About Us

Adam is a software engineer working at eQualitie on the OuiSync project. He has a background in mathematics and computer graphics. Starting as a full stack web developer, he then switched careers to gamedev and eventually pivoted into decentralized software and cryptography. A proponent of free and open source software (where he has also contributed to various projects), he is worried about corporations and governments abusing technology to oppress people and is looking for ways to fight back. He believes all information should be free and available to everyone and technology should serve to improve lives of all the people on Earth and beyond.

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Aidan is a Decentralized System Administrator working on censorship circumvention at eQ. They have had a long-time interest in online privacy, hacker culture, and cybersecurity. They are a member of several tech collectives that host infrastructure for individuals and groups to voice political dissent.

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Aleksandra joined eQualitie in 2022 as a project manager. She holds a degree in management and has previously worked in public relations. Later, Aleksandra transitioned to the field of information technology and content localization.  Over time, Aleksandra has navigated the user support sector, advancing from a specialist role to the position of operations manager. Her work is grounded in empathy and a commitment to humanitarian values. She believes in the effectiveness of dialogue and hopes that knowledge and mediation will contribute to positive change in the world.

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Alex is a multidisciplinary professional with over 20 years of experience working on six continents. Prior to eQualitie, Alex launched and led Amazon’s Worldwide Public Sector Innovation Studio and was a senior advisor in the White House, where he led national initiatives in sustainability, technology modernization and identity management. He is also a multiple-time founder of award-winning sustainable agriculture companies working to support food security around the world. His passion is using emerging technology to help make the world more equitable and sustainable for all living things. Alex holds a JD from UC Berkeley, an MBA from Oxford University and a Masters focused on Sustainable Engineering from Yale University.

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Anastasia has a Bachelor’s degree in IT (her thesis: “Complex of software and hardware for information security”). She had a bright start of a career in IT as a telesales (MS OEM Win XP – for decoding, this abbreviation required tech stack Turbo Pascal 6.0), and an eventful experience in different industries and roles. Her strong background includes Sales, Marketing, Management and Partnerships, and Product Line Management, accompanied by sales and marketing training, allows her to drive Deflect’s commercial development to new horizons, bypassing DDoS attacks and malicious bots.

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Andrii has been working in communications and political technologies for 16 years and headed election headquarters in presidential and parliamentary elections. Worked in many international projects such as Alinea International and the Hanns Seidel Foundation. Co-founder of the Nox Kyiv company and partner of PGR consulting groups LLC.  Andrii ia passionate about building affecting teams by attracting and organizing intelligent and productive professionals who complete projects within budgets and on time. He is extremely responsible and stress resistant, keep a cool head in the crisis, and a knack for getting out of them quickly.

Anton is a machine learning engineer with 20 years of experience in software development and research. Anton started his career in the software industry working in medical ultrasound, signal classification, hardware monitoring, and developing CRMs for insurance companies. After immigrating to Canada in 2007, he worked as a software engineer with the Deflect project on DDOS attack fingerprinting and mitigation, as well as FDA grade medical biofeedback. He is a published author with papers in the Computational Intelligence Journal and the Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Application. Before joining eQualitie, Anton worked as a Senior Machine Learning Engineer with Rubikloud, Toronto where he was responsible for designing machine learning infrastructure that included feature generation, parameter optimization, models storage, and ETL pipelines.

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Ariel has worked in Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) for more than 25 years on projects related to ICT appropriation and digital rights: Internet access for all, freedom of expression, data protection, freedom from surveillance, and encryption. He advocates for free and open source software (FOSS), open technological standards, Internet governance and Internet neutrality.

He has conducted research on issues of communications surveillance, digital security risks to civil society organizations, environmental impact of ICT and use of technology at the local level. He has collaborated as researcher for the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and the Association for Progressive Communications.

Since 2014 Ariel has worked in the management team of civil society organizations in Colombia and the United States and as a media spokesperson on issues related to digital security in civil society. Ariel holds a master’s degree in Design and Management of Technology Projects, postgraduate studies in ICT in Urban Spaces and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design. He is a board member of Colnodo, Colombia’s leading civil society organization dedicated to Internet development, accessibility, and security. He is also a member of the Internet Society and the Association for Progressive Communications.

Borys has been in the IT industry since 1996, when they were small and computers were big. They have been working in the human rights sector since 2012. With eQualitie, they develop and maintain the smooth running of several large web projects on rights in Ukraine, including the Nadiyno helpline. Also known in the rights sector as a volunteer under the pseudonym drag queen Brungilda Golden.
Values: equality and justice, acceptance and tolerance, self-determination, security and protection.

