About Public Knowledge : Staff

Directory

John Bergmayer, Senior Staff Attorney

Art Brodsky, Communications Director

Ernesto Falcon, Director of Government Affairs

Harold Feld, Legal Director

Tyler Gray, Online Activism Associate

Jodie Griffin, Staff Attorney

Martyn Griffen, Government Affairs Associate

Tim Ingerick, Administrative Assistant

Brooke Rae-Hunter, Chief Operating Officer

Clarissa Ramon, Outreach and Government Affairs Associate

Rashmi Rangnath, Director, Global Knowledge Initiative, and Staff Attorney

Sherwin Siy, Deputy Legal Director and Kahle/Austin Promise Fellow

Gigi B. Sohn, President and CEO

Katy Tasker, Outreach and Development Associate

Whitney Tompkins, Events Manager

Michael Weinberg, Staff Attorney

Also see: Public Knowledge's Interns


John Bergmayer

John Bergmayer

Senior Staff Attorney
(202) 861-0020 x113

John Bergmayer is a Senior Staff Attorney at Public Knowledge.

John specializes in telecommunications, Internet, and intellectual property issues. He advocates for the public interest before courts and policymakers, and works to make sure that all stakeholders--including ordinary citizens, artists, and technological innovators--have a say in shaping emerging digital policies. He is a member of the Colorado bar and a graduate of the University of Colorado Law School.

Art Brodsky

Art Brodsky

Communications Director
(202) 861-0020 x103
(301) 908-7715 (cell phone for reporters with urgent deadlines only)

Art Brodsky is communications director of Public Knowledge. He is a veteran of Washington, D.C. telecommunications and Internet journalism and public relations.

Art worked for 16 years with Communications Daily, a leading trade publication. He covered Congress through the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other major pieces of legislation. He also covered telephone regulation at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and at state regulatory commissions. In addition, he has covered the online industry since before there was an Internet, coming in just after videotext died but before the World Wide Web. Art was later an editor with Congressional Quarterly, with responsibilities for the daily and Web coverage of telecom, tech and other issues. In addition to writing for Public Knowledge's blog, Art's work also appears on Web sites such as Huffington Post and TPM cafe. He has written for publications as diverse as the Washington Post, TomPaine.com, World Tennis magazine and the World Book encyclopedia. He was also a commentator on the public radio program, Marketplace, and appeared on C-SPAN, MSNBC and other media outlets.

On the PR front, Art worked as communications director for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and for the Washington, D.C. office of Qwest Communications International.

Art graduated from the University of Maryland in December 1973 with High Honors and a degree in government and politics. He received an MSJ degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in June 1975. He and his wife, Liz, live in Olney, MD. They have two daughters.

Ernesto Falcon

Ernesto Falcon

Director of Government Affairs
(202) 861-0020 x116

Ernesto Falcon came to PK from the office of Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), where he worked for three years as the senior legislative assistant dealing with issues related to the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet.  Ernesto previously worked on Capitol Hill for Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) for three years as a technology manager and legislative assistant.  He originally came to Washington D.C. on an internship with Congressman George Miller (D-CA) in early 2004 shortly after graduating from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo with a degree in Political Science.

Harold Feld

Harold Feld

Legal Director
(202) 861-0020 x110

Harold is Public Knowledge's Legal Director. He is responsible for managing and mentoring PK's growing legal team and acting as lead attorney for issues before the Federal Communications Commission and the courts.

Before becoming Legal Director at Public Knowledge, Harold worked as Senior Vice President of Media Access Project, advocating for the public interest in media, telecommunications and technology policy for almost 10 years. Prior to joining MAP, Feld was an associate at Covington & Burling, worked on Freedom of Information Act, Privacy Act, and accountability issues at the Department of Energy, and clerked for the D.C. Court of Appeals. He received his B.A. from Princeton University, and his J.D. from Boston University Law School. Harold also writes Tales of the Sausage Factory, a progressive blog on media and telecom policy. In 2007, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin praised him and his blog for "[doing] a lot of great work helping people understand how FCC decisions affect people and communities on the ground."

