Examples in practice…

Served as part of collective bargaining unit contract negotiation and strategy team representing 600+ contingent part-time and full-time faculty for Fordham Faculty United in new contract negotiations, in coordination and alignment with growing coordinated labor organizing for institutional and political change across New York City and the United States.

As a contributing researcher, Anna identified and drafted seven cases in 2021 on the future of authoritarian design for Security in Context , focused on Digital Jails, Smart Borders, Smart Cities, and Digital IDs, among others.

In 2020, Anna interviewed activists around the U.S. to map out the fault lines of U.S. civic space to inform emerging RFK Human Rights U.S. Civic Space strategy. Emblematic cases covered legal & political struggles related to Indigenous sovereignty, expanded use state of emergency laws, Critical Race Theory legal challenges, voter & protest suppression laws, suppression 3.0, digital policing & surveillance among others.

Over three years from 2017-19, joined regional assemblies as a solidarity researcher documenting the strategic practices and evolution of Indigenous environmental and food justice collectives (MAELA) across Central America simultaneously confronting the material challenges of climate change alongside the criminalization and repression enacted by multinational food and mining corporations.

Working with CIVICUS from 2017-18, Anna completed a membership network analysis and power map focused on un/equal access & representation from within/across geographies, types of civic activity, language, and resource base vis a vis benefiting from or accessing CIVICUS support—and produced strategic recommendations for remedying structural inequalities in power, access & amplification of support.

Spent two years from 2014-15 as Governance Project Director for SIMLab coaching and advising hundreds of grassroots, political, and advocacy organizations in 90+ countries that were designing early digital and mobile strategies and platforms for a rangeof users across literacy levels, incomes, time zones, genders, languages, and geographies among others—focused on a range of civic and governance issues from elections to movement organizing to service oversight and corruption monitoring, among other themes.Anna served on the founding advisory board for Beautiful Rising, from 2014-15, providing guidance and training on digital channels, tactics, and challenges for organizing regionally and transnationally in politically repressive & authoritarian countries.

Examples in practice…

In 2020, Anna interviewed activists around the U.S. to map out the fault lines of U.S. civic space to inform emerging RFK Human Rights U.S. Civic Space strategy. Emblematic cases covered legal & political struggles related to Indigenous sovereignty, expanded use state of emergency laws, Critical Race Theory legal challenges, voter & protest suppression laws, suppression 3.0, digital policing & surveillance among others.

Having served as lead researcher and research designer on a project mapping legal and political efforts to undermine the use of mail-in ballots by Black and Latina/o/e voters in four cities in the 2020 U.S. election at the Center for Civic Design, sharing learning to inform rapid and real-time adjustments to ballot design for maximum access & participation of historically disenfranchised groups.

As part of undergraduate courses Anna taught for 4 years at Fordham University on critical development studies, and Southern development paradigms, significant focus given to Buen Vivir, Rights of Nature movement and decolonized, plurinational constitutions.

Anna served as a senior strategy and learning advisor from 2020-21 for Feed the Truth, a new organization focused on holding Big Food and Agriculture accountable across borders and on everyday dynamics of corporate capture of public policy and governance regimes related to food, agriculture, and land regulation; developed early stage cases and data-driven monitoring methodology for tracking money-in-politics (and policy) as related to elections, public health, racial justice, and civil & political rights, among others.

Conducted independent research comparing the governance, adaptability, and accountability structures of traditional non-profits and mutual aid organizations during Summer 2020—at the height of intersectional pandemic closures and mass racial justice demonstrations—to understand rapid response, resource distribution (and needs), and fit-for-purpose models of coordination, information sharing, and coordination planning in a period of extreme uncertainty and rising demand.

Spent two years from 2014-15 as Governance Project Director for SIMLab coaching and advising hundreds of grassroots, political, and advocacy organizations in 90+ countries that were designing early digital and mobile strategies and platforms for a range of users across literacy levels, incomes, time zones, genders, languages, and geographies among others—focused on a range of civic and governance issues from elections to movement organizing to service oversight and corruption monitoring, among other themes.

Examples in practice…

From 2018-21, Anna conducted several ‘follow-the-money’ analyses on the political and policy influence held by Big Food, and the beef and cattle industry in U.S. elections, policy-making, and standard setting—first through a Government Accountability Project Fellowship and later through senior strategic advising at Feed the Truth.

Led on methodology and design planning from 2020-21 for two political and human rights information advocacy, corporate transparency, and open data databases (RFK Human Rights and Feed the Truth)—with particular focus on designing for a range of individual, community-, organizational, and investigative users.