Carolyn has over 25 years of experience in software development, network administration, and localizing technology for different cultures. Notably, in the past she served as Translation Community Manager for Tor, a well-known anonymity and circumvention tool, Chief Technology Officer for Informsec, and a Senior Technology Adviser for Internews.

https://carolyna.us

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Dmitri is the founding director of eQualitie with fifteen years experience working on digital security and privacy technology with civil society organizations. He has led and participated in missions to over 40 countries, and is a recognized expert on technology training and organizational security. He is the author of the Digital Security and Privacy for Human Rights Defenders manual and was a founding member and coordinator of the NGO-in-a-Box Security Edition project. Since 2011, Dmitri has lead the eQualitie team and its various projects.

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Fediverse @dmitri@social.eqver.se

Matrix @dmitri:matrix.eqver.se

Erika has over 10 years of experience in quality process control, management and finances. After a big career transition from industrial engineering to human resources, she now specializes in contributing with small and medium start-up companies collaborating to structure and manage operation, finances and human resources. Erika loves working in a positive and nurturing environment and is really happy to be part of eQualitie’s projects that strive for security and privacy.

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Grant has been hacking on computers since he can remember. His current fields of interest include distributed networking, Android programming, firmware engineering, and comic book drawing. As the creator of [Old Art City], he is bringing into fruition art that is critical of the myths and assumptions surrounding modern technology. Skilled in a plethora of programming languages (as well as a smattering of human languages), Grant joined eQualitie in 2022 to develop and maintain the CENO Browser. He is excited to be working with a passionate, dedicated team to develop free, libre, open-source technology that puts people ahead of profits.

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Ivana has many years of software testing and quality assurance experience in different industries at different levels of seniority. She has worked on different platforms, including mainframes, Unix, Windows, Mac OS and Android and has been involved in definition and implementation of defect management and other QA-related processes. More recently she has worked as a project manager and is also enjoying her work on product management and coordination.

After a career break, she switched to open source and privacy-oriented projects. For a time she volunteered for Open Food Network and Communecter platforms.

She speaks English, French, Spanish, Serbian, Croatian (and can order a drink in Finnish, greet people in Hungarian and speak ‘una mica de Català).

In her spare time she grows organic food for own needs and exchanges surplus with neighbours and friends.

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Jason stands out for his exceptional skills in networking and digital media. Renowned for his ability to forecast and capitalize on new trends in the internet and communication technologies, Jason has built a reputation as a forward-thinking expert. His insights and strategies in digital media are not only innovative but also influential in shaping future technological landscapes. Jason’s deep understanding of emerging technologies and his ability to navigate the digital realm have made him a key figure among digital ‘fringe’ communities. He is celebrated for his visionary approach and his contributions to digital strategy and media.

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Jenny has worked alongside organizations to build human and communications infrastructure, joining the eQualitie team in 2020 as Project Manager and Product Owner of Ceno Browser, Ouinet and Ouisync. She is passionate about connecting grassroots communities and global initiatives rooted in the shared struggle to reclaim the commons, create public spheres through the cultivation of open spaces, and enable direct democracy through principles of federation and open source or Read/Write culture. Toward the realization of these values, she has co-founded and stewarded three Oakland, California nonprofits: Sudo Room, Omni Commons, and Sudo Mesh. Her work experience spans many fields, including digital anthropology, IT project management, community organizing, and grassroots activism.

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Jeremy is the team lead of Deflect at eQualitie, where they have been contributing since 2019. A highly experienced programmer, Jeremy specializes in web applications, web server management, and web security. Jeremy is also a dedicated advocate for human rights and digital rights, leveraging their technical expertise to support these causes. Jeremy holds an LLM from National Taiwan University and a Bachelor in IM from Taiwan Tech.

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Katerina is a communications and events specialist with extensive background in NGOs, independent media, and educational initiatives, particularly focused on Eastern Europe and the Russia. Within eQualitie, she leads the coordination of conferences, presentations, and both online/offline events, driven by the goal of expanding eQ’s partner and contact network. Integrating her cultural studies expertise with civil rights advocacy, Katerina’s work is focused on shaping inclusive dialogues and fostering impactful connections around eQualitie’s initiatives.

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Katya is a learning and development professional with 15+ years of experience working in multicultural environments. She has supported the design and implementation of an extensive educational program in Central Asia, built an online community of volunteer translators, developed various online courses and in-person training programs for businesses, civil society, and individuals. Her passion lies in the areas of effective communication, situational leadership and digital hygiene.

