|
Blogging While Brown 2010 Speaker Bios Lola Adesioye Lola Adesioye is a socio-political commentator. She is a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper (where she writes a weekly online column), The Economist, The Huffington Post, ARISE magazine and TheRoot.com. Until recently, Lola was also Deputy Editor of African-American news site, TheGrio.com. Born and raised in London, England, of Nigerian heritage and now living in New York, Lola brings a unique and well-informed international perspective to the topics that she writes and talks about. She also travels extensively, and has lived in post-apartheid South Africa. With a grandfather who was one of the forefathers of journalism in Nigeria, media is in Lola’s blood. Undergraduate and Master’s degrees in Social & Political Science from the world-renowned Cambridge University also inform her work. Lola regularly appears on TV & Radio, as a talking head for CNN, MSNBC, BET, the UK’s Channel 4 News and the BBC. In 2004, Lola appeared in a critically-acclaimed BBC documentary series entitled ‘Black Ambition’ which documented the final year (pre-graduation) of a handful of black Cambridge University students. Dedicated to giving back to her community, Lola recently got a group of Cambridge alumni together to begin an educational fund which will provide financial assistance and mentoring for minority students. She also is part of the Nigeria Leadership Initiative, a body of over 100 high caliber Nigerians who are dedicated to transforming Nigerian society and is on the New Media Advisory Committee for the Applied Research Center. Angela Benton Angela Benton’s experience spans a variety of industries and roles. She has worked at several InterActive Corp businesses including RealEstate.com, LendingTree.com, and RushmoreDrive.com. Additionally she has held roles at Bizjournals.com, UPS, and Homes of Color Magazine. Throughout her career she has worked in a variety of roles in design, marketing, development, and digital strategy. Her expertise lies in New Media. Presently Angela is the CEO of Black Web Media, which publishes BlackWeb20.com the leading online publication for African-Americans interested in Technology and New Media. Black Web Media’s mission is to be a catalyst for innovation and inclusive ideas on the web for African-Americans. Angela also speaks on topics such as diversity in the web and media industries, web trends, web strategy, and web 2.0’s effects on urban media. She was recently named as one of Ebony Magazine’s Power 150 in the Technology and New Media category along side David Drummond (Google) and Ray Ramsey (One Economy Corporation). Angela graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communications with a specialization in Digital Design. She has also completed postgraduate coursework in Graphic Design from Savannah College of Art and Design.
Dr. André Brock André Brock is an assistant professor at the University of Iowa. He studies the Internet and other technologies from a critical race theory framework. In many ways, technologies are structured to reflect an "ideal user". One in which subliminally (or even explicitly) seeks to mold users into the prescribed template, typically Christian, heterosexual, white, male, and middle-class. In recent work, he has examined the construction of race on the NY Times Freakonomics weblog, representations of race and gender in video games, and the intersections of race, hip hop, and representation in the African American blogosphere's reactions to Kanye West's Katrina monologue. Maurice Cherry Maurice Cherry is creative principal at 3eighteen media. His client list includes top companies and agencies such as: AT&T, YELLOWPAGES.com, Grady Health Foundation, NASA, and more. Cherry also works with tech startups, small businesses, and many others. Cherry holds degrees in both mathematics, network and communications management. He brings a high level of strategic expertise, future-forward creativity, and agile problem solving to 3eighteen media's clients. Cherry also does independent consulting work and has several years of project management experience under his belt. Cherry's passion for technology and good design is contagious. He has written for several technology websites on numerous facets of online marketing and branding. Cherry is also the creator of the Black Weblog Awards, which is entering its sixth year. Cherry is also an authority on social media and technology for political campaigns, and has served as Director of New Media for the Borders for Atlanta Mayoral Campaign in Atlanta, GA. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, playing video games, traveling, haphazardly spelling words the British way, and writing the next great science fiction series. Donna Maria Coles Johnson Donna Maria Coles Johnson is an attorney, award-winning home-based business advocate, and the host and producer of Indie Business Radio and Indie Business TV. She is a popular presenter and keynote speaker at small business conferences nationwide. Donna Maria is the founder and CEO of the Indie Beauty Network and Indie Business Media, which she co-owns with her husband. She blogs at indiebusinessblog.com. Her signature “The Media Is You” program is fast becoming a trusted training resource for small business owners who want to launch branded media outlets that create relationships and expand their sphere of influence. A native of Washington, DC, Donna Maria lives temporarily in Charlotte, NC, with her husband and their young children. Adam Conner Adam Conner is the Washington DC Associate Manager for Privacy and Global Public Policy