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Tyler Gray

Online Activism Associate
(202) 861-0020 x107

As the lead in charge of Online Activism, Tyler's role is to oversee Public Knowledge's new media, outreach and constituency building efforts. After spending two years as the Social Media Associate for a prominent website development firm, Tyler brings a strong technical background with a specialty in open-source content management systems and software. Prior to that he spent five years as a online communications consultant working with PACs, labor unions and candidates for local, state and federal office.

Currently Tyler serves as the Vice-President of Sponsorship for Social Media Club- DC and is an active member of AD2DC (Young Professionals in Advertising) and YPN-DC(Young Professionals in Non-Profits). Tyler graduated from George Mason University with a B.A. in Philosophy and  B.A. in Government and International Politics in 2009.

jodie

Jodie Griffin

Staff Attorney
(202) 861-0020 x108

Jodie first joined Public Knowledge as a legal intern over the summer of 2010 and joined the Public Knowledge staff full-time in September 2011. She holds a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School, where she was the Executive Articles Editor of the American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal. Before law school, Jodie worked in the music industry.

Martyn Griffen

Martyn Griffen

Government Affairs Associate
(202) 861-0020 x118

Prior to joining Public Knowledge, Martyn worked in the Office of Rep. Vic Snyder (D-AR) first as a Legislative Correspondent and later as a Legislative Assistant dealing with issues that included Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Telecommunications. Martyn is originally from Little Rock, Arkansas and attended the University of Pennsylvania where he earned his B.A. in History with a concentration in Diplomacy.

 

Tim Ingerick

Tim Ingerick

Administrative Assistant
(202) 861-0020 x111

Tim Ingerick joined Public Knowledge as an Administrative Assistant in September 2009.

Prior to joining Public Knowledge, Tim worked as a Research Director and Intern Coordinator with Project Vote Smart. Tim earned his B.A. in Political Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Brooke Rae-Hunter

Brooke Rae-Hunter

Chief Operating Officer
(202) 861-0020 x109

Brooke Rae-Hunter is Chief Operating Officer at Public Knowledge. She has extensive experience in the fields of organization management and development, having been a senior manager for development at the American Film Institute, as well as having development responsibilities at the Media Access Project and Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington. Prior to her DC development experience, Brooke served as Executive Director at SEABA, an arts and business association in Burlington, VT.

She is a 1999 honors graduate of Loyola University, New Orleans, and holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Antioch University in Los Angeles, which she received in 2006.

Clarissa Ramon

Clarissa Ramon

Government Affairs and Outreach Associate 
(202) 861-0020 x104

Prior to joining PK, Clarissa completed a public policy fellowship with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute where she completed placements at the Department of State and the Office of Congressman Charles A. Gonzalez.

She is passionate about the ways in which public policy impacts underrepresented communities and hopes to help build valuable coalitions to inform people of their digital rights. Clarissa's interest in these issues stem from her time with the Guadalupe Street Coffee Shop in San Antonio Texas which provided free internet and computer access to the surrounding community. Clarissa graduated with a Bachelors degree in Political Science from St. Marys University in her hometown of San Antonio Texas.

Rashmi Rangnath

Rashmi Rangnath

Director, Global Knowledge Initiative and Staff Attorney
(202) 861-0020 x106

Prior to joining Public Knowledge as a Staff Attorney and Director of PK's Global Knowledge Initiative, Rashmi Rangnath was a part time Law Clerk for special projects as well as a student Intern, working on copyright and patent law issues. Ms. Rangnath has also worked at the Association of Research Libraries as a student intern, where she mainly worked on the orphan works project.

Rashmi Rangnath received her Bachelors in Academic Laws (B.A. equivalent) in 1998 and LL.B. (J.D. equivalent) in 2000 from Mysore University, Mysore, India. After getting married and coming to the U.S., Rashmi received her LL.M. degree in International Legal Studies with a specialization in International and Comparative Protection of Intellectual Property from American University Washington College of Law in 2006.

