May 12, 2023
Feedback Labs is delighted to introduce Dave Algoso and Dr. Heather E. Lanthorn as our newly appointed board members. Through an Open Call process, we have been able to identify people like Dave and Heather, who will bring a diverse range of lived experiences, skill sets, perspectives, and innovative ideas to our organization. We’re excited for them to join our community of board members, and we are eager to witness the contributions they will make towards executing our strategic mission, expanding our capacity and impact, and strengthening the field of feedback.
Dave Algoso is a social change strategist, facilitator, advisor, and researcher. He started his career writing policy papers on global warming and organizing local campaigns on democracy reforms across the United States. Since then, he’s also advised universities on faculty diversity efforts, co-designed a micro-grant fund serving Kenyan youth groups, facilitated the launch of a global initiative to protect civil society and civic space, and advised foundations on countering corruption and authoritarianism.
Since 2015, Dave has built an independent strategy and facilitation practice, Open CoLab, which works with leading foundations, nonprofits, and multilateral agencies. His clients have included Open Society Foundations, Oxfam, Democracy Fund, Mercy Corps, UNICEF, and Alliance for Peacebuilding.
Along with consulting, Dave connects ideas from across the social change sector through his writing, speaking, and teaching. He’s written for WIRED.com, the Guardian, ForeignPolicy, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and more. He’s been an instructor, lecturer, and trainer at New York University, the Service Experience Conference, TechChange, and others. Dave is also a former Organizer-in-Residence at Civic Hall, and a co-founder of the AdaptDev community.
Heather Lanthorn is a social scientist, grounded in cross-disciplinary behavioral theories and driven to make the world a little better by translating intentions into actions. She works as Co-Director of the Mercury Project, a consortium of social and behavioral scientists and practitioners housed at the Social Science Research Council, committed to identifying cost-effective and scalable interventions to build vaccination demand. As an idealistic pragmatist and mild curmudgeon, she works in professional and volunteer capacities to improve health systems around the world to promote wellbeing and human flourishing, with specific focus on Ghana, India, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and the US. She thinks a lot about the nitty gritty details it takes for programming and policy change to happen, digging into the theory of change and the context. Heather investigatse the process issues that can prevent policy from being well-implemented—or implemented at all. She has worked with IDinsight, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation, and Innovations for Poverty Action. She has a Doctorate of Science (ScD) in Global Health and Population from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with a focus on health systems. She received her Masters of Public Health (MPH) in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Wake Forest University with a focus on medical anthropology and minors in neuroscience and health policy.
At Feedback Labs, we believe in the power of listening to create better outcomes, foster equity & justice, and build community power. The world we envision is one where feedback is the norm in philanthropy, nonprofit, and government. We know that to achieve this, people and organizations need to be provided with the practical tools and training needed to build strong relationships with the communities they serve. We are excited to collaborate with our current and new board members to advance this mission and continue amplifying the voices of communities at the heart of our work.
