author: Emily Jacobi
date: 2010-11-09 11:17:40+00:00
slug: welcoming-three-new-members-to-our-team
title: Welcoming three new members to our team
wordpress_id: 2386
categories:
These days the office in NY is abuzz with activity, with a fantastic group of volunteers and collaborators sharing our work table and couches. Three in particular have been working long hours on everything from our Haiti programming to events to press outreach. Fall intern Jessica Assaf comes from a strong background in youth organizing and international work, and has been an absolute joy as she has helped us with everything from communications to event planning. Communications Designer Biz Ghormley has brought her extensive communications skills to our work, helping with press outreach, user engagement and much more. And Emilie Reiser is our staff member on the ground in Haiti for the next month, applying her wonderful skills as a trainer to work with our women partners in Port-au-Prince. We’re thrilled to officially announce all three as members of our team. Check out their bios below to learn more.
Elizabeth – Biz – Ghormley, Communication Designer, engages communities, cultivates key relationships, and drives organizational sustainability. Biz believes communication is integral to social change and innovation. She began her career as an investigator for the Bronx Defenders, translating concepts and concerns across cultural, racial, educational, and linguistic divides.
Since then, she has led engagement and fundraising projects across diverse sectors with the UN Global Compact, NY Empire State Development Corporation, L’Oreal, Bpeace, the Mountain School, and many others. She holds a MS in Public Relations and Corporate Communication from NYU, and a BA in Sociology and Latin American Studies from Wesleyan University, and studied philosophy, studio arts, and marketing at the Universidad de Playa Ancha in Valparaiso, Chile.
Emilie Reiser is a technology educator based in New York City, working with youth in public schools and community-based organizations to develop creative media projects. Most recently, as director of programs at Vision Education, she led professional development workshops for educators, taught multi-media student programs and developed curriculum for innovative uses of creative technology in the classroom. Emilie has also worked teaching creative media production with youth internationally in Africa, Brazil and Haiti.
Jessica Assaf is a student at New York University, where she is studying Public Health, Documentary Film, and Social Activism. She is the President of the Gallatin Green Team and Teens Turning Green NYC and was one of the founding members of the organization in 2005. Recently, she spent time in Ghana, West Africa where she interned at the West African AIDS Foundation. She has worked with Green Drinks NYC, New York City’s Coalition for a Smoke-Free City, TOMS Shoes, EO Products, and the Environmental Working Group, and has produced two short documentary films on HIV/AIDS.
She received the 2006 Brower Youth Award, the 2006 Heart of Marin Youth Volunteer of the Year Award, and the 2008 Green Globe Youth Award presented by Friends of the Earth. At Digital Democracy, she is gaining a global perspective on issues of social importance. She hopes to continue working domestically and globally on issues related to public health and human rights.