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Blogger Bios

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  View all posts Kristen Taylor

  Kristen Taylor is the Digital Content and Community Manager for PopTech, and she lives in Brooklyn. Besides connecting the intelligent readers of this blog, she plans to build on her previous experience at PBS working on Engage and the Knight Foundation launching Knight Pulse for the PopTech Hub. Frequently found at farmers’ markets, she writes about food and culture on her personal blog, kthread.com, and her research focuses on niche networks of participation with food, currency, and shelter

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  View all posts Rachel Barenblat

  Rachel Barenblat has been blogging since 2003 as the Velveteen Rabbi. She’s a student in the ALEPH rabbinic program and a contributing editor at Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture. Author of three poetry chapbooks, she lives in western Massachusetts with her husband Ethan Zuckerman; they’re expecting their first child in December.

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  View all posts Michelle Riggen-Ransom

  Michelle Riggen-Ransom is a writer who focuses on social media, technology, nature, parenting and increasingly, the intersection of those topics. She is also co-founder and Communications Director for BatchBlue Software, which makes online tools for small businesses. Having lived at various times in Boston, London, Rome, Florida, Los Angeles and Seattle, Michelle currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island with her husband and their two budding naturalist/techies.

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  View all posts Andrew Zolli

  Andrew Zolli is a well-known expert in global foresight and innovation, studying the complex trends at the intersection of technology, sustainability and global society that are shaping our future. He is widely recognized as a writer, thinker, commentator and speaker on futures-related topics. As Pop!Tech’s Curator, Andrew develops the program, theme, speakers, content and the structure of Pop!Tech’s conferences, and has co-led the development of Pop!Tech’s social-innovation-related programs. Andrew also serves as a Fellow of the National Geographic Society. His work and ideas have appeared in a wide array of media outlets, including PBS, the New York Times, National Public Radio, Fast Company, American Demographics, Popular Science, and many others.

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  View all posts Ethan Zuckerman

  Ethan Zuckerman is a senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. His research focuses on the distribution of attention in mainstream and new media, the use of technology for international development, and the use of new media technologies by activists.

  With Rebecca MacKinnon, Ethan co-founded international blogging community Global Voices. Global Voices showcases news and opinions from citizen media in over 150 nations and thirty languages, publishing editions in twenty languages.

  In 2000, Ethan founded Geekcorps, a technology volunteer corps that sends IT specialists to work on projects in developing nations, with a focus on West Africa. Previously Ethan helped found Tripod.com, one of the web’s first “personal publishing” sites. He blogs at http://ethanzuckerman.com/blog and lives in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts, USA with his wife and a small, fluffy cat.

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  View all posts Marcia Stepanek

  Marcia Stepanek is Founding Editor-in-Chief of Contribute Media, a New York-based magazine, website, and conference series about the new people and ideas of giving. She also is publisher of Cause Global, an
  acclaimed new blog about the new media trends and the use of social media in social advocacy. She also blogs for the Stanford Social Innovation Review and justmeans.com. Ms. Stepanek has received a variety of awards for her work, including a George Polk award for consumer journalism, a National Press Club award for Washington correspondence, a New York Newswomens’ Club Front Page award for internet commentary, and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Ms. Stepanek, who has covered the evolution of the internet and its impacton society, commerce, and the workplace since 1994, is a frequent speaker on the subject of social media and new trends in philanthropy, and she moderates and produces New Conversations for Change, a Manhattan forum series highlighting social entrepreneurs and innovation in social change advocacy.

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  View all posts Marie-Claire Meisels
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  View all posts Tim Leberecht

  Tim Leberecht is the VP of Marketing and Communications at frog design, the global innovation firm that has helped Apple, GE, HP, Sony, and many other leading brands create and bring to market groundbreaking products and services.

  Previously, Tim was the head of corporate communications with Mindjet Corporation, a provider of enterprise productivity software. Prior to Mindjet, he served as press chief for the Athens 2004 International Olympic Torch Relay, in marketing communications for Deutsche Telekom, and in an interactive marketing agency in Berlin. He started his professional career as a musician.

  Tim writes the iPlot blog and is a member of the CNET blog network. He has been published and quoted in a number of publications and has spoken about marketing, innovation, and design at conferences in the US, Europe, and Asia.

