Advisory Network
Our work
At the sixth Freedom Online Conference in Costa Rica, the Coalition identified as a priority the need to create a strong mechanism for ongoing multistakeholder engagement. The FOC Advisory Network (FOC-AN) was established to play that role through regular engagement with FOC governments.
- Proactive Advice, where FOC-AN members proactively submit pieces of advice on certain topics and issues they consider the FOC should address, as well as recommend a topic for development of an FOC statement; and
- Reactive Advice, where FOC-AN members respond to the FOC’s request to comment on a certain issue, or input into documents in development, such as Joint Statements, Programs of Action, and other similar outputs.
FOC-AN Members widely contribute to the Coalition’s activities and events. Through regularly engaging with the FOC through Strategy & Coordination Meetings, learning sessions, and other ad hoc convenings, the FOC-AN play a crucial role in information and knowledge sharing efforts within the FOC. Coalition governments may also engage with the FOC-AN on a bilateral basis to receive ad hoc, immediate feedback on a specific topic, or work together to shape the outputs of regional forums on topics of relevance to the FOC’s mission. In addition, FOC Members may collaborate with the FOC-AN to respond to relevant consultation processes and seek to submit agreed-upon language sourced from consensus-based FOC documents.
To view the FOC-AN’s Terms of Reference, please click here.
FOC-AN Members
Elonnai Hickok
Global Network Initiative
Verónica Ferrari
Verónica is the global policy advocacy coordinator at the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). In this role, she coordinates the organisation’s and members’ involvement in various global policy spaces, including the UN Open-ended Working Group on Information and Communication Technologies (OEWG), and the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review, among others. Verónica also serves as APC’s representative within the Freedom Online Coalition Advisory Network, where she co-led the Digital Equality Task Force.
Before joining APC, Verónica worked as senior policy advisor at the Government Secretariat of Modernisation in Argentina. There, she led work with the OECD on digital government, open government and innovation. In this capacity, Verónica represented Argentina at the OECD Public Governance Committee and coordinated gender-related initiatives at the G20 Digital Economy Task Force during the Argentinian Presidency in 2018.
Previously, Verónica has contributed to the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University and the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE). Additionally, she has served as a consultant, collaborating with various digital rights organisations across Latin America.
Verónica holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires and a master’s degree in Public Policy from Central European University. Her professional focus centres on digital policy, cybersecurity and gender, and digital inclusion.
Association for Progressive Communications
Adeboye Adegoke
Adeboye is Program Manager at Paradigm Initiative. He leads the organisation’s Digital Rights Programs in Africa, which include advocating for rights-respecting digital policies in Africa through policy interventions, stakeholder engagements, capacity building, strategic litigations, coalition building, and media campaigns. He also led advocacy for the passage of the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill by Nigeria’s parliament.
Adeboye is an Alumni of the African School on Internet Governance. He has written several articles and authored many reports. He is a co-author of the Digital Rights in Africa report by Paradigm Initiative. Adeboye has strong legislative engagement and policy influencing experience, having worked and influenced many legislations and policies in Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
Paradigm Initiative
Alexandria Walden
Alexandria is the global policy lead for human rights and free expression at Google. Alexandria drives Google’s work on business and human rights to support responsible approaches to policies across all Google’s products. Based in Washington, DC, Alexandria coordinates policy and strategy on a broad portfolio of issues including human rights, freedom of expression, and controversial content, including hate and harassment. She also represents Google at the Global Network Initiative (GNI) and Freedom Online Coalition Advisory Network.
Prior to joining Google, Alexandria was a Director at The Raben Group, where her work focused on civil rights, women’s rights, criminal justice reform, transparency, and judicial issues. Alexandria worked on various human rights issues in her time with Center for American Progress; U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, and U.S. House of Representatives in the Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights & Liberties; U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; U.S. Department of Labor; and Bay Area Legal Aid. After law school she was also a Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow.
Alex holds a B.A. in political science from American University and a J.D. from University of San Francisco School of Law.
