2017 Speakers
Voting Machines and a Road to Accidental Activism
Emily is a data scientist, a nonbinary trans woman, and a hockey player. They are passionate about better technological citizenship and believe in ethical, inclusive technology.
Representation and Storytelling in Suicide Prevention and Mental Health
Frances is the Communications Director for the Mental Health Association of NYC, where she runs public communications and partnerships for mental health programs such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the national Disaster Distress Helpline. Her digital strategy experience spans nonprofit, local government, and startups, including the Clinton Foundation and New York City 311. An NYC native, she has an MFA in Fiction from The New School.
What do second chances look like?
Jazmyn is a UX Designer and Researcher who works on problems that affect the lives of the most vulnerable and underserved people in our society. Recently, her focus has been on using technology and design to untangle the criminal justice system and to implement policy that works. She is currently the Lead Designer at Code for America under their Safety and Justice focus area and co-founded the product Clear My Record.
Feeding Social Justice to the Masses: the Racist Sandwich Podcast
Juan is the producer of the Racist Sandwich Podcast. He occasionally writes for Latino Rebels and currently works for the Migrant Education Program.
We Read Too: Creating a Central Resource for Books by PoC
Kaya Thomas is an iOS developer and writer. She created We Read Too, a mobile directory of books with main characters of color written by authors of color. Kaya has written about technology & inclusion in various publications such as TechCrunch, Fusion, and Model View Culture.
A Journey to #DisabledAndCute: On Representation, Self Love, Self Care, and What’s Next
Keah is a journalist at Cliché Magazine and a writer who has a BA in Journalism from The State University of New York at Fredonia. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Literary Hub, Catapult, and Lenny Letter among other publications.
Direct Donation Models (Or How to Give Away Other People’s Money)
Kendra is a lawyer at the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard Law School, where they provide pro bono legal services to clients on issues related to the Internet and emerging technologies. They write and speak on a diverse set of Internet issues, from video game archiving to computer security, and teach workshops to help privileged people develop “ally” skills and stand up for targeted groups. When they’re not working or misguidedly turning their hobbies into projects, Kendra enjoys playing Hearthstone and scheming about how to eat more carbs.
Hacking Liberation: Building Safe Platforms for All Genders
Morgen is a 24 year old black queer technologist and CEO and founder of Thurst, a dating app for queer people of all genders. Thurst aims to create a space for marginalized people, especially trans women, to connect with community and find love. Morgen is working towards make tech more accessible to people of color through community initiatives and activism and they are interested in comics and vegan donuts.
Tech For Active Resistance: 5 Calls
Nick O’Neill is a software engineer in San Francisco, CA and one of the founders of 5 Calls Civic Action. He is an advocate for open source technology and user experience that can make a difference. He enjoys a good pun.
Small Media and the Possibilities of Conversation
Shaun hosts the film and social issues podcast No, Totally! and writes about Asian-American representation in media and entertainment. He's been interviewed on issues of linguistics, representation, and race for publications including The New Yorker, The Huffington Post, Splinter, USA Today, The New Statesman, and The Village Voice. Cosmopolitan once erroneously claimed that he got into a Twitter fight with John Mayer.
“So Do You Want To Fight or Nah?”—Identity Rage, Performance, and the Shaky Ground
Sydette is a cultural critic, writer, and currently the community lead of The Coral Project. She has been published in The Establishment, dissent, Salon, and can be found on Twitter as @Blackamazon.
A Primer: Disability Justice In the Age of Mass Incarceration
T.L. engineers & leads intersectional social justice campaigns that illuminate and address grave injustices within our education and legal systems, primarily focusing on supporting multiply-marginalized deaf and disabled individuals affected by mass incarceration. T.L. is a visiting professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, a recent graduate of American University Washington College of Law, and the founder and director of the all-volunteer nonprofit HEARD, or Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of Deaf people.