MHz BLOG

June 5, 2020: MHz Foundation Statement of Solidarity

At MHz Foundation, we stand in solidarity with those protesting anti-black violence and stand committed to using our platform to advance anti-racist efforts. With the Curationist project, we are attempting to generate a platform that allows people to share stories of their cultural perspectives through art. Art helps shift perspectives and has the capacity to change hearts and minds.

As our team looks to find ways to generate content which can be a celebration of the history and contributions of African Americans through the Curationist editorial platform, the staff and Board will begin work developing and publishing a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion plan to guide how we engage with curators, contributors, staff, editors, and our wider community. Once a plan is in place, I am committed to working with the Board to shape the Foundation’s annual Strategic Plans through that lens.

I hope that, in doing so, we can become a resource for other organizations and can learn and collaborate with other organizations committed to anti-racist art and cultural heritage work.

All the best,

Christian Dawson
Executive Director, MHz Foundation

Recent Posts

Team

MHZ FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS -

Dr. Manu Samriti Chander - Board Chair

Manu Samriti Chander is Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University. He is the author of Brown Romantics: Poetry and Nationalism in the Global Nineteenth Century and co-editor of the Oxford University Press book series “Race in Nineteenth Century Literature and Culture.” His research has been supported by the Fulbright Program and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others.

Robin Garcia - Board Member

Robin Garcia is a Chicana hailing from a working-class family in Los Angeles, with a strong background in cultural studies. She holds a doctorate from Claremont Graduate University, specializing in Africana Studies, Media Studies, Latin American Studies, and Globalization and Culture. Noteworthy publications include the essays "Decolonial History by/for Afro and Indigenous Venezuelans" and "Who Owns the Archive? Community Media in Venezuela under Hugo Chavez." Garcia’s teaching experience spans various Cal State campuses, Antioch University, Pitzer College, Pace University, and the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. She has contributed significantly to cultural initiatives, notably with the L.A. County Department of Arts and Culture, focusing on cultural equity and inclusion.

From 2020 to 2022, she served as the Community Arts and Culture Programs Co-Director for WE RISE, an L.A. County Department of Mental Health initiative supporting the arts, healing, and racial and social justice. Robin's artistic endeavors include the creation of Voices in the Water, a sound installation reflecting on diasporic water stories in MacArthur Park, and co-curating "Of Soil Seeds and Stars," an exploration of ancestral memory, land, and bodies. She has extensive experience as a consultant for municipal agencies and community organizations on issues related to arts, equity, cultural production, and public history, particularly in collaboration with first people communities on matters of public art and land access. Currently, she holds the position of ACLS Emerging Voices Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Virginia, where she teaches "1492 and Beyond" in the Global Studies program.

Kelly Doyle Kim - Board Member

Kelly Doyle Kim is an advocate for closing the gender and representation gaps on open sites like Wikipedia and for adoption of open access policies within GLAMs. She is the Open Knowledge Coordinator for the newly established Smithsonian American Women's History Museum. Previously, she was the Wikipedian in Residence for Gender Equity at West Virginia University Libraries, the first role focusing exclusively on the gender based gaps on Wikipedia at an academic library in the United States. She has given talks about her work at SXSW, Wikimania, MuseWeb, and others. She is based in Charleston, South Carolina. She recently recorded an episode for the Smithsonian’s podcast, Sidedoor.

CURATIONIST STAFF -

Christian Dawson - Executive Director

Christian Dawson is Executive Director of MHz Foundation, where he works to use the Internet as a tool to bring us closer together as a global society. Dawson is also co-founder of Open Eye, as well as the Internet Infrastructure Coalition. Before that, Dawson spent nearly two decades leading web hosting provider ServInt. He is a staunch advocate for Internet freedom as a tool for social and economic growth.

Amanda Figueroa - Platform Director

Amanda Figueroa is the Platform Director at Curationist, where she brings 12 years of experience in arts and culture, community engagement, and ethically sustainable strategy to the field of open access. She was raised at the U.S.-Mexico border and, after doctoral study at Harvard University, currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Nicole Malli - Community Director

Nicole Malli serves as the Community Director at Curationist, leveraging her extensive expertise as a strategist and storyteller to enrich and expand our comprehension of restorative histories. Her focus centers on cultivating community involvement within expansive partnerships and programs. With a background in cultural anthropology and prior contributions to high profile projects like the Slave Wrecks Project and America250, Nicole brings a nuanced approach to external relations, cultivating meaningful connections and spearheading ventures that honor diverse perspectives while championing inclusive practices across multicultural and nonpartisan collaborations. Based in Washington, D.C., she holds degrees from Ripon College (BA) and George Washington University (MA).

