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.
Mecole Jordan is Executive Director of the United Congress of Community of Religious Organizations (UCCRO), a Chicago-based grassroots-led multiethnic human rights alliance mobilizing people, policy and ideals for the equitable advancement of marginalized communities. She previously served as Coordinator of the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability.
Jordan graduated from Western Illinois University with a BA in Organizational Communication and Masters of Science degree in Human Resource Management at Capella University. She began her non-profit career volunteering to reduce the criminalization of individuals with drug addiction. She also provided direct oversight for a reentry program providing comprehensive wraparound support for the formerly incarcerated, as well as violence prevention programs. Mecole began working with UCCRO in 2010 as a member the advocacy team and trainer on racial equity, and has led conventions and annual retreats, organized providers and parents around equitable State budgets, and led a coalition group focused on police accountability. Mecole resides in the Chicago area suburbs with her 3-year-old daughter.
Megan joined CampaignGrid in February 2010 as a Campaign Manager. Prior to joining CampaignGrid, Megan worked as a program manager at AOL where she was responsible for ensuring optimal monetization of key AOL.com placements and increasing advertising sales by identifying and addressing unsold inventory. Megan also worked closely with the Time Warner Corporate Communications Group on their nonprofit initiatives. While in college, Megan worked as an intern for MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews during the 2nd Inauguration of President George W. Bush. Megan is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she majored in Marketing and Management and was a member and captain of the Field Hockey team.
Merrill Brown is the founder and principal of MMB Media LLC, which provides clients with management and strategy consulting, corporate, editorial and program development, business analysis and marketing services. Since the founding of MMB Media, clients have ranged from companies in the news, information and wireless businesses to a large foundation. Brown was recently appointed National Editorial Director of News for the 21st Century: Incubators of New Ideas (News 21), part of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.
Before establishing the firm, Brown served as Senior Vice President, RealOne Services from August 2002 through August 2003 and was responsible for all facets of the RealOne programming business including programming, subscription sales, marketing, advertising sales and technology.
Brown became the first Editor in Chief of MSNBC.com in August 1996 after serving as acting managing editor for the July launch of the service. During his tenure, the fledgling company grew to become one of the most visited news offerings on the Web, maintaining a position as the No. 1 online news provider since 1999. Prior to joining MSNBC in May 1996, Brown was a media and communications consultant whose work included strategic development work at Time Inc., NBC, U S West and a score of other media ventures (1995-96).
Brown was one of the initial strategists responsible for creating the Courtroom Television Network (Court TV). As a founder of the cable network, Brown worked on all facets of the network’s operation leading up to its July 1991 launch. As senior vice president, corporate & program development, he oversaw program planning, advertising, promotion, marketing, public relations and development of day-to-day management of the cable network (1990-1994).
Brown was associated with the Washington Post from 1979 to 1985, serving as a financial reporter (1979-1982), New York financial correspondent (1982-1984) and director of business development, Washington Post Company (1984-1985). Brown has also made numerous television appearances, including the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (1980-1990), as a regular media analyst for CNBC and FNN (1988-1990) and on dozens of other major broadcast and cable news programs. Brown serves on the boards of Backfence.com, Smashing Ideas, Inc., the Center for Citizen Media, Nowpublic.com ,The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, the International Women’s Media Foundation, The Media Center, a division of the American Press Institute, and the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
Mia Birdsong is a family and community visionary who has spent more than 20 years fighting for the self-determination, and pointing out the brilliant adaptations, of everyday people. As Co-Director of Family Story, she is updating this nation’s outdated picture of the family in America (hint: rarely 2.5 kids and two heterosexual parents living behind a white picket fence). She is a Senior Fellow at the Economic Security Project, where she is expanding the current universal basic income movement to include perspectives and leadership from communities experiencing economic and racial injustice. Previously, Mia was the Vice President of the Family Independence Initiative, an organization that leverages the power of data and stories to illuminate and accelerate the initiative low-income families take to improve their lives. She has spent time organizing to abolish prisons, teaching teenagers about sex and drugs, interviewing literary luminaries like Edwidge Danticat, David Foster Wallace, and John Irving, and attending births as a midwifery apprentice. Mia is a graduate of Oberlin College, an inaugural Ascend Fellow of The Aspen Institute, and a New America California Fellow. She sits on the Board of Directors of Forward Together and the North Oakland Community Charter School. She lives and dreams big in Oakland, California.
At MSHC Partners, no small measure of pride is taken in the fact that each member of our team boasts some unique and/or odd skill. However, when Michael Bassik came to us in 2004 he brought with him the unique distinction as being the first – and probably only – member of our staff to have ever appeared on stage at Carnegie Hall (making his New York City debut playing viola with his high school orchestra). In fact, Michael came to MSHC Partners possessing a wealth of unique skills – singing, dancing, sleeping late – that we have yet to figure out what to do with.
In the meantime, Michael is MSHC Partners’ Vice President of Internet Advertising and oversees the creation and development of our online banner, blog, and search engine advertising. A true political junkie who got his first fix accompanying his parents to the polls, Michael comes to us from America Online, Inc., where had directed political advertising strategy since the 2000 election cycle.
MSHC Partners was the first traditional consulting firm to successfully offer Internet marketing services to political clients. Under Michael’s leadership, MSHC has executed more than one hundred different online ad campaigns and delivered over 1.5 billion impressions on behalf of advocacy and non-profit organizations, and candidates at all levels of the ballot, including John Kerry and the Democratic National Committee. MSHC currently boasts more than fifty percent market share of the entire online political advertising industry.
A native of Great Neck, NY, Michael graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (where he was the student body president in his senior year) and has worked for some of the most powerful figures in media and politics, including President Clinton and former New York Times Editor-in-Chief Howell Raines. He is currently a third year law student at American University’s Washington College of Law and is a Senior Contributing Producer to PoliticsTV.com.
Throughout his career Michael Gordon has worked closely with leaders in politics, business and the non-profit sector. Previously Michael served in the Clinton Administration as spokesperson for Attorney General Janet Reno. He also was retained by the Democratic National Committee as a consultant to the 2004 Kerry-Edwards campaign and to the Democratic ticket. He was also an advisor to the 1992 and 1996 Clinton-Gore campaigns. Michael has consulted for many of the world’s leading companies and non-profit organizations, including Citibank, The New York Jets, AOL, Motorola, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the New York Public Library, the Markle Foundation, HP and others. An attorney, Michael earned JD and MBA degrees from Columbia University and his BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Michael Khoo brings in-depth experience in strategic communication for organizations focused on technology and democracy, women’s issues, health and the environment. He specializes in digital strategy, campaign and communications planning, and media relations. His clients at Spitfire have included the Ford Foundation, Media Democracy Foundation, Mozilla, Center for Employment Opportunities, Polaris Project, UN Foundation, Open Society Foundation, and Running Strong for American Indian Youth. He has blogged on Mobilization Lab, E-Politics, Frogloop and Role-Reboot, and has produced two award-winning documentary films, Weathering Change and Empty-Handed.