The Wiki Education Foundation serves as the bridge between academia and Wikipedia. A small 501(c)3 nonprofit, we run programs that seek to build connections between universities and Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in the United States and Canada.
In our most established program, Wiki Ed supports the Wikipedia Education Program in the United States and Canada. Since 2010, university instructors participating in the program have assigned their students to add content to course-related articles on Wikipedia. Students gain key 21st century skills like media literacy, writing and research development, and critical thinking, while content gaps on Wikipedia get filled thanks to students’ efforts.
Formed in 2013, Wiki Ed is a spin-off of the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that runs Wikipedia.
Staff
Frank Schulenburg
Executive Director
Frank is leading the development of the Wiki Education Foundation into a mature organization capable of delivering on its long term vision. He is responsible for the overall performance of Wiki Ed and acts as the interface between the board and staff of the organization. In his free time, Frank enjoys contributing content to Wikipedia.
LiAnna Davis
Director of Programs
As Director of Programs, LiAnna is responsible for all of the Wiki Education Foundation’s programmatic activities. She oversees program administration, including program planning, staffing, development, budgeting, communications, and evaluation.
In her free time, LiAnna enjoys watching baseball and spending time with her husband, Alex, and her dog, Nora. Nora is chronicled daily in a Creative Commons-licensed photo blog, as well as on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.
Bill Gong
Director of Finance and Administration
As Director of Finance and Administration, Bill makes sure that everything that’s needed to keep the Foundation running smoothly is in place operationally and financially. He makes sure that the staff has the tools they need to do their jobs and takes care of all the administrative needs of keeping the Foundation running.
Bill enjoys figuring how things work and working on old cars. He’s also an avid Oakland A’s and San Jose Sharks fan and waiting for the teams to finally win it all.
Helaine Blumenthal
Classroom Program Manager
As Classroom Program Manager, Helaine develops relationships with instructors, volunteers, and Wikipedia editors to expand our support for program activities. Helaine is responsible for on-boarding and mentoring the instructors who teach Wikipedia classroom assignments and the Wikipedia Ambassadors who support them (both in-person and online). She helps design assignments that make sense for both the student learning and for Wikipedia, and she supports program participants to make sure they have the tools and resources they need to be successful. Helaine brings extensive experience in higher education and academia to the Wiki Education Foundation.
She has a passion for languages and is an avid (and experimental) chef.
Samantha Erickson
Outreach Manager
As the Outreach Manager, Samantha is responsible for our pilot program, which aims to reach university students and encourage them to contribute to Wikipedia.
Samantha earned two BAs, in English and communication, at UC Davis, and completed her Master’s in education from UC Berkeley in 2013. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and traveling, especially for music festivals. She is an avid Giants fan, and more generally, a lover of baseball parks – she’s been to 18 US ballparks with a goal of visiting “30 before 30.”
Adam Hyland
Wikipedia Content Expert, Humanities
Adam has been an active Wikipedia editor and administrator for nearly six years, with more than 22,000 edits and dozens of Good and Featured Article reviews. He has been a volunteer with us since the program’s pilot in 2010, providing extremely valuable support to many classes and instructors over the last four years. While his degree is in economics from the University of Wisconsin, Adam has also studied the fields of cultural anthropology and digital humanities.
In his spare time, Adam enjoys solving problems related to software development and editing Wikipedia.
Renée LeVesque
Executive Assistant to the ED
Renée is is the primary point of contact for internal and external stakeholders on all matters concerning the office of the Executive Director. She has been working in arts and non-profit settings for more than ten years, and she’s excited about connecting and empowering people through educational resources.
In her free time, Renée teaches theater in the Bay Area and works with schools and teachers to create learning experiences. She has also led after-school programming in San Francisco Unified, created drama programs in Oakland schools, and recently began working with Cal Shakes to bring drama and Shakespeare to schools in other parts of the East Bay.
Jami Mathewson
Educational Partnerships Manager
Jami develops partnerships with educational institutions and academic associations to support the Classroom Program in becoming more sustainable. She identifies ways to support partners who are looking to promote the use of Wikipedia as a teaching tool on a large scale—including help with publications, printed materials, conference presentations, training new participants, and documenting metrics and outcomes.
Jami spends her time off of Wikipedia enjoying the theatre, cheering on her Atlanta Braves and Georgia Bulldogs, and getting to know new places and people.
Ryan McGrady
Ryan is the interim Classroom Program Manager this spring while Helaine Blumenthal is on maternity leave. He works with instructors, volunteers and Wikipedia editors in support of our program activities, including on-boarding and mentoring instructors teaching Wikipedia classroom assignments. He is responsible for coordinating with content experts to make sure instructors have the tools and resources they need.
Ryan earned a masters in digital media studies at Emerson College, and is completing his PhD dissertation with North Carolina State University on the history of encyclopedic knowledge production. Ryan has experience on Wikipedia as a volunteer (User:Rhododendrites) and in his work as a university instructor. In his free time, Ryan edits Wikipedia and wonders why he’s not working on his dissertation.
Ian Ramjohn
Wikipedia Content Expert, Sciences
Ian has a Ph.D. in plant ecology from Michigan State University, and has a tremendous history on Wikipedia as a content contributor and administrator. Ian has more than 40,000 edits since 2004, with two featured articles, two featured lists, five Good Articles, and 48 articles highlighted in the “Did You Know?” section of Wikipedia’s main page. Most of his contributions have focused on botany and ecology, such as biographies of scientists, and articles about his home country, Trinidad and Tobago.
Ian’s hobbies include genealogy and fish-keeping.
Sage Ross
Product Manager, Digital Services
Sage is responsible for developing technology that makes it easier to do Wikipedia classroom assignments and do them well.
As User:Ragesoss, Sage has been contributing to Wikimedia projects since 2005. He’s written featured articles, served as editor of The Wikipedia Signpost, and joined Wikimedia Foundation in 2010 for the pilot of the education program. Most recently, he’s been looking after Wikipedia’s course page technology and developing the training modules for students, educators and ambassadors. He has a passion for photography — and especially, making photos of Wikimedians (and their pets). Sage, his wife Faith, and their children Brighton and Everly, live in Seattle.
Eryk Salvaggio
Communications Associate
As Communications Associate, Eryk is responsible for creating communications materials, including literature to assist program participants and public outreach materials highlighting stories from our programs. He is the point of contact for the Wikipedia editing community, the media, and others interested in learning more about the Wiki Education Foundation and our program.
Eryk graduated from the London School of Economics with an MSc in Media and Communications in 2014, and earned two BAs, in New Media and Journalism, at the University of Maine.
No comments:
Post a Comment