The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is pleased to announce the Spring 2025 cohort of Shorenstein Fellows.
Shorenstein Fellows join the center for a semester or year of research, events, and engagement with HKS students, faculty, and the wider university community. This semester’s fellows range from technologists and entrepreneurs to political strategists, online content creators, and journalists. Despite their varied backgrounds, each of our fellows will be examining our Information Ecosystem from their own unique perspectives.
Spring 2025 Shorenstein Fellows:
Louis Barclay | Joan Shorenstein Fellow
Louis Barclay is a software developer and tech activist who was banned and legally threatened by Meta in 2021 for creating Unfollow Everything, a tool to delete users’ news feeds, leading to a major lawsuit last year. Barclay is also the founder of Nudge, an open source project to give people more control over what they see online. Barclay campaigns for tech platform transparency through projects like RIPCrowdTangle.com, and investigates Big Tech power and the impact of AI on information at his blog 12Challeng.es. While at Shorenstein, Barclay will research how the public consumes viral content across social media in order to better analyze the information mix in our societies.
Leisel Bogan | Joan Shorenstein Fellow
Leisel Bogan is a technology, international, and national security leader with experience in the private, public, and academic sectors. As a Senior Technical Advisor at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Bogan focused on safeguarding critical infrastructure and defending against nation-state cyber threats. Prior to CISA, Bogan was a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs under the advisement of former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, a Director at TechCongress, and led the first Congressional Digital Service pilot fellowship on the House Select Committee on Modernization. Before that effort, she served as a Senior Fellow for Cybersecurity, Technology, and National Security for Senator Mark Warner. Earlier in her career, Bogan served as a Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and worked for former Defense Secretary Bob Gates and former National Security Advisor Steve Hadley at their geopolitical risk firm, RiceHadleyGates, advising clients on emerging technologies in emerging markets, particularly in China. She has also held key roles at Palantir Technologies, Warner Bros. Entertainment, and in global cybersecurity and technology strategy at PwC. She has had two academic appointments at Stanford University as a Research Fellow on cybersecurity, emerging technologies, foreign policy, and national security. She has conducted fellowships in Japan, Egypt, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. She has written for various publications, spoken at a DEFCON village and for the National Academy of Sciences, and guest lectured at HKS, Pepperdine University, Penn State Law, and Georgetown University. She has been a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an advisor to nonprofits, and a volunteer for refugee and mentorship programs. She began her career in television and print advertising as a child. As a Shorenstein Fellow, Bogan will examine how policymakers can embrace the promise and mitigate the risks of emerging technologies to better protect vulnerable populations and ensure national security.
Tracy Chou | Joan Shorenstein Fellow
Tracy Chou is an entrepreneur and software engineer well-known for her work advocating for diversity and inclusion in tech. Motivated by personal experience in countering online harassment, and drawing on professional experience as an early engineer at social media companies like Facebook, Pinterest, and Quora, she founded the tech startup Block Party to build end-user solutions for online safety and privacy. She is interested in questions of sustainably supporting journalists, politicians, bureaucrats, and other democracy workers against online violence and intimidation. Chou has been recognized as one of TIME Magazine’s Women of the Year, MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators under 35, and Forbes Tech 30 under 30, and she was a Terman Fellow and Mayfield Fellow at Stanford University. For the 2024-2025 academic year, Chou is an affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. While at Shorenstein, Chou will explore sustainable funding models aimed at protecting journalists and other public figures in society from online abuse and harassment.
Felipe Estefan | Joan Shorenstein Fellow
Felipe Estefan has dedicated his career to the intersection of democracy, media and technology. Currently, his work focuses on narrative change as a path to promoting mutual understanding, fostering belonging, and reimagining democracy in a digital age. For the past decade, Estefan was part of Luminate – a global philanthropic organization – where he most recently served as Vice President for Narrative Change and regional Vice President for Latin America. In the context of that role, Estefan financed and supported 100+ projects around the world on civic engagement, human rights, digital rights, governance of AI & social media, anti-corruption, journalism, and narrative change. Estefan has also served as Executive Producer in several films, including The Territory (Emmy Winner / NatGeo), State of Silence (Tribeca Selection / Netflix) and the forthcoming Apocalypse in the Tropics (Telluride Selection / Netflix). Prior to his time at Luminate, Estefan was the World Bank’s Open Government Strategist, focused on efforts to increase government transparency and accountability around the globe. As part of that role, he was a co-founder of the Open Contracting Partnership – an international organization focused on improving public procurement. Before that, he was a Producer at CNN and CNN en Español, and held advisory and fellowship roles in the Mexican Film Institute and the Permanent Mission of Colombia to the United Nations in Switzerland. Estefan has a Master of Science in Public Relations from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, both at Syracuse University. He holds a B.A. in Media & Society and International Relations from Hobart College, where his honors thesis focused on the role of film in cultural diplomacy. While at Shorenstein, he will be conducting research into the potential for new funding models to improve the sustainability and impact of narrative media produced in the public interest.
Shuwei Fang | Joan Shorenstein Fellow
Shuwei Fang is Associate Director, Programs at Open Society Foundations where she has spent over a decade advancing civic media and information technology via grants and hybrid investments. At Open Society, she recently led the AI in Journalism Futures project, one of the first significant global attempts to understand how the long-term impact of AI might fundamentally reshape the information ecosystem. Previously, she has held various roles across technology, media and telecoms investment, as well as in startups. While at the Shorenstein Center, Fang will explore the medium- to long-term impact of AI on the information ecosystem, and what policy and/or market interventions are needed to support a sustainable and equitable system of media in the public interest.
