Before becoming Creative Commons’ Office Manager, Valeria worked for several non-profit organizations, lending her administrative and managerial skills to institutions like Planned Parenthood and MoveOn.org. Prior to making the move to Mountain View, CA, she spent three years teaching English to public school students in Seoul, South Korea. A native of the Sunshine State of Florida, she holds a B.A. in Political Science and Women’s Studies from the University of Florida. Outside of work you’ll find her practicing Bikram yoga, mastering her Scrabble skills, and planning her next trip abroad.

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Heidi Chen, Grants & Projects Manager
Started: March 2011

Heidi currently oversees grants administration for CC projects and programs funded through grants and supports general fundraising and development efforts. Prior to joining Creative Commons as its program manager, Heidi worked in operations and program coordination for nonprofit organizations. In her free time, she likes to plan her next trip, play badminton with friends, and always be learning something new.

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Cable works with the global open education community to leverage open licensing, open educational resources, and open policies to significantly improve access to quality education and research resources so everyone in the world can attain the education they desire. Cable has 15 years of academic technology, online learning, and open education experience in higher education and recently led a project to build and share a general education curriculum under the CC BY license. Cable holds a PhD in educational psychology from Ohio State University and tweets @cgreen.

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Before coming to CC, Jill worked throughout the Bay Area at a variety of companies, nonprofit organizations, and local government agencies. She spent time implementing behavior therapy programs with youth on the Autism Spectrum as well as completing two years in AmeriCorps working on community development projects. Jill received her B.A. in International Studies from U.C. San Diego and her Postgraduate Diploma of Sustainable Development from Macquarie University in Sydney.

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Elliot Harmon manages CC’s various communications and social media channels. He’s worked in the non-profit sector for ten years, mostly in the arts and technology. He has a degree in English and theatre from the University of South Dakota and a Master’s in writing from the California College of the Arts. When he’s not thinking about CC’s communications strategy, he’s often thinking about cooking, poetry, or music.

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Puneet Kishor is the manager of science and data policy at Creative Commons, where he works on all aspects of the scientific information lifecycle to make it systemically open and collaborative. Puneet’s current CC Science projects are focused on making better workflow tools, changing the conversation from the privacy imperative to the sharing potential of data, using personal data for public good, the role of open hardware and certification in science, legal implications of text and data mining, promoting open science in the global south, and extending the reach of CC by networking scientists from different disciplines and geographies. Puneet arrived at CC via a rural development NGO in New Delhi, the World Bank in Washington DC, a GeoSpatial consultancy, and data research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Puneet is a data wrangler, environmental scientist, geospatial developer and Charter Member of the Open Source GeoSpatial Foundation.

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Matt is responsible for the maintenance and development of the myriad of servers and websites that tell the world about Creative Commons (including this one).

A professional Emacs user by day, in 2008 Matt wrote and produced the short film “Happy Birthday to GNU” starring Stephen Fry. He is the founder of the free culture community Libre.fm and a maintainer of GNU social (formerly StatusNet). He lives in Boston with his wife and aloof cat, where he is writing a series of monkey movies, tweeting furiously at Hulk Hogan, and dreaming in HTML.

Photo: Steve Pomeroy / CC BY-SA 3.0

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Billy is an instructional designer and open education advocate, and is currently a project assistant at Creative Commons. He works towards CC’s goals through projects that build Open Educational Resources (OER) on the web. Billy has worked in K-12 and higher education, with nonprofit and commercial groups, and believes that we can build innovation around the commons while providing educational opportunities for all people. He holds a BA in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.Ed in educational technology from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. He surfs, is a motorsports enthusiast, and tweets from @billymeinke.

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Ryan Merkley is a national leader in public policy, open government, and digital communications. He is the incoming Chief Executive Officer of Creative Commons, the global nonprofit that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. Ryan was Chief Operating Officer of the Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit parent of the Mozilla Corporation, creator of the world’s most recognizable open-source software project and internet browser, Firefox. At the Mozilla Foundation Ryan led development of programs like Webmaker and Lightbeam, and in 2012 he presented Mozilla’s multimedia remixing platform Popcorn at TED Global. He also established Mozilla’s successful individual fundraising program, raising over $1.8 million from 44,000 new donors.

