2009 Bios

Christine Adzich is a television producer of reality and lifestyle programming, forming Big Picture Productions in 2003 to develop and produce mass-market television properties. She also has ventured into film financing and negotiated and closed deal for a major motion picture staring William H. Macy and Meg Ryan. Other pending films include high-profile actors such as Kevin Costner, Mila Jovovich, Dennis Quaid, and Ewan McGregor.

Prior to setting up Big Picture Productions, Adzich owned a management consulting firm that worked with high technology companies developing
business and financial strategies and combining those strategies into profitable sales and marketing programs. Adzich is a frequent guest lecturer and is a motivation and business coach to start-up business owners.

Ryan is the President of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Over the past two decades, Ryan has served as a non-profit advocate, manager, funder, and consultant to TCS. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the Common Cause Education Fund, the research and education affiliate of Common Cause, a consultant to foundations and
advocacy organizations, a foundation program officer, and a litigating attorney. She co-founded the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the
Environment, which she continues to chair, and sits on the board of directors of the Project on Government Oversight.

MoveOn.org, which has an online membership of over 3 million. Mother’s Day 2006 she co-founded MomsRising.org with Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner to tap the power of online grassroots organizing for mothers and families in the U.S.A. She is also the co-author of The Motherhood Manifesto which won the Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize in 2007 and a member of the Reuniting America advisory board. Last century she co-founded Berkeley Systems best known for the flying toaster screen saver “After Dark”, taught mediation at Golden Gate Law School, practiced mediation and wrote Mediate Your Divorce, published by Prentice Hall. She is a past member of the California and Alaska bar associations. Ms. Blades is an artist, with collages published on both greeting cards and software packaging. She enjoys creating fused glass jewelry, is a nature lover, Sunday soccer player and mother.

Sheryl Chamberlain is a Director at EMC responsible for directing, implementing, coordinating the strategic and operational activities for EMC’s Technology Alliance with VMware. Prior to that Sheryl worked in EMC’s Outsourcer, System Integration Sales Alliance Organization and was responsible for developing, building and establishing global cross industry corporate and regional relationship with Computer Sciences Corporation, a 14 Billion dollar outsourcer and consulting organization. Sheryl is an advisor to EMC’s West Coast Women’s Leadership Forum and was the founding President of the organization representing 5,000 Women. Sheryl also founded a grassroots Leadership & Innovation Program for EMC in Silicon Valley.

Cheryl Contee is a partner and co-founder of the social media consultancy Fission Strategy where she specializes in online advocacy, marketing, and communications. Prior to launching Fission Strategy, Cheryl was Vice President at Fleishman-Hillard San Francisco where she acted as lead digital strategist for the West Coast, helping clients manage their brands and online campaigns. Before Fleishman-Hillard, Cheryl led the interactive team as Vice President at Washington, DC public affairs firm Issue Dynamics Inc. where she launched and led the group blog BloggerRelations.com. Previously, she was the Web Director for Oceana, an international marine conservation organization. Before Oceana, Ms. Contee launched 40 multi-lingual Web sites for Discovery Communications as Senior Producer for International Networks for television brands Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, Discovery Health, Discovery Kids and more.

Panel: Women and Open Source

Amy Begg De Groff is Director of Information Technology for Howard County Library, a six branch library system in Central Maryland, recently ranked first in the nation among the great public library systems (Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings 2008.) Amy has chosen to fuse their ideals of innovation and responsible management of taxpayer dollars by using free and open source software. To date, Howard County Library has successfully deployed Linux (Ubuntu) on 523 of the 701 computers managed by her department. In addition to using many open source solutions, Howard County Library is also an active contributor to the free software movement — contributing a kiosk system for public libraries and a content management system.

Amy has a Masters of Information Science and a Masters in History from The Catholic University of America and a Bachelor’s degree in History from Westhampton College at the University of Richmond. Previously she worked with the Smithsonian Institution, The National Archives, The
White House Curator’s Office on information management projects.