at Facebook, where he focuses on government and political outreach. He also directed the company's 2008 election efforts. In 2009 Politics Magazine named him one of their “Rising Stars,” an award that goes to people 35 or under who have already made a significant mark in political consulting or advocacy. Prior to opening Facebook's Washington DC office, Adam was the Director of Online Communications for Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Chairwoman of the Rules Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. He previously served as the Deputy Director of Online Communications for Forward Together, the presidential exploratory committee for former Virginia Governor Mark Warner. Adam holds a Bachelor’s degree in political communication from the George Washington University. Cheryl Contee Cheryl Contee, partner at Fission Strategy, specializes in helping non-profit organizations and foundations use social media to create social good. She is also the co-founder of Jack and Jill Politics, writing as “Jill Tubman” on one of the top 10 black blogs online. Cheryl is included in The Root 100 list of established and emerging African-American leaders. Fast Company has named her one of their 2010 Most Influential Women in Tech. She has over 13 years of award-winning interactive expertise and previously served as vice president and lead digital strategist for Fleishman-Hillard’s West Coast region in San Francisco. Cheryl has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, San Francisco Magazine, BBC, and CNN, among other media appearances. She is also proud to serve on several boards and advisory committees: Netroots Nation, BlogHer, Blogging While Brown, Applied Research Center, and CommonGoods.net. She received her B.A. from Yale University and has an International Executive M.B.A. from Georgetown University. In her spare time, Ms. Contee enjoys hiking, yoga, movies and tai chi sword. Anil Dash Anil Dash is a pioneering technologist and blogger; whose site at Dashes.com witch began in1999 as one of the earliest and most influential blogs on the Internet. Dash is the founding Director of Expert Labs, an independent non-profit which creates new web technologies to help policy makers in the White House and the rest of the Federal Government tap into the public's expertise using social networks. Dash is also the first partner in Activate, the new consulting firm that advises companies at the intersection of media, entertainment and technology. He is a recognized expert on web technology, web culture and the software industry. A frequent public speaker, Dash has delivered keynote presentations around the world about the future of social communication online, the relationship between social and traditional media, and the evolution of social web technologies for government, science and culture. His works have also been showcased in museums including the New Museum of Contemporary Art and in 2010 Dashes.com was named a Webby honoree in the Personal Blog category. Dash has also been recognized for his role in popularizing web culture in venues ranging from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to the Houston Chronicle, which labeled him a "legendary blogger". NowPublic named Dash one of the top ten most influential people in New York City in 2008, and Forbes named him second most media-connected person in technology in 2010. He is also a member of the advisory board for the Web 2.0 conference in New York City, is an advisor to StackOverflow, and is a United Nations Social Media Envoy in the effort to control malaria. Dash’s earlier career involved a seminal role as Chief Evangelist at Six Apart Ltd.; where he joined as the first employee at the world's leading blogging company. His work was proceeded by roles in the newspaper and music industries. Stacey Ferguson Stacey Ferguson is a Senior Attorney in the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices. Her workload focuses primarily on advertising issues related to the Internet and high-tech goods and services, such as spyware and adware, peer-to-peer file sharing, digital rights management, and word-of-mouth marketing online. She assisted in coordinating the Commission’s town halls on mobile marketing and digital rights management. She currently serves on the Interactive Technologies Task Force, the Federal-State Law Enforcement Spyware Task Force and the Diversity Council in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. She also serves on the agency-wide Social Media task Force. Prior to joining the FTC, Ms. Ferguson practiced law at Proskauer Rose LLP, where she worked in the areas of privacy and intellectual property law. Stacey also blogs at Mamalaw.com and is a co-founder of the Blogalicious Weekend conferences. Follow her on Twitter: @JusticeFergie. Shirley Franklin Shirely Franklin serves as Executive Senior Advisor for the Alliance for Digital Equality. In 2001, Shirley Clarke Franklin, was elected to serve as the 58th Mayor of the City of Atlanta. She became the first female mayor of Atlanta and the first African American woman to serve as mayor of a major southern city. Mayor Franklin restored financial stability by making tough decisions that have resulted in five balanced budgets and have generated a healthy reserve. She also implemented one of the strongest ethics reform programs in the nation and an Ethics Task Force. Mayor Franklin laid the foundation for a $3.2 billion overhaul of the city's aging water and sewer system and convinced the 2004 General Assembly to allow Atlanta to place a municipal option sales tax before the voters that overwhelmingly