Heather Blanchard: Meet the Digital Humanitarians
Heather Blanchard is a social entrepreneur, who works on the front lines of the online crisis crowd by connecting people, tools and resources via the virtual technology network she helped create, called CrisisCommons. Heather explores the growing role of the digital humanitarian community and how they connect to traditional response systems in preparing for, responding to and preventing crises and disasters.
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ABOUT Heather Blanchard
“Heather Blanchard is a connecter. She connects people, resources and ideas. She often translates between technologists and policy makers. She is an avid open data evangelist and has a keen interest in how people build communities that make contributions to society.
She has worked for the private sector, government and academia for 16 years and testified before the U.S Congress and provided insights to the European Commission advocating for inclusion and sharing the benefits of participatory communities and open data.
Heather is a co-founder of CrisisCommons and the barcamp series CrisisCamp which advocates for including of volunteer technology communities, open data and emerging technologies to innovate crisis management and global development.
She was a public servant in the U.S. government supporting engagement and policy development in crisis communications and management, cyber security and intellectual property. In the private sector Heather helped foster and lead an award-winning corporate Social Responsibility Programme.
Heather received her Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Radford University. She participated in Harvard University’s Leading in a Crisis programme and Oxford University’s Comparative Law and Policy’s Summer Institute on Global Media and Technology Policy. She has also shared her ideas with USA Today, BBC and Wall Street Journal. Heather is hoping to complete her first book this year.”
The VIDEO
