Jenny works in a major telecommunication company, responsible for the research and development of critical IT and service delivery standards that unite next-generation infrastructure and next-generation operations and business practices to facilitate the creation and expansion of new services. She has been active and holds leadership roles in several of the industry fora and international standards bodies since 2000.

Jenny  has extensive experience working side by side with the industry’s top talents, and she is now eager to apply her knowledge and influence at the grassroots level. Jenny firmly believes that the solutions to humanity’s most pressing issues require global interventions that harness good ideas and effectively transform them in to practical solutions. As a committed supporter of Empowerment WORKS' vision of multi-sector collaboration, she leads the organization in creating the processes, structure and tools that can enable people to make educated choices regarding public investments and channel market forces to support novel ideas with measurable results. Jenny holds a Bachelor degree in Economics and a Master degree in Computer Science.

 

Dana Arak, Atty. - Legal Committee & Fiscal Sponsorship Co-Chair 

 

Dana is a multi-talented attorney, human rights activist, and author. In addition to specializing in intellectual property and marketing law, she dedicated her time to helping launch new green businesses.

Her entry point to EW came with her efforts to develop a project in Cambodia promoting sustainable food production to fund local education, complimented by eco-tourism project honoring local culture. Dana has served EW hands on in many program areas including its Artists in Action Series, The Global Summit and in advising EW Fiscally Sponsored Projects how to apply the 7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS)  framework for lasting results.

 

Stephan McGuire - Director, African Affairs and Strategic Partnerships

 

Stephan is CEO/ Founder of DEEP, an L3C for-profit in the start-up phase; acting as a resource, knowledge, technology and arts and culture dissemination bridge, to and from Africa, and continues to serve as President/Founder of Coalition for a Sustainable Africa, an international coalition of nonprofit organizations. 

 

Previous to his full time role in and for Africa, for almost 11 years, Stephan was a Producer with Tree Media Group through which he co-produced The 11th Hour documentary, narrated and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Stephan is committed to The 11th Hour film becoming a movement.  In April, 2009, Stephan was awarded Green Dot Award’s “Visionary of the Year” by a distinguished international jury. Additional projects & clients include Woody Harrelson's Voice Yourself in 2003, 11th Hour Action campaign, web-portals for Global Green USA, the Official 2000 Presidential Campaign Library for the Council on Foreign Relations, and California's Heal the Bay.

 

Perhaps at the root of these actions, Stephan has studied sustainable, earth-restorative farming and living practices called "Permaculture" on the island of Hawaii and in Costa Rica where he became a certified Permaculture Teacher, making our communities healthy, culturally rich, and self-reliant models of integrated living.

 

Susan Daya Hamwi, Atty. - Legal  & Fiscal Sponsorship Co-Chair

 

Daya became a lawyer at the tender age of 23. However, during 13 of her 18 years in legal practice, she has been working as a mediator and has been a dedicated advocate for indigenous peoples rights. She is now serving as Legal Adviser and Counsel at Settlement Works, a center for dynamic family resolution. Susan holds a Juris Doctorate Degree from Loyola Law School and a Bachelor of Arts, Law and Society from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has been a member of the State Bar of California since 1989 and completed the LA County Bar Association's mediation training program in 2001. Susan lives with her seven year old son, also near the water, in Venice, California.

Stephen Vitka  - Board Member, Participatory System Director

Steve Vitka is a civic engagement system inventor, video game designer & green entrepreneur with a focus on sustainable building who became involved in Empowerment WORKS after attending The Global Summit 2010.  

An early pioneer in online voting and participatory budgeting systems  in the 90s, Steve is lead adviser in aligning policy transparency with technology development in EW's emerging 1PIE portal - a trust network collaboration amongst various networks.

Steve is also applying his own experience as an angel investor to guiding the development of EW's and Public-Private Partnership ventures and Synergy Fund.