passed and generated money for Clean Water Atlanta. During her term in office, the city completed $2 billion of the Clean Water Program and $3 billion of airport enhancements. The city also initiated affordable housing, sustainability, and parks expansion programs. All of this was accomplished while the population grew 20%, making Atlanta one of the fastest growing cities in the country. In 2005, she created the "Mayor’s Youth Program,” which is designed to engage high school seniors in Atlanta Public Schools in planning for their future beyond high school, whether it is college, the workforce, technical school or the military. To date, this program raised $9 million to provide summer internships and student grants for nearly 600 students each year. Time Magazine named her one of the top five mayors in the country; and has been named one of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News and World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Mayor Franklin earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Howard University and was awarded her Masters of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. Mayor Franklin previously served as the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for Mayor Maynard Jackson as Chief Administrative Officer for Mayor Andrew Young. She also served as senior vice president for external relations for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and served as CEO of Shirley Clarke Franklin & Associates, a management and consulting firm for public and community affairs. Patrice Grell Yursik Patrice Grell Yursik is a Trinidadian born writer who now lives in Chicago and works as a full time blogger and freelance writer-for-hire. Her blog, Afrobella.com has won more than ten online awards including five Black Weblog Awards, and is listed at #7 on Konector's list of top 50 Beauty Blogs. She was the lone Black beauty blogger chosen to be featured in Fast Company magazine, which touted her ad network as a top innovator. Then Crème of Nature unveiled its magazine advertising campaign in Essence, Sister 2 Sister and other magazines. She graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing (fiction) from the University of Miami, and then, spent a wonderful summer employed as the Assistant Events and Marketing Coordinator at Books & Books. In 2005, she won an honorable mention in Trinidad's Derek Walcott Writing Contest for her short story, "Cookie." She is the former Calendar Editor of the Miami New Times. Scott Hanselman Scott has been blogging since 2002 and his technical blog gets over a half-million hits a month. He's been podcasting a weekly show for over 200 shows. He works out of a home office for Microsoft as a Principal Program Manager, aiming to spread good information about developing software, usually on the Microsoft stack. Scott has done stand-up comedy, beat poetry, been an adjunct professor at a university, written or worked on a half-dozen books, is an amateur linguist with a focus on Amharic and Zulu, and will talk technology to whoever will listen. Anna John Anna John is a writer and co-founder of SepiaMutiny.com: an acclaimed, six-year old group blog about all things South Asian curated from a second-generation, American perspective. She is an alumna of Delta Gamma, The University of California at Davis and The George Washington University. A native of California, she has lived in Washington, D.C. for the past decade where she tweets about everything from puppies to pop culture on Twitter as "@suitablegirl." She has appeared on NPR, The BBC and TheAtlantic.com and she thanks you for reading this paragraph-sized exercise in narcissism. ;) Danielle N. Lee, Ph.D Danielle N. Lee, Ph.D., studies animal behavior, teaches biology and urban ecology. As an active member of several scientific societies and science blogging communities, Danielle encourages students from under-represented groups to study science and pursue science careers. Danielle’s interest in outreach to under-served groups, particularly African-Americans, includes mentoring undergraduate and high school students, participating in after-school science programs, and speaking to youth groups about careers in science and ecology. She was selected as the 2009 Diversity Scholars Award by the American Institute of Biological Sciences for her contributions to science and promoting diversity within the field. Her science blog, Urban Science Adventures! ©, introduces the young people and the scientifically naïve to science through urban ecology and environmental science. In 2009, she attended in the ScienceOnline meeting, a science blogging conference of scientists and online science communicators. There she co-moderated a panel on promoting ethnic diversity in the sciences. She also created the Diversity in Science Carnival – an online vehicle for promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) diversity to larger audiences. Her blogging awards include the 2009 Black Weblog Best Science and Technology Blog (Popular Vote) and her work has been featured in the 2009 Open Laboratory Anthology of the Best Science Writing on the Web. Ananda Leeke Yoga + Creativity + Internet Geek = Ananda Leeke. Leeke is a lawyer turned “Jill of many trades”: innerpreneur, author, artist, coach, and yoga teacher. Her mission is “Empowering U2BU through creativity coaching, Reiki, self-care, social media, volunteerism, and yoga.” She penned That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery (2009) and her debut novel Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One (2007). Both books celebrate Leeke’s passion