GIOVANNA ÁLVAREZ NEGRETTI

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR • BARCELONA, SPAIN
GIOVANNA@THE-OPEN.NET

An organizer, campaigner and advocate since as long as anyone can remember, Giovanna’s career has been fueled by her passion for community building and people-powered movements. Catching a fever for civic action at a very young age in her native Vieques, Puerto Rico, she has spent more than twenty years in executive leadership at local, regional and global organizations working for social justice.

Early in her career in the United States, Giovanna worked as legislative aide to the state’s first African American woman elected to the Massachusetts Senate. From there she co-founded the first statewide Latino political organization and served as its founding Executive Director. In 2008 she was elected a proud Obama delegate to the DNC Convention in Denver.

Shifting to the global sphere, Giovanna became Middle East Regional Director of the Nobel-prizewinning human rights group the American Friends Service Committee, developing diplomatic strategies and social cohesion programs during and after the Arab Spring. Throughout her career, she has served as advisor or strategist to political campaigns, philanthropic foundations and country presidents in Europe, the United States, Latin America and the Middle East.

Giovanna graduated magna cum laude from Emerson College and holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She is a recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award, the Prime Movers Fellowship and the Eisenhower Fellowship. 

MATT BLIZEK

DEPUTY DIRECTOR - CAMPAIGNS & NETWORK DEVELOPMENT • CHICAGO, IL
MATT@THE-OPEN.NET

Throughout his 20+ year career, Matt has had a passion for training individuals and organizations to fight for social justice. He has worked for dozens of progressive candidates and led campaigns that have mobilized tens of thousands of people to take action across the US as well as internationally. 

 He's designed innovative training programs for numerous progressive organizations including MoveOn, Warren for President, PCCC, and Democracy for America which have trained thousands of people to run for office or make a difference in their community.

 When he’s not organizing a workshop or campaign, you might find Matt fishing with his family in Iowa, surfing in Puerto Rico, hanging out in the Wrigley Field bleachers in Chicago, or exploring a new country.

SHANNON CAIN

STORYTELLER AND GRANTWRITER • PARIS, FRANCE
SHANNON@THE-OPEN.NET

An award-winning writer with more than 30 years experience in nonprofit communications and fundraising, Shannon’s role at OPEN is to tell our story and to build a philanthropic community that helps us write the next chapters.

A lifelong agitator for progressive social change, she began her career as a street activist for AIDS awareness and reproductive justice in the 1990s in New York. Since then she has led four NGOs, founded a fundraising consulting firm and served on dozens of nonprofit boards, grantmaking panels and fundraising committees. Shannon’s stories have been recognized with the O. Henry Prize, the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, the Pushcart Prize and a fellowship from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in a sunny apartment in Paris with her cat and is perpetually at work on a novel.

ANDILE CELE

NETWORK MANAGER: KNOWLEDGE AND COMMUNICATIONS • DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA
ANDILE@THE-OPEN.NET

Andile is an experienced researcher and advocacy campaigner. She has over 10 years’ experience working in the civil society and political spaces, mainly focused on good governance practices – accountability, transparency, and public participation in the budget process.At OPEN, Andile works with the Network to surface key learnings and best practices and maintains the knowledge hub – The Campaigns Library. She holds a BSocSci (Political Studies & Sociology) from the University of Cape Town.Outside of work – Andile enjoys reading, hiking, and travelling.

HOLLY DAWSON

NETWORK MANAGER & CAMPAIGNS & TRAINING •  BARCELONA, SPAIN
HOLLY@THE-OPEN.NET

Holly has 10 years experience working as campaigner and organiser all over the world. She is a descendant of the Bunurong people and grew up in Boorloo (Perth) on Nyoongar Country. She has worked as a campaigner and strategist for international organisations and environmental advocacy groups with a strong focus on movement building. Holly’s role at OPEN supports its member organisations and their staff to build their skills & expertise to maximise their impact and build organisational capacity.

EUROPEAN ELECTIONS COALITION LEAD • HESINKI, FINLAND
KELSEY@THE-OPEN.NET

Kelsey is a progressive digital campaigner, mobiliser, and activist with a wide range of movement-building experience. Most recently, she's acted as a campaigner and strategist for grassroots climate groups, and prior to that worked as a campaign manager in the 2019 EU Elections—contributing to a record-amount of young, progressive, candidates in the European Parliament, and a spike in youth voter turnout.

Outside of work, Kelsey enjoys climbing, making music, and long walks with her dog, Lola.

FRANCES McMULLIN

TECH SUPPORT SPECIALIST • DUBLIN, IRELAND
FRANCES@THE-OPEN.NET

Frances has been working in and with tech for over a decade. She has worked for and with several OPEN orgs in the past and supported the network as maintainer of the Identity software collaboration until mid 2022. Frances has core expertise in Ruby, Rails and JavaScript, with broad experience managing deployments and working with a much broader range of technologies. Frances is skilled at solving problems with code and also appreciates the importance of clear communication, planning and strategic decision making.

When she's not at work, Frances enjoys juggling, and spoiling her cat, Nemesis.

RANJANI RAJASHEKARAN

LEAD, FINANCE • LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
RANJANI@THE-OPEN.NET

Ranjani has a Master’s Degree in Accounting with a vast experience in diverse fields like accounting and finance, supply chain, advertising and operations. While most of her experience comes from the corporate sector, she is very enthusiastic about being associated with OPEN and contributing meaningfully to society

MARIEM SENE

TECHNOLOGY COMMUNITY COORDINATOR • PARIS, FRANCE
MARIEM@THE-OPEN.NET

With a work background in gender equality and inclusion, Mariem joins the OPEN tech team as the community coordinator. She has previously worked for an international women’s rights organisation (Prospera INWF) and the European Blind Union, and holds degrees in international relations and political science.

Passionate about digital accessibility, Mariem’s role at OPEN is to foster an inclusive network of technology professionals who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic and who come together to fulfil both individual and group goals.

When Mariem is not working, she enjoys long walks, horseback riding and yoga.