Sherwin Siy

Sherwin Siy

Deputy Legal Director | Kahle/Austin Promise Fellow
(202) 861-0020 x101

Sherwin Siy is Deputy Legal Director and Kahle/Austin Promise Fellow at Public Knowledge where he focuses on emerging copyright issues and international effects on IP and technology policy. Before joining PK, he served as Staff Counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, working on consumer and communications issues.

Sherwin received his JD with a Certificate in Law and Technology from UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law. While in law school, he also worked on a variety of IP issues through the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic, including library copying rights and the legitimate uses of P2P file sharing.

Gigi B. Sohn

Gigi B. Sohn

President and CEO
(202) 861-0020 x102 

Gigi Sohn is an internationally known communications attorney. In September 2001, she founded Public Knowledge with Laurie Racine (then President of the Center for the Public Domain) and activist/author David Bollier.

Gigi serves as PK's chief strategist, fundraiser and public face. She is frequently quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, as well as in trade and local press. Gigi has been published in the Washington Post, Variety, CNET and Legal Times. In addition, she has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including the Today Show, The McNeil-Lehrer Report, C-SPAN's Washington Journal and National Public Radio's All Things Considered and Morning Edition.

Gigi is a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado and a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Faculty of Law, Graduate Studies Program in Australia. She has been a Non-Resident Fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg Center, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.

Gigi served as a Project Specialist in the Ford Foundation's Media, Arts and Culture unit and as Executive Director of the Media Access Project, a public interest law firm that represents citizens' rights before the FCC and the courts. In 1997, President Clinton appointed Gigi to serve as a member of his Advisory Committee on the Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters. In May 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Gigi its Internet "Pioneer" Award.

Gigi currently serves on the board of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) and Broadcasters' Child Development Center (BCDC). She is a member of the advisory board of the Future of Music Coalition and the Center for Public Integrity's "Well Connected" Telecommunications Project. Gigi served on the District of Columbia Bar Board of Governors from 1997-2000.

Gigi holds a B.S. in Broadcasting and Film, Summa Cum Laude, from the Boston University College of Communication and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Katy Tasker

Katy Tasker

Outreach Associate
(202) 861-0020 x117

Katy, a DC native, recently graduated from New York University with a B.S. in Media, Culture and Communication, and a minor in Spanish Language and Literature. At NYU, her course work involved looking at the intersections of digital media, political persuasion, and cross-cultural communication in a changing global landscape. It was through her studies at NYU that she became passionate about media reform, digital rights, and intellectual property.

Katy first began her work with PK as a lowly undergraduate intern in the summer of 2009, but now works with the media and outreach team, "translating" the issues into approachable language in order to inform, engage, and reach out to the general public through various media platforms.

Whitney Tompkins

Whitney Tompkins

Events Manager
(202) 861-0020 x100

Whitney Tompkins joined Public Knowledge as Executive Assistant and office manager in October 2007.

Prior to joining Public Knowledge, Whitney worked as a freelance event planner to local venues in the Washington Metropolitan area and as a Coordinator for the American Beverage Association. Whitney studied English at George Mason University and still assists in event planning in her spare time.

Michael Weinberg

Michael Weinberg

Senior Staff Attorney and Innovation Evangelist
(202) 861-0020 x112

Michael Weinberg joined Public Knowledge as a full-time Staff Attorney after two years as a part-time Law Clerk and Student Intern. Although he is involved in a wide range of issues at Public Knowledge, he focuses primarily on copyright, issues before the FCC, and emerging technologies like 3D printing. He also makes videos every once in a while.

Michael received his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School where he was awarded the ABA-BNA Award for Excellence in the Study of Intellectual Property Law. Prior to GW he worked in New Delhi and Beijing, and received a B.A. with honors in History and Government from Claremont McKenna College.