MobileActive.org has a small and agile team (and a big network of people like you!) Our core team includes:
Katrin Verclas
Katrin is the co-founder and editor of MobileActive.org, a global network of practitioners using mobile phones for social impact.
Katrin is currently working on mobile projects in governance, accountability, and political participation in emerging democracies. She is also leading a team focused on mobile security tools.
A native of Germany, she has written widely on mobile phones in citizen participation and civil society organizations, mobile phones in health and for development.
Katrin's background is in IT management, IT in social change organizations, and in philanthropy. She has led several nonprofit organizations, including as the Executive Director of NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network, the national association of IT professionals working in the more than one million nonprofit organizations in the United States. Previously she served as a program officer at the Proteus Fund, focusing on the use of technology in civic and democratic participation, and in government transparency.
She is the editor of Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission, published by Wiley & Sons., and author of a chapter in Mobilizing 2.0, a book focused on engaging young people and the use of technology. She is a frequent speaker on ICTs in civil society at national and international conferences and has published numerous articles and publications on technology for social change in leading popular and industry publications. She is 2009 TED Fellow and a fellow at the MIT Media Lab.
Prabhas Pokharel
Prabhas Pokharel is focused on the Mobile Media Toolkit, developing and aggregating the tools and resources for media production, dissemination, and consumption through mobile devices.
A native of Nepal, he is interested in exploring technology's role in furthering education and civic action in the developing world. His past projects have ranged from finding cheaper ways for embedded devices to communicate using the mobile phone network, to training children and teachers in Peru to better utilize laptops manufactured by the One Laptop per Child project. Prabhas is a recent graduate of Harvard University, where he received a Bachelors in Computer Science. He speaks English, Nepali, and Spanish.
Anoush Rima Tatevossian
Anoush Rima Tatevossian brings her experience in communications, nonprofit management and cultural relations as the Director of Projects and Partnerships for MobileActive.org. She is particularly interested in how ICTs can provide a platform for communities to participate in global civil society and dialogue.
She holds a Master's degree in Public Diplomacy, has experience consulting with various international organizations, and previously worked as the Executive Director of the Armenian Volunteer Corps, a grassroots development NGO. She speaks Armenian.
Anne-Ryan Heatwole
Anne-Ryan Heatwole is a journalist based in New York City. Anne-Ryan holds a master's degree in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Prior to that, Anne-Ryan wrote for Virginia Living Magazine. She attended the University of Virginia for her undergraduate studies.
Anne-Ryan works as a writer and researcher for MobileActive.org where she is a frequent contributor to the blog.
We are also fortunate to have a global team of smart and engaged contributors:
Melissa Loudon
Melissa is Research Officer for the Spatial Data Management group at the University of Cape Town in South Africa where she is researching the use of mobile technologies in drinking water quality management, particularly in rural community supplies. This includes investigating existing systems and technologies as well as developing new mobile systems.
Melissa's work for MobileActive.org includes frequent software reviews and how-to materials that explain for non-technical users how to deploy mobile technologies.
Prior to her work at the University of Cape Town and with MobileActive, she was a software engineer at Cell Life, a South African NGO, where she focused on Java development in an open source environment. She holds a Master's Degree from the Univerwsity of Manchester in ICTs for Development.
Penelope Chester
Penelope is a Franco-American national living in Toronto. She has a BA from Tufts University and an MA in International Affairs from Sciences-Po. Her interests lie primarily at the intersection of international affairs, economic development and foreign policy, with a particular focus on African issues and post-conflict reconstruction. She has worked for the Clinton Foundation and is co-founder of The Niapele Project, an NGO focused on improving the livelihoods of vulnerable children through grassroots initiatives in West Africa.
Our Interns (who we love and appreciate greatly!)
Melissa Ulbricht
Melissa Ulbricht is a summer 2010 intern with MobileActive.org. Melissa hold's a master's degree in journalism from the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri. At Mizzou, she produced a weekly international radio program called Global Journalist. Melissa's studies focused on international communication and issues of press freedom. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for her undergraduate studies.
Our Board
MobileActive.org is currently a project of the Nonprofit Technology Network, pending our nonprofit status in the United States, anticpated to be completed in 2010. For more about NTEN and its board, which governs MobileActive.org, please go to NTEN's web site.
