Speaker Database / 1,371 Speakers
The Personal Democracy Forum was a conference that ran for over 15 years and took place in NYC, Europe and Central America.
Aldon Hynes was born in Maine, grew up in Massachusetts, went to school in Ohio and worked in New York for many years before settling down in Connecticut. In New York, he worked as an IT Executive on Wall Street. In 2003, he became very active in Gov. Dean’s presidential bid and worked with many groups on the state and national level. When Gov. Dean ended his bid, Aldon’s wife decided to run for State Representative. She was one of the first Dean Dozen candidates and Aldon was her campaign manager. Aldon received credentials from the Democratic Party to cover the National Convention as a blogger. Aldon was Blogmaster for John DeStefano’s Gubernatorial campaign and is now working on Ned Lamont’s U.S. Senate campaign.
Alec Ross is one of America’s leading experts on innovation. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs and writing a book entitled The Industries of the Future to be published by Simon & Schuster. He serves as an advisor to investors, corporations and government leaders to help them understand the implication of factors emerging at the intersection of geopolitics, markets and increasingly disruptive network technologies. He currently sits on the board of directors or advisors for companies in the fields of technology, media, telecommunications, education, health care and cybersecurity.
Alec Ross recently served for four year as Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a role created for him by Secretary Clinton to maximize the potential of technology and innovation in service of America’s diplomatic goals and stewarding the Secretary of State 21st Century Statecraft agenda. In this role, Alec acted as the diplomatic lead on a range of issues including cybersecurity, Internet Freedom, disaster response and the use of network technologies in conflict zones.
Alex Torpey, founder and managing partner of the strategy consulting firm Veracity Media, was dubbed ‘the Social Media Mayor’ by Inc. Magazine. A recognized leader in the areas of governance, transparency, internet advocacy and leadership, Alex became one of the youngest mayors in the United States at age 23 in 2011, and led his hometown through four years of measurable fiscal responsibility and debt reduction, economic investment & revitalization, crime reduction, transparency and community engagement. Alex’s passion for his office, engaging his peers and ideas on post-partisan collaborative governance has been recognized and profiled, for example in the New York Times, Inc. Magazine, Mashable, Next City and the Star-Ledger, and he lectures and often speaks on these topics, for example at Social Media Week, the Personal Democracy Forum, the National Constitution Center, Belfast Technology Conference and POLITICO. In the fall of 2014, Alex was appointed an Adjunct Faculty of governance and technology at Seton Hall University co-teaching transparency and open government concepts to graduate students. Alex also serves on the Advisory Board of New Jersey’s New Leaders Council and is a 2014 James Madison Fellow at the Millennial Action Project.
Alexis Wichowski serves as press secretary for New York City’s newly created Department of Veterans’ Services and adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in the Technology, Media, and Communications specialization.
Wichowski’s work experience includes the American Red Cross, the State Department’s Office of eDiplomacy, the US mission to the UN, Oxford University Press, and a bunch of jobs doing web coding, theater producing, Chinese sitcom acting, and pretzel vending. She was a Presidential Management Fellow and studied in China on a Fulbright.
Wichowski regularly writes about media, technology and government, with publications such as, “Net states rule the world. Ignore them at your peril,” in WIRED; “Hack the bureaucracy: a user’s guide to getting things done in government,” in GovExec; “Social diplomacy, or how diplomats learned to stop worrying and love the tweet,” in Foreign Affairs; “What government can and should learn from hacker culture,” in The Atlantic; and a chapter in Digital Diplomacy: Theory & Practice, entitled “‘Secrecy is for losers’: why diplomats should embrace openness to protect national security.” She’s currently writing a book on how tech companies act like countries, to be published by Harper Collins in 2019.
Wichowski has a PhD in Information Science from University at Albany’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a BA in Chinese from Connecticut College. She lives in Brooklyn with her family, swims / bikes / runs, and reads science fiction voraciously.
Alexis Wichowski serves as press secretary for New York City’s newly created Department of Veterans’ Services and adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in the Technology, Media, and Communications specialization.
Wichowski’s work experience includes the American Red Cross, the State Department’s Office of eDiplomacy, the US mission to the UN, Oxford University Press, and a bunch of jobs doing web coding, theater producing, Chinese sitcom acting, and pretzel vending. She was a Presidential Management Fellow and studied in China on a Fulbright.
Wichowski regularly writes about media, technology and government, with publications such as, “Net states rule the world. Ignore them at your peril,” in WIRED; “Hack the bureaucracy: a user’s guide to getting things done in government,” in GovExec; “Social diplomacy, or how diplomats learned to stop worrying and love the tweet,” in Foreign Affairs; “What government can and should learn from hacker culture,” in The Atlantic; and a chapter in Digital Diplomacy: Theory & Practice, entitled “‘Secrecy is for losers’: why diplomats should embrace openness to protect national security.” She’s currently writing a book on how tech companies act like countries, to be published by Harper Collins in 2019.
Wichowski has a PhD in Information Science from University at Albany’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a BA in Chinese from Connecticut College. She lives in Brooklyn with her family, swims / bikes / runs, and reads science fiction voraciously.
Alicia Garza is an organizer, writer, and freedom dreamer living and working in Oakland, CA. She is the Special Projects Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the nation’s leading voice for dignity and fairness for the millions of domestic workers in the United States, most of whom are women. She is also the co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter, a national organizing project focused on combatting anti-Black state sanctioned violence.Alicia’s work challenges us to celebrate the contributions of Black queer women’s work within popular narratives of Black movements, and reminds us that the Black radical tradition is long, complex and international. Her activism reflects organizational strategies and visions that connect emerging social movements without diminishing the specificity of the structural violence facing Black lives. She has been the recipient of numerous awards for her organizing work, including the Root 100 2015 list of African American achievers and influencers between the ages of 25 and 45, and was featured in the Politico 50 guide to the thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics in 2015.
Twitter: @aliciagarza
Alina L. Romanowski assumed her position as the Coordinator for U.S. Assistance on March 9, 2015. Working in the State Department’s Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs, and coordinating closely with the Bureau for South and Central Asian Affairs and the Office of the Director of Foreign Assistance, Ms. Romanowski oversees all U.S. Government assistance to 30 countries in Europe and Eurasia, with primary focus on the Balkans and the former Soviet Union, including Central Asia. She coordinates the programs of multiple U.S. government agencies and State Department bureaus involved in U.S. economic, democratic, security, and humanitarian assistance in the region, and designs and implements assistance strategies that support U.S. foreign policy priorities. She also plays the lead role in allocating foreign assistance budgets appropriated by Congress, and works closely with foreign governments, multilateral institutions, and NGOs to ensure that U.S. foreign aid is used efficiently and effectively.