Mission and Team

Board

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  John Schwartz (President)

  Founder, Voqal

  John has a long background in conventional media, dating to his start in community radio.   He founded Free Speech TV, the country's leading progressive television network. He also founded a group of organizations known as Voqal that provides low-cost wireless broadband service to schools and non-profit organizations. Voqal is also known for its grants program, including funding that seeded New Media Ventures.

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  Daaiyah Bilal-Threats

  Senior Director for Education Policy, NEA

  Daaiyah Bilal-Threats is a labor, social justice and public education advocate who currently serves as the Senior Director for Education Policy at the National Education Association (NEA), America's largest labor union.

  For over 20 years Daaiyah has played a critical role in helping build and secure policy advances and programs that make our schools stronger and our political system more democratic. She has advised movement leaders, run winning political campaigns, championed the cause of quality public education internationally and has helped lead some of the progressive movement’s most important organizations.

  As policy lead for the nation’s most powerful union, she currently oversees NEA’s research; health and safety program; international affairs; and its policy development and advocacy arms with a focus on domestic and international education policy. In previous NEA roles she led NEA’s philanthropic giving and strategic alliance programs: bringing in external funding to enhance signature NEA programs and facilitating NEA’s strategic engagement with more than 100 key national and international partners. In 2020 she built NEA’s largest-ever independent political campaign, highlighting educators as trusted members of every community. This campaign helped create the conditions necessary to elect a new U.S. president as well as numerous federal and state candidates that supported worker rights, racial and social justice, unions, and public education.

  She has worked in large-scale social change her entire career beginning with the World Wildlife Fund, American Red Cross, and the Health Information Network.

  She has served in leadership positions with numerous progressive political and civic organizations. She currently serves in leadership roles with the Color of Change PAC, the American Prospect Magazine, New Media Ventures, Partnership for the Future of Learning, and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

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  Sandor Straus

  President, Firedoll Foundation

  Sandor Straus is the Managing Member of Tigmera, LLC and President of the Firedoll Foundation.

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  Cheryl Contee

  CEO, Impact Seat Foundation

  Cheryl Contee is The Impact Seat Foundation’s CEO and award-winning Founder & Chair of the mission-driven digital agency Do Big Things. Cheryl is the Amazon bestselling author of Mechanical Bull: How You Can Achieve Startup Success. Passionate about creating new tech and new narrative for a new era, Cheryl uses her vast experience in startup entrepreneurship and community engagement to lead our portfolio companies and funds to success, provide resources for underrepresented founders, and build the new economy.

  Previously, Cheryl was CEO of Fission Strategy, which brought Silicon Valley startup culture to the world’s leading causes and campaigns. She’s the co-founder of Attentive.ly, the first tech startup with a black female founder to be acquired by a NASDAQ company, the National Board Chair for Netroots Nation, a Senior Advisor for Astia and the first portfolio company board member of New Media Ventures.

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  Carlissia Graham

  Carlissia previously served as President of New Media Ventures, drawing from over 15 years of experience in politics and social advocacy as well as firsthand experience as a serial entrepreneur. As an investor and strategist working at the intersections of media, tech, and democracy, she is a fierce advocate for impactful innovation that serves the public.

  Her work centers on getting capital to people who are reimagining and building a greater future as evidenced by a thriving democracy, responsible tech ecosystem, and equal capital opportunities for underinvested communities.

  Carlissia previously held multiple senior-level positions in the U.S. government democratizing access to publicly-funded technology, creating pathways to public service for underrepresented communities, and directing billions in capital investments in public-tech infrastructure.

  Alongside her work at New Media Ventures, she sits on several investment committees and actively counsels founders as they navigate the startup journey. She is a native of Memphis, TN, and is deeply invested in pro-democracy efforts in the US South.