Ryan previously worked as Director of Corporate Communications for the City of Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games, and acted as a Senior Advisor to Mayor David Miller in Toronto, where he initiated Toronto’s Open Data project. Most recently, Ryan was Managing Director and Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at Vision Critical, a Vancouver-based SaaS company and market research firm. He studied Political Science and Economics at Waterloo University.

Ryan is passionate about social causes, digital media, and open government and data. He is an avid cyclist, an amateur barista, and a father. He resides in downtown Toronto.

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmerkley
Twitter: @ryanmerkley
Tumblr: http://ryanmerkley.tumblr.com/

Photo: Rannie Turingan / CC0

* Ryan works through 0941176 B.C. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative Commons whose sole activity is to provide services to CC. 0941176 B.C. Ltd. is operated separately from our CC Canada affiliate.

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Before joining Creative Commons, Meryl spent several years doing communications in the law, academia, media, and international fields. She holds a B.A. in Communication and minors in Music Technology and Urban Studies & Planning from the University of California, San Diego. She loves music and escaping to different locations for travel.

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Jane manages the School of Open, a collaboration with the Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU). A volunteer community-driven project, the School of Open offers free education opportunities on the meaning and impact of “openness” in the digital age and its benefit to creative endeavors, education, research and more. Participants learn how to use open technology and tools, such as Creative Commons licenses, to achieve their goals. Jane also helps creators, institutions, and companies consider and adopt CC tools, while cultivating stories that exhibit the social and commercial value of CC licenses to different communities. As a founding volunteer of P2PU, she has designed and led courses on creative nonfiction writing, Creative Commons for K-12 educators, and designing collaborative workshops. She is based in Los Angeles, California.

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Sarah helps to provide legal support to Creative Commons, including assisting in the development of Version 4.0 of the CC license suite. While her primary focus is copyright law, Sarah advises the organization on all facets of CC’s work. Before joining CC, she worked at the Stanford Fair Use Project and as an associate at Fried Frank in New York City. Her interest in copyright began in her former life as a journalist. She has a journalism degree from Northwestern University and a J.D. from University of Michigan Law School.

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As General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for CC, Diane oversees the organization’s legal strategy, affairs and projects. She serves on the board of the Software Freedom Law Center. Prior to joining CC, she served as general counsel for Open Source Development Labs (now, the Linux Foundation), and thereafter was legal counsel to Mozilla. She is experienced at providing strategic advice and leadership on an array of IP issues impacting communities and the technology industry, including open source projects, FOSS licensing, and IP reform efforts and policy. She is based in Portland, Oregon.

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Scott has served as director of finance and operations since August 2013. Prior to joining Creative Commons, he worked for several privately held software companies in the Bay Area, including Aggregate Knowledge, SoftCoin, and DiCarta. Scott has an MS from San Jose State University and an MBA from the University of North Florida. In his spare time, Scott enjoys reading, writing, and engaging in fiery political debates.

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Paul is a senior project manager with Creative Commons. His project management skills were honed at Hughes Aircraft working on large scale, international air traffic control systems. Paul’s core expertise is in adult learning, educational technology, and open education. Prior to joining Creative Commons, Paul led Open Educational Resource (OER) and professional development initiatives across all the colleges and universities in British Columbia Canada. Paul’s firsthand experiences using Creative Commons’ licenses with faculty, institutions, and government inspired him to join Creative Commons. Paul is an avid outdoor and ping pong enthusiast.

* Paul works through 0941176 B.C. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative Commons whose sole activity is to provide services to CC. 0941176 B.C. Ltd. is operated separately from our CC Canada affiliate.

