Board of Directors

President Lucas Cioffi

“I graduated the US Military Academy at West Point and served as an Army Infantry officer for five years. While in the Army, I completed Army Ranger school and earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge during a one-year tour in Iraq in ’04-’05. The section of Iraq where we were stationed was Sadr City, a slum with nearly two million Iraqis, open sewage in the streets, and many children running around barefoot. Remembering this experience helps remind me to not take anything for granted and motivates me to focus on systemic change.

“I’m co-founder of OnlineTownhalls which makes software which maps out areas of agreement and disagreement in large political discussions. I am also an advisor to the National Coalition of Dialogue and Deliberation, a network of 1,300 professionals in public engagement and conflict resolution. I’m a big fan and actively involved in the Open Forum Foundation’s project for developing an Open Model for Citizen Engagement. I’m excited at this opportunity to serve on the board as the Foundation blazes a trail toward a more effective and participatory system of governance.”

Vice President Noel Dickover

Bio coming soon.

Meagen Ryan

“I was born and raised in New Hampshire, a state famous for primaries, the largest state legislature in the country, and a radical state motto, Live Free or Die. We take civic engagement seriously. My involvement with Open Forum Foundation stems from the belief that civic engagement should be a part of everyone’s life. I think more people would participate if it could be made easier and more effective. I hope our work at Open Forum can make that a reality.

“I am currently the Director of Strategy at Rock Creek Strategic Marketing. We are a marketing and communications firm that, among other things, helps government agencies connect with and serve citizens. I’ve lived in the DC area since 2000, and despite the fact that everyone talks much slower here than in my native New England, this feels like home.”

Treasurer Patrick Benz

“I received a B.A. in European History from Georgetown University in 2002 and an M.S. in Global Affairs focusing on private sector development from NYU in 2007.  I am now working for a large firm as a project manager specializing in discretionary and as of right tax incentives for commercial and industrial properties and business owners throughout the NY area.

“I also work closely with my brother who owns a fair trade export business based in Indonesia (with additional offices in Cambodia and Kenya).  We work closely with the IFC and provide resources and capacity building to our artisan communities.”

Gong Szeto

“I am a Fellow at the Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College.  I am an award-winning 20-year veteran in designing and planning software systems for business and consumers, with a specialization in financial trading platforms for Wall Street and hedge funds.  I was educated in architecture, computer science, business management, finance, and intellectual property law from the University of Texas at Austin, New York University, and Harvard Business School. My interest in civic engagement technologies stems from my ongoing interest in designing tools and technology platforms that give edge to stakeholders in large scale information spaces, that facilitate decision-making in mission-critical situations that affect large numbers of people, in finance as in public policy alike.

I have designed concept web platforms for a citizen-to-citizen, citizen-to-legislator, citizen-to-interest group engagement, and was a finalist in the 2009 Buckminster Fuller Challenge for my sentiment-driven and issue-based political social networking website, YourOwnDemocracy. My work continues at the intersection of technology, politics and economy.

My work as a visiting Fellow and educator at the newly inaugurated Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College seeks to insinuate my varied interests in technology, networks, dataspaces, and political economy towards revitalizing liberal arts education in the 21^st century, with an eye toward public engagement and collective action in the context of systemic problems that a modern democracy is embroiled in every day.

In my spare time, I blog about the history of American dilemmas, dogma, and dissent at http://www.rhetoricsandheretics.com. I am proud to be on the board of the Open Forum Foundation as it has all the trappings of intelligent, focused, and non-partisan innovation in the civic participation space, a domain that can benefit greatly from smart and citizen-centered thinking.”

Shadee Malaklou

“A native of what has been popularly dubbed “Tehran-geles” (Los Angeles, California), I grew up in Southern California before moving to North Carolina in 2003 to study at Duke University. I graduated in 2007 with a double major in Cultural Anthropology and Women’s Studies.

“I speak Farsi fluently and have a working knowledge of Arabic. I currently reside in Washington, DC, where I work with women from Iraq as part of State Department-funded programming. My interest in the Open Forum Foundation stems from a desire to understand foreign governments, especially in the Middle East, and to enable voters in those countries.”