Personal Democracy Forum

Erie Meyer is a co-founder of United States Digital Service, a new team working to transform how the federal government works for the American people. She’s on the headquarters team in the White House, and helped establish, and now works with, the digital service teams at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. Department of Education.

Before joining the United States Digital Service, she was Senior Advisor to the U.S. CTO at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she worked on the President’s Open Data Initiatives and setting up the Digital Service. Erie is a serial public entrepreneur, having served on the implementation team to stand up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where she was a member of the founding Tech + Innovation Team. She worked to create a system to collect consumer complaints about financial products and services, such as students loans and credit reporting, and then to publish the data.

She also launched one of the first open source websites in government, when she stood up the first digital office for the Ohio Attorney General. She has also been part of the strategy team at Blue State Digital, working on student loan issues for Senator Ted Kennedy and campaigns like She Should Run, a nonpartisan effort to get more women in elected office.

Erie is a co-founder of Tech Ladymafia, a group of women living everywhere from San Francisco to Shenzhen, China, working on anything from DIY circuit boards to theoretical physics. She was named one of Forbes’ “30 under 30” for technology, and her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, The National Journal, Elle, and more.

Erika Mann is the Head of the Brussels office for Facebook, previously a Member of the European Parliament with the Social Democratic Party of Germany for 15 years, she has in the past two years served as the Executive Vice President of the Computer and Communications Industry and a board member of ICANN. Educated as a qualified teacher Erika Mann went on to research at Hanover University and then became a consultant in IT. Until 1996 she was a regional councilor for Germany’s Northheim region. Within her time at the European Parliament she was PSE Group Coordinator and a Member of the Steering Committee WTO Parliamentary Assembly and sat on the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade. In her career she has been a Board Member of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, she has been on the Board as Vice-Chairwoman of the Frauen geben Technik neue Impulse (women promoting technology) Association, a Board Member of the International Foundation for Research and Exchange (IBB) the Patron of the Erika Mann Primary School in Berlin, the Chairwoman of the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN) a Member of the Board of Directors, Salzburg Seminar, a Member of the Board of Directors for Internews Europe, Chairwoman of the European Internet Foundation (EIF) an Executive committee Member of the Kangaroo Group a member of the International Informatization Academy of the United Nations and since October 2011 she is a lobbyist for Facebook in Brussels.

The Rockefeller Foundation awarded Erin Barnes and her co-founders at ioby the 2012 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Technology and Innovation. Erin met her co-founders while studying water economics and hydrogeomorphology in graduate school at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental studies. Before ioby, Erin Barnes was an environmental editor at Men’s Journal magazine, freelance environmental writer, and contributor to Al Gore’s book Our Choice. She conducted field research on socio-economic values of water in Nicaragua and the Amazon, and worked as a community organizer at the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition. She has a B.A. in English and American Studies from the University of Virginia and an M.E.M from Yale University. Erin lives in Brooklyn and serves on the Board of EcoDistricts, Resource Media, the Steering Committee for EPIP-NYC, and as an advisor to ArtBridge, Charity Sub, Shared Squared, and the Social Innovators Collective.

Erin Jo Richey is an independent user experience and digital strategy consultant based in Portland, OR. Through her consultancy, Flat Frog Design, she frequently collaborates with agencies and organizations on the design, execution, and optimization of online applications, interfaces, and interactive marketing campaigns. Erin has a strong interest in helping businesses measure and organize information. She specializes in the design of information-dense interfaces and customer experience strategies.

With an academic background in cognitive science and psychology, Erin has a strong interest in how people think and organize information. A veteran of the ecommerce world, Erin previously worked for top online retailers and ecommerce start-ups, in roles that included management, product development, and digital analytics. You can find her online at erinjorichey.com and on Twitter at @erinjo.

Erin Simpson is the founding program director of Civic Hall Labs. Erin joins Civic Hall Labs from a Fellowship on Microsoft’s Civic Team, where she supported community organizing around open data and digital equity in the Chicagoland area. Prior to Microsoft, Erin founded and directed a volunteer-run digital strategy consultancy for Chicago nonprofits and local government. Her past work includes civic innovation with the Clinton Foundation and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, and policy research for the White House Domestic Policy Council. Erin has advised on the execution of hackathons and venture challenges for Microsoft, the Chicago Innovation Exchange, the New York City Economic Development Council, and the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Her award-winning thesis on digital inequality investigated the user experience of public computer centers in Chicago libraries and community centers. Erin is a 2015 Truman Scholar and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy with an emphasis on issues of inequality from the University of Chicago, where she graduated with top honors.