for yoga. She is currently writing Sisterhood the Blog: Soundbytes from the 21st Century Women’s Online Revolution (2011) and Love’s Troubadours – Symon: Book Two (2011). Presently, she serves as the DC Social Media Examiner for Examiner.com. She also teaches online yoga classes for computer users on Stickam.com and MomTV. Leeke taught yoga for computer users at Blogalicious, She's Geeky DC, and Latinos in Social Media in 2009. In June 2010, she will teach a yoga class during DC Digital Capital Week. Visit www.anandaleeke.com to learn more about her. Follow her on Twitter too: http://twitter.com/anandaleeke. Luvvie Luvvie is co-founder of The Red Project Collective, a national organization that raises awareness about the impact of HIV/AIDS on minority communities (women, people of color, LGBT). The Collective was started as a result of the success of The Red Pump Project, which started as a campaign to get bloggers to "Rock the Red Pump" on their sites to talk about HIV/AIDS and its effect on women. Red Pump now has a brother initiative (The Red Tie Project), and 40 ambassadors in 20 states around the country. When Luvvie isn't Red Pump Rocking, she blogs over at AwesomelyLuvvie.com, where she roasts, rants and raves (and *wall slides*). She can also be found shopping for shoes, traveling and getting blocked by short, unfunny comedians on Twitter (@LuvvieIG). Gina McCauley Called “the Dean of Black Bloggers” and “a woman who's on the cutting edge of the internet and social media," Gina McCauley is one of the most influential African American digital media content creators in the world. In 2007, she was named to ESSENCE magazine's list of the 25 Most Influential African Americans. She has written for ESSENCE magazine and ESSENCE.com, The Guardian, and The Observer. Her blog posts have been quoted or mentioned on CNN, Entertainment Tonight, and the CBS Morning Show. She appeared on PBS NDTV, NPR, the Tom Joyner Morning Show, RTE Radio 1 in Ireland, XM radio and Frontline: Digital Nation on PBS. In 2007 she launched What About Our Daughters?, a blog dedicated to combating negative portrayals of African-American women in popular culture and in 2008, she launched Michelle Obama Watch, a blog dedicated to monitoring the good, the bad, and the ugly media coverage of Michelle Obama. She founded Blogging While Brown, the first international conference for bloggers of color. In addition to designing and implementing the curriculum for digital literacy training, she is a frequent presenter at some of the largest social media conferences in the world, including Blogher, South by Southwest and Blog World Expo. J.Jioni Palmer J. Jioni Palmer is the Communications Director for the Congressional Black Caucus, where he is responsible for developing and implementing a proactive national communications strategy to raise the profile of the 42 member caucus, which includes House Majority Whip, four full committee chairs and 18 sub-committee chairs. He most recently served as National Press Secretary at Media Matters for America. Previously, Jioni served as press secretary for the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Before March 2007, he was a reporter with Newsday, where he started as a summer intern in 1999 and subsequently covered the various levels of government and politics in New York. Joining the Washington bureau in September 2004 as Newsday's congressional correspondent, he began reporting on the daily activities on Capitol Hill, focusing on the New York delegation. He was awarded a Newsday Publisher's Award for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent rebuilding of New Orleans. While at Newsday, Jioni was a regular on News12 Long Island and PBS stations in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut market. Additionally, he has been interviewed on radio interviews on stations across the country including Chicago, Phoenix, South Carolina, Los Angeles and numerous national audiences via satellite. He has also appeared as guest on numerous broadcasts including CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN and New York radio outlets. Jioni is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles where he majored in African American Studies. Jioni has been a resident of Washington DC for five years and proudly owns a home in Edgewood, with his lovely wife Ashli and their two cats, Langston and Zora. Latoya Peterson Latoya Peterson spends her time editing the blog Racialicious.com - the intersection of race and pop culture. She is contributor to Jezebel.com and has written for Vibe, The American Prospect, The Atlantic, Bitch Magazine, Clutch Magazine, the Women's Review of Books, Slate's Double X, Salon's Broadsheet, The Root and the Guardian. Her essay, "The Not Rape Epidemic" was published in the anthology Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape (Seal Press, 2008). She is currently working on projects related to race, pop culture, and video games. Chris Rabb Chris Rabb is a consultant, writer, and public speaker focusing on the intersection of social identity, media, civic engagement and entrepreneurship. His forthcoming book is called Invisible Capital: How Unseen Forces Shape Entrepreneurial Opportunity, to be released in Fall 2010 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Currently, Chris is a fellow at Demos, a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization based in New York City. He is also a visiting researcher at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 2001, Chris was awarded an American Marshall Memorial Fellowship by the German Marshall Fund of the U.S.
