Personal Democracy Forum

Christie George is one of the country’s leading experts on investing in mission-driven startups. As Director of New Media Ventures, an angel network and seed fund focused on accelerating progressive innovation, Christie has catalyzed the investment of more than $8m into some of the fastest growing for-profit and nonprofit startups of the last few years including Upworthy, CrowdTangle and SumOfUs.

Christie’s work centers on fostering an independent, vibrant, and diverse media sector by supporting individuals and institutions that are making media that matters. She started her career at a venture capital firm, then spent six years managing sales and marketing for Women Make Movies, the world’s leading distributor of films by and about women, and was a co-founder of Louder (acquired by Change.org), the crowd-promotion platform for ideas that matter. She serves on the board of the Roosevelt Institute and was named a Social Citizen Ambassador by the Case Foundation.

Christie holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA with distinction from the University of Oxford, where she was a Skoll Scholar in Social Entrepreneurship and graduated with the Said Prize. She lives in Oakland and is a proud co-owner of the Rio Theater in Monte Rio, CA.

Christina Bellantoni joined the PBS NewsHour in January 2012. In her role as Politics Editor, she directs coverage of campaign, White House and congressional news and appears on the program for on-air analysis.

She also is a Contributing Editor for More Magazine.

Bellantoni has spent over a decade covering national political and business news in Washington, D.C., and California. She served as Associate Politics Editor at Roll Call for more than a year before joining the NewsHour. She has appeared regularly as a political analyst on national television programs such as “Hardball,” “Countdown,” “On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren,” “Reliable Sources,” “TopLine,” “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “The Daily Rundown.”

Prior to her time at Roll Call, Bellantoni was a senior reporter-blogger at Talking Points Memo’s Washington bureau covering the White House and national politics. Before joining TPM, Bellantoni was a White House correspondent for The Washington Times, a post she took after covering the 2008 presidential campaign. She joined the Times in December 2003, covering state and congressional politics before moving to the national political beat for the 2008 election.

Bellantoni began her journalism career in 1998 covering business in her home state of California. She won two national journalism awards for Best Scoop in 2001 for her story in Silicon Valley Biz Ink that revealed the San Jose Sharks were up for sale.

A graduate of University of California, Berkeley, Bellantoni majored in mass communications. She led a study group for undergraduate students as an Institute of Politics Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School in fall 2011.

Christine Cupaiuolo is the Civic Engagement Fellow leading Civic Hall’s Rethinking Debates project. She reports on how political debates around the world are using innovative formats and social media, focusing on examples that help make these crucial public events more informative, engaging, and responsive to the concerns of voters.

Her work has focused on digital media, both as a strategist for nonprofits and foundations and as a writer and editor covering political and cultural issues. She was the managing editor of the 2011 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves and provided editorial direction for the book’s parent organization and website, focusing on the politics of women’s health. She previously created ms.musings, Ms. magazine’s first blog on women, media, and culture, and later became the magazine’s online editor.

As a contributing editor to Spotlight, an online publication covering the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Initiative, she wrote about the latest news and academic research on social networks, gaming, maker culture, and digital/media literacies. In 2000, she founded and edited PopPolitics.com, a magazine on the intersections of pop culture and politics featuring essays and reporting by journalists, academics, and cultural critics.

She has also worked as a researcher/writer for C-SPAN and as a news reporter for the Rutland Herald and a New York weekly. Her writing and investigative reporting, including a federal death penalty case based on an internet-related murder, have been recognized by the Vermont and New York press associations.

A digital strategy consultant, and manager of media & technology systems for DigitasLBi, a global PR firm in Boston, Massachusetts, Christy Lewis offers a wide-ranging, and nuanced online marketing perspective.

For the last two years, Christy Lewis has been at the forefront of Republican politics as a driving force behind the digital strategy for of two of the highest-profile, statewide campaigns. As Digital Director, Christy planned and implemented online campaign strategies for Ken Cuccinelli’s campaign for Governor of Virginia in 2013, as well as Scott Brown’s campaign for Senator of Massachusetts in 2012. Christy Lewis has worked on multiple innovative projects – planning highly targeted online ad campaigns across multiple platforms, developing web applications, and leveraging data to augment GOTV efforts.

Claire Wardle is the Research Director at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Prior to joining Columbia, she designed the social media training programme for the BBC in 2009 and went on to train journalists around the world on social newsgathering and verification. For two years Claire has worked with Storyful, leading news agency specializing in verification of UGC. Claire has a PhD in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

Clara is the co-founder and CEO of Tumml, an urban ventures accelerator. A nonprofit, Tumml’s mission is to empower entrepreneurs to solve urban problems. Clara is responsible for Tumml’s partnership development, marketing, and fundraising.

In January 2014, Forbes listed her as one of its “30 Under 30” for Social Entrepreneurship. Clara has also been named a “Female Founder to Watch” by Women 2.0. Clara’s work energizing urban impact entrepreneurship has been featured in several publications, including Forbes, VentureBeat, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Silicon Valley Business Journal, among others.

Clara has a background in urban real estate and sustainability. She worked as an Associate with WestMill Capital, a real estate investment start-up focused on alternative financing and merchandising mixes authentic to the local area. Notably, she developed and edited content for two WestMill web platforms (Popularise.com and Fundrise.com) to interact with the community about local real estate projects. Prior to WestMill Capital, Clara worked at AECOM, GVA Advantis and Monument Realty. A LEED Accredited Professional, Clara earned her MBA from MIT Sloan and her BA from NYU.

Clay Shirky teaches theory and practice of social media at NYU, where he is an Associate Arts Professor in the Interactive Telecommunications Program and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He is the author of three books on social media: Cognitive Surplus (2010), Here Comes Everybody (2008), and Voices from the Net (1994). His writings on the internet and media can be found at shirky.com.

Clémence Pène is an expert of Digital campaigning in France and in the United States.
As a political Scientist at the LabTop (Laboratoire Théories du Politique) at Paris 8 University, she is a member of the Research Network DEL (Démocratie Electronique) and of the ECPR Standing Group Internet & Politics.
Her current research aims at a comparison between Digital campaigns in France and in the U.S. with a special focus on transnational transfers of online organizing patterns between the two countries.