In 2019, Anna co-conducted research for the Forest People’s Program to investigate the structural limitations of current agribusiness and investor focused Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) sustainability processes, focusing on the specific dynamics that constrain, restrict, displace, and threaten communities groundtruthing human rights or Indigenous sovereignty violations, customary land seizures, harmful or illegal deforestation, resulting in a set of recommendations oversight and regulatory responsibility instead of voluntary commitments, regionally focused (not supply-chain focused) information platforms and counter-narratives that challenge data-driven approach to diverse sociopolitical land struggles.

As a Visiting Fellow at NYU’s Governance Lab in 2015, Anna researched, wrote, and advised on topics related to data ethics and open data politics in relation to international development, human rights, social and political inclusion as well as on issues related to the digital divide in urban public service delivery.

Spent two years from 2014-15 as Governance Project Director for SIMLab coaching and advising hundreds of grassroots, political, and advocacy organizations in 90+ countries that were designing early digital and mobile strategies and platforms for a range of journalistic, civil society, and organizational users doing transparency, access to information, and accountable governance work.

Examples in practice…

Having served as lead researcher and research designer on a project mapping legal and political efforts to undermine the use of mail-in ballots by Black and Latina/o/e voters in four cities in the 2020 U.S. election at the Center for Civic Design, sharing learning to inform rapid and real-time adjustments to ballot design for maximum access & participation of historically disenfranchised groups.

As a contributing researcher, Anna identified and drafted seven cases in 2021 on the future of authoritarian design for Security in Context , focused on Digital Jails, Smart Borders, Smart Cities, and Digital IDs, among others.

In 2021, received an Epidemic Ethics research grant from the World Health Organization for research and policy advisory on structural impacts to consider in applying regional quarantine and lockdown as a public health tool in the future, with an emphasis on mitigating harm to already vulnerable populations, while wholly adhering to public health protection necessities. Areas covered included impacts on household debt and family debt, impacts on non-citizen populations, impacts on militarizing or surveillance of politically marginalized populations, impacts on mental health and non-virus primary and specialized health services.

From 2019-20, Anna conducted analyses of UNHCR’s capacity to operationalize its Accountability to Affected People (refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced people)—across categories of age, gender,and dis/ability— in Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, focusing on structural enabling and inhibiting factors at the agency, state, and international levels—ranging from equitable access to daily service delivery and cash transfer assistance to data ethics and surveillance through digital IDs to overall budgetary support and structural responsiveness beyond crisis alleviation in a context with few political rights.

In 2017, Anna worked as part of a Fellowship team at BlueRidge Labs on researching the intersection of technology & vulnerability related to New Yorkers experiencing reentry and coming home as senior citizens after decades of incarceration.

Spent two years from 2014-15 as Governance Project Director for SIMLab coaching and advising hundreds of grassroots, political, and advocacy organizations in 90+ countries that were designing early digital and mobile strategies and platforms for a range of users across literacy levels, incomes, time zones, genders, languages, and geographies among others—focused on a range of civic and governance issues from elections to movement organizing to service oversight and corruption monitoring, among other themes.

Examples in practice…

Produced a case study for Transparency International on the strategy and coalition that led to the successful passage of the 2019 EU Whistleblower Directive by completing interviews with key organizational and coalition stakeholders across a network of democracy, transparency, anti-corruption, and union activists and political leaders.

In 2020, Anna interviewed activists around the U.S. to map out the fault lines of U.S. civic space to inform emerging RFK Human Rights U.S. Civic Space strategy. Emblematic cases covered legal & political struggles related to Indigenous sovereignty, whistleblower protection, expanded use state of emergency laws, Critical Race Theory legal challenges, voter & protest suppression laws, suppression 3.0, digital policing & surveillance among others.

Between 2017-19, Anna held a Research Fellowship with the Government Accountability Project, a legal aid organization supporting whistleblowers in the public interest. As an International Research Fellow interviewed more than 20 insiders at international humanitarian aid organizations to produce and publish original research outlining how dissent and whistleblowing work inside jurisdictionally defuse international organizations (and organizational silencing of it) in 2018. She continued working with the Science and Food Integrity programs to map opportunities and limitations for dissent and whistleblowing in the process of negotiating trade agreements, as well as original research on key beef and cattle industry campaign finance strategies for challenging or suppressing progressive climate policy in the United States.

Examples in practice…

While serving as a senior strategy and learning advisor from 2020-21 for Feed the Truth, as part of a strategic effort to map out how/what decolonizing food systems might look like, Anna undertook historical analysis on the economic organization and concentration of these industries as originating in the rise of plantation economics and the foundations of capitalism in the Atlantic.