Allie Funk
Allie Funk is Freedom House’s Senior Research Analyst for Technology and Democracy, where she serves as an expert on human rights in the digital age, with a particular focus on free expression, privacy, surveillance, and censorship. She leads Freedom on the Net, the organization’s annual assessment of internet freedom, and her writing has been published in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, WIRED, the Hill, the Diplomat, and Just Security, among others. Prior to joining Freedom House, Allie worked at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on issues relating to U.S. surveillance, the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, and the right to counsel, and worked with Human Rights First’s foreign policy team. She holds a master’s degree in human rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Freedom House
Amalia Toledo
Amalia Toledo is a tech, law, and policy fellow at the Wikimedia Foundation and an independent expert who examines how technology development and policy can impact and benefit the exercise of human rights and gender equality. She has contributed to national and international policy initiatives and has made presentations in a number of international, regional, and national spaces on a range of Internet policy and human rights issues. She has conducted research and written on issues related to access to knowledge, freedom of expression, privacy, cybersecurity, surveillance, and the relationship between gender and technology.
Previously, Amalia was project coordinator and researcher at the Karisma Foundation (Colombia) and project officer at the UNESCO Office for Iraq.
Amalia graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a B.A. in History, obtained her J.D. from the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, and earned a Master Degrees in International Law and International Relations from the Complutense University of Madrid and another Master Degree in International Studies from the University of the Basque Country.
Individual Capacity
Avri Doria
Avri Doria is an independent researcher based in Providence RI, USA who works with multiple stakeholders. She served on the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) and the UN Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation I (WGEC). She served as a member of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Secretariat and later was a member of the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (IGF MAG). As a technologist, she has been involved in the development of Internet protocols and architectures for over 30 years; was chair of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) Routing Research Group, was a founder and co-chair of the Research Group on Human Rights Protocol Considerations, and has served twice on the Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG). She is currently a member of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Ombudsteam. She has been active in ICANN policy, was chair of the GNSO Council and served as a member of the ICANN Board. Avri was awarded the ICANN Multistakeholder award in 2014 and teaches and writes on the subject of multistakeholder models as well as technical topics.
Individual Capacity
Edetaen Ojo
Edetaen Ojo is Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda in Nigeria, which works to promote and defend freedom of expression. Mr. Ojo has worked on Freedom of Information, freedom of expression, media development, Internet freedom, human rights and democracy issues in Nigeria, regionally and internationally for over 20 years. He is Co-chair of the National Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Nigeria and also currently chairs the Steering Committee of the African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX), a network of freedom of expression organizations in Africa; and a member of the Board of Directors of International Media Support (IMS), an international media development organization based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In 2013, he served as a member of the International Advisory Committee for UNESCO’s project on “The Safety of Online Media Actors Doing Journalism” and was also in 2013 named an Internet Freedom Fellow by the U.S. Government.
Media Rights Agenda
Fiona M. Alexander
Ms. Fiona M. Alexander is both Distinguished Policy Strategist in Residence in the School of International Service and Distinguished Fellow at the Internet Governance Lab at American University. She serves as an advisor to the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board and is a Mentor for the International Telecommunication Union Woman in Cyber Mentorship Program. For close to 20 years, Fiona served at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the U.S. Department of Commerce where she was Associate Administrator for International Affairs. In this role, she was the principal official responsible for the analysis, development, and execution of international Internet, cyber and communications policy within the Executive Branch of the United States government (USG). Prior to joining NTIA, Ms. Alexander was a Senior Consultant at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. She has a Master’s Degree in International Relations from American University, Washington, D.C. and is co-founder of Salt Point Strategies, a consulting group that provides public affairs advice, strategy, and advocacy to clients navigating the emerging high-tech economy.
Individual Capacity
Frane Maroevic
Frane Maroevic is Director of the Content and Jurisdiction Program at the Internet and Jurisdiction Policy Network, working with a broad range of stakeholders to jointly develop policy standards and operational solutions to pressing legal challenges at the intersection of the global digital economy, human rights and security.
Previously he was the Director for the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Representative on Freedom of the Media, promoting freedom of expression and media freedom as well as monitoring compliance of the 57 participating States with their international human rights commitments. He started his career in journalism at the BBC World Service in London. He worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina just after the end of the war, as the Spokesperson for the European Commission and subsequently the Director of Communications for the High Representative and EU Special Representative. Both roles included a strong focus on media development and establishment of media regulation and self-regulation. In 2010, he joined the OSCE, first as the Deputy Spokesperson, and in 2013 as Senior Advisor and from 2015 the Director of the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.