Monique Elwell started her career during the 90s dotcom boom on Wall Street. Working for investment banks such as Smith Barney, Union Bank of
Switzerland, Merrill Lynch and Wit Capital, she published equity research reports on the nascent Internet industry providing her with unprecedented access to the movers and shakers from the Silicon Corridor to Silicon Alley to Silicon Valley. Later, she led the travel and leisure practice at Iconoculture, a consumer insight and trend company. She covers the gamut from business and marketing strategy to consumer insight with special attention to how consumers engage with technology and create communities. Over the years, her clients and
coverage have ranged from Disney Parks and Resorts, Excite, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Yahoo, Harrah’s Resorts and Casino, Lycos and Vail
Associates International.

Allison is a successful social entrepreneur and writer dedicated to helping grassroots organizations and activists successfully implement social change efforts. Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, the winner of the Terry McAdams National Book Award, was published in 2006 by Wiley & Sons. As a senior fellow on the Democracy Team at Demos: A Network for Change and Action in New York City, Allison researches and writes about the future of social change and civic engagement in this new digital age.

Allison’s articles have been published in the Boston Globe, San Jose Mercury Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. She is also a frequent contributor to Huffington Post, Personal Democracy Forum, Alternet and the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Allison served as the C.E.O. of The E-Volve Foundation in 2004-2005, and was the Founder and Executive Director of Innovation Network, Inc. from
1992-2004.

Megan Fitzgerald is an expat career and personal branding coach and founder of Career By Choice. Named “one of the top 50 personal branding consultants worth working with”, she helps fellow expatriates and international development pros use their unique value or personal brand to build a career or business that ‘fits’ who they are, what they stand for and their international lifestyle. Having lived, worked or played in over 25 countries, she currently works “virtually” with professionals and entrepreneurs across the globe, as well as in Rome, Italy where she currently resides.

With multiple degrees, certifications in personal branding, online identity management and career coaching, and over 15 years of experience in
career and business development, she takes a creative, 2.0 approach to helping her clients build strong personal brands – on- and offline. Megan
teaches them how to use the right tools and strategies to develop their online identity and network, which in today’s global market place, is just as important as one’s presence and network offline to professional success. A believer that technology transforms people’s lives, she enjoys working with technology professionals worldwide. She also enjoys helping those interested in using technology to build a portable
career to support their life abroad.

Leslie has held various roles at Google prior to joining the Open Source Programs Office in March 2006. She manages the Google Summer of Code, program and was responsible for conceiving and managing the Google Highly Open Participation Contest. She also facilitates open source community meetings and hackathons at Google’s Mountain View, California, USA headquarters. Proud to be known as Google’s geek herder, Leslie holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of California at Berkeley

Heather serves as the Director of Political Advocacy for Care2, the largest social network empowering civically active people to discover, share and take action. She works to connect Care2’s 8.7 million members to non-profits doing political work and campaigns in 2008, and to provide a forum for organizations to promote their message and mission. Care2’s members are interested in making a difference in the world, supporting progressive advocacy on issues as varied as women’s rights, environmental issues, human rights, animal rights, issues and progressive politics, among others.

Prior to Care2, Heather was a partner and Online Organizing Director for the Carol/Trevelyan Strategy Group, working with clients across the
progressive spectrum to develop online campaigns and communications strategies.

Lynne is the Senior Editor/Community Director for FastCompany.com, a leading website and community for people passionate about business ideas that also offers the complete content of FastCompany magazine. She also writes a technology blog following web, media, and consumer trends for FastCompany.com, and guest blogs for techPresident and Black Web 2.0. Lynne also serves on the Board of Directors of the Literary Freedom Project, a nonprofit arts organization, which seeks to empower communities of color through literature, creative thinking, and new media. Prior to joining Fast Company, she was the General Manager, New Media for VIBE, SPIN, and VIBE Vixen where she she managed marketing, editorial, production, business development, and sales operations for the magazines’ websites and mobile properties. Her personal blog, Lynne d Johnson music, media, my life, which launched in July 2001, is the recipient of the 2006 Black Weblog Awards Black Blogger Achievement Award.

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