Having served as lead researcher and research designer on a project mapping legal and political efforts to undermine the use of mail-in ballots by Black and Latina/o/e voters in four cities in the 2020 U.S. election at the Center for Civic Design, sharing learning to inform rapid and real-time adjustments to ballot design for maximum access & participation of historically disenfranchised groups.

Served as resident oral historian and journalist, interviewing people around the United States during a four month period surrounding the 2016 presidential election, on the role of media in their lives—focused on four categories: memory, professional work, political transition, and media futures. Interviews became a living archive of media memory and geography during a period of U.S. political transition.

Served as assistant coordinator in 2012 for two-week long summer institute at Columbia University's Center for Oral History, focused on oral history and human rights for a group of journalists, lawyers, historians, researchers, and activists all engaged in oral history projects in contexts with sensitive historical or political realities. Thematic areas of focus included intergenerational dialogue in the African American community, oral history in transitional justice proceedings after conflict, and oral history and historical memory among other topics.

While serving as a senior strategy and learning advisor from 2020-21 for Feed the Truth, as part of a strategic effort to map out how/what decolonizing food systems might look like, Anna undertook historical analysis on the economic organization and concentration of these industries as originating in the rise of plantation economics and the foundations of capitalism in the Atlantic.

Over three years from 2017-19, joined regional assemblies as a solidarity researcher documenting the strategic practices and evolution of Indigenous environmental and food justice collectives (MAELA) across Central America simultaneously confronting the material challenges of climate change alongside the criminalization and repression enacted by multinational food and mining corporations.

In 2019, Anna co-conducted research for the Forest People’s Program to investigate the structural limitations of current agribusiness and investor focused Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) sustainability processes, focusing on the specific dynamics that constrain, restrict, displace, and threaten communities groundtruthing human rights or Indigenous sovereignty violations, customary land seizures, harmful or illegal deforestation, resulting in a set of recommendations oversight and regulatory responsibility instead of voluntary commitments, regionally focused (not supply-chain focused) information platforms and counter-narratives that challenge data-driven approach to diverse sociopolitical land struggles.

Conducted analysis for the Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund in 2016 outlining prospects for equitable and rights-based livelihood opportunities for low-income refugee women—both displaced from neighboring Syria, and permanent residents, both Palestinian and Jordanian—in Jordan’s emerging digital economy. Final recommendations & analyses considered labor, gender and legal realities, digital supply-chain analyses, structural constraints, and regional economic environment.

As a consulting policy advisor in 2013 for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Anna mapped the potential for new market in ‘amnesty loans’ to rise in tandem with the passage of different United States immigration reform scenarios, with focus on how different segments of the undocumented immigrant population would be targeted by predatory lending/ legal service providers (and recommendations related to each).

A few examples include…

Anna served as a senior strategy and learning advisor from 2020-21 for Feed the Truth, a new organization focused on holding Big Food and Agriculture accountable across borders and on everyday dynamics of corporate capture of public policy and governance regimes related to food, agriculture, and land regulation; developed early stage cases and data-driven monitoring methodology for tracking money-in-politics (and policy) as related to elections, public health, climate, racial justice, and civil & political rights, among others.

Over three years from 2017-19, joined regional assemblies as a solidarity researcher documenting the strategic practices and evolution of Indigenous environmental and food justice collectives (MAELA) across Central America simultaneously confronting the material challenges of climate change alongside the criminalization and repression enacted by multinational food and mining corporations.

As part of undergraduate courses taught at Fordham University on critical development studies, and Southern development paradigms, significant focus given to Buen Vivir, Rights of Nature movement and decolonized, plurinational constitutions.

In 2019, Anna co-conducted research for the Forest People’s Program to investigate the structural limitations of current agribusiness and investor focused Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) sustainability processes, focusing on the specific dynamics that constrain, restrict, displace, and threaten communities groundtruthing human rights or Indigenous sovereignty violations, customary land seizures, harmful or illegal deforestation, resulting in a set of recommendations oversight and regulatory responsibility instead of voluntary commitments, regionally focused (not supply-chain focused) information platforms and counter-narratives that challenge data-driven approach to diverse sociopolitical land struggles.

Examples in practice…

Teaching applied undergraduate and graduate courses on crisis politics & political economy at Fordham University since 2018.

As a contributing researcher, Anna identified and drafted seven cases in 2021 on the future of authoritarian design for Security in Context , focused on Digital Jails, Smart Borders, Smart Cities, and Digital IDs, among others.

