Incoming Executive Director

The Collaborative has a new executive director!

Taking over OC stewardship, Suren Moodliar will be building on the work of outgoing director—and incoming board member—Felicia Sullivan and founder Rich Cowan. Immediately, this means reaching out to the ever vibrant non-profit tech community at the Non Profit Technology Network (NTEN), working with a spirited group of conference planners for this year's GUT-C, Grassroots Use of Technology Conference, and supporting Rich as he services the growing pool of Organizers Database (ODB) users. Suren's position is a half-time one complemented by an active, robust, engaged and talented Board of Directors and a large circle of volunteers, members and donors. Felicia's management skills will continue to be exploited as she becomes the board's treasurer.

He comes to OC from Massachusetts Global Action where he served as a founding board member and coordinator. There he worked on the Boston Social Forum and helped found the encuentro 5 "movement-building space" in Boston's Chinatown. As he returns to the board there, he will continue to oversee the "Color of Water" project that promotes the UN-recognized Human Right to Water. His prior experiences include co-managing a US-Canadian network of 65 labor and community-based organizations, advocating for an effective international public health treaty by working with grassroots organizations in Africa, Asia and Latin America, participating in several successful labor union organizing drives and immigrant campaigns, and working in the South African national liberation struggle. He completed his undergraduate education at Indiana University and graduate school at UCLA.

Exiting Executive Director

Felicia M. Sullivan is a community media advocate and educator living in Lowell, MA. With an MA in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research and 15 years of community-based practice, she works with community media & technology centers as well as social justice and arts organizations to bring the power of communication, media and information technologies to communities. Prior to joining OC, she worked at Lowell Telecommunications Corporation in Lowell, MA as Director of the Lowell Community Technology Consortium. She has served on the national board of CTCNet. She currenlty is also affiliated with the University of Massachusetts (Boston & Lowell campuses). She speaks and writes frequently on issues of community communication in a connected age and the preservation of civic space in telecommunications. Connection. Capacity. Cognition. Creativity. Compassion. These are the values which fuel Ms. Sullivan’s work.

ODB Project Director

Rich Cowan, OC founder, is now serving as Director of the ODB project. Rich has two degrees in computer science from M.I.T and built OC over a six year period into an group that assists hundreds of social change nonprofits. He has worked as academic computer support specialist, a database consultant, an adjunct faculty member, a newspaper editor, and as a nonprofit founder. Prior to founding Organizers' Collaborative, Rich started the Center for Campus Organizing making extensive use of the Internet to network progressive students and faculty. Rich has written articles for Responsive Philanthropy, Techsoup.org, and speaks frequently at conferences on the intersection of technology and social change.