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  View all posts Nathan Shafer
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  View all posts Cordelia Newlin de Rojas

  Cordelia Newlin de Rojas is PopTech’s Senior Eco-Initiatives Advisor. Cordelia brings to PopTech an eclectic background ranging from Japanese Art and Postal History auctions to pondering all manners of working life at The Work Foundation. It was during a brief stint rigging dinghies and windsurfers in Turkey, picking up yet another syringe and prophylactic washed up from a southern swell, that she heard her calling to become an advocate for issues of environmental degradation and inequality. Her background is in environmental sciences and she is passionate about water and climate change.

  When not at her own desk, she can generally be found crawling under her coworkers’ desks, shutting off their power strips and pilfering their rubbish for recyclables.

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  View all posts Beth Cohen

  Beth Cohen is PopTech’s Director of Media Production.

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  View all posts Ashni Mohnot

  Ashni grew up in Bombay and studied at Stanford University. She is director of education for Stanford’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, which hosts the world’s largest collection of King documents. She also works for Mobile Metrix and directs Gumball University, an online portal to learn about social entrepreneurship and microfinance.

  She is developing her own award-winning venture to eliminate the financial barrier to education through future income loans. Besides international development, social entrepreneurship, and fiction, she is interested in innovation, design, Silicon Valley startups, and emerging web technologies, specifically their application to advance the citizen sector.

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  View all posts Frank Gruber

  Frank Gruber is co-founder of Shiny Heart Ventures which just launched Thankfulfor.com, an online gratitude journal community. Frank is a product strategist and evangelist for AOL’s AIM product. He is known for his analysis on Web 2.0, social media and emerging technologies as he has offered his “somewhat frank” opinion for a number of publications including TechCrunch, Somewhat Frank, Read Write Web Network and TECH cocktail. Frank co-founded TECH cocktail, helping to build entrepreneurial communities and is also Frank has been featured in a number of publications as an industry expert and speaks at conferences nationwide. He consults businesses in social networking/media and entrepreneurship. Frank has been featured in articles in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, CNet, Wired, Chicago Sun-Times, TechCrunch, GigaOm and Read/Write Web, among others. You can find Frank on Twitter @frankgruber (http://twitter.com/frankgruber)

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  View all posts Mark Rembert and Taylor Stuckert

  Taylor and Mark co-founded Energize Clinton County in 2008 as a grassroots movement and community center for sustainable economic development. The sudden departure of a major employer forced the area surrounding Wilmington, Ohio to confront either collapse, or reinvention. Leading the effort that established the city as the country’s first Green Enterprise Zone, Energize Clinton County has transformed the crisis into an opportunity to become a model and testing ground for technologies and development strategies that will lead America’s economy through the 21st century.

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  View all posts Leetha Filderman

  Leetha Filderman is the Director of the PopTech Accelerator and the PopTech Fellows program.

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  View all posts Heather Fleming

  Heather Fleming is a co-founder and Director of Catapult Design, a product and technology firm that serves developing world markets. Catapult Design’s clients are organizations working in impoverished communities with technology needs – including rural electrification, water purification and transport, food security, and health.

  Before starting Catapult, she worked more than five years as a product design consultant in Silicon Valley, designing for a diverse range of clients. She also co-founded and led a volunteer group focused on developing world design, connecting to her a variety of NGOs in developing nations.

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  View all posts Erik Hersman

  Erik is the co-founder of Ushahidi (which means “testimony” in Swahili), a website created to map the reported incidents of violence happening during the post-election crisis in Kenya. Currently, he is working with a team of mostly-African programmers to use what they have learned from building Ushahidi to create a free and open source engine that makes it easier to crowdsource crisis information and visualize data.

  Erik Hersman is also the founder of AfriGadget, a multi-author website that showcases stories of Africans solving everyday problems with little more than their creativity and ingenuity. Fascinated by micro-entrepreneurs, gadgets and improvisation, he is proving that technology is changing Africa – daily.

  Raised in Sudan and Kenya, Erik brings unique energy and insight to the world of technology and innovation – bridging the gap between Africa and Silicon Valley. An avid blogger Erik writes two different technology blogs including: AfriGadget and WhiteAfrican. One dedicated to low-tech African ingenuity, and the other to high-tech mobile and web changes happening throughout Africa.

