Our Team

Joel Putnam (he/him) is a nonprofit communications and technology professional based in Seattle. He received his MPA in Economic and Political Development from Columbia University, and serves as Investor Relations Officer for Impact-First Investor, Global Partnerships. Learn more at joelrputnam.com.

John Fallot (he/him) is a user experience and graphic designer based in the New York City Metro Area. He co-founded the Prosocial Design Network with colleague Joel Putnam in late 2019, in order to better explore ways that the web could be optimized for prosocial behaviors.

David Grüning (he/him) is a research scientist based in Heidelberg, Germany. His research covers topics of psychology in politicized digital environments. You can access David’s work on Google Scholar or his website.

Dr. Farzaneh Badiei is the founder of Digital Medusa, an initiative protecting digital spaces with sound governance. For the past decade, she has undertaken Internet governance research at Yale, Georgia Tech, and the Humboldt Institute for Internet & Society in Berlin.

Dr. Philipp Lorenz-Spreen (he/him) is a research scientist based in Berlin, Germany. His work focuses on decision making online, and finding ways to improve online democratic discourse through environmental interventions.

LX Cast (they/them) is a researcher and strategist living in Portland, Oregon. LX’s passions center on curiosity, community, and creativity. They have spoken at SXSW, Grace Hopper Celebration, among others. You can learn more about LX’s experience at (x+x)

David Grüning (he/him) is a research scientist based in Heidelberg, Germany. His research covers topics of psychology in politicized digital environments. You can access David’s work on Google Scholar or his website.

Dr. Philipp Lorenz-Spreen (he/him) is a research scientist based in Berlin, Germany. His work focuses on decision making online, and finding ways to improve online democratic discourse through environmental interventions.

Julia Kamin (she/her) is a researcher based in New York City. She currently works with Civic Health Project, developing a measurement tool for organizations to gauge their impact on reducing polarization.

Matt Katsaros is the Director of the Social Media Governance Initiative at the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School. He has spent the past decade working in the tech industry (two years at Twitter and seven years at Facebook).

Folco Panizza (he/him) is a cognitive and behavioral scientist at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. His work centers on combating scientific disinformation and vaccine hesitancy.

Dr. Jae-Eun Kim (Jae) is a data scientist and researcher based in upstate New York. Her current research includes studies on the effects of campaigns and interventions, survey design and methodology, and behavioral research.

Dr. Yixue Wang (she/her) is a data engineer and researcher based in the Bay Area, working at Walmart Global Tech. Her research examines the role of algorithmic tools and interface designs in supporting civil, diverse and relevant news/media engagement.

Shubham is a PhD Candidate in Information Science at the University of Michigan. His research is centered around online trust and safety, particularly focused on designing and experimenting with new moderation tools.

Eugenia Quintanilla (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in political science at the University of Michigan in the American Political Behavior subfield. Her research includes studies on prosociality, race and ethnic politics, and survey measurement design.

Marco De Carlo (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Economics, Networks and Business Analytics at the IMT School in Lucca, Italy. His research interests involve behavioral economics, game theory, and industrial organization, particularly as tools to interpret political dynamics on social media.

Julia Kamin (she/her) is a researcher based in New York City. She currently works with Civic Health Project, developing a measurement tool for organizations to gauge their impact on reducing polarization.

David Grüning (he/him) is a research scientist based in Heidelberg, Germany. His research covers topics of psychology in politicized digital environments. You can access David’s work on Google Scholar or his website.

Folco Panizza (he/him) is a cognitive and behavioral scientist at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. His work centers on combating scientific disinformation and vaccine hesitancy.

Chris Messina is a Product Lead focused on issuer experience at Republic, an inclusive fundraising platform that is disrupting conventional venture capital. He is best known for inventing the hashtag.

You can learn more about Chris Messina at his website: chrismessina.me

Sahar Massachi is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Integrity Institute.

A past fellow of the Berkman Klein Center, Sahar is currently an advisory committee member for the Louis D. Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice, a StartingBloc fellow, and a Roddenbery Fellow.

Jay Van Bavel is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University, and co-author of The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony. You can read more about his work at: www.jayvanbavel.com.

David Dylan Thomas, author of Design for Cognitive Bias, creator and host of The Cognitive Bias Podcast, and a twenty-year practitioner of content strategy and UX, has consulted major clients in entertainment, healthcare, publishing, finance, and retail.

Ravi Iyer is the Managing Director of the USC Marshall School’s Neely Center. Previously, he spent 4+ years leading data and product teams across Meta toward improving social media's societal impact via design.

Maria Arango-kure is a researcher, developer and advocate for ethical digitalization.

Jess is a researcher and communications strategist at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

Dr. Xuan Zhao is a Research Scientist at Stanford University and a co-founder of Flourish Science. She studies social connection, well-being, and technology, and has rich experiences designing science-based products to share research insights and create inclusive environments.

Nattapat Boonprakong (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research interest involves Empathic Computing and Cognition-Aware Systems, in particular the Quantification of Cognitive Biases.

Manoel Horta Ribeiro is a Ph.D. student at EPFL in Switzerland. Through a computational social science lens, his work examines how content curation practices (existing and novel) can improve online platforms, making them more enjoyable, helpful, safe, and civil.

Gionnieve is a PhD candidate at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Her research area is on the intersection of human-computer interaction with civic technology and with misinformation.

Peter Ondish is a behavioral scientist and research consultant. He is also the co-founder and Chief Scientist for bluefoxlabs.ai, LLC.

Stephanie Rodriguez (she/her) is currently a media and communications researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she's exploring mediated political participation in contemporary American social movements. You can learn more about her experiences on her LinkedIn.