A PUBLIC NON-PROFIT FOR HACKERS. BUILT BY HACKERS.

Our Board Members and Committee Members

(In alphabetical order.)

*   Chair, Committee

** Chair, Board of Directors

Ed Chen

director*

Ed Chen is currently the Director of Technology for The Nueva School, a PK-12 independent school focused on supporting high-ability learners and gifted students. He has supported the tremendous growth of the school as it tripled its student and faculty counts, while adding new buildings and a new site. He has also worked closely in partnership with Common Sense, advising on the creation of their citizenship curriculum and developing guidance for schools planning to launch their own 1:1 device program. He has written articles for Common Sense, Edutopia.org and Independent School Magazine. He was also the founding Director of Technology for The Bay School, growing their technology program to include a robotics team and a formalized design engineering program. Prior to entering the education sector, Ed worked with non-profits as the Technology Director for KQED, Channel 9 / 88.5 FM, advising the broadcaster on building state-of-the-art digital broadcast and digital production facilities, and as an active board member for what is now the Children’s Creativity Museum (formerly Zeum).

Laura Eise

director

Laura Eise builds and manages cyber security programs for Fortune 500 companies and has worked with technology, manufacturing, financial, and commerce companies, as well as with the US Federal Government and international partners. In her current role, she leads business enablement for the development platform and enterprise security strategy for a large consumer and business travel company. Laura also researches and studies human behavior in security, as well as how children use technology.

Lee Felsenstein

director

Lee Felsenstein has for over 50 years been an explorer in applying technology for social benefit. As an engineering student at Berkeley in 1964 he participated in the Free Speech Movement and saw how an open, equitable information structure could work wonders in allowing a campus of strangers become a community. From then on he has pursued the necessary technologies to make that process commonplace. By 1970 he realized that a network of computers would be the effective technology, and within one year was working with a group that had secured a mainframe timesharing computer for counterculture support. By 1973 the group had created Community Memory – the first public-access bulletin board system with a terminal in Berkeley and one in San Francisco. In that project, he says, “We opened the door to cyberspace and found that it was hospitable territory”. Lee has worked in Silicon Valley since 1968 performing hardware design and helping in the development of the early personal computer industry. He was able to apply lessons learned from Community Memory to the structure and function of the meetings of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club, whose meetings spawned 23 identifiable businesses, including Apple.

Allison Miller

director*

Allison Miller is the CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) and VP of Trust at Reddit, where she leads teams tasked with protecting Reddit’s customers and systems. Miller is an industry expert and innovator, having spent the past 20 years scaling teams and technology that protect people and platforms, and pioneering the development of real-time risk prevention and detection systems running at internet-scale. She has also led major initiatives to engineer the defenses for core payment and e-commerce systems and technologies that protect consumers from online threats, having held technical and leadership roles at Bank of America, Google, Electronic Arts, Tagged/MeetMe, PayPal/eBay, and Visa International. Miller speaks internationally on security, fraud and risk and has held board roles with the Center for Cyber Safety and Education, ISC2, SIRA, and Keypoint Credit Union. In addition, she holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and University of California, Berkeley.

Bill Pollock

chair**

Bill Pollock founded The No Starch Press Foundation in 2017 as a public non profit US 501(c )(3). Pollock saw a need, globally, to provide grants to support the ambition and talent development of the world’s most talented engineers, admirably known as a “hacker,” wherever they are globally, and wherever they are in their growth cycle — whether in kindergarten or in the workplace. Pollock has nearly 35 years in technical book publishing. In 1994 he founded No Starch Press, leader among the world’s top technical book publishers, with a track record rivaling most publishers. No Starch Press titles have been included  in the prestigious Communication Arts Design Annual and STEP inside 100 Competition. The company No Starch Press has also won the prestigious Independent Publisher Book Award, the “IPPYs” from the Independent Publisher Magazine. Pollock seeded The No Starch Press Foundation with personal funds of USD$1,200,000.

Officers

Vicki Friedberg

iterim secretary

Catherine Shiang, Esq.

special advisor

Fundraising Committee

The mission of the Fundraising Committee is to raise funding and awareness for the Foundation.