Ravi Gupta | Joan Shorenstein Fellow
Ravi Gupta is the Founder and CEO of The Branch, a non-profit media company that launched in October 2021 to fight polarization and misinformation online. Before launching The Branch, Gupta co-founded Arena, where he led a team that helped elect dozens of candidates and launched the largest campaign staffer training academy in the history of the Democratic Party—an effort that’s trained over 7,000 political operatives over the past three years. He was a critical leader in Democrats’ efforts to retake the US House of Representatives in 2018 and numerous state houses, including the New York State Senate and Virginia House of Delegates. He serves as the Founder and CEO of Squadra Health, a longevity medicine and wellness company, and co-host of Majority 54, a political podcast about talking to friends and family with different political beliefs—a show that routinely ranks in the top 100 for Apple’s News podcasts. He’s also the host of Killing Justice, a true crime podcast with Crooked Media about an alleged political murder in India. Gupta was the founder and former CEO of RePublic Schools, a network of charter schools in the South. RePublic’s two flagship schools are the first and only two charter schools in Tennessee to rank in the top 5% of all public schools for growth and absolute performance. He also founded Reimagine Prep, Mississippi’s first charter school. Gupta also held a number of roles on Obama’s first campaign and first term, including as assistant to David Axelrod and Susan Rice. A native of Staten Island, he graduated from Yale Law School and Binghamton University. He’s the recipient of numerous awards, including the Truman Scholarship, the Webby Award, Binghamton’s University Medal, and has been included in Forbes’s “30 Under 30” and Crain’s “NYC 40 Under 40.” As a Shorenstein Fellow, Ravi will study the transformation of campaign communications in the digital age, focusing on the shift from traditional venues like debates, rallies, and network interviews to alternative platforms such as YouTube and podcasts. His goal is to identify key strategies employed by successful campaigns to leverage these modern media spaces while also diagnosing the challenges faced by campaigns that have struggled to adapt.
V Spehar | Joan Shorenstein Fellow
V Spehar is an award-winning digital journalist, TikTok personality and podcaster. Spehar launched UnderTheDeskNews with the aim to make news media less intimidating and easier to understand and rapidly amassed a collective 4 million subscribers to their various social media platforms. Their original reporting has won them one on one interviews with Vice President Kamala Harris, President Biden, President Obama, Sec. Buttigeig, Sec. Austin, Sec. Blinken as well as several members of the House & Senate. They covered the 2024 DNC as an official digital streamer, and the Paris Olympics in partnership with TikTok. In addition, they have lent their talents in reporting to serve as a field correspondent and host for The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and NBC News. Spehar has received a special achievement Webby for their concise and compassionate reporting and was a finalist for a GLAAD media award. They were named a MediaWise Ambassador by the Poynter Institute and a RISE25 ambassador for digital excellence by Mozilla. They currently host the podcast American Fever Dream with Betches Media, release a twice weekly Substack, dozens of short form video explainers on the day’s news in a kind way from a safe space, and are working on a book with Zando Publishing to be released early 2026. While at Shorenstein, Spehar will explore the role of online content creators in journalism — particularly how influencers establish credibility and what pathways exist for professionalization.
Gabriel Stein | Joan Shorenstein Fellow
Gabriel Stein is a technologist, developer, and writer who has been interested in the intersection of culture and technology since he taught himself to code in middle school to build an online roleplaying game. He is the Head of Platform at Knowledge Futures, a non-profit that builds public digital infrastructure to make information useful. He has worked in multiple technical and editorial roles, including front-end engineering at Ogilvy, support engineering for Google’s display advertising platform, reporting and editing at Fast Company, and audience development and product management at Upworthy. In 2017, he co-founded Massive Science, a media company that instructed thousands of scientists in digital storytelling, reached millions of readers, and collaborated with researchers to study the impact of online science communication. His other work has included product development consulting for probabilistic AI researchers, developing methodologies for measuring and reporting on information warfare for political campaigns and Fortune 500 companies, and creating e-commerce platforms for made in America fashion brands. While at Shorenstein, Stein will examine what impact recent changes to the global information environment — including the rise in popularity of podcasts and newsletters, the abandonment of content moderation practices, and the proliferation of synthetic media — will have on society’s ability to access and understand important information.
Christian L. Tom | Joan Shorenstein Fellow
Christian L. Tom most recently served as Assistant to the President and Director of Digital Strategy in the Biden White House. He has previously worked across the business, academic, and political aspects of the digital media landscape in a variety of roles and capacities. Before the White House, he led the first-of-its-kind Digital Partnerships team on President Biden’s 2020 campaign, and led digital for the Biden-Harris Inauguration. Previously, he was Publisher at the digital publishers NowThis and The Dodo, where he oversaw revenue across the two media brands. Before that, he worked at Twitter and at YouTube, both in revenue functions. Tom holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from Stanford University. He also was the Head of Americas for the McCourt Institute and was in the inaugural class at Singularity University. As a Shorenstein Fellow, Tom will examine digital media habits across the partisan electorate, with the goal of better understanding how people on the political left and right find political content online, how that content differs from one end of the political spectrum to the other, and how people who aren’t necessarily seeking political content might encounter it.
This new cohort will join existing Shorenstein Fellows Julia Angwin, Brandi Collins-Dexter, Alex Smith, Megan Smith, and Ben Monnie, as well as Public Interest Tech Lab Fellow Mark MacGann.
To learn more about the Shorenstein Fellowship program and apply to be a fellow visit shorensteincenter.org/joan-shorenstein-fellowship.