Individual Capacity
Helen Harris
Helen Harris leads Amazon’s policy engagement with global NGOs and other third parties in support of digital inclusion and digital rights. Prior to joining Amazon, Helen worked at a strategic advisory firm, where she crafted and implemented proactive external strategic engagements for a variety of multinational clients. She has worked at several international organizations, including the United Nations, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Helen earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of International Affairs from Columbia University and studied for her PhD in political science at George Washington University.
Amazon
Juan Carlos Lara
J. Carlos Lara is a Chilean lawyer, specialising in law and technology, currently working as the manager of the Public Policy and Research team at Derechos Digitales, a non governmental organisation based in Santiago de Chile that promotes and defends digital rights in Latin America. He has worked as a consultant in intellectual property for public and private entities, has been a research assistant at the Centre of Studies in Cyber Law at the University of Chile, and is currently an LL.M. candidate at UC Berkeley. In Derechos Digitales, he leads research and policy analysis on technology and data privacy, equality, freedom of expression, and access to knowledge and human rights in online platforms.
Derechos Digitales
Katharine Millar
Katharine Millar is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is an academic expert in gender and international security, with an emphasis on cybersecurity, ICT-related security, and digital politics. Katharine has extensive experience in the burgeoning field of intersectional gender equality and international cybersecurity governance, working with think tanks, national governments, regional, and international organisations to conduct gender analysis of cybersecurity practices/governance, and develop best practices for intersectional, gender-response cybersecurity policy- and decision-making. Katharine has published widely on gendered cultural narratives underlying the modern use of force and experiences of insecurity, on topics including gender, citizenship and militarism; women combatants; far-right populism, race, and conspiracy theories; and death, grief, and social order. Her current work seeks to bring the UN Women, Peace, and Security Agenda into closer conversation with cybersecurity and global internet governance.
Individual Capacity
Konstantinos Komaitis
Konstantinos Komaitis is a senior resident fellow, Internet Governance Lead, at the Democracy + Tech Initiative of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. He is also a veteran of developing and analyzing internet policy to ensure an open and global internet.
Komaitis has spent ten years in active policy development and strategy as a senior director at the Internet Society, where he led a series of projects, including the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition. Before joining the Internet Society, he spent seven years as a senior lecturer at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow where he was researching and teaching internet policy, with particular focus on internet governance, intellectual property, trade, and cybersecurity.
Komaitis has worked for the New York Times and provided strategic advice to a variety of companies and international organizations on internet governance and public-policy issues. Komaitis is a public speaker having spoken at several events worldwide, including TedX, and has written for various outlets and organizations including Politico, the Atlantic Council, Brookings, Slate, TechDirt, EuroActiv. He holds two master’s degrees and a doctorate, and he is the author of a book on domain name regulation. He sits on the board of IP Justice, a San Francisco-based nongovernmental organization and the Global Network Initiative, a global multistakeholder organization promoting human rights. He also co-hosts the Internet of Humans podcast.
Atlantic Council's DFRLab
Kyung Sin "K.S." Park
Kyung Sin PARK (“K.S. Park”), Professor of Korea University Law School (A.B. in Physics, Harvard University, Class of 1992; and J.D., UCLA Law School, Class of 1995), the co-founder of Open Net Korea and a former commissioner of Korea Communications Standards Commission, the country’s Internet/broadcasting content regulation body, has written academically and been active in internet, free speech, privacy, defamation, copyright, etc. Organized and testified in the successful constitutional challenge to Internet Real Name Law, False News Crime Law, etc. One of the drafters of Manila Principles of Intermedia Liability and Necessary and Proportionate Principles.
Open Net Korea
Laura O'Brien
Laura O’Brien is a lawyer from Canada. She is currently based in New York City, where she works as UN Advocacy Officer at Access Now. In her role, Laura works at the intersection of
human rights and technology to help in the organisation’s mission to defend and extend the digital rights of users at risk worldwide through advocacy at the United Nations and similar multilateral institutions.
