Welcome New Board Members

Code for Science & Society is excited to welcome four new members to the Board of Directors. Jochai Ben-Avie, Jonathan Omowalé Cain, Shannon Dosemagen, and Dr. Kari L. Jordan join the all-star team of Kristen Ratan, Kaitlin Thaney, and board advisor Dr. Joshua Greenberg. This board growth comes at an exciting time for CS&S as we make our first round of awards in the Event Fund, welcome new fiscally sponsored projects, and look to develop new programs in service of open source public interest tech in 2021 and beyond.

At the same time, two of our longest-serving board members, Karissa McKelvey and Waldo Jaquith, are taking this opportunity to step down from the board, and we extend our great thanks to them for their years of service to CS&S.

New Members Joining the CS&S Board

Welcome to the newest members of the CS&S Board of Directors!

CS&S is lucky to have four exceptionally accomplished and thoughtful new Board members, below are their Bios.

Dr. Kari L. Jordan (she/her) is the Executive Director of The Carpentries, a non-profit project that teaches foundational coding and data science skills. In this role she advocates for The Carpentries mission, vision, and values through strategic relationships and championing people first, access for all, and community collaboration. Prior to this, she was the Carpentries Senior Director of Equity and Assessment, responsible for overseeing and implementing programs in the areas of equity and inclusion, assessment, and strategic engagement and implementation of community development programs. Kari holds a PhD in Engineering Education and a MA in Education from The Ohio State University, as well as a MS and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University, and an Adjunct Professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the Department of Engineering and Technology, College of Aeronautics.

Shannon Dosemagen (she/her) has spent the last two decades working with environment and public health groups to address declining freshwater resources, coastal land loss and building monitoring programs with communities living adjacent to industrial facilities. Shannon is a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow working on the Open Environmental Data Project, co-founder of Public Lab and Executive Director from 2010-20, a steward of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware, Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Open Hardware, and previous Chair of both the U.S. EPA National Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology and the Citizen Science Association.

Jonathan Omowalé Cain (he/him) is a library leader who believes that libraries have a huge role to play in higher education and society. He is passionate about making libraries and information centers more collaborative, equitable and inclusive for learners and knowledge workers. Currently, Jonathan serves as the Interim Director of Digital Strategies and the Head, Data Services at the University of Oregon Libraries. He designs data and digital education programs, focusing on equitable access and social justice as essential components.

His research centers on understanding and interrogating the inequity in data & technology cultures, as well as the role of libraries as organizations for the public good, privacy in education, and social justice and equity. (Photo credit: Mandi Garcia, UO Libraries)

Jochai Ben-Avie's career has been centered at the intersection of technology and human rights, as a leader in global policy and advocacy as well as a funder.

Jochai (he/him) joins the Code for Science & Society Board as Mozilla’s former Head of International Public Policy and lead of their Open Source Support Program funding arm (MOSS). During his time at Mozilla, he scaled the policy team from a solely US focus to a global presence active in shaping legislation across six continents to build a better internet. Under his leadership, he also scaled the MOSS program from a side-of-desk, opportunistic fund to a fully professionalized grants program that played a direct role in broadening access, increasing security, and empowering users of open source technology worldwide. In 2017, he was selected as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, an international network of young professionals driving dialogue, action, and change to solve local, regional, and global problems.

Prior to Mozilla, Jochai was the inaugural Policy Director at Access Now, a non-profit anchored in defending and extending the digital rights of users at risk around the world. His work directly shaped, built out, and grew the organization’s footprint in the sector, helping it become one of the largest global digital rights organizations. During his time at Access Now, he co-founded RightsCon, the premier global conference on the intersection of technology and human rights, and RedLatAm, the largest network of digital rights organizations in Latin America. He also secured funding and shaped the strategy for their now $1M+ / year grants program.

Jochai has also worked in educational policy, terrorism and reconciliation, and stress and coping, in addition to his experience in global internet policy and philanthropy. He was privileged to receive his education at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and the University of Oxford’s Lincoln College.

Members Rotating Off the CS&S Board

Karissa McKelvey, who has been involved in the nonprofit since its founding and joined the Board in 2018, has provided CS&S team and the board with a grounded perspective on open source that has informed our programmatic direction. Karissa continues her work in open source tech for the public good through her work with Simply Secure - follow her work here. Waldo Jaquith also ended his tenure as a Board Member, after serving since the nonprofit’s founding in 2016. Waldo has brought a seasoned civic open data and tech perspective to our Board. Waldo continues his work at the intersection of government and technology at the Beek Center for Social Impact and Innovation of Georgetown University, follow him here.

CS&S has grown tremendously under their guidance - thank you Karissa and Waldo!