From 1993-1995, Chris worked in the U.S. Senate and the White House Conference on Small Business where he focused on policies and legislation that impacted small businesses. From 1995 through 2001, Chris worked at Stono Technologies, LLC, a technology-based product design firm which he co-founded in his native Chicago.
Upon moving to Philadelphia, Chris oversaw the entrepreneurial programs for an urban non-profit organization that included management of a nationally recognized business incubator developed in partnership with the Wharton Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Later, he set up a boutique consultancy that provides advisory services for new and small-scale enterprises, including for-profits, civic organizations and political campaigns, that seek assistance with organizational productivity.
In 1999, Chris founded Afro-Netizen, a pioneering, e-mail-based news and information aggregator for African Americans nationwide that amassed over 10,000 subscribers within its first 18 months. Five years later, Chris was among the small inaugural group of bloggers to receive press credentials to cover the 2004 Democratic National Committee Convention in Boston, making Afro-Netizen the first and only credentialed social media outlet to reach a primarily Black audience at that time.
Chris has been quoted by or featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Knight Ridder, and the Associated Press, and has appeared on various nationally syndicated radio shows on NPR, Air America Radio, Pacifica, Radio One, and XM Radio, and on television on C-SPAN and LinkTV. A published writer and award-winning blogger, Chris has written for such magazines as The Nation, Colorlines, and Mother Jones. He is also a columnist for The Huffington Post.
Chris is a graduate of Yale College and earned an M.S. in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the boards of the Applied Research Center (Oakland, CA) and the Bread & Roses Community Fund (Philadelphia, PA). He is also on the national advisory board of VoiceMale Magazine, a member of the Progressive Communicators Network (PCN) as well as a member of The Media Consortium.
An avid genealogist, Mr. Rabb lives in the Mt. Airy community of Philadelphia with his wife, professor Imani Perry, and their two sons, Freeman Diallo and Issa, where he was elected as a Democratic Committee person. Carmen Dixon Rosenzweig Carmen Dixon Rosenzweig guides truth seekers who have a strong conscience and a desire to make the world a better place, by showing them how to engage in honest and authentic conversations about race armed with understanding but without shame or overwhelming fear. Those who work with Carmen can expect to emerge with renewed feelings of optimism and a re-energized connection to humanity and sense of possibility. Prior to creating All About Race, Carmen spent more than a decade on the front lines of broadcast journalism, corporate public relations and crisis management honing her skills as an expert communicator. As an ABC News producer, Carmen won three Emmy Awards. She is a graduate of Yale University. Now Carmen writes for AOL BlackVoices, hosts “All About Race” on BlogTalkRadio and conducts seminars and motivational presentations from the place on the racial frontier where the quest for understanding and tolerance faces down anger, reluctance and fear. Nichelle Stephens Nichelle Stephens is a blogger, editor and social media strategist. She is the editor of PepsiWeInspire.com,a branded lifestyle blog for African American women. She is also the co-founder of Cupcakes Take The Cake, the most popular blog about cupcakes, finance, and small business tips. Baratunde Thurston Baratunde Thurston is a comedian, author and vigilante pundit who successfully combines technology, politics and comedy. He co-founded the black political blog, Jack & Jill Politics in the summer of 2006, works as the web editor at The Onion and hosts Popular Science's Future Of on Science Channel. Baratunde has contributed to Vanity Fair, The UK Independent and WNYC's The Takeaway, and with over 23,000 followers he tweets very, very hard.
