Experience

INVEST IN OPEN INFRASTRUCTURE – EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – 3/20-present

Serve as the inaugural hire for the non-profit initiative, aiming at helping institutional leaders, funders, and infrastructure providers improve the funding and resourcing for open infrastructure solutions underpinning research and scholarship.

OPEN COLLECTIVE FOUNDATION – BOARD MEMBER, AUDIT COMMITTEE CHAIR – 8/20-present

Open Collective Foundation’s mission is to provide a simple, open, lightweight path for charitable initiatives and communities to operate as a 501(c)(3) entity. Their focus is on charitable projects aimed at increasing access to educational resources and training; creating a positive social impact; and developing tools to improve civic participation for communities.

CODE FOR SCIENCE & SOCIETY – BOARD MEMBER – 2/18-present

Transitioned the organization from a fiscal sponsor of the dat project to a sought after partner for public interest technology and decentralized web projects, including Google’s Measurement Lab, Stencila, OpenReview, OpenRefine, and Invest in Open Infrastructure (an initiative of Schmidt Futures). Thaney served as the Board Chair from 2/18-9/20, and now serves in the project lead seat.

LYRASIS – BOARD MEMBER, STRATEGY COMMITTEE CHAIR – 7/19 – present

Board member of LYRASIS, a non-profit membership organization with $80M of annual revenue, that provides open technology and content for Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Knowledge Communities. Advises on developing projects with community of users, growing beyond traditional vendor relationship, following on 2019 acquisition of Duraspace.

DURASPACE – BOARD MEMBER – 2/17 – 7/19

Led strategy for negotiating committee in advance of acquisition by LYRASIS, in an effort to put the organization on a steadier path to sustainability and more comprehensive service delivery. Built out LYRASIS’ community-driven programming and expanded their membership base to leading research institutions and libraries worldwide. Provided coaching support to interim chief executive as transitioned into permanent appointment.

WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION – ENDOWMENT DIRECTOR – 9/17-2/20

Helped scale the first endowment for the “open movement”, personally raising over $40M in new gifts of a $60M fund as part of a $100M/10 year capital campaign. Brought programmatic approach to existing donor relationships, doubled Advisory Board’s giving, brought corporate giving to the Endowment, diversified revenue channels via online fundraising campaigns, and launched a robust planned giving program to fund Wikipedia in perpetuity.

WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION – ENDOWMENT STRATEGIST – 4/17-9/17

Supported the Foundation’s Advancement team by advising on strategy, messaging, and Board engagement. Managed launch of the first Endowment for free and open knowledge.

MOZILLA FOUNDATION – SENIOR FELLOW – 4/17- 10/17

Conducted research with and for the public interest tech community on the threats to public access of information. Researched issues lying at the intersection of civil society, institutions and government, directly engaging members from each of these stakeholder groups to explore shared, coordinated approaches to information sharing and Internet health.

MOZILLA FOUNDATION – DIRECTOR, MOZILLA LEADERSHIP NETWORK – 6/16-2/17

Led a high-performing team of ~30 and the Foundation’s $10M+ program portfolio, consisting of science, learning, advocacy, Internet of Things (IoT) and women and web literacy. Transitioned the Foundation into a movement-building organization and drove change by aligning five separate siloed programs into one unified structure along with building shared capacity and program design companywide. Leveraged open source training prototyping by the science team to effectively develop Mozilla’s flagship Open Leadership Training Series and Working Open trainings. Led unification effort for Mozilla’s fellowship program, serving science, news, and advocacy.

MOZILLA FOUNDATION – DIRECTOR, SCIENCE – 5/13-6/16

Successfully designed and launched Mozilla’s first-ever science program, serving the intersection of the open science and open source communities; oversaw all program aspects including fundraising, raising ~$5M. Elevated training initiatives in computational skills and open source, launched fellowships and engagement opportunities, and empowered researchers, coders and other partners to establish highly collaborative working relationships via technical prototyping, mentorship and training.

DATAKIND UK – FOUNDING DIRECTOR – 4/13-6/16

Served as a founding director on the chapter’s Board for the first international chapter and charity of DataKind, an organization that brings data scientists and the not-for-profit sector together to hack for social good.

STRATA CONFERENCE: EUROPE – INAUGURAL PROGRAM CHAIR – 3/12-6/14

Appointed as external program chair for the inaugural Strata Conference, O’Reilly Media’s event thought series on data, building community and facilitating programming across Europe.

e-INFRASTRUCTURE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL – FOUNDING MEMBER – 3/12-6/14

Named a founding member of the e-Infrastructure Leadership Council (ELC), a national advisory body started by David Willetts, former Minister of State for Universities and Science. Drove efforts to achieve more accessible data science training and technical support for innovation as an industry representative for the group, specifically representing the start-up community, academia and SMEs.

SCIENCE FOO CAMP – CO-ORGANIZER – 7/10-5/13

Served as a member of the core organizing team alongside colleagues at Google, O’Reilly Media, Nature Publishing Group, and Digital Science to host the annual unconference at Google’s Mountain View campus, bringing together leaders and top thinkers in science, technology, and media.

DIGITAL SCIENCE – MANAGER, EXTERNAL PARTNERSHIPS – 7/10-5/13

Helped launch a new startup incubator and technology company from scratch that established, managed and leveraged strategic, high-level external partnerships and business development for Digital Science, a scientific software spinout of Nature Publishing Group. Spearheaded initiatives to build and expand the initial user and program base and managed the Catalyst grant program for early stage scientific software development. Provided tactical leadership, advised key stakeholders and ensured success of the company’s portfolio of investments.

CREATIVE COMMONS – PROGRAM LEAD, SCIENCE – 7/06-7/10   

Managed the science program of the global non-profit Creative Commons (formerly known as “Science Commons”), including project management, extensive public speaking, advocacy, communications, publicity and grant management. Led a talented team of bioinformaticists working on semantic web technologies and prototyping in addition to policy work in data sharing, open science and open access publishing.

ICAMPUS: THE MIT-MICROSOFT ALLIANCE ­­– COMMUNICATION LEAD – 6/05-8/06

Oversaw communications for a $25M grant-funded university research alliance, providing exploratory funding to faculty and students to further digital education ideas and innovations. Served as the translation point between researchers and the public, directly working with Microsoft Research and MIT Professor Hal Abelson.

REPORTERS COMMITTEE FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS – RESEARCHER – 9/05-12/05

Proactively researched ongoing issues impacting First Amendment rights for journalists and the public.

THE BOSTON GLOBE – NEWS CORRESPONDENT – 6/04-8/05

Covered local news, scandals, and crime as a breaking news reporter for a leading American daily newspaper.

Education

Bachelor of Arts, Journalism and Political Science | NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY, Boston, MA

Dean’s List: Winter ’03 – Fall ’06; Excellence Scholarship 9/02 – 12/06; graduated Magna Cum Laude