Laura has previously worked with human rights experts and international organisations based in Córdoba, Geneva, New York City, Ottawa, and Toronto. She holds an LL.M. from Columbia Law School, where she graduated with honors as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and with a Parker School Certificate of Achievement in International and Comparative Law. She also holds a J.D. from the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, an M.A. in International Development from the University of Kent, Brussels School of International Studies and a B.A. in Social Justice in Peace Studies from King’s University College at Western University.
Access Now
Liz Orembo
Liz Orembo currently serves as Communication and Engagement Officer at the Global Cybersecurity Capacity Centre (GCSCC) based at the University of Oxford’s Department of Computer Science. In her role, she works closely with stakeholders in building national cybersecurity capacity through the Cybersecurity Capacity Maturity Assessment Model (CMM), and supporting research works from the CMM that include human-centric cybersecurity approach, country cooperation in building national and regional cybersecurity capacities and cybersecurity awareness. Prior to this role, Liz led programs on stakeholder engagement programs for the ICT policy making communities in Kenya and advocated for digital and civic rights through research, training and engagement, as a program associate at the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet).
Liz Orembo is a Kenyan national with backgrounds in communications and public policy.
Individual Capacity
Mallory Knodel
Mallory Knodel is CDT’s Chief Technology Officer. She is a co-chair of the Human Rights Protocol Considerations research group of the Internet Research Task Force. Mallory is an advisor to the Freedom Online Coalition and also on the advisory committee for the Open Technology Fund. Mallory takes a human rights, people-centered approach to technology implementation, with a focus on encryption, censorship, and cybersecurity.
Having lived and worked extensively abroad, she brings inclusive and grassroots coalition-building experience to CDT’s program areas, including “public interest technology” field building efforts inside and outside CDT. Mallory is a prolific and published author of works that demystify and break myths about how technology works. She holds a BS in Physics and Mathematics and an MA in Science Education.
Center for Democracy & Technology
Matthew Shears
Matthew’s chief areas of focus are Internet policy and governance, cybersecurity and human rights. From 2014-17 Matthew served as co-chair of the Freedom Online Coalition working group on human rights and cybersecurity, and has been involved in the IANA transition and enhancing ICANN’s accountability over the last few years. His extensive engagement in internet governance has involved the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) since 2005, including the High-Level review meeting in December 2015; the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT); and the Brazil NETmundial meeting. He regularly attends the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and was a member of the first MAG. Matthew has also worked for the Internet Society, AT&T, Seattle-based broadband satellite start-up Teledesic, and Cisco Systems.
A UK national, he received his MSc in European Studies from the London School of Economics and his BA in International Affairs from George Washington University.
Individual Capacity
Michael Samway
Michael Samway is president of The Business and Human Rights Group, where he advises technology companies on ethical decision-making regarding free expression, privacy, public safety and national security. Samway spent ten years (2000-2010) at Yahoo!, where he was a vice president and deputy general counsel, founded Yahoo!’s Business & Human Rights Program, and was a founding board member of the Global Network Initiative. He has also testified before Congress on Internet freedom.
Samway is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he also chairs the board of the Master of Science in Foreign Service Program. He has been a senior lecturer at Duke Law School and is a former visiting scholar at the Center for Business and Human Rights at NYU’s Stern School of Business. Samway received BSFS/MSFS degrees from Georgetown University in 1991, was a Fulbright scholar in Chile, and received JD/LLM degrees in comparative and international law from Duke Law School in 1996.
Individual Capacity
Olga Kyryliuk
Olga Kyryliuk has a PhD in international law and over 10 years of experience in the field of digital rights and internet governance. Currently working as Technical Advisor on Internet Governance and Digital Rights at Internews spearheading the digital rights portfolio of the largest internet freedom project spinning around 40 countries across the world. She is also serving on the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) and chairing the South Eastern European Dialogue on Internet Governance (SEEDIG), regional IGF covering 18 countries. In 2020-2023, she served as a Europe Representative at ICANN NCUC Executive Committee.
Internews
Quinn McKew
Quinn in Executive Director for ARTICLE 19. She has a Masters of Business Administration from Georgetown University focusing on global non-profit management and a BA in International Relations and the Environment from Stanford University. Prior to joining ARTICLE 19, she worked for the largest non-profit management consultancy in Europe, and was a campaign manager for leading environmental organisations in the United States.