Keith is working on DevOps at eQualitie. Passionate about digital privacy, secure and open source distributed communication software, and bringing circumvention technology to the masses; he believes in a free and open Internet for everyone. Immersed in Linux or FreeBSD on the desktop since 1998, Keith has a solid foundation in the web hosting industry as a Linux system administrator and also as an open source software developer who is always looking for interesting problems to solve.

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Ksenia is an Internet freedom activist and researcher working with the CENO browser team and the chatv3 team for UX improvements and outreach, as well as helping eQ with event organizing, research and communication for various projects. She holds a PhD in sociology of innovation and is a researcher at the Center for Internet and Society CNRS and an associate researcher at the Citizen Lab.

Her research interests include the usability of encryption; information control and surveillance studies; censorship monitoring; routing and traffic control in occupied territories; federated and decentralized communications, resilience and community-oriented technologies. She is the author of many academic articles and most recently a monography on end-to-end encrypted messengers: “Concealing for Freedom: the Making of Encryption, Secure Messaging and Civil Liberties”

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Lai Yi Ohlsen is a Senior Product Manager of performance and network quality at Cloudflare and a part-time lecturer in the Parsons Design & Technology program at The New School. Previously, she was the Director and Research and Data Lead at Measurement Lab and Technical Program Manager at eQualit.ie. She is currently a member of eQ’s Board as well as Quad9’s advisory PEHR council. Her independent research explores the evolution of the Internet and its associated infrastructures, and her creative work has been supported by Movement Research, Pioneer Works, e-flux Architecture, Triple Canopy, Pageant, and more. She is based in New York.

Leonid is the Project Communications Lead, overseeing various outreach programs, including the Ceno browser, Deflect, and eQtv. He has fourteen years of PR & marketing experience. In addition to his work, Leonid dedicates his spare time to studying the sociology of science and technology, focusing on the history of socio-technical systems (including regular and satellite Internet) and cybernetics. He has taught university courses in his country of origin and delivered public lectures at bookstores across several countries.

Occasionally, Leonid writes about himself in the third person.

Mallory joined the eQualitie board in 2012. She’s a public interest technologist and works as the CTO at the Center for Democracy & Technology in Washington, DC. She would like social considerations to influence technical design and leads a group on human rights at the Internet Research Task Force. Mallory thinks foreign policy should be informed by technical expertise, so spends time advising the 32 democratic governmental members of the Freedom Online Coalition. As bottom-up, independent and autonomous networks are critical in a robust society, she’s an individual member of the Association for Progressive Communications and May First/People Link.

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Mehdi is a marketing and communications expert with 13 years of experience in crafting compelling narratives and building strong brand identities. As co-founder of DYMO, a small but dynamic advertising agency, he has led successful campaigns and projects for multinational brands. Mehdi holds degrees in Physics, Philosophy of Science, and a Master’s in Marketing from Northumbria University. Fluent in English and Persian, he combines analytical thinking with creative strategy. When he’s not busy conjuring up communication messages, you can find him rock climbing or negotiating with his cat for the comfiest spot on the couch.

Michel has lead an international solidarity organization active on human rights, including the right of access to a free and open Internet for 13 years. He launched civil society Internet portal projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Middle East in addition to supporting the establishment of two digital security schools. Also active on Internet governance issues, Michel is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for progressive communications and is a founding member of the Canadian Internet Governance Forum. 

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Miguel is a software engineer with a deep interest in electronics, computers and their relationship with the free software/culture movements. His years as a developer has led him to learn; that programming is also a new way to understand ourselves, that collaboration beats competition, and that technology is definitely not neutral. His main professional interest is to create simple and useful tools that empower people who are fighting against exploitation, patriarchy, racism and other forms of violence.

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Mourad contributes to the Baskerville project, working together with the Deflect team on integrating bot detection and banning mechanisms into third party platforms – namely Cloudflare and AWS. Mourad is a machine learning and data engineer, having graduated with an Honours Bachelors of Science in Statistics and Mathematics from the University of Ottawa. His previous work experience includes working with Statistics Canada where he lead a project on refining commodity yield forecasting methods.

Nick Sullivan is a technologist known for his expertise in security and cryptography. He has spent time at Apple Inc., making significant contributions to security technologies used in the iPhone and other core systems. Later, as Head of Research at Cloudflare, he played a crucial role in enhancing the company’s encryption and secure network protocols while helping the company publish dozens of peer-reviewed papers and RFCs. Nick is not only a frequent speaker at global tech and security conferences but also volunteers his time on internet standards committees as the Chair of the Crypto Forum Research Group at the IRTF and others, as well as a reviewer for academic security conferences such as Real World Crypto, NDSS and USENIX Security.