Erin Vilardi is the Founder and Director of VoteRunLead, leveraging technology and training to accelerate the number of women in civic and political leadership. She first launched VRL as Vice President of Program and Communications at The White House Project, establishing the largest national political training program readying women for public office, training over 15,000. Erin has served as leadership development consultant for a diverse range of clients including Fortune 100 companies, global girls’ initiatives, the U.S. Department of State, and the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. At Barnard, she co-authored the Athena CORE10©, an innovative set of 21st century leadership competencies based on the latest research and gender analysis. Erin serves on the Advisory Boards of Girl Meets World, the New American Leaders Project, and Vision2020. She is an Executive Producer of Ann Richards’ Texas, a documentary about the late pioneering governor. She has appeared on CNN, BBC, and Fox News, and her work was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine as well as numerous international and domestic publications.

Erine Gray is an experienced director, consultant and software developer. Immediately prior to founding Aunt Bertha, Mr. Gray served as Director of Business Analysis and Reporting for MAXIMUS, Inc., a global government outsourcing firm where he was responsible for conceiving, selling and delivering more than 40 software and operational improvement projects that saved the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) more than $5 million dollars per year in operating expenses. Mr. Gray started his career as a software developer and project manager, delivering projects with Dell Computer, AON Insurance and the City of Austin. Mr. Gray has a Masters in Public Affairs (MPA) from the University of Texas and a Bachelors in Economics from Indiana University with a concentration in Computer Science. Erine is a certified project management professional (PMP) and holds several technology certifications.

Ernest Sagaga is the Human Rights and Communications Officer: for the International Federation of Journalists in Brussels where he is dealing daily with the conditions with which journalists work and fighting for their rights internationally. Prior to this he was the Spokesperson for the International Criminal Court in The Hague and before this he was a Journalist for the BBC World Service in London for seven years. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from London University, has an MA in Diplomatic Studies and a Post Graduate Diploma in the International Legal Practice of Human Rights. He’s recently had training on social media development by PDF’s own Curator in Brussels @eurocentrique and is excited about the possibilities of reaching out to as many journalists that may need him through online platforms. He’s also responsible for an emergency budget which helps journalists in legal conundrums so please note for future use.

Attorney at law (founder and managing partner of e-Lex Law Firm), with more than ten years of practice, Ernesto Belisario focuses his practice on ICT Law (Internet Law, Data protection and privacy Law, Copyright law, E-government, Law 2.0) and Administrative Law.
Ernesto works as a consultant on legal issues of e-government, Open Data and Open Government. He is author of several books and publications and, as trainer and speaker, he is a frequent public speaker both in Italy and abroad. In 2013 he worked as Lead Researcher for the Open Data Barometer (Web Foundation) for Italy.

He’s one of the promoter of Italian Open Government Forum and one of the members of civil society “monitoring group” on the implementation of Italian action plan. He was also co- founder and General Secretary of Italian Institute for Policy Innovation, co-founder and President of the Italian Association for Open Government, General Counsel of the Association Agorà Digitale

His areas of research include new forms of political participation, the impact of Internet on democracy, legal issues of open government, open data and ICT Law (including privacy and copyright).

Esra’a Al-Shafei is a Bahraini civil rights activist, blogger, and the founder and executive director of Mideast Youth and its related projects, including CrowdVoice.org. Al-Shafei is a senior TED Fellow, an Echoing Green fellow, and has been referred to by CNN reporter George Webster as “An outspoken defender of free speech”. She has been featured in FastCompany as one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business.” In 2011, The Daily Beast listed Al-Shafei as one of the 17 bravest bloggers worldwide. She is also a promoter of music as a means of social change, and founded Mideast Tunes, which is currently the largest platform for underground musicians in the Middle East and North Africa.

Esther Meroño Baro (pronounced Es-tair Meh-roh-nyoh Bah-doh) is the Communications Manager at Auburn, a leadership institute equipping and amplifying multifaith leaders on the front lines of social change. She served as a digital organizer for the Sanctuary Movement in 2014-2015, placed with Auburn’s digital organizing platform, Groundswell, through the UCLA Labor Center’s Dream Summer program. Esther also works as a creative consultant for the New World Foundation, and is a writer and editorial fellow for The Tempest.