In 2021, received an Epidemic Ethics research grant from the World Health Organization for research and policy advisory on structural impacts to consider in applying regional quarantine and lockdown as a public health tool in the future, with an emphasis on mitigating harm to already vulnerable populations, while wholly adhering to public health protection necessities. Areas covered included impacts on household debt and family debt, impacts on non-citizen populations, impacts on militarizing or surveillance of politically marginalized populations, impacts on mental health and non-virus primary and specialized health services.

Conducted independent research comparing the governance, adaptability, and accountability structures of traditional non-profits and mutual aid organizations during Summer 2020—at the height of intersectional pandemic closures and mass racial justice demonstrations—to understand rapid response, resource distribution (and needs), and fit-for-purpose models of coordination, information sharing, and coordination planning in a period of extreme uncertainty and rising demand.

Between 2017-19, Anna wrote two papers on the critical political economy of international organizations, one outlining how dissent and whistleblowing works inside international organizations (and organizational silencing of it) through a Government Accountablity Project Fellowship, and one mapping out the thousands of international and non-governmental organizations that make up the Jordanian aid economy, as part of the Political Economy Summer Institute.

Spent two years from 2014-15 as Governance Project Director for SIMLab coaching and advising hundreds of grassroots, political, and advocacy organizations in 90+ countries that were designing early digital and mobile strategies and platforms for a range of users across literacy levels, incomes, time zones, genders, languages, and geographies among others—focused on a range of civic and governance issues from elections to movement organizing to service oversight and corruption monitoring, among other themes.

In 2012, Anna managed an eight-person research team in team carrying out comparative research on transparency and accountability in bilateral humanitarian, economic development, and military aid in conflict-affected countries including Colombia, Liberia and Sri Lanka, for Transparency International; comparing five Northern and Southern bilateral donors (Brazil, China, Germany, India, and the U.S.)—mapping visual aid chains against real participation of impacted populations at different stages of aid planning & distribution.

Some examples include…

As a contributing researcher, Anna identified and drafted seven cases in 2021 on the future of authoritarian design for Security in Context , focused on Digital Jails, Smart Borders, Smart Cities, and Digital IDs, among others.

From 2019-20, Anna conducted analyses of UNHCR’s capacity to operationalize its Accountability to Affected People (refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced people)—across categories of age, gender,and dis/ability— in Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, focusing on structural enabling and inhibiting factors at the agency, state, and international levels—ranging from equitable access to daily service delivery and cash transfer assistance to data ethics and surveillance through digital IDs to overall budgetary support and structural responsiveness beyond crisis alleviation in a context with few political rights.

Since 2018, Anna has engaged in research and teaching on political economy of borders & migration, border militarization & restricted definitions on who counts as a refugee (and who decides), and the suspension of rights as a political tool, among others.

In 2021, received an Epidemic Ethics research grant from the World Health Organization for research and policy advisory on structural impacts to consider in applying regional quarantine and lockdown as a public health tool in the future, with an emphasis on mitigating harm to already vulnerable populations, while wholly adhering to public health protection necessities. Areas covered included impacts on household debt and family debt, impacts on non-citizen migrant and refugee populations, impacts on militarizing or surveillance of politically marginalized populations, impacts on mental health and non-virus primary and specialized health services.

Conducted analysis for the Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund in 2016 outlining prospects for equitable and rights-based livelihood opportunities for low-income refugee women—both displaced from neighboring Syria, and permanent residents, both Palestinian and Jordanian—in Jordan’s emerging digital economy. Final recommendations & analyses considered labor, gender and legal realities, digital supply-chain analyses, structural constraints, and regional economic environment.

As a consulting policy advisor in 2013 for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Anna mapped the potential for new market in ‘amnesty loans’ to rise in tandem with the passage of different United States immigration reform scenarios, with focus on how different segments of the undocumented immigrant population would be targeted by predatory lending/ legal service providers (and recommendations related to each).

Examples in practice…

Teaching and coaching several graduate student consulting teams at NYU Wagner completing policy, research & analysis for non-profits, international and community organizations on political, health, environmental, social, and economic strategy and planning questions.

Taught courses on the political economy of crisis and emergency, and critical humanitarian studies for four years at Fordham University, in applied practice program.

While serving as a senior strategy and learning advisor from 2020-21 for Feed the Truth, a new organization focused on holding Big Food and Agriculture accountable across borders, Anna developed research agendas and briefs related to root causes & ongoing sources of perpetual industry influence: (1) industry ownership concentration and consolidation; (2) industry self-regulation and use of voluntary standards for climate, human rights, and other areas, and; (3) entry into new markets through humanitarian emergency.

