People

Staff

Patrick Reinsborough

Patrick Reinsborough has been involved in campaigns for peace, the environment, and social justice for nearly twenty years. He co-founded the smartMeme strategy & training project in 2002 and provides grassroots partners with support on strategy, messaging and capacity building. Patrick was previously the Organizing Director of the Rainforest Action Network where he mobilized thousands of people to confront corporations who destroy the environment and violate human rights. He has been deeply involved in the movements against war and corporate globalization and has helped organize countless protests and creative mass actions. He is a frequent commentator on issues of movement building and social change strategy and has guest lectured at numerous universities. Several of his strategy essays were published in the anthology Globalize Liberation: How to Uproot the System and Build a Better World. Patrick spends his time parenting, wandering through urban space, and playing music for his friends. He lives in San Francisco and staffs smartMeme's west coast office.

Email Patrick

Doyle Canning

Doyle Canning is a strategist, trainer, and organizer with a deep commitment to building 21st century social movements for ecological justice. She came to the smartMeme collective in 2003 after studying critical pedagogy, working as a grassroots organizer, and being banned from Australia for her rabble rousing. As co-director at smartMeme, Doyle serves social movements a facilitator, messaging coach, and campaign consultant. She is a contributor to Letters from Young Activists (Nation Books, 2005), and has served on the advisory funding panel of the Haymarket People's Fund, an antiracist social change foundation for New England. Doyle practices yoga, sings, and celebrates life. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts where she is a practitioner in residence at the Design Studio for Social Intervention.

Email Doyle

Jen Angel

Jen Angel has been a writer and media activist for more than 15 years. She is the co-founder and publisher of Clamor Magazine, an award-winning quarterly magazine which, until it ceased publication in 2006, covered radical culture and politics. In 2002, she was named as one of "30 under 30 Visionaries who are changing the world" by Utne Reader. Currently, her main project is helping independent authors, filmmakers, and artists promote their work through Aid & Abet, a cooperative booking and publicity group. She also helps smartMeme as a bookkeeper and finance maven. She lives in Berkeley, CA.

Board

(* Indicates Executive Committee membership)

Myla Ablog *

Myla Ablog is the Ecologist at Heron's Head Park, a 24 acre city park in San Francisco with areas restored with native plants and 8 acres of restored tidal wetland surrounded by a neighborhood with a long toxic legacy. She works for Literacy for Environmental Justice, a small grassroots non-profit whose mission is to empower local youth and serve the environmentally justice affected communities of Bayview Hunters Point and Southeast San Francisco. She is currently a candidate for a Masters in Environmental Management from University of San Francisco. Myla stays involved in the local Asian Pacific Islander arts community through volunteering and advocacy. In her spare time, she likes to throw craft parties and work on knitting projects.

Celia Alario

Celia Alario is a PR and media strategist, grassroots communications consultant, media skills trainer and facilitator.  She works at the intersection of campaigning, grassroots organizing and marketing to support organizations, film makers, artists and authors in engaging key audiences for their stories, tapping both traditional media/marketing and new media/web 2.0 tools to create meaningful opportunities for engagement. As founder of ‘PR for People and the Planet’ she’s helped spin groundbreaking social action campaigns, trained thousands of spokespeople and placed hundreds of stories about critical social justice and environmental issues in prominent national and international media outlets over the last 14 years. Alario was a Producer on Michael Moore’s Emmy-nominated television show ‘The Awful Truth’ and served as an Outreach Producer to create publicity and audience engagement campaigns for a number of award-winning documentaries and television programs, including Sir! No Sir!, Trade Off and Building Green (PBS). Alario has also worked in community radio journalism and currently produces public affairs programming for KZMU, the Pacifica affiliate in Moab UT.  She got her radio start in the News Apprenticeship Program at Pacifica Radio’s KPFA in Berkeley, California, where she also co-produced and co-hosted ‘Terra Verde’ and ‘Flashpoints’. Alario serves on the Board of Directors of the Independent Television Service (ITVS) and the Advisory Boards of BEN (Business Ethics Network) and IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War).  

Autumn Brown *

Autumn Brown is a mother, organizer, theologian, artist, and facilitator. She is a founding member of the Rock Dove Collective, a radical community health exchange based in New York City, and Past President of the Board of Directors of the Fertility Awareness Center of New York. Trained in Consensus Process and Facilitation by the U.K.-based collective, Seeds for Change, Autumn is a facilitator of group process and she trains community organizers in Consensus Decision-making. She has facilitated for We Act for Environmental Justice, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, and the Prometheus Radio Project, among many others. She is a regular teacher at The Brecht Forum in New York City.