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Timothy Vollmer is Public Policy Manager. He coordinates public policy positions in collaboration with CC staff, international affiliate network, and a broad community of copyright experts. Timothy helps educate policymakers at all levels and across various disciplines such as education, data, science, culture, and government about copyright licensing, the public domain, and the adoption of open policies. Prior to CC, Timothy worked on information policy issues for the American Library Association in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Information, and helped establish the Open.Michigan initiative.

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As Counsel at Creative Commons, Kat works on issues surrounding the licenses and other projects affecting the legal and policy interests of the CC community. Kat’s background is in free culture, free software, and free expression, especially where they involve copyright and patent. She is the 2012-13 chair of the Wikimedia Foundation, and a board member since 2006. She was previously a technology policy analyst at the American Library Association. Kat has a BA from Stetson University and a JD from George Mason University. In her secret double life, she is a classical bassoonist and violist.
Photo by Lane Hartwell, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0

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Carolina Botero is a Colombian lawyer, researcher, lecturer, writer and consultant on issues related to law and technology, especially regarding access. She has developed a special interest on the challenges that the educational and scientific sector faces regarding copyright issues while working with Karisma Foundation in Bogotá where she leads a working group on law and Internet and serves as Legal Lead for Creative Commons Colombia. She is an active member of the Colombian Free Software community and is member of the Board of Conexions (an open education project of the University of Rice) on behalf of Creative Commons.

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Prior to joining CC, Jessica worked as a copyright specialist and community manager in Australia. There she spent much of her time as the Project Manager of Creative Commons Australia and the Creative Commons Clinic, a research program at the Queensland University of Technology. She has also had stints working as a copyright and broadcasting policy adviser for the Australian government and Australia’s commercial television broadcasters, as well as an academic, lecturer and educator. She has a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne and both a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts (English Hons) from the Australian National University.
Photo by Joi Ito, licensed CC-BY 2.0

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Since 2008, Gwen Franck has been working for Ghent University Library on several projects such as Google Books and Europeana. For Ghent University, she served as project assistant for OpenAIRE, a European funded project supporting the Open Access policies of the European Commission. Within the scope of this project, she co-started Open Access Belgium, aiming to spread the word about Open Access for scientific research in the Belgian research community. Since 2013, she is the regional coordinator for Creative Commons in Europe, and from 2014 on she will also be working as open access coordinator for Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL).

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Alex is an activist for openness and transparency and consumer empowerment. He discovered that Creative Commons responded well to his content aspirations on the belief that while “content is king” really, “context rules” as dictated by the creators and/or if with consumers’ contribution. His job entails strengthening, widening and deepening Creative Commons’ embrace across Africa.

He serves as Africa Representative- ICANN’s Non-Commercial Users Constituency, Council Member – Free and Open Source Foundation for Africa, Chair – Broadcasting Content Advisory Council, CCK (converged state regulator), ED- CODE-IP Trust, Kenyan non-profit catalysing enabling environment for local content development and its intellectual property protection. Consultant on ICT solutions, computer programming and digital content development.

Gakuru enjoys creative company; programmers, movie makers, artistes, artists, poets, bloggers, writers and publishers and others, and frequently contributes on technology to various media outlets. He enjoys reading, listening to music and swimming.

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Sami is a Tunisian campaigner, blogger, writer, and freedom of expression advocate. He was a political refugee living in the Netherlands between 1998 and 2011. Sami is founding director of the advocacy arm of Global Voices, co-founder of the award-winning collective blog Nawaat, and author of the first Tunisian e-book (in French), Borj Erroumi XL. He co-founded The Arab Techies Collective and co-organized the The Arab Bloggers Conferences for several years. Foreign Policy named Sami a major world influence in promoting government transparency. Sami received a Prince Claus Award in 2012 for his cyber-activism work. Yahoo! named Sami Ben Gharbia as a person of the year during the 2010 World Press Freedom for his work focused on Internet censorship. Electronic Frontier Foundation awarded Sami and his fellow Nawaat co-founders with their 2011 Pioneer Award.