Ukrainian media and telecom expert. Over 20 years of experience in the Ukrainian market of media, Internet access, paid content distribution systems and telecom services. Author of the YouTube project “ПЕРЕГОВОРКА” Creator of the largest Ukrainian telecom-community – “ТЕЛЕКОМ-КРУЖОК“. Author of the industry portal MEDIASAT Author of PROTV.UA project
Member of the Board of the Internet Association of Ukraine for 5 years. Ex-advisor to the Head of the National Council on TV and Radio Broadcasting. Ex-advisor to the Head of the National Broadcasting Company. Ex-advisor to the Minister of Finance of Ukraine on communications issues. Actively interested in cyber security, data protection systems and data distribution.

Oleksandra is a public communications strategist and project lead with more than 15 years of experience. She created strategies, international digital and offline projects for IT and NGOs.

Worked as Head of Media & Communications at Depositphotos, one of the world biggest banks of visual content. She was an ideologist and organizer of international conferences: Social Media Week Kyiv, on marketing, communications and social media, and Creative Loop, on graphic design.

Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine she has dedicated herself to the work for and about Ukraine. The projects she designed and managed to counteract anti-Ukrainian narratives and strengthen the brand of Ukraine reached millions worldwide.

Oleksandra has a background in journalism, she worked on TV and international media, such as BBC Ukrainian and Deutsche Welle. She writes about Ukraine for Norwegian, German and Swedish media, moderates public discussions and interviews on Ukraine.

Pavlo has been interested in technology since 2000 and has been working on digital security issues for about 20 years. He is currently Technical Lead for the Nadiyno project.

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Peter is a C++ developer with a masters degree in a combination of math and computer science from Komenius University, Slovakia. He started his career in the field of computer graphics, working on projects ranging from graphical tools and computer games to navigation systems. After more than a decade in that industry, he shifted his interests to networking and distributed systems which have kept him busy ever since. Formerly a lead developer on the Censorship.no project, Peter is currently lead developer on Ouisync – all in the aim of bringing the versatility of distributed networking to improve freedom of expression and association on the Internet.

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Rafael has been involved in digital security for around 10 years and has been an open-source activist since 2008. Former BOFH, he is working in digital security for civil society since 2021.

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Rodney has been working in system administration since 1991, implementing TCP/IP networks on frame relay. He became interested in open source solutions and soon after opened his own company focusing on deploying networking, software and systems. Rodney brings a wealth of experience, a steady hand and a thorough process to the maintenance of eQualit.ie’s infrastructure and system administration tasks.

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Based in Toronto, Sai is a software engineer who loves to design and develop Android applications that are appealing and easy to use. Before joining eQualitie, she has worked on mobile applications across a variety of industries and focuses on making technology accessible. Her areas of interest include user-interface design, human computer interaction, and data visualization.

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Venny’s background is in international development. She has managed projects and grants for the non-profit sector for several years and worked in capacity-building roles advising and supporting NGOs in grant management, monitoring & evaluation, and resource mobilization. In her spare time she enjoys live music, working on her French, and dreaming of Finnish summers.

she/her

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Vitaliy joined eQualitie as Ukraine’s outreach and support consultant. Vitaliy has more than ten years of experience in digital technology as a team lead and consultant. Previously he worked in a leading media non-profit in Ukraine, being responsible for strategic planning and implementation of emerging technology and new media projects. He has years of experience managing digital security, fact-checking, and advocacy projects on Internet freedom and digital rights.

Vitaliy is a Fulbright Program alumnus, in 2012-2014 he studied multimedia journalism at Emerson College in Boston. He defended his Master’s thesis on the social media impact on the anti-government protests in Ukraine. He also has BA and MA in political science from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine.

Vitaliy has conducted more than 400 training sessions on the issues of digital literacy and innovations for civil society and journalists. His professional interests include emerging technologies, digital communication, social media, and digital security.

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Vladimir is working on Deflect network operations and client support. He is a system administrator focused on nginx web-server configuration, overall website performance optimization and security for small and medium-sized organizations. He has many years experience helping human-rights defenders with digital threat modelling as well as working with them on achievable counter-measures.

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Yara works as a Project Manager – Community Networks. With a Master’s degree in International Relations and a deep commitment to digital rights. Yara has experience in supporting humanitarian organizations in emergency contexts. Also had experience working with organizations advocating for Palestinian digital rights. Yara has a passion for fostering equitable access to information and technology.