Shahid Buttar

Shahid Buttar is a civil rights lawyer, hip-hop & electronica MC, independent columnist, non-profit leader, grassroots community organizer, singer and poet. Professionally, he leads the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) as Executive Director. He also serves as co-Director of the Rule of Law Institute, a U.S.-based organization supporting international efforts to defend or restore the rule of law. Previously director of a program to combat racial and religious profiling by federal authorities, an associate director of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, and a litigator in private practice with a prolific public interest docket, Buttar has long advocated in defense of the Constitution. He graduated from Stanford Law School in 2003, where he served as executive editor of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and as Professor Lawrence Lessig’s teaching assistant for Constitutional Law. As a musician, Shahid has performed around the world for audiences as large as 50,000, and released his debut CD, Get Outta Your Chair, in 2008.

Shana McDavis-Conway *

Shana McDavis-Conway is the Co-Director of Emerson National Fellows Program at Congressional Hunger Center - a leadership development fellowship for young people interested in hunger and anti-poverty work. She has been a committed food justice and human rights activist for 10 years, working with organizations like D.C. Hunger Solutions, Hartford Food System, the Community Food Security Coalition, the National Family Farm Coalition, Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Center, Sacramento Hunger Commission, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Shana is a founding board member of smartMeme's Strategy Training and Organizing Resources for Youth (STORY) program, an alumna of the Emerson Program, and a former AmeriCorps*VISTA.

Gopal Dayaneni

Gopal has been involved in fighting for social, economic, environmental and racial justice through organizing & campaigning, teaching, writing, speaking and direct action since the late 1980's. He currently serves on the staff of the Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project, which works to bring a strategic understanding of ecological crisis and transition to racial and economic justice organizers. Gopal also serves on the board of the International Accountability Project, is an active trainer and organizer with the Ruckus Society and a member of the Progressive Communicators Network.  Gopal works at the intersections of war, corporate globalization, global ecology, environmental justice and democracy. Gopal has been a campaigner for Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition on human rights and environmental justice in the high-tech industry and the Oil Campaigner for Project Underground, a human rights and environmental rights organization which supported communities resisting oil and mining exploitation around the world. Gopal has been active in Direct Action to Stop the War and other anti-war and global justice movements. Gopal is also an elementary and early childhood educator, working formerly as a teacher and as the co-director of the Tenderloin Childcare Center, a community based childcare center supporting children and families forced into homelessness. Currently, Gopal stays home with his daughter, Ila Sophia and son, Kavi Samaka Orion, and crams political projects in on the side.

Maryrose Dolezal *

Maryrose Dolezal is a cultural worker focused on transforming injustice through healing arts and non-violent social action. For the last 8 years, she directed the US Fellowship of Reconciliation’s national youth and non-violence training programs, training and supporting young adults to make changes in their lives and in their communities.  She serves on the board of directors of two organizations: Common Fire, a national organization which creates transformative social change through building & supporting intentional communities, and smartMeme, a progressive national strategy and training organization. She has taught courses in conflict studies, women’s studies, and anthropology as an adjunct faculty at Hamline University, where she completed her MA in Nonprofit Management in 2007 with a thesis titled “Slow Down to Speed Up: Critical Multicultural Change in Nonprofit Organizations.” Maryrose is currently studying Somatic Movement and Bodywork in Minneapolis, MN, where she is aunt and godmother to four beautiful children.

Gilda Haas

Gilda Haas is an educator, organizer, and urban planner, who in past lives has helped start a credit union, a land trust, and numerous organizations (such as SAJE and the Right to the City alliance) — all towards building a more fair and democratic economy.  She teaches in UCLA’s Urban Planning Department where she also started their Community Scholars Program , and divides her time between consulting, coaching, and Dr. Pop, her alter ego website. Dr. Pop  is a popular education website that helps people become better story-tellers and strategic thinkers.  Dr. Pop focuses on how the
economy , urban planning, and democracy work, provide living examples of how they
can work better, and offer tools for organizers, educators, students, activists and
all manner of curious people who are interested in change. Gilda lives in Los Angeles and is married to mystery writer Gary Phillips, and has two adult children, Miles and Chelsea.

Ilyse Hogue

Ilyse Hogue is the Communications Director for MoveOn.org. Before joining MoveOn, she spent seven years as a Program Director for the Rainforest Action Network, working to pressure Wall Street to institute environmental and social screens on lending and investment. She is a long time social change activist with extensive experience as a campaigner, communications strategist, organizer, trainer and well known commentator on issues of movement building, narrative, and online organizing. She is one of the co-founders of smartMeme Strategy and Training project and the founding Chair of the Board.

Sujin Lee

Sujin Lee started her own coaching and organizational development consulting practice in 2008, after working at Movement Strategy Center as the Alliance Building Director for three years. Through her coaching and consulting, Sujin focuses on helping social justice organizations and alliances reach clarity on their strategic priorities while learning how to hold power & use decision-making to support their goals.  In coaching, she uses her strong intuition and non-judgemental approach to help individuals connect to their values, passion, and creativity. For the past 15 years, Sujin has worked for social justice as an organizer, facilitator and program director.  She has organized janitors and security workers with SEIU Local 1877 in Los Angeles, advocated for domestic violence survivors with the Shimtuh Korean Domestic Violence Program in Oakland, and supported the work of families of prisoners of conscience with Minkahyup Family Council to Realize Democracy in South Korea. As the Community Fellow at Tides Foundation from 2003-2005, she worked on economic & reproductive justice funding initiatives. She is currently the Vice Chair of the Board of Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN).