Photo: Global Voices Online / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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Soohyun has been with CC Korea since 2008, playing her part as international coordinator and leadership roles in many different volunteer projects. She received a Master’s in translation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and began her career as a full-time translator before she developed interest in CC and free culture movement. Other than translating and CC activities, she loves to read with a strong coffee and to try new things.
Photo by dreamdrawing, licensed CC-BY 2.0

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Claudio Ruiz is director of Derechos Digitales, a Chilean non-profit that works to promote, defend and develop rights and civil liberties in the digital environment. He is the public lead for Creative Commons Chile, coordinating projects related to the local music industry, netlabels and public sector, working closely with the local librarians community. He is experienced at free software licensing, fundamental rights and specially freedom of expression on the digital environment. He has a cat, loves indie rock and single speed bikes.

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Tobias is the legal lead of Creative Commons South Africa and the Principal Investigator for the Open AIR (African Innovation Research & Training) project, which investigates the relationship between IP and Innovation on the African continent. He previously worked as a Senior Manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Technology & Innovation Law Division in Johannesburg and held a Postdoctoral Fellowship Position at the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Intellectual Property Law & Policy Research Unit – the hosting institution of Creative Commons South Africa. He studied and practiced law in Germany and San Francisco, U.S.A. Tobias’s Ph.D. dissertation was on copyright-related issues – with a special focus on copyright exceptions and limitations.

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As the Legal Lead for Creative Commons Germany, John joined the CC Community in 2006. He is based in Berlin and specializes in open content law, private order licensing in general and open science, both as a lawyer and as a journalist at the consumer information portal iRights.info. John periodically publishes papers on internet law topics, is a founding member of the Digital Society Association and vice president of the Internet & Society Collaboratory intervention platform. As time allows, John provides expertise to activist groups and initiatives. In the past John has inter alia participated in the Communia Project and served as a sherpa in the German Federal Governments IT Summit process.

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After 8 years in advertising, Naeema Zarif took a leap into social enterprise offering expertise on conceptualization and producing both offline and online integrated media initiatives, including print, social web, audio, and film. She is an enthusiastic supporter of open culture, speaking and lecturing frequently at conferences and educational institutes, and contributing visual and digital strategic consultancy and training to various governmental, not-for-profit, and for-profit initiatives around the MENA region.

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David is a communications consultant and development writer from Chicago. He is working on funding proposals and how CC shares its story with the world. He worked for nearly a decade as a community organizer and enjoys playing hockey and photographing athletes, dancers and all kinds of skaters.

Eric Steuer, Arts and Media Advisor
Started: November 2005

Eric works with artists, media companies, technology developers, and cultural institutions on the use of Creative Commons licenses and CC-licensed content. Before joining CC, Eric was an editor for Wired magazine, where he is currently a correspondent, covering the intersection of technology and popular culture. He is on the board of CASH Music and is a musician whose recordings and remixes have been released by a variety of record labels.

Photo by David Kindler, licensed CC BY

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Iris’ work at Creative Commons focuses on foundation grants and legal issues. Before joining Creative Commons, she was a lawyer at the Carnegie Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, a couple of biotech start-ups, Stanford University, and LDF (the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., as it was then). She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School, and what she likes doing is reading, cooking, baking, traveling and doting on her grandchildren, although not in that precise order.

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Mike Linksvayer joined Creative Commons as CTO, became Vice President in April 2007, then a part-time Senior Fellow in April 2012. Previously he co-founded Bitzi, an early open content/open data service. He occasionally writes on his personal blog.

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David Wiley coined the term “open content” and created the first open license for non-software creative works in 1998. Since then, he has been a tireless advocate for “open” and the power of openness to improve the quality and affordability of education. David is currently a Shuttleworth Fellow and was previously a Nonresident Fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. He is currently on leave from Brigham Young University and leading Lumen Learning, an organization dedicated to supporting and improving the adoption of open educational resources by middle schools, high schools, community and state colleges, and universities.

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