Alex Smith founded The Cares Family and was CEO from 2011 until 2023. Under his leadership, the organization brought together 30,000 older and younger people to reduce loneliness and attitudinal polarization and to build solidarity across generations in times of change. Through this role, Smith helped shape the world’s first government-level loneliness strategy which was […]
Megan Smith is an award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist – currently CEO & Founder shift7, board member of the MIT, Vital Voices, LA28 Olympics, Thinkof-Us, PlanetRead, Algorithmic Justice League, and Earth Conservation Corp. Smith served as the third U.S. chief technology officer (U.S. CTO) and Assistant to the President from 2014-2017 under President Obama
Mark MacGann has thirty years’ experience at the nexus of business and government, having served in global senior executive and management roles for some of the world’s most successful corporations (Uber, NYSE, VEON, Nokia). Until recently, he served as a United Nations Commissioner for Sustainable Development. In early 2022, he embarked on a life-changing journey
Taylor Holden is the CEO of One for Democracy, a funding network that invests in election excellence, voter empowerment, and civil society. As a longtime organizer and strategist, Holden has spent most of her career working behind the scenes to radically resource community leaders and candidates who provide aid, inspire civic engagement, and shift policy
Abby Sun is the Director of Artist Programs and Editor of Documentary Magazine at the International Documentary Association (IDA). Most recently, she was a 2022 Warhol Foundation Curatorial Research Fellow and the Curator of the DocYard. As a graduate researcher in the MIT Open Documentary Lab, she edited Immerse from 2020-2022. With Keisha Knight, Abby co-curated My Sight is
Bernardo Ruiz is a three-time Emmy®-nominated documentary filmmaker and member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. For more than two and a half decades, he has worked in the documentary field—primarily as a director and producer, but simultaneously as an organizer, mentor, and panelist. Ruiz was an active steering
Ben is a technology, media and business strategy executive based in New York. Most recently, he was a director at Google where he co-founded the Google News Initiative, a company-wide effort to help journalism thrive in the digital age, and directed many of the company’s strategy and partnership efforts with the broader news industry. Prior
Muskan Walia is a fourth-year student at the University of Utah, studying math and philosophy. She is interested in utilizing mathematics principles to tackle pressing social issues. Muskan also cherishes time spent bird watching, gardening, making pottery, and exploring Trader Joes.
Evangelos Kassos is an engineer at the Computational Policy Lab. He has a passion for drawing on his interdisciplinary training in human-computer interaction, political science, and biology to offer delightful user experiences, new perspectives, and effective solutions. Before joining the lab, Evangelos worked on educational AI tools and a course management system for Economics 50,
Charlotte Tuminelli leads the Computational Policy Lab’s mission of using technological and computational approaches to address critical issues in criminal justice, education, voting rights, and beyond. Previously, she served as the Director of Evidence for Policy Design at the Harvard Kennedy School and consulted for various nonprofits. Charlotte holds an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate
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Natalie comes to the Shorenstein Center from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she was a Senior Faculty Coordinator. She holds a B.A. in Theatre Studies and Cinema and Media Studies from Wellesley College and an A.L.M. in Management from the Harvard Extension School. Prior to working at Harvard, Natalie worked in development events
Sydney Tanigawa is a media professional and longtime supporter of storytelling in various forms. Prior to joining the team at the Documentary Film in the Public Interest initiative at the Shorenstein Center, Sydney ran the publicity department at independent film distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories for nearly nine years. She also spent many years working in editorial
Joe is an engineer and researcher interested in using technology to help us understand, talk about, and intervene on complex social issues. Prior to joining the Shorenstein Center, Joe was the lead engineer in the Computational Policy Lab based at Stanford University, researching and developing interventions related to disparities in the criminal justice system. He
Alex Chohlas-Wood is an incoming Assistant Professor at New York University, and former Executive Director and current Faculty Co-Director of the Computational Policy Lab at Harvard Kennedy School. Dr. Chohlas-Wood has designed and implemented data-driven interventions in a wide variety of criminal justice settings, including as Director of Analytics for the New York City Police
K. Russell DeGraff spent nearly two decades on Capitol Hill, culminating in 12 years as the chief climate and technology advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. DeGraff played a key role in helping Congress architect, enact, explain and enforce significant legislation. He also helped form coalitions and lead negotiations to enact policies and laws spanning
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Alison King is an award-winning journalist with over 30 years of experience in the broadcasting industry. She spent most of her career covering politics in New England including leading the local, state and regional political coverage for NBC Boston/NECN from 1995 until her retirement from TV in March of 2023. She has covered seven presidential
Karin Chien is a producer and distributor committed to bold voices and innovative forms that build practices of ethical filmmaking. For 20 years, Karin has produced independent films, artwork and digital media that have broken new ground. She has received the Independent Spirit Producers Award, the Humanitas Prize, the Sundance Audience Award, the inaugural Cinereach Producers
Tabitha Jackson has spent the last 30 years supporting the independent voice, championing the social and cultural power of artful nonfiction, and furthering the mission of uplifting a more expansive set of makers, audiences, and forms. Most recently as the first woman and person of color to be appointed Director of Sundance Film Festival she re-imagined
Amy Hobby is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award winning producer of independent films. In 2011, Amy co-founded TANGERINE ENTERTAINMENT, a production company working exclusively with female-identifying film directors. She is also the former Executive Director of the TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE and a current co-founder of DISTRIBUTION ADVOCATES, a movement to reclaim the means of distribution
The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center dedicated to exploring and illuminating the intersection of press, politics and public policy in theory and practice. The Center strives to bridge the gap between journalists and scholars, and between them and the public.
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