Ethan Zuckerman is director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, and a principal research scientist at MIT’s Media Lab. He is the author of “Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection”, published by W.W. Norton in June 2013. With Rebecca MacKinnon, Ethan co-founded international blogging community Global Voices. Global Voices showcases news and opinions from citizen media in over 150 nations and thirty languages. Ethan’s research focuses on issues of internet freedom, civic engagement through digital tools and international connections through media. He blogs at http://ethanzuckerman.com/blog and lives in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts.

Eva Constantaras is a data and investigative journalist and instructor, specializing in cross-border journalism projects to combat corruption and foster transparency. She currently serves as the Data Journalism Advisor for Internews in Kenya. She has trained journalists across Latin America and East Africa on topics ranging from displacement and kidnapping by organized crime networks to election monitoring and health policies. As a Google Data Journalism Scholar in Spain and Fulbright Fellow in Colombia, she has explored the potential of open data and data journalism tools to enrich the quality of media across the globe. Her reporting has appeared in media outlets including the Seattle Times, El Tiempo, El Confidencial and El Mundol.

Evagelia Emily Tavoulareas is a Founding Member of the first agency-level team of the U.S. Digital Service, where she focuses on product management, service design, and technology policy. Emily has helped grow the team, worked with the VA Center for Innovation to introduce Human-Centered Design (HCD) to the VA, and led the development of the new application for VA healthcare. In June she will join the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as a Senior Advisor, where she will be focused on Digital Government.

Emily started her career in international development, designing and implementing a social entrepreneurship program for young women in Saudi Arabia, and conducting digital media training for non-profit leaders in the Middle East. From there she joined Ashoka Changemakers, where she mapped out and connected global networks of entrepreneurs, funders, and influencers. She later joined iStrategyLabs–a creative agency in Washington DC, where she helped lead digital products and campaigns for clients of all shapes and sizes.

From working with young social entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia, to mapping the refugee process with the U.S. Digital Service, to helping the Department of Veterans Affairs better understand the needs of Veterans and their families, Emily’s career has been spent focused on building practical and human-centered products, programs, and experiences for underserved populations. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Evan Feeney joined ColorofChange as a Media Justice Campaign Manager in May 2015. He has been helping to lead ColorOfChange’s work to combat government and police surveillance of Black people and Black-led movements. Evan and his team have been working on the FOIA Project for Safe Activism – a project to use freedom of information laws to further expose surveillance of movement for Black lives organizers and to provide organizers with tools to reduce law enforcement’s ability to surveil them. His anti-surveillance work also includes ongoing campaigns to rein in the warrantless use of ‘StingRay’ devices and to prevent the FBI from gaining a Privacy Act exemption for its massive, and racially biased, facial recognition database.

Evan Greer is the Campaign Director of Fight for the Future, the viral digital rights nonprofit best known for organizing massive online protests including the recent Internet Slowdown for net neutrality. She’s been a Boston-area activist since high school working on issues ranging from LGBTQ empowerment to freedom for Arab and Muslim political prisoners. Before becoming Fight for the Future’s Campaign Director, Evan toured internationally as a singer/songwriter and workshop facilitator, sharing stages with greats like Pete Seeger, The Coup, and Billy Bragg. Late historian Howard Zinn called her “an eloquent and energetic writer,” and she has had articles published in The Guardian, The Hill, and Huffington Post. Evan identifies as genderqueer, is the proud parent of a four year old, and lives in Jamaica Plain.

Hailing from the suburbs of Chicago and now based in Melbourne, Australia, Eyal is a former college campus activist turned Fortune 500 company management consultant, and now works as an ‘activist in a suit.’ He is the CEO of OurSay, which helps leaders level with their communities using easy-to-use technologies which meet people where they are. OurSay has partnered with Google, Youtube, ABC, SkyNews, Fairfax and Crikey and worked with Prime Ministers, State Premiers and Local Government to ensure people’s questions are answered and profiled at large in Australia, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Eyal is an Unreasonable Institute Fellow and 2009 Centre for Sustainability Leadership Fellow. OurSay has received a Crikey Media Innovation Award in 2011 and the International Association of Public Participation Core Values Award in 2013.