Board of Advisors
Ivan Marovic
Ivan Marovic is an organizer, software developer and social innovator from Belgrade, Serbia. He was one of the leaders of Otpor, a youth movement which played a critical role in the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic, Serbian strongman in 2000. Since then he’s been advising numerous pro-democracy groups around the world and became one of the leading educators in the field of strategic nonviolent conflict. In the last two decades Ivan has been designing and developing learning programs on civil resistance and movement building, and supporting the development of training organizations, such as Rhize and the African Coaching Network.
Ivan started his activism journey as a student organizer in the Otpor movement which played a critical role in mobilizing voters in historic 2000 election and the subsequent nonviolent mobilization which pressed Slobodan Milosevic to accept defeat and step down. Soon after this firsthand experience, Ivan found himself advising activists and organizers around the world, helping them develop strategies best suited for their circumstances, but all anchored in self-organizing and mobilization of ordinary people to bring about political and social change.
Wade Rathke
Founder and Executive Director/Chief Organizer of ACORN from its founding in 1970 until its closing in 2008. Wade is one of the most renowned community organizers of the 20th Century. ACORN became America’s largest and longest lasting community organization, and arguably its most effective. He has since become the Executive Director of ACORN International and Local 100 United Labor Unions, He also is also a publisher and editor-in-chief for Social Policy, a magazine for scholars and activists. The feature documentary, “The Organizer,” documents his life and that of ACORN.
Dolores Huerta
Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta (born April 10, 1930) is an Americanlabor leader and Civil Rights activist who with with Ceasar Chavez, is the co-founder of the United Farmworkers Association, which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farmworkers (UFW). Huerta helped organize the Delano grape strike in 1965 in California and was the lead negotiator in the workers' contract that was created after the strike.
President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, Dolores is a lifetime organizer who has won countless awards for her advocacy work amongst workers, immigrants, and women's rights groups. Ladies Home Journal named her one of the 100 most influential women in America.
SHe is also recepient of the the United States Presidential Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was the first Latina inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993.
Huerta is the originator of the phrase “Si se purede” (“yes We Can”). In California, April 10 is Dolores Huerta Day.
Daniel Sheehan
Daniel is the chief counsel of the Dakota People’s Law Project, who works closely with tribal nations and nonprofit compatriots to amplify Indigenous voices, provide renewable solutions in place of fossil fuel consumption, protect the voting rights of Native people, and provide on-the-ground grassroots support. They are another organization wanting to be considered for our upcoming beta test. He is also president and co-founder of the Romero Institute and former president and co-founder of the Christic Institute. Carrying degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Danny has helped lead multiple lawsuits of historic importance, including three Supreme Court cases. Prior to forming the Christic Institute, he litigated a number of high-profile social justice cases.
Joel Kupferman
Joel is a member of the National Lawyers Guild and Executive Director for the Environmental Law Initiative / New York Environmental Law and Justice Project, a non-profit public interest organization which counsels and represents groups and individuals concerned with the preservation and improvement of community environmental conditions. They believe it is possible for people to protect themselves and their communities from dangerous and burdensome environmental hazards through knowledge and effective and affordable legal avenues. By utilizing their “commando” law techniques they are able to effectively promote the interests of the environmental community.
Joey Malbon
Joey is the current Director of Communications at Adbusters Media Foundation, an international non-profit collective of activists, publisher of the famous Adbusters magazine, who are standing up against unfettered capitalism. He works as part of the team launching peaceful civil disobedience campaigns such as their previous and greatly successful Occupy Wall Street action. They were the first to create the “Occupy” meme.