Thanks to recent support from the McGovern Foundation and Good Energies,and growing partnerships in new locations including Brazil, Sub-SaharanAfrica and Southeast Asia, the Digital Democracy team is expanding. Weare thrilled to welcome the following folks onto our team, includinglong-time collaborators who have stepped into new roles, and new peoplewhose diverse backgrounds and experiences are already enriching ourwork.
First, a heartfelt hello and welcome to Sabella Flagg, Dd'snew UX designer who brings more than a decade of experience working on designfor leading technology companies and innovation groups. Sabella joined our teamwith a passion for designing for positive social impact, and challenging thegatekeeping in traditional tech projects. We're thrilled to have Sabella's keeneye focused on improving our design and user experience across our technologystack. In addition to her work as a designer, Sabella is a talented artistcreating work under the moniker the monarq. She isbased in Seattle, Washington.
Bon bini to Rudo Kemper, a long-time friend of Digital Democracywho has joined our team to lead the Earth Defenders Toolkit, and support mapping andenvironmental monitoring initiatives with new and existing partners, includingin Kenya and Ecuador. Rudo is a geographer and technologist who brings years ofexperience working with Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in Surinameand the Guiana Shield, and most recently worked with Amazon Conservation Team,with whom Dd is partnering on the Earth Defenders Toolkit. He is a steward of Terrastories, an open-source geostorytelling application which is one of the core toolsfeatured in the toolkit. He is based in Springfield, Virginia.
Bem-vinda and bon retou (welcome back!) to Emilie Reiser,who led Digital Democracy's Haiti program from 2010 to 2013, and helped kick offour work in the Amazon before leaving to join the MIT Media Lab's Center forCivic Media. There, she worked for 4 years on a collaborative data collectionplatform with Brazilian partners. She is now splitting duties as a carpenterwith a Design Build firm, and is leading Digital Democracy's work in Brazil,including user research with partners and building curriculum with Brazilianyouth group Engajamundo. She is based in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Welcome to Lisbet Portman, a writer and educator who has spentthe past decade working on addiction policy and criminal justice reform, andbrings a passion for both humans and ecosystems. Lisbet began working with us inthe spring, helping produce our Technology Solidarity blog series, and hasjoined our Program team to support our internal project management, monitoringand evaluation, and how we communicate our story with external audiences. She isbased in Washington, DC.
And, finally, benvingudaMar Cartro Sabatetró Sabaté, an environmentalscientist with deep experience in community-engaged research, premised uponparticipatory and collaborative methodologies. We learned of Mar through herwork with Dd's partner ISS (the Institute of Social Studies, Netherlands) andIndigenous communities in northern Peru, where Dd has worked since 2013. Herresearch shows how Indigenous monitoring programs in the Peruvian Amazon canpush the frontiers of scientific knowledge while contributing to defendingIndigenous territories from the pervasive impacts of oil extraction, and we arethrilled to have her expertise in support of our Programs team and direct workwith partners in South America and Sub-Saharan Africa. She is based inBarcelona, Catalonia, Spain.