Mr. Thurston, which he goes by in his bio, has often used satire as an expression of his activism and technology as a medium for that expression. He has self-published three books, including Keep Jerry Falwell Away From My Oreo Cookies and is currently writing How To Be Black, which will be published by Harper. Baratunde was nominated for the Bill Hicks Award for Thought Provoking Comedy, declared a Champion of the First Amendment by Iowa State University, and called “someone I need to know” by Barack Obama. His stage presence has earned him speaking duties at the National Conference for Media Reform, Netroots Nation, South by Southwest Interactive & Film and Web 2.0 Expo. He has been featured various media outlets including ABC, NPR, BBC, CNN, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, C-SPAN and ComedyCentral.com. Baratunde resides in Brooklyn, lives in The Internet and has over 30 years experience being black. Dr. Nicol Turner-Lee Dr. Nicol Turner-Lee is Vice President and the first Director of the Media and Technology Institute for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The Joint Center is one of the nation’s leading research and public policy institutions and the only one whose work focuses primarily on issues of particular concern to African Americans and other people of color. The Media and Technology Institute was established in 2008 to study how broadband, the media industry and emerging communications technologies can become avenues of advancement for people of color. For the past seven years, Dr. Turner-Lee has been an executive at One Economy - a global nonprofit that uses the power of technology and information to expand opportunities for low-income people – serving most recently as Senior Vice President for External Affairs in charge of public relations, national strategic partnerships and business development. While at One Economy, Dr. Turner-Lee played key roles in all aspects of its core business, including residential and community broadband access, online public purpose media and youth technology training. She helped to establish broadband connections in thousands of affordable housing units, supported the development and distribution of One Economy's core media properties and expanded a national technology service initiative from 250 to nearly 3,000 youth in less than two years. Before joining One Economy, Dr. Turner-Lee founded the Neighborhood Technology Resource Center, a Chicago-based nonprofit that provides public access to computers and the Internet to thousands of low- and middle-income people. In its nine-year history, NTRC has been recognized by the State of Illinois and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as a model community technology center. Dr. Turner-Lee has served on the board of the Center for Economic Progress, most recently as its chairperson. She is a member of the board for the Community Renewal Society and a former member of the Chicago Wireless Task Force. In 2007, Broadband Properties magazine named her to its list of the "Top 10 National Broadband Promoters." Dr. Turner-Lee is a former Research Fellow with Northwestern University's Asset-Based Community Development Institute, a recent Rockwood Leadership Fellow and has served as adjunct faculty at Northwestern and North Park Universities. She graduated with honors from Colgate University, has a doctorate in Sociology from Northwestern University and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Illinois-Chicago. Shawn P. Williams Shawn Williams is a 1997 graduate of Texas A&M University with a degree in Business Administration. After graduating from Texas A&M, Shawn began his professional career as a sales specialist with IBM Corporation. He then spent nine years (1999-2008) in pharmaceutical sales with Sanofi Aventis as a specialty representative. In 2006, Shawn launched the highly acclaimed DallasSouthBlog.com focused on African-American issues in Southern Dallas and across the U.S. He serves as publisher and editor of the blog which is rated as one of the Top 5 Blogs in Dallas by Outside.in. He has appeared on NBC Nightly News, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, in Ebony Magazine, The Toronto Star, Chicago Tribune, and a number of local media outlets. Shawn is a frequent columnist for the Dallas Morning News, Paris (Texas) News, a member of the Super Bowl XLV Host Committee, and President-Elect (2011-2013) of the Texas A&M Black Former Student Network. Navarrow Wright Navarrow is the President of Maximum Leverage Solutions, a consulting firm that delivers internet and social media strategy consulting as well as technology development consulting to its clients. Navarrow co-founded with Hip Hop Mogul, Russell Simmons, a social media site catering to the hip-hop perspective, Global Grind.com. Before joining Global Grind, Wright was SVP of Technology for Medical Broadcasting Company, a division of the Internet marketing firm Digitas Inc. Prior to that, he served as CTO of Viacom’s BET Interactive. At BET.com he created and implemented new technologies growing the Web site 300%. Navarrow Wright has appeared on Run’s house, Irv Gotti’s show Gotti’s Way and the Steve Harvey radio show. He was picked by Network Journal Magazine as of the their “ 40 Under forty” professionals to watch in 2009 and selected by the Innovation Generation as one of the nation’s top 100 GenerationNEXT and Information Technology leaders.
|