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  Dawn Laguens

  EVP and Chief of Global Strategy & Innovation at Planned Parenthood

  In her role, Dawn oversees strategy, innovation, insights, digital products, and PP Global. She is an Expert in Residence at IDEO and a co-founder of Billion Girls Co-Lab, a girl-driven global R&D platform to strengthen long-term health and economic outcomes for women and girls. Dawn is a CLIO award-winning writer/director and is regularly recognized as one of America’s most creative and impactful leaders. She has championed the use of emerging technology throughout her career and personally led the production of Across the Line, an award-winning virtual reality experience that was featured at the Sundance Film Festival.

  From 2011-2018, Dawn was the Chief Brand Officer of PPFA and PPAF. Her leadership cut across the entirety of the organization—building a world-class women’s healthcare brand alongside overseeing the daily advocacy, communications, policy, litigation, and political work. Under her leadership, PP celebrated its Centennial; trained thousands of young diverse leaders; extended digital products and analytics capabilities; enabled innovative communications and content partnerships; and championed a race equity orientation and intersectional approach to the work. During her tenure, Planned Parenthood was recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies and their base of supporters grew from 3 million to 12 million people.

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  Ross Morales Rocketto

  Co-Founder of Run for Something

  Ross has spent 20 years in electoral politics having worked for candidates from school board to President. He’s spent the last six years scaling Run for Something (RFS), an organization that recruits and supports progressive, diverse, young people running for down-ballot office. Since launching on inauguration day 2017, RFS has worked with over 150,000 potential candidates, made over 3,000 endorsements, and helped elect over 1,000 candidates.

  Ross got his start in electoral politics working for former HUD Secretary Julian Castro's first campaign for Mayor and Congressman Joaquin Castro’s state legislative races. In 2003 he organized in Oklahoma for John Edwards and in the 2008 cycle worked in Iowa for Governor Bill Richardson's presidential campaign. He managed Wendy Carrillo's congressional campaign in California and in 2016 was a senior advisor for digital and technology with For Our Future, a multi-million dollar SuperPAC that does field and organizing work in swing states. Recently, Ross launched the White Dudes for Harris coalition group, leveraging media to organize in critical battleground states.

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  Nile Johnson

  Founder, Labyrinth Consulting Lab

  Nile currently leads a consulting company designed to tackle challenges related to trust, safety, and technology policy for entrepreneurs, technologists, researchers, and civil society. She began her career as a Team Leader with AmeriCorps, followed by service in the Obama White House, on Capitol Hill, and as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State where she focused on trade and economic policy in Sub-Saharan Africa and Western Europe.

  After joining a political campaign, Nile launched into tech where she worked for ThousandEyes, Inc., a network intelligence company, and for JUUL Labs, Inc. building its first corporate responsibility and trust program. At Google, Nile was a core member of its inaugural Global Elections Integrity team under the Trust and Safety organization where she drove company-wide global elections strategy across a host of product areas. She also initiated the first trust and safety program at the Institute for Security and Technology as the Senior Director for Applied Trust and Safety. Nile has previously held board directorships with Hearken, Inc. and Marketplace Risk.

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  Eddy Morales

  Gresham City Council Member

  A small business owner and community organizer, Eddy has spent the last 20 years working for multiple local and national organizations dedicated to community change. He’s served on Gresham City Council since 2019 and was voted council president in 2021 and 2022.

  While at the Democracy Alliance, Eddy Morales served as Director of the Latino Engagement Fund, a collaborative effort between over 60 individual philanthropists, progressive institutions, and foundations of all sizes to drive resources and strategies that increase the political power of the growing Latino population. Before that, Eddy was the Deputy Director of Voto Latino and the Deputy Director of Leadership Development at the Center for Community Change, where he launched a development program to recruit and nurture low-income community organizers of color into community-based organizations.

  He is the founder and co-chair of the University of Oregon Latino Alumni Association, Treasurer of the Democratic Party of Oregon, founder of East County Rising, and serves on the boards of the Community Catalyst Action Fund, Midwest Academy, Oregon Coalition for Common Sense, Battleground Texas, Code for Progress and Justice Matters Press.