Bill Pollock

chair**

Bill Pollock founded The No Starch Press Foundation in 2017 as a public non profit US 501(c ) 3. Pollock saw a need, globally, to provide grants to support the ambition and talent development of the world’s most talented engineers, admirably known as a “hacker,” wherever they are globally, and wherever they are in their growth cycle — whether in kindergarten or in the workplace. Pollock has nearly 35 years in technical book publishing. In 1994 he founded No Starch Press, leader among the world’s top technical book publishers, with a track record rivaling most publishers. No Starch Press titles have been included  in the prestigious Communication Arts Design Annual and STEP inside 100 Competition. The company No Starch Press has also won the prestigious Independent Publisher Book Award, the “IPPYs” from the Independent Publisher Magazine. Pollock seeded The No Starch Press Foundation with personal funds of USD$800,000.

Mentorship Committee

Mission

The mission of the Mentorship Committee is to improve the grant recipients’ achievements in the use of the Foundation’s grants by providing a direct relationship with a Foundation mentor who works to assist these recipients to further their own potential in their grant project.

Goals

The 2021 Mentorship goals are to:

  1. Recruit Mentorship Committee members.
  2. Set up process of mentorship, what each step of mentorship means to execute the approved Mission of this Committee.
  3. Work with Programming Committee to identify grant recipients so that Mentors can be appropriately matched.
  4. Recruit Mentors from the community to work directly with each grant recipient.
  5. Match Mentors to grant recipients no later than at the grant award when made by the Programming Committee, and which is approved by the Board.

Allison Miller

Interim Co-Chair, Mentorship Committee

Allison Miller is the CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) and VP of Trust at Reddit, where she leads teams tasked with protecting Reddit’s customers and systems. Miller is an industry expert and innovator, having spent the past 20 years scaling teams and technology that protect people and platforms, and pioneering the development of real-time risk prevention and detection systems running at internet-scale. She has also led major initiatives to engineer the defenses for core payment and e-commerce systems and technologies that protect consumers from online threats, having held technical and leadership roles at Bank of America, Google, Electronic Arts, Tagged/MeetMe, PayPal/eBay, and Visa International. Miller speaks internationally on security, fraud and risk and has held board roles with the Center for Cyber Safety and Education, ISC2, SIRA, and Keypoint Credit Union. In addition, she holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and University of California, Berkeley.

Russ Rogers

Co-Chair, Mentorship Committee

Co-Chair, Mentorship Committee. Russ Rogers is an old school hacker who has worked for public and private entities, including the USAF, NSA, DOE, DOD, and DISA. He’s an author, co-author, or technical editor of over 20 books on hacking, including the popular ‘Stealing the Network” series and the original DISA STIG documents. Russ was on staff with DEF CON for close to 20 years, retiring as Chief of Operations in 2016, and Executive Producer of The DEFCON Documentary. He’s spoken at conferences around the world and helped lead an accredited University degree program in Network Security for 13 years. Russ currently works for Microsoft and acts as Vice President of BSidesLV. Russ’ current research centers on making big data in security more intuitive by integrating key game development concepts of visualizing complex data structures.

Programming Committee

Mission

To develop grant programs that support the Mission of The No Starch Press Foundation with grant goals that further the collective knowledge and contributions of the global hacker community.

Goals

2021 Programming Committee Goals:

  1. Recruit programming committee members for Grant Year 2021
  2. Develop 2021 grant objectives:  Identify types of technology and types of members of the global hacker community that further the Mission of the Foundation to fund
  3. Develop a standard for grant approvals with focus to identifying best in class applicants that shows cases the Mission of the Foundation
  4. Build a process for dividing the workflow of examining the grant requests within the Programming Committee
  5. Work with the Board and Programming Committee members to solicit best in class grant applications through social media and other media and platforms.
  6. Work with Mentorship Committee to develop a process to match grant recipients with Mentors
  7. Seek Board approval for recommended grant recipients to fund to no later than June (1st group runner up)/August (2nd group runner up)/October (3rd group and final recipients)
  8. Work with the Board and Mentorship Committee to announce the Grant awards and matching Mentors
  9. Develop a lessons learned template for the next grant cycle 2022
  10. Submit committee minutes and other records to the Chair

