired, BBC, as well as a classified intelligence document. He is the recipient of a Core77 design award, a Rhizome art commission, and was recently nominated as a Future Great by Art Review magazine.

Adam lives and works in Brooklyn, NY where he runs the Privacy Gift Shop, an online marketplace for countersurveillance art and privacy accessories.

Adam Nyman graduated from the University of Bristol. Since then, he has been a managing director at EUPOLITIX and The Parliament Magazine. Afterwards he founded the WorldBriefing Group. Currently he is the Publishing Director at Europe’s World, a thrice-yearly publication discussing the state of European Polititcs. He is working on another project he founded, Debating Europe, in a partnership with Europe’s World, Friends of Europe, The European Parliament, Microsoft, Gallup, and several others. This initiative strives to bring the questions and concerns of Europe’s citizens directly to their policy makers.

Adam Thierer is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He previously served as President of The Progress & Freedom Foundation, as Director of Telecommunications Studies at the Cato Institute, and as a Fellow in Economic Policy at the Heritage Foundation. He is the author or editor of six books on technology and media policy and also writes a weekly column for Forbes called “Technologies of Freedom.” Thierer earned his bachelor’s degree in political science and journalism at Indiana University and received his master’s degree in international business management and trade theory at the University of Maryland.

Adam works with innovations in journalism, particularly on open newsrooms, media development and technology projects. He is Chief of Product at Storyful, the first newswire of the social media age. His work with news organisations was honoured with an African News Innovation Challenge prize in 2012, and he has played a pivotal role in teams that have won a Guardian Digital Innovation Award for Social Change and a Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism.

Adrienne is the Director of Partnerships for Change Politics, a new elections project from of Change.org. Change.org is the world’s largest platform for civic action with more than 150 million users globally.
Prior to joining Change.org, Adrienne was the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at Democracy Works, a non-profit technology startup that works to make voting easier by building tools to streamline the elections process. At Democracy Works, Adrienne coordinated voter registration efforts at over 200 U.S. colleges and universities through the TurboVote program. Adrienne’s passion for civic engagement around elections also extends beyond US borders. In her spare time, she designs and leads training programs for youth activists and political leaders internationally, with a focus on West Africa.

Adrienne began her career working on political campaigns and in government. She served as a Regional Director for two years on the first campaign to elect Barack Obama, and in 2009 joined the US Department of Energy as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary, where she led strategic communications and coordinated with political staff across Federal agencies, Congress and the White House.

Adrienne holds a BA in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley, an International Diploma from the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris, and a dual Masters in International Affairs and Public Administration from Columbia University and the London School of Economics.

Agnieszka Ziółkowska is a journalist and publicist. She graduated in Italian and Spanish studies from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan and in European Interdisciplinary Studies from the College of Europe in Natolin. She has analyzed new social movements focusing on the Spanish “Outraged”, and in her master’s thesis at the College of Europe she analyzed the mechanisms of civil budget as a tool of democratization and empowerment of residents, using the example of Polish cities. She’s one of the initiators and organizers of the First Congress of Urban Movements and member of the Krytyka Polityczna team.

Alaksiej Carniajeu has been working in security and technology-related fields for non-profits since 2004, at first in frames of the Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs of Belarus programs, then in Belarus IT Aid. During this time he has provided security and technology training for political and NGO activists from Northern African states, both sides of Caucasus mountains, Ukraine, and Ethiopia as well as various places throughout Belarus.

Alaksiej is also a consultant for SuperPeif.com initiative (meet the world’s first pet expert on security), and a member of the electby.org team, which uses Ushahidi to monitor the always troubled Belarusian elections. Prior to joining The Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs of Belarus, he worked as a programmer, taught computer science at the National Humanities Lyceum and was the technical editor of “Naša Niva” newspaper.