Bio
While I started my career as an English teacher, I have been working in Scrum and Program management for over ten years. As a Scrum Master and Program Manager at Fitbit, I led a team in the development of a suite of sleep features as well as menstrual and activity tracking. After a brief stopover with Tonal’s Content Production team, I am now the Technical Program Manager at Great Place to Work, where I manage development and operation of our web platforms, oversee access provisioning, administer Jira/Confluence, and am managing our SOC2 certification. I serve on the company’s Community Involvement Committee, regularly serving San Francisco and Oakland, and I like to spend my free time volunteering with programs like Technovation and TechWomen.

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doylecaitlin/

Bio
Fatema Kothari is a Director with Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, part of the Technology & Corporate Responsibility Group, where she leads their operations to expand Internet connectivity to unserved rural communities both in the US and globally. Her work in telecommunications is fueled by her passion to expand Internet access and bridge the digital divide. Driven by her keen interest in policy, she currently serves on the Board for the Internet Society – SF Bay Area, championing an open Internet that is accessible to everyone.

Fatema is an avid advocate for gender parity in technology. She served on the board for the global non-profit Girls in Tech SF for three years and is also an advisor to women entrepreneurs from Africa through the U.S Department of State’s TechWomen program.

An engineer by education, Fatema holds a Master’s degree in Telecommunications from the University of Maryland, College Park.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fkothari

Fatema has a keen interest in policy and is an avid advocate for expanding affordable internet access to everyone. As part of the SF Bay Area ISOC board, she volunteered her time as President/Vice President for three years and built future Board leadership to ensure sustainability of the nonprofit. Over the course of her board terms, she laid the foundation for board documentation and processes, member communications and outreach, and initiated new programs like the working groups.

Fatema hopes to continue contributing to the Chapter through her subject matter expertise around digital inclusion and literacy and by providing strategic advice to maintain the longevity of the organization.

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Bio

I would like to focus on providing support to other organizations like the ALAS project I am working with Joel Valencia. Working in a non-profit, I know that non-profits can use all the help the can get. Working behind the scenes to support is my preference while letting the organizations be front and center and working closely with their community members. They have the best understanding of their community.

I want to contribute my knowledge of working on a non-profit and how we can continue to assist the community. Having a background in Chicana and Chicano Studies (also known as Mexican American Studies) allows me to contribute on how to best approach our community. I want to make sure that our community feels empowered and assist other organizations to empower their communities.

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Bio
Joel Valencia grew up in the Belle Haven community of Menlo Park and is an alumnus of Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto. His family is from Michoacán and Guerrero, Mexico. Joel is passionate about ensuring that all people are presented with the accessible opportunities and guidance they need to be successful. He has worked on a range of issues including foreclosure and homelessness prevention, anti-predatory lending, small business development, financial literacy, youth mentorship, and tech education.

Most recently he was an employee of Peninsula Open Space Trust for almost 3 years, until early 2019, where he worked in the Planned Giving team, before becoming the Development Director of StreetCode Academy through 2020, eventually launching Evergreen Collective in April 2021, where he works to ensure that BIPOC-led & serving nonprofits become financially sustainable.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelvalencia

Proposed Focus and Contribution to the Chapter Board

I would like to continue my work as partnerships chair on the board. As part of this work, I’d love to continue leading our chapter’s partnership with ALAS to bring attention to internet access and education to rural farm worker communities in Half Moon Bay.

I would also like to continue to learn more about how ISOC promotes the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world. As someone who didn’t come to this organization specifically via a tech career I am enjoying learning about how ISOC carries out this mission.

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Bio
I am the Director of Technology at the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) and deliver cross-platform technical solutions for GIFCT member companies.

I worked for over a decade at the British government’s signals intelligence agency, GCHQ, where I specialized in issues at the nexus of technology and human behavior. I spent five years working in the US Government, Military and Intelligence agencies to coordinate intergovernmental relationships and providing expert consultancy on cyber issues, disinformation, technology strategy and operational planning. Prior to my deployment to the US, I built and operationalized Data Science teams to inform operations and discover threats, particularly focused on counter-terrorism.

As a passionate advocate for responsible technology, I am a mentor with All Tech Is Human and Coding It Forward and also volunteers with America On Tech and DataKind.

I am a graduate of the University of Liverpool (BA) and the University of Bath (PgC).

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tgthorley/

Proposed Focus and Contribution to the Chapter Board

As Dir Technology at GIFCT, I strong networks in the tech industry (19 member companies plus a range of others that we work with closely spanning social media, online services, banking, gaming and others) and academia (200 plus network of researchers focusing on online harms and links to various compsci departments/labs such as ICSI, CMU, GWU).

I also have a strong technical and project management background and spend a significant portion of my time building project roadmaps and seeking funding for GIFCT projects. As such I could bring these skills and experience to the board.

Finally, my passion for an open and secure internet is key. The organization I work for is tasked with preventing and managing some of the worst harms on the internet, but I personally believe that the way we do that most effectively is by making a healthier community online that respects and protect human rights. Protecting and strengthening the security and openness of the internet is core to that.