| Alec Ross | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 30, 1971 Charleston, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Education | Northwestern University University of Bologna, Italy |
| Occupation | Senior Adviser on Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton |
| Employer | U.S. State Department |
Alec Ross (born November 30, 1971) is Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a role created for him that blends technology with diplomacy.[1] As Secretary Clinton's "tech guru,"[2] Ross is leading the State Department's efforts to find practical technology solutions for some of the globe's most vexing problems on health care, poverty, human rights and ethnic conflicts. In 2010 Ross was named one of 40 leaders under 40 years old in International Development,[3] and Huffington Post included him in their list of 2010 Game Changers as one of 10 “game changers” in politics.[4] He is also one of Politico's 50 Politicos to Watch as one of “Five people who are bringing transformative change to the government.”[5] Foreign Policy magazine named Ross a Top Global Thinker in 2011.[6] Profiled in 2011, Time Magazine describes how Ross is incorporating digital platforms into the daily lives of U.S. diplomats and his support of programs to train activists in the Middle East.[7]
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Ross grew up near Charleston, West Virginia. In the seventh grade, he moved to Rome for a year to live with his grandfather, the commercial minister at the American embassy.[8] He returned to Italy to attend the University of Bologna in his junior year of college and is fluent in Italian.[9]
After graduating in 1994 from Northwestern University with a B.A. in history,[9] Ross moved to Baltimore as a Teach for America corps member, where he taught low-income middle school students. Ross and his Teach for America program were featured in a three-part Baltimore Sun series.[10]
Ross taught for two years and then accepted a position as special assistant to the president of the Enterprise Foundation, which develops affordable housing across the country. He focused on developing business, technology and fundraising strategies.[11]
In 2000, he co-founded the nonprofit One Economy, a global nonprofit that uses innovative approaches to deliver the power of technology and information about education, jobs, health care and other vital issues to low-income people. During his eight years at One Economy, it grew from a team of four people working in a basement to the world's largest digital divide organization, with programs on four continents.[9] While at One Economy, he wrote "A Laptop in Every Backpack" with Simon Rosenberg.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Ross played a key role in developing then-Sen. Barack Obama's far-reaching technology and innovation plan.[12]
After joining Obama’s presidential campaign in 2006, Ross was charged with coordinating hundreds of policy advisers—including high-tech titans like Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, academics like Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, nonprofit leaders and investors. He was praised for managing a team that cooperated.[1]
As an early, prominent supporter of Obama’s from the technology sector,[13] he often served as a surrogate for the Obama campaign to the scientific and technology communities.[14][15]
In April 2009, Ross was tapped to join the State Department. As Senior Advisor on Innovation, he has successfully advocated for new digital diplomacy tools.[16] He is spearheading the "21st Century Statecraft" initiative[17] and leading Civil Society 2.0, a program to educate and train grass-roots organizations around the world to create Web sites, blog, launch text messaging campaigns, and build online communities.[18] Speaking to digital diplomacy's promise, Ross told The American Prospect, "If Paul Revere had been a modern day citizen, he wouldn't have ridden down Main Street. He would have tweeted."[17]
Through his work at the State Department, Ross is looking at ways to use Web video and social networking sites to extend statecraft.[19] In 2009 he told U.S. News and World Report, "It's about how can you reach large numbers of people who otherwise would be difficult to impossible to reach."[20] Ross argues that governments using interactive communications technologies can be more creative and responsive in how they enable people to engage directly with each other and with other countries.[21]
Alec Ross has tried to increase citizen involvement in State Department efforts with technological tools — creating text messaging codes to raise money for refugees and enabling mobile banking around the world.[5] Ross is also a big proponent of aiding other countries through digital development initiatives like wiring schools, adding wireless capacity to public works, text-message reminders to HIV patients, and leap frogging communities from cash culture to mobile banking.[17]
In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Ross visited with former militia members in demobilization camps to learn about ways to get current militia members to quit fighting.[2] He is now working to implement a State Department outreach program based on their suggestion to use radio to communicate with fighters who are hiding out in the bush. Ross is also putting together a mobile banking program for soldiers who haven’t been paid in years, empowering them with the ability to securely transfer money and save through accounts over cellphones.[18]
In Mexico, Ross is leading the State Department's collaboration with the Mexican government, NGOs, and telecom companies to set up a system for tracking crimes. Some initiatives include a cellphone-base tip-off system for the police that will scrub identifying information about the tipsters from the system, and mapping activities of common criminals and narcotraficantes in near real-time on Web sites, so citizens can see where to avoid.[2]
Ross has been a vocal critic where profit motives over ride potential harms of technologies. In 2011, he publicly "criticised the developers of internet surveillance equipment who were willing to sell their services to repressive regimes and allow governments to censor their citizens.”[22] He also “lashed out” against organizer of surveillance technology conference for condoning sales to authoritarian governments. Ross tweeted “With all due respect, Mr. Lucas, people are tortured + there can be life/death consequences to sales of these products."[23]
Ross’“overt support of subversive technology” outraged authoritarian leaders,[24] and he has confronted governments, including Russia, about Internet Freedom.[25]
Ross met his wife, Felicity, in Houston where they were preparing for Teach for America.[8] They live in Baltimore and are the parents of 3 children.[1]