Ed Chen

Co-Chair

Programming Committee. Ed Chen is currently the Director of Technology for The Nueva School, a PK-12 independent school focused on supporting high-ability learners and gifted students. He has supported the tremendous growth of the school as it tripled its student and faculty counts, while adding new buildings and a new site. He has also worked closely in partnership with Common Sense, advising on the creation of their citizenship curriculum and developing guidance for schools planning to launch their own 1:1 device program. He has written articles for Common Sense, Edutopia.org and Independent School Magazine. He was also the founding Director of Technology for The Bay School, growing their technology program to include a robotics team and a formalized design engineering program. Prior to entering into the education sector, Ed worked with non-profits as the Technology Director for KQED, Channel 9 / 88.5 FM, advising the broadcaster on building state-of-the-art digital broadcast and digital production facilities, and as an active board member for what is now the Children’s Creativity Museum (formerly Zeum).

Sophia d’Antoine

Sophia is the founder of Margin Research and the Hacker in Residence at NYU. She has served at the NSA as well as in the public sector, providing her with a broad understanding of security issues across the spectrum. Her current work focuses on finding novel solutions to unique security problems, software vulnerabilities, and information operations. Sophia works with NATO on cyber policy and has co-authored policy papers on topics in offensive cyber for Lawfare and the Atlantic Council. She has spoken at dozens of global security conferences worldwide including BlackHat, and Defcon on topics involving offensive cyber operations.

Derek Bernsen

Secretary

Derek Bernsen is a Naval cyber warfare engineering officer currently serving as a Director of Cyberspace Operations where he leads capability research & development and operations for Naval and joint units. He earned an MS from Georgia Institute of Technology and a BS from The Citadel, both in Computer Science. He has published works with the Association for Computing Machinery, Atlantic Council, and the US Naval Institute. Additionally, Derek is a small business owner, a member of the AFCEA Cyber Committee, and works as a security researcher at River Loop Security. 

Laura Eise

Laura Eise builds and manages cyber security programs for Fortune 500 companies and has worked with technology, manufacturing, financial, and commerce companies, as well as with the US Federal Government and international partners. In her current role, she leads business enablement for the development platform and enterprise security strategy for a large consumer and business travel company. Laura also researches and studies human behavior in security, as well as how children use technology.

Cheryl Peace

Cheryl Peace is an accomplished Cyber Security executive with over 35 years of technical, operational, and managerial experience. Extensive background with ability to execute from tactical to strategic development including policy management, program deployment, and operational implementation of cybersecurity missions in support of high-level federal agencies from the White House, the Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, and Department of Energy. Proven track record of achieving significant results, working in high-pressure situations, and leading change through collaboration and partnerships with the US government, industry, and academia. Recognized for excellence in leadership, encouraging new ideas, and capitalizing on opportunities. Post government worked in industry as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Cyxtera and for AppGate Federal practices, gaining additional skill and expertise in business development, finance, and M&A.

Sandy Ring

Sandy Ring is a programmer and successful entrepreneur that is a subject matter expert in the fields of software protection, anti-tamper, forensics, and reverse engineering. She began her career at the Central Intelligence Agency, in 2006 founded Pikewerks (acquired by Raytheon), and is currently the Co-Founder of Code 13 Security where she focuses on software supply chain and operating system security.

Russ Rogers

Russ Rogers is an old school hacker who has worked for public and private entities, including the USAF, NSA, DOE, DOD, and DISA. He’s an author, co-author, or technical editor of over 20 books on hacking, including the popular ‘Stealing the Network” series and the original DISA STIG documents. Russ was on staff with DEF CON for close to 20 years, retiring as Chief of Operations in 2016, and Executive Producer of The DEFCON Documentary. He’s spoken at conferences around the world and helped lead an accredited University degree program in Network Security for 13 years. Russ currently works for Microsoft and acts as Vice President of BSidesLV. Russ’ current research centers on making big data in security more intuitive by integrating key game development concepts of visualizing complex data structures. https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-rogers-speedrussr/