Article 19
Rebecca Mackinnon
Rebecca MacKinnon is an independent writer, researcher and advocate for global digital rights. Author of the award-winning book, Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom, she was the founding director of Ranking Digital Rights, and is also a co-founder of the citizen media network Global Voices. She is on the Board of Directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists and was also a founding board member of the Global Network Initiative.
Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, MacKinnon was CNN’s Bureau Chief and correspondent in China and Japan between 1998-2004. She has taught at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Pennsylvania Law School and held fellowships at Harvard’s Shorenstein and Berkman Centers, the Open Society Foundations, and Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy. She received her AB magna cum laude from Harvard University, was a Fulbright scholar in Taiwan, and currently lives in Washington DC.
Wikimedia Foundation
Sabhanaz Rashid Diya
Sabhanaz Rashid Diya is the Executive Director at Tech Global Institute, a tech policy nonprofit focused on advancing equity on technology design and governance in the Global South. Diya has spent more than two decades at the intersection of technology policy, human rights and international development, including advising governments and civil society in over 20 countries. She was most recently the Head of Public Policy for Bangladesh at Meta, where she led teams responsible for government relations, content governance, privacy and transparency. Her career spans the private, public and multilateral sectors in the United States, Asia and Africa, including work with USAID, U.S. Department of Defense, American Civil Liberties Union and the World Bank, on encryption policy, digital trade and infrastructure, AI applications in the majority world and internet governance. She is the founding board director for the US-Bangladesh Business Council in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Her writing and research have appeared on BBC, Wired, Financial Times, The Straits Times, France24, Reuters, The Daily Star and other national and international media. Diya holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a senior fellow at Centre of International Governance Innovation, and a visiting policy fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute at University of Oxford.
Tech Global Institute
Sebastian Smart
Sebastian Smart is regional director for the Chilean National Human Rights Institution and lecturer at Universidad Austral de Chile. He has worked in different NGOs in Chile, United Kingdom and Haiti on issues related to economic, social and cultural rights and human rights in the digital environment.
He holds a PhD in Latin American Studies and Human Rights from University College London and a MA in Human Rights at the same University. He is a lawyer from Universidad Católica de Chile and has published several articles and reports on human rights, particularly on issues related to business and human rights and technology.
Individual Capacity
Shahla Naimi
Shahla is a Policy Director at Salesforce, leading on human rights and artificial intelligence policy for the Office of Ethical and Humane Use.
The Office’s mission is to (1) understand the impacts of our products on the world and establish relevant guardrails; (2) inform inclusive product design and development; and (3) advance the field through multi-stakeholder dialogues to ensure a better path forward for the industry, society and world at large.
Prior to joining Salesforce, Shahla served on Google’s human rights program within Government Affairs and Public Policy. She began her career working at the intersection of humanitarian assistance and international development in Afghanistan, Somalia, India, Mali and elsewhere in collaboration with governments, humanitarian and human rights organizations and academic institutions.
Shahla holds a BA in political science from Yale University, a MA in anthropology and sociology from the Graduate Institute, and is completing a MA in International Law in Armed Conflicts from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.
Salesforce
Tatiana Tropina
Tatiana is serving on the Advisory Network as an individual member strictly in her personal capacity. Her opinions and positions expressed on the Advisory Network are solely her own.
Individual Capacity
Zach Lampell
Zach Lampell is a Senior Legal Advisor and leads ICNL’s global programming on the freedom of expression, including the emergence of new technologies and civic space. In addition to his work promoting the freedom of expression, Zach oversees several projects in Southeast Asia as part of ICNL’s Asia Program team. His work ranges from implementing and providing technical legal assistance to civil society organizations and governments around the world seeking to improve laws governing the freedom of expression, to research on how artificial intelligence affects civic space.
Prior to joining ICNL, Zach worked with East West Management Institute in Cambodia. Zach also served as the Deputy Director of the English Language Based Bachelor of Law Program at the Royal University of Law and Economics, where he founded the Center for the Study of Humanitarian Law, as well as being an Associate Legal Officer at the Khmer Rouge tribunal prosecuting senior leaders of the genocidal regime.
Zach holds a J.D. with a Concentration in International Law from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and a Bachelor’s Degree from Wesleyan University. He is also a member of the New York State Bar.
