Personal Democracy Forum

With a master’s from Columbia University in clinical social work and the crushing debt to prove it, Luna fell back on her sense of humor to survive on the mean streets of San Francisco. With a background in supporting schools and organizations with anti-bias training, Luna blends her passion for social justice and comedy together to challenge the notion of what’s impossible. She’s also the visionary behind EquiTable, a comedic app which explores the wage gap featured in acclaimed news sites across the world- from The Atlantic and Huffington Post to China News Daily and the London Telegraph. Never the type to shy away from subjects, she crafted Live Sex SF, a comedy talk-show exploring sex and relationships as a way to combine her debaucherously charming humor and her life-long love of sexology. A fixture in the stand-up scene, Luna performs regularly in comedy clubs across the country. She’s explores topics of sex and race as a writer for Fusion.net and is also an artist in residence at African American Arts and Culture Complex.

Luther Lowe joined Yelp in February 2008 and serves as the Director of Public Policy. In this role, he works to educate policy makers about the important role Yelp plays in connecting consumers with great local businesses. He meets often with policy makers across the U.S. and Europe and works closely with the different divisions within Yelp to develop and execute products and best practices that further speak to the needs of local businesses. Previously, Luther worked as a Special Assistant to retired General Wesley Clark. He holds a B.A. in government from The College of William & Mary.

Małgorzata Steiner is the head of the Department for Analysis and Public Communication in the Ministry of Administration and Digitization in Poland. Prior to this, she had worked in the Prime Minister’s Office in Poland on issues like administration reform and innovation. She also managed international projects for German Development Cooperation Agency GIZ in Berlin and was a leadership trainer and consultant in the USA. She’s a graduate of Humboldt University, Berlin, where she studied law, and Harvard University, where she studied public policy.

Malkia Amala Cyril grew up believing that “everyone deserves a public voice”.  With a mother that worked both as an editor of the Black Panther’s newspaper and as a long-time educator, Cyril recognized the power of media and culture work at an early age.  Today, Cyril is founder and Executive Director of the Center for Media Justice (CMJ) and co-founder of the Media Action Grassroots Network, national network of 175 organization working to ensure media access, rights, and representation for marginalized communities.  A prolific writer and public speaker, Cyril’s articles and quotes– on issues from Net Neutrality to the communication rights of prisoners to new strategic communications approaches– have appeared in Politico, the Huffington Post, Essence Magazine, and dozens more, including documentaries including Outfoxed, Broadcast Blues, and MissRepresentation. Cyril is Prime Movers fellow and in 2012 received the prestigious Donald H. McGannon Award for work to advance the roles of women and people of color in the media reform movement.

Manu Kabahizi is the emerging tech strategist at Purpose. Manu brings more than a decade of experience working on various mobile application projects in areas of governance, public health and agriculture across Africa.

He has worked as a researcher and technology specialists with such organizations as the International Institute for Sustainable Development, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and National Democratic Institute. His work has been published by the UN and the Occupy movement. In his 12 year career in technology, Manu has worked on various mobile application projects in areas of civic engagement, public health and agriculture. Some of his work has been published by the UN while others have been showcased by the Occupy movement. For the last six months Manu has coordinated implementation of the tech infrastructure for the Rules, a movement challenging structural causes of poverty, and has overseen design and development of CrowdRing, a platform designed especially for activists in emerging economies.

He was born in Rwanda and graduated from the University of Cape Town, where he was one of the first black graduates from their prestigious computer science department.

Marc Smith is a sociologist specializing in the social organization of online communities and computer mediated interaction. Smith leads the Connected Action consulting group and lives and works in Silicon Valley, California.  Smith co-founded and directs the Social Media Research Foundation (http://www.smrfoundation.org/), a non-profit devoted to open tools, data, and scholarship related to social media research.

Smith is the co-editor with Peter Kollock of Communities in Cyberspace (Routledge), a collection of essays exploring the ways identity; interaction and social order develop in online groups. Along with Derek Hansen and Ben Shneiderman, he is the co-author and editor of Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a connected world, from Morgan-Kaufmann which is a guide to mapping connections created through computer-mediated interactions.

Marci Harris is co-founder and CEO of POPVOX, the award-winning online advocacy platform that meshes real-time legislative data with users’ personal stories and sentiment in a format optimized for Congress.

She jokes that her “first startup was a town.” In 2004, an F4 tornado struck her town of Jackson, Tennessee, the night before an election for which she was running the campaign of the incumbent mayor. He directed her to “find out what people need and get it,” which led to a position as Tornado Recovery Coordinator for the long process that followed.