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  View all posts Bruce Sullivan

  Bruce Sullivan, Green Building Consultant with the Earth Advantage, Inc., has been involved in energy efficient construction since 1983. He has worked for the Oregon State University Extension Service, Eugene Water & Electric Board and Iris Communications, Inc. In 1996, he established Oikos.com, one of the world’s first web sites dedicated to green building. In 2006, Bruce’s personal high-performance residence, built by SunTerra Homes, was honored with the NAHB Research Center’s EnergyValue Housing Award and the NAHB Green Building Award. Bruce is based in Earth Advantage’s Bend office. He can be reached at bsullivan@earthadvantage.org.

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  View all posts Andrew Pratt

  Andrew Plemmons Pratt is the Managing Editor for ScienceProgress.org, an online magazine designed to improve public understanding of science and technology and to showcase progressive ideas about the ways in which government and citizens can leverage research and innovation for the common good. His work on Science Progress bridges the gap between policy development and communication, packaging policy ideas with traditional and new media tools and communicating them to diverse audiences. His original work with web technologies included building digital humanities projects and designing websites for arts and advocacy organizations at the University of Virginia. He holds an MA in English from U.Va. and a BA from U.Va. in English and American Studies. He is a member of the 2010 Teach for America corps in the D.C. region.

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  View all posts Colleen Kaman

  Colleen Kaman is a media producer and researcher focused on cross-platform storytelling, technology, and social change. She is currently a media consultant for PopTech.

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  View all posts Emily Troutman

  Emily Troutman is a writer and photographer whose work focuses on global humanitarian issues. She was recently named United Nations Citizen Ambassador. Follow her on Twitter: @emilytroutman.

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  View all posts Deb Levine

  Deb founded ISIS – Internet Sexuality Information Services – in 2001 to build better tools to promote sexual health and prevent disease. Using the web, mobile phones and mash-ups, ISIS gives people private, convenient and accurate access to information on today’s major health issues, from HIV prevention to unplanned pregnancies to access to healthcare. ISIS is creating the latest and best ways to help youth and adults lead safe, healthy and fulfilled lives.

  Watch her PopTech presentation

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  View all posts Kat Johnson

  Kat Johnson is Program Coordinator for the national team at Common Ground, whose mission is to end homelessness.

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  View all posts Joshua J. Friedman

  Joshua J. Friedman is a writer in New York City. He is a former editor of The Atlantic and Boston Review.

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  View all posts Wil Keenan

  Wil Keenan heads up communications and technology at Global Citizen Year. He is based in San Francisco, California. Interests include entrepreneurship, cooking, kite flying, photography, music and travel.

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  View all posts Laura Hertzfeld

  Laura Hertzfeld is a Los Angeles-based writer, editor and producer who’s an expert in helping organizations like PBS and NPR develop their web strategies and organize content for a wide range of audiences. She is currently managing editor of EconomyStory.org, a public media project about how communities are coping with the economic crisis. Laura spent 2008 covering the presidential election for PBS and producing their election project, pbs.org/vote2008. Prior to going into public media, Laura was a senior editor at Yahoo! News, managing a team of editors and planning coverage of major news events. As a reporter, Laura has covered business and lifestyle topics for various outlets, including NPR, Platts, Los Angeles Magazine, SiTV.com and Premiere. Laura holds a degree in history from Barnard College, Columbia University.

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  View all posts Derek Lomas

  The Playpower Foundation was created in 2008 to foster development of affordable, effective and fun learning games for under-privileged children around the world. Motivated by the availability of ultra-low-cost computers, Playpower has cultivated a global network of developers, designers, academics, NGOs and businesses to participate in the research, development and distribution of learning games that will help bring education to children in Bottom-of-the-Pyramid settings.

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  View all posts Andre Blackman

  Andre Blackman is an agent of change and innovation within the public health community. He is very passionate about the role of new media, mobile technology and other useful innovations as it relates to health communications and public health in general – resulting in Public Health 2.0. Andre feels that public health and new media are focused on the people, so there should be parallels to how they both interact.

  Andre’s background has involved work with science and technology organizations, health nonprofits and traditional public relations. Through his consulting/advising vehicle, Pulse + Signal, Andre aims to educate and provide strategy for public health focused organizations and projects who want to make use of the new social interactive landscape and innovative opportunities.

  You can find his thoughts on public health and innovation through his blog, Pulse + Signal and via Twitter