People
Our team is based at the Metropolitan New York Library Council. Learn more about METRO’s staff and Board of Trustees at metro.org.
Jump to: Staff | Advisory Board | Prior Collaborators
Staff
Becca Quon
Program Manager, Digital Equity Research Center
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Becca Quon (she/her) is the Program Manager for the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council, where she oversees the Center’s project activities + research outputs. In her role, she coordinates day-to-day logistics and collaborates with staff and contractors to facilitate thoughtful, mission-oriented work.
Becca holds an MLS and has a background in archives, grantmaking, and communications–her last role was as Program Officer at the Council on Library and Information Resources coordinating grant programs to fund the digitization of rare and unique archival collections. She is also the Communications and Outreach Manager for We Here, a community for BIPOC in LIS. Becca is a gardener, gamer, and cozy mystery reader and is based in the desert in Southern California.
Colin Rhinesmith, Ph.D.
Founder and Director, Digital Equity Research Center
Google Scholar | LinkedIn | Email
Colin Rhinesmith (he/him) is Founder and Director of the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Research Fellow with the Quello Center for Media and Information Policy at Michigan State University, and Co-Editor-In-Chief of The Journal of Community Informatics. Rhinesmith’s research examines the role of community informatics projects in creating and sustaining healthy digital equity ecosystems. He has defined digital equity ecosystems as interactions between individuals, populations, communities, and their larger sociotechnical environments that all play a role in shaping the work to advance more equitable access to technology and social, economic, and racial justice.
Previously, Dr. Rhinesmith was an Associate Professor and Director of the Community Informatics Lab in the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University. He has been a Google Policy Fellow and an Adjunct Research Fellow with New America’s Open Technology Institute, a Senior Fellow with the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, and a Faculty Associate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Dr. Rhinesmith received his Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was a U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services Information in Society Fellow, a Researcher with the Center for People and Infrastructures, and a Research Scholar with the Center for Digital Inclusion.
Advisory Board
Christopher Ali
Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and Professor of Telecommunications
Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Penn State University
Dr. Christopher Ali holds the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and is a Professor of Telecommunications at the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University. He holds a PhD in Communications Studies from the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ali is the author of the book Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity (MIT Press, 2021) and has written extensively for both academic and general interest publications on the topics of broadband deployment, planning, and policy, especially as they regard rural communications.
Jin Hyun Bae
Assistant Director of Digital Inclusion, Queens Public Library
Matthew Bui
Assistant Professor, University of Michigan School of Information
Dr. Matthew Bui (he/him) is a postdoctoral researcher and incoming assistant professor (starting Fall 2022) at the University of Michigan School of Information. He also holds faculty and research affiliations with the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry and NYU Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies. Bui’s research examines the potential for, and barriers to, urban data justice, foregrounding the racial politics of data-driven technologies, policy, and platforms. He is currently leading a study about racial discrimination and targeted ads and launching a new project that explores how entrepreneurs of color navigate algorithmic bias. His research has received recognition and support from the Annenberg Foundation, Benton Foundation, Democracy Fund, and Kauffman Foundation; and the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) and Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy (TPRC).
Nate Hill
Executive Director, Metropolitan New York Library Council
Nate grew up in upstate New York and began his career in libraries at Brooklyn Public Library’s Stone Avenue Branch. After almost ten years of service and several different roles within Brooklyn Public Library, he relocated to Silicon Valley to retrain and re-tool as a web designer and developer for the San Jose Public Library. Before joining METRO in June 2015, Nate served as Deputy Director of the Chattanooga Public Library, where he led the 4th Floor project, a 12,000 square foot library loft space featuring a public access makerspace, civic laboratory, and gigabit laboratory. Nate was named a “Mover and Shaker” by Library Journal in 2012. He earned his undergraduate degree in art from Skidmore College and an MLIS from Pratt Institute’s School of Information and Library Science. When he’s not busy library-ing, Nate enjoys hiking, camping, art, design, and tinkering alongside his wife and kids.
Munirih Santiago Jester
Co-Chair, Digital Inclusion Alliance of San Antonio
Munirih has extensive experience in the field of digital inclusion. For the past 8 years, she has played a leadership role in planning, implementing, expanding, and evaluating digital inclusion efforts in relation to training, devices, connectivity, as well as coalition work. Munirih has worked with local and federal government agencies, nonprofits, and housing authorities to help coordinate and expand digital inclusion awareness, program, policy, planning, and research. Munirih has served in various roles such as NTEN fellow, Federal Reserve Bank research intern, ConnectHome coordinator, housing policy and data coordinator, and coalition chair. Munirih most recently worked with the National Digital Inclusion Alliance as a senior program manager and serves as a co-chair for the San Antonio digital inclusion Coalition. Munirih has an educational background in public policy, nonprofit management, and urban and regional planning and was awarded the national Digital Equity Champion award in 2019.
Revati Prasad
Director of Research and Fellowships, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
Dr. Revati Prasad is the Director of Research and Fellowships at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. In that capacity, she leads their research work and manages the Opportunity Fund to support the scholars, practitioners and advocates doing critical research about the future of broadband. Prior to Benton, she was an American Council for Learned Societies Leading Edge Fellow at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance studying efforts by indigenous communities to improve broadband access for themselves. Dr. Prasad holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Her doctoral work examined efforts to “connect the unconnected” in rural India, including telecommunications policy, infrastructure projects, and small networks run by WISPs.Dr. Prasad’s research has been published in Media, Culture & Society, Information, Culture & Society, Communication, Culture and Critique, and Journalism. She has received awards from the Global Communication and Social Change and the Media Industries Divisions of the International Communication Association.
Amy Sample Ward
CEO, NTEN
Amy believes that technology should be accessible and accountable to everyone, especially communities historically and systemically excluded from the digital world. They are the CEO of NTEN, a nonprofit creating a world where missions and movements are more successful through the skillful and equitable use of technology.
Amy’s second book, “Social Change Anytime Everywhere,” was a Terry McAdam Book Award finalist. Their latest book, “The Tech That Comes Next,” co-authored with Afua Bruce, addresses the opportunities for change makers, technologists, philanthropists, and policymakers to build an equitable world with technology.
Fallon S. Wilson, PhD
Public Interest Technologist
Through her work with nonprofits, academia, and government partnerships, Dr. Fallon S. Wilson strives to make visible the work of historic and modern-day Black crises solvers. She invests her time into strengthening the tech ecosystem nationwide, especially as it relates both to Black women technologists and also underrepresented persons of color who may not have access to the ever-changing arena of technology. Her work aims to end the great technical divide that exists between the races, while also seeking to put an end to misconceptions about the abilities and skills of Black people that allow the perpetuation of said divide. Dr. Wilson acts with a strong lens of equity and tech inclusion within tech ecosystems for positive workforce outcomes. As the Lead Principal Investigator for #BlackTechFutures Research Institute, which she co-founded with Melissa Brown-Sims, M.A., Dr. Wilson engages in community action that creates change in her community and across the US. Dr. Wilson represents as the Vice President of Policy for the Multicultural Media and Telecommunication Internet Council (MMTC), and as a Public Interest Technologist, she discusses race, gender, faith, and civic tech issues through her writing and presentations. Find her on Twitter @SistahWilson.
Prior Collaborators
Malana Krongelb
Research Associate, Digital Equity Research Center
Malana Krongelb is a librarian currently based in Boston, Massachusetts. She is passionate about digital equity and its connection to racial, gender, economic, and disability justice. Feel free to read more (or reach out!) at malanakrongelb.com.