This taste of public service led her to law school and eventually to the LL.M. program at American University, where she specialized in administrative law, with internships for the U.S. Attorney in Memphis, Chief Judge of the West TN U.S. District Court, and the House Ways and Means Committee.

In 2007, she became Tax, Trade, and Health Counsel to Pete Stark and managed Medicare program integrity and transparency issues for the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee.

She left the Hill in February 2010 to co-found POPVOX, which won the SxSW BizSpark Accelerator startup competition in 2011 and was named one of seven Top Open Government Websites by Read Write Web. Marci serves on the board of LaunchTN, public-private partnership focused on supporting the development of entrepreneurship and high-growth companies in Tennessee. She is also a mentor at the Code for America Accelerator in San Francisco.

I live and work in Warsaw, where I am a PHD candidate at Institute of Philosophy at Warsaw University. My research is concentrated on new media and human collaboration from perspective of social philosophy. I am also an activist working in formal and informal organisations: Modern Poland Foundation, which struggles for development of free cultural commons, digital user rights, freedom of speech and communication; Mokotów Food Cooperative, which I’m an initiator, and a Cargo Bike Cooperative there I’m a participant. Currently I’m working on Net Research Net – a research organisation focused on digital rights in perspective of critical philosophy and anthropology. Besides my interest in Philosophy I hold a MSc in Computer Science.

Marco Nunez is a public affairs specialist and recovering campaign operative with over ten years experience in developing and managing political and issue advocacy campaigns at the state and national levels. Marco is currently the Vice President of Marketing for advocacy software startup RAP Index. Marco’s political experience includes the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign, the Republican National Committee, Schwarzenegger’s 2006 re-elect and the 2008 Presidential campaign of Senator John McCain. Marco also served as a strategic data and digital media advisor to several campaigns throughout the 2010 cycle.

Marcus lives in Munich and has spent most of his professional life working on “digital openness” topics. He is a co-founder and board member of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany and a principal consultant for OKF in the UK. Before, he was for roughly three years an IT strategist for the City of Munich where he designed and led Germany’s first Open Government/Open Data project called MOGDy (which won an EPSA best practice award). As a researcher, he worked intensively on software patents and open source software (PhD). Since then, he has been running his own lecture on “digital sustainability” at ETH Zurich. Find more on his slightly neglected blog at www.digisus.info.

Marcus Ferrell served as African American Outreach Director for Bernie Sanders 2016 and currently works as a political consultant for Propellant Digital Media where he directs candidates on targeting and constituency messaging. Marcus has managed and worked as a General Consultant on progressive political campaigns across the country on the local, state, and federal levels. Considering himself as a community mobilizer first, Marcus has organized against Florida’s Stand Your Ground laws, the ‘Free Marissa Alexander’ movement, and multiple actions against police shootings of unarmed black men around the nation. His focus on political empowerment lead him to working as a facilitator of the 2014 Congressional Black Caucus Institute Boot-camp where 10 graduates went on to win elections in their respective areas the following year. Born and raised in Tallahassee Florida, Marcus attended Florida A&M University and is a veteran of the U.S. Navy.

Marek Tuszynski is a restless producer of various creative and social interventions spanning various media: radio, television and internet, as well as analogue formats such as workshops, book sprints and endless conversations. Activism, innovation and creativity are major driving forces in his work, as much as the importance of marginalised voices, opinions and world views. He has co-founded a number of initiatives and organisations, such as The Second Hand Bank, International Contemporary Art Network, Tactical Tech and recently Tactical Studios. Marek is currently focusing on using visual formats in representing evidence to influence the course of social and political issues, while also working on the next documentary film for Tactical Tech, along with other animations. In his spare time he produces a radio program titled Love & Chaos on Reboot FM.

Mariana Ruiz Firmat is the Kairos Fellowship Director. Mariana has over fifteen years of experience as a community organizer and digital campaigner. She helped co-found the Kairos Fellowship along with Jackie Mahendra and others while serving as Managing Director of Presente.org. She launched her digital campaigning career at MoveOn.org where she was Deputy Field Director before joining the digital campaigning team. Mariana currently sits on the WebofChange Board. She also provides digital strategy support to criminal justice and immigrant rights organizations. Mariana has spent most of her career working on racial justice issues, immigrant rights, and ending violence against migrant women. She is also an essayist and poet and lives in Brooklyn, NY.