Nupur K. Modi *

Nupur K. Modi has worked on a wide array of environmental, social justice, and human rights issues with extensive experience in organizing, campaigning, and training. Throughout his work, Nupur has focused on building connections amongst progressive movements. He currently works with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, fighting to preserve the good jobs of hardworking Americans. Over the years, he has trained thousands of people in taking non-violent direct action and getting their message out effectively. Furthermore, he has worked on numerous campaigns for sustainability and self-determination, including fighting for justice for the survivors of the chemical disaster in Bhopal, India. In August 2007, Nupur was part of a team that hung a banner on the Great Wall of China to bring attention to Tibetan people's struggle to regain their freedom. In addition to smartMeme, he has also served on the boards of Project Underground, the Genetic Engineering Action Network, South Asian American Voting Youth, and the Mutualaid Tech Collective.

Joseph Phelan

Joseph Phelan has been active in left movement work for the last decade. Originally from New York, he cut his teeth in the global justice movement as an activist and agitator, and was grounded in organizing in the CUNY student movement, and now builds the capacity of grassroots leaders to tell their own stories to the world as the Communications Coordinator for the Miami Workers Center. As an artist and published writer he has pieces appearing in ZNet, RaceWire, ColorLines, Left Turn, and People's Tribune. Joseph is also an editor for www.organizingupgrade.com, a new online forum for progressive and left organizers to explore and understand these changing times. And he wants to win.

Amaad Rivera

Amaad Rivera has committed his career to addressing structural inequality. Most recently he was the Director of United for a Fair Economy’s Racial Wealth Divide Program. Amaad was the lead author of "State of the Dream 2009: The Silent Depression," and "State of the Dream 2008: Foreclosed". His articles and publications have been featured in major media outlets such as the Washington Post, Black Agenda Report, Huffington Post, National Public Radio, Democracy Now, Too Much, BET.com, numerous local radio stations, CSPAN and Boston Neighborhood Network News. From founding the KidsVote Initiative in Holyoke, MA to participating in a delegation to Puerto Rico of academics and community leaders in exploring contemporary and historical barriers to economic mobility of Puerto Ricans in Holyoke, Amaad has been deeply involved in the community. Before coming to United for a Fair Economy, Amaad served as AmeriCorps Program Officer for the Massachusetts Service Alliance, co-managing a portfolio of organizations dedicated to addressing issues of poverty, health care disparities, environmental disasters, education inequity, civic engagement, volunteerism and youth development. Amaad has served on numerous boards and community initiatives including the Racial Imbalance committee advising the Department of Education and the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Educators Network (GLSEN). Amaad currently sits on the board of Community Change Inc., based in Boston, Massachusetts. Amaad attended Bentley University, where he received his Bachelor's degree in Marketing with minors in Psychology and Information Technology. He received his Master's Degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Anasa Troutman

As an artist, producer, cultural strategist and philanthropist, Anasa Troutman operates at the powerful nexus of creativity, spirituality & strategic thinking for the alignment of love and the human condition. Currently a Senior Fellow at the Movement Strategy Center in Oakland, California, Anasa is in partnership with several artists and national arts and organizing institutions developing a body of work designed to explore and engage the intersections of art + culture + transformation.  Based in Atlanta, Ga., Anasa began her career as a producer working with artists like India.Arie, Jiva and Donnie who were learning to use their music to make the world a more fair, just and loving place. Anasa has spent the years since, working with artists and organizations honing and expanding her craft to intensify the strategic impact of creative practice on social and political realities. Anasa’s work has been vast and varied, working locally, regionally, nationally and internationally with artists as well as organizations like; The National Hip Hop Political Convention, Institute for Policy Studies, Dennis Kucinich for President, The Young People’s Project, Progressive Majority, The Campaign for America’s Future and the historic Highlander Center. In addition to her current work at the Movement Strategy Center, Anasa also engaged in her own creative practice with her production company, Phoenix Butterfly, developing a collection of songs entitled, “bounty” and a series of multi media installations entitled “art is change.”

Kip Williams

Kip Williams, a 27-year-old gay man, is a human rights activist from Knoxville, Tennessee, with a love for building community, developing strategic messages, and leveraging technology for social change. Currently he works as Online & Technology Coordinator for Jewish Voice for Peace, and he served as Co-Executive Director of the National Equality March in October of 2009. In the past, he has worked for such groups as the League of Young Voters and DemocracyInAction.org. He currently resides in San Francisco, where he co-founded the grassroots activist organization One Struggle, One Fight after Prop 8 passed. He also enjoys riding bikes and playing his accordion.