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.
Ryan Montoya is a technology and Internet strategist by vocation and rancher by avocation. He is the founder of two technology firms. He served as Trip Director for Elizabeth Edwards during the 2004 campaign and Director of Scheduling for vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman and Director of Advance (NH) for Vice President Gore during the 2000 campaign. He was a Presidential appointee in Clinton Administration. Ryan holds a master’s and bachelor’s degrees in International Relations/Security.
Sabrina Hersi Issa is an award-winning technologist focused on global advocacy and media innovation. She is the CEO of Be Bold Media, a digital agency focused on global advocacy that produces Relief Hack, a hackathon series to build and improve technology tools for humanitarian relief and Vanguard, a global donor engagement program. Sabrina is the co-founder of End Famine, a campaign to develop and invest in sustainable solutions to hunger, food security and humanitarian assistance. She co-directs New/s Disruptors, a project working to re-frame the narrative of digital disruption in journalism to champion the experiences and contributions of diverse voices. Sabrina also organizes Rights + Tech, a gathering for technologists and activists and runs Survivor Fund, a political fund dedicated to supporting the rights of survivors of sexualized violence. Previously, Sabrina was a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute where she worked on issues related to technology, human rights and humanitarian disasters. She has worked for Afghans for Civil Society, Oxfam America, NBC News and National Public Radio stations.
Sabrina sits on the board of directors of Exhale Pro-Voice, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Web of Change and the Project on Middle East Democracy.
Sam Seder is host of Air America Radio’s “The Majority Report” with Janeane Garofalo Monday through Friday, 7-10pm EST.
A New York based writer, director, actor, and talk-show host, Seder co- wrote, produced, directed, and acted in the feature length comedy Who’s the Caboose?, recently aired on the Trio Network. Seder also co- wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the Trio six-part mini-series sequel to Caboose, entitled Pilot Season.
Raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Seder’s interest in politics first manifested itself in a position serving the Worcester Charter Commission. He later interned in Washington for Congressman Brian Donnelly and was responsible for maintaining the Congressman’s supply of Busch beer and Merit Ultra Lights.
On Air America’s “Majority Report,” Sam co-hosts, with Markos Moulitsas, the weekly series “Fighting Dems,” which profiles military veterans running for Congress as Democrats. Seder is also the co-author, with Stephen Sherrill, of the upcoming HarperCollins book “FUBAR: America’s Right-Wing Nightmare.”
Samantha H. Simpson is a Product Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Her interest in using technology to help keep financial markets fair for the American people is what brought her to the CFPB. Previously, she was the Communications and Policy Manager at the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. Samantha was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, and is a proud graduate of The Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Spanish. In her free time, Samantha is involved in philanthropy efforts supporting urban communities.
Samidh Chakrabarti is Director of Product Management at Facebook where he focuses on enhancing civic engagement on the platform, including efforts to protect the integrity of elections. Before coming to Facebook, he was also the product lead for Google’s civic engagement initiative and was responsible for politics & elections features globally. Samidh has been working in the Civic Tech sector before it even had such a name, and holds graduate degrees in Public Policy from the University of Cambridge, in Modern History from the University of Oxford, and in Computer Science from MIT.
Ordonez currently serves as Outreach Manager for OpenITP, an organization that supports the community behind FLOSS anti-censorship, anti-surveillance, and humanitarian tech tools. Through her consultation business, Collaborative Nation, she provides organizations with collaborative management, community management, digital strategy and cross-cultural services and trainings. Currently, she is helping Journalism that Matters improve diversity in the newsroom, as well as increase the number of women in technology.
Recipient of the US Latino Award by the Spanish Government and Fundacion Carolina, which included a week to Spain to meet government and private leaders. Maynard Institute named her as one of 30 hispanics to celebrate for Hispanic Heritage Month in 2012. She was also nominated as a SXSW Revolucionaria 2013.
Previously, Ordonez served as Wikipedia’s first professional director of communications. She served on the Board of Joomla, one of the top three open source CMSs in the world, and was the director of Girls in Tech New York. A native New Yorker, she is bilingual in Spanish and an avid hiker.
Sanford Dickert has been crossing the line between politics and private industry for a number of years – leveraging online technology, word-of-mouth marketing and community building solutions to build higher-quality relationships between candidates and constituents. Sanford first exposure into politics in 2003, when he joined the John Kerry Presidential Campaign as the Chief Technology Officer where he lead the planning and implementation of the campaign’s internet technology, online voter relationship and contribution strategies during the primary season. After founding (Rawlings Political, Sanford has continued his work providing effective solutions for a number of Gubernatorial, Sentatorial and Congressional campaigns. In the commercial sector, he has worked with Fortune 500 firms, leading venture funds and promising start-ups through product marketing and development strategies to help investors and management teams better understand and execute on customer focused solutions through the effective use of technology and relationship marketing through his firm, Contagious Conversations.
Sanford holds a BSc in Computer and Electrical Engineering with Distinction from Purdue University and a Masters, Engineers and Doctorate (ABD) in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University where he was active in university and community governance for over eight years. An investor, board member and mentor of early stage companies in Europe and the US, Sanford is a frequent and sought after speaker on online community and network building and has been a guest lecturer at the CASS Business School in London, George Washington University and the Cooper Union in New York. He is currently an adjunct faculty member at The Cooper Union in New York City teaching product design and social dance and his thoughts on the future of relationship marketing in politics can be found Political Gastronomica and discusses social software and the impact on society at Social Engineer.