Conducted independent research comparing the governance, adaptability, and accountability structures of traditional non-profits and mutual aid organizations during Summer 2020—at the height of intersectional pandemic closures and mass racial justice demonstrations—to understand rapid response, resource distribution (and needs), and fit-for-purpose models of coordination, information sharing, and coordination planning in a period of extreme uncertainty and rising demand.

Between 2017-19, Anna wrote two papers on the critical political economy of international organizations, one outlining how dissent and whistleblowing works inside international organizations (and organizational silencing of it) through a Government Accountablity Project Fellowship, and one mapping out the thousands of international and non-governmental organizations that make up the Jordanian aid economy, as part of the Political Economy Summer Institute.

Working with CIVICUS from 2017-18, Anna completed a membership network analysis and power map focused on un/equal access & representation from within/across geographies, types of civic activity, language, and resource base vis a vis benefiting from or accessing CIVICUS support—and produced strategic recommendations for remedying structural inequalities in power, access & amplification of support.

In 2012, Anna managed an eight-person research team in team carrying out comparative research on transparency and accountability in bilateral humanitarian, economic development, and military aid in conflict-affected countries including Colombia, Liberia and Sri Lanka, for Transparency International; comparing five Northern and Southern bilateral donors (Brazil, China, Germany, India, and the U.S.)—mapping visual aid chains against real participation of impacted populations at different stages of aid planning & distribution.

Item descriptionSome examples include…As a contributing researcher, Anna identified and drafted seven cases in 2021 on the future of authoritarian design for Security in Context , focused on Digital Jails, Smart Borders, Smart Cities, and Digital IDs, among others. From 2019-20, Anna conducted analyses of UNHCR’s capacity to operationalize its Accountability to Affected People (refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced people)—across categories of age, gender,and dis/ability— in Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, focusing on structural enabling and inhibiting factors at the agency, state, and international levels—ranging from equitable access to daily service delivery and cash transfer assistance to data ethics and surveillance through digital IDs to overall budgetary support and structural responsiveness beyond crisis alleviation in a context with few political rights. Since 2018, Anna has engaged in research and teaching on political economy of borders & migration, border militarization & restricted definitions on who counts as a refugee (and who decides), and the suspension of rights as a political tool, among others. In 2021, received an Epidemic Ethics research grant from the World Health Organization for research and policy advisory on structural impacts to consider in applying regional quarantine and lockdown as a public health tool in the future, with an emphasis on mitigating harm to already vulnerable populations, while wholly adhering to public health protection necessities. Areas covered included impacts on household debt and family debt, impacts on non-citizen migrant and refugee populations, impacts on militarizing or surveillance of politically marginalized populations, impacts on mental health and non-virus primary and specialized health services.

Examples in practice…

As a contributing researcher, Anna identified and drafted seven cases in 2021 on the future of authoritarian design for Security in Context , focused on Digital Jails, Smart Borders, Smart Cities, and Digital IDs, among others.

Led on methodology and design specifications for two political and human rights information advocacy, corporate transparency, and open data databases (RFK Human Rights and Feed the Truth)—with particular focus on designing for a range of individual, community-, organizational, and investigative users.

In 2017, Anna worked as part of a Fellowship team at BlueRidge Labs on researching the intersection of technology & vulnerability related to New Yorkers experiencing reentry and coming home as senior citizens after decades of incarceration.

Produced case study in 2017 through institutional interviewing & ethnography with administrators in Jakarta’s Office of Emergency Management and civic technologists who co-designed real-time urban emergency management tools to alert and respond to massive flooding during the city's monsoon season, as part of a four partner consortium led by the Institute for Development Studies (IDS).

Anna served on the founding advisory board for Beautiful Rising, from 2014-15, providing guidance and training on digital channels, tactics, and challenges for organizing regionally and transnationally in politically repressive & authoritarian countries.

As a Visiting Fellow at NYU’s Governance Lab in 2015, Anna researched, wrote, and advised on topics related to data ethics and open data politics in relation to international development, human rights, social and political inclusion as well as on issues related to the digital divide in urban public service delivery.

Spent two years from 2014-15 as Governance Project Director for SIMLab coaching and advising hundreds of grassroots, political, and advocacy organizations in 90+ countries that were designing early digital and mobile strategies and platforms for a range of users across literacy levels, incomes, time zones, genders, languages, and geographies among others—focused on a range of civic and governance issues from elections to movement organizing to service oversight and corruption monitoring, among other themes.