Betsy Lin Seder - Director of Content & UX

As the Content Director for Curationist, Betsy Lin Seder oversees the user experience, design, and content of the site. She has worked as a user experience designer and strategist on media and retail sites. Her past clients include Estee Lauder, Vogue, and Viacom, where she helped develop MTV’s first foray into social media in 2007: “MTV Think,” a tool for engaging and organizing young activists. She is a visual artist and educator who teaches photography, video, and media at universities. Her artwork with video and photography, which centers on spaces, memory, and language and their relationships with images, has been exhibited in the U.S. and abroad. She is based in Los Angeles and sometimes New York City.

Sharon Mizota - Inclusive Metadata Consultant

Sharon Mizota is an inclusive metadata consultant who helps archives, museums, libraries, and media organizations transform and share their metadata to improve accuracy and inclusion in the historical record. She has over 12 years of experience managing and creating metadata for arts and culture organizations. She is also an art critic, a recipient of an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, and a coauthor of the award-winning book, Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes: Conversations on Asian American Art.

Shana Lukner - Managing Editor

hana Lutker is based in Los Angeles. As Managing Editor, she oversees the Editorial Content Team and works collaboratively to cultivate our editorial framework and voice. Shana is a visual artist with an interdisciplinary practice whose work has been exhibited and written about widely in the U.S. and abroad. She previously served as Executive Director of the nonprofit Project X Foundation for Art & Criticism, publisher of the contemporary art journal and website X-TRA.

Sangita Pawar - Social Media Manager

Sangita Pawar is a Philadelphia-based dancer, choreographer, performance artist, and multimedia artist. They have a background in digital media and cultural studies, having received their BA from Fordham University in 2020. They have since worked extensively in the music industry as a digital marketer, creative project manager, and social media specialist. In 2022, they earned their MA in Performance Studies from New York University. They are currently a Dance PhD candidate at Temple University, where they will expand on this research through the lens of both American and Indian social, classical, folk, and contemporary dance practices. They seek to combine their extensive artistic background and research surrounding performance theory with their background in media studies to help diversify the works of art and perspectives represented in modern artistic spaces.

Sadik Shahadu - Brand Ambassador

Sadik Shahadu is a researcher and the Social Media Manager for Curationist. He is an open advocate and a digital strategist with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry. He is a Co-Founder and Executive Director for the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group. Sadik currently serves as the West African Indigenous Language Coordinator at Art+Feminism, a Community Facilitator at Wiki In Africa, and a steering committee member of the Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub. Outside Wikimedia, he is a Mozilla Open Leader X fellow, MozFest wrangler, and ambassador for the Mozilla festival 2022. In addition, he works with several open leaders and OER experts on the UNESCO “Open Education for a Better World” program as an advisory board member.

Amy Sawyer - Chief of Staff

As the Chief of Staff, Amy Sawyer brings over 15 years of client service experience on small to large scale teams. She ensures on-budget and goal-aligned operations across departments. Her focus is to maintain year-over-year growth by advancing strategic initiatives as well as to manage and align the organization’s goals to projects from concept to implementation to measurement. Day to day, Sawyer provides holistic organizational clarity, leadership, and support to all departments, contractors, vendors, and employees of MHz Foundation.

Craig Churchward - Board Coordinator and Bookkeeper

Craig has gained more than 20 years of accounting experience in various industries from sports retail, commercial banking, public practice, higher education, and government (municipal and provincial). His expertise lies in budgeting, accounting, and reporting for large scale capital projects. Craig’s career has included working as the accountant of record for the construction of a $300 million science and academic building in Southern Alberta, Canada, and being the controller of a $30 million credit union in Winnipeg, Canada. As the controller for the MHz Foundation, Craig is responsible for maintaining an accurate set of financials, the basis on which the Foundation can make sound financial decisions, and to act as a financial resource and trusted advisor to the MHz team.