Board of Directors

Tawiah Agyarko-Kwarteng

Tim Akinbo

Tim Akinbo is the founder and CEO of TimbaObjects, a mobile technology startup. His company created an SMS-based program called “Apollo” to monitor elections for voter turnout and interference. Partnering with the National Democratic Institute, they rolled out their election monitoring tools during the 2011 Nigerian presidential elections. Since then, Apollo has been used in over 15 countries. Tim also helped UNICEF Nigeria and the National Population Council design and build an SMS-based data capture and analysis platform to measure birth registrations. A self-described hacker, his interests include Bitcoin, big data, mesh networks, and mobile computing.

Christine Chew

Board Vice Chair

Christine Chew is an experienced educator, community leader, and public policy advocate. As a school board director for Bellevue, Washington, she advocates for strong instruction and educational leadership to support all students. She also sits on the Washington State School Board Directors’ Resolutions Committee. Christine previously was executive director for College Access Now, a Washington State nonprofit that empowers students from low-income families to access, enroll, and graduate from college. She also worked as a lead program manager for Microsoft, and as a high school science teacher. Christine received her PhD in education from the University of Washington and a master of science in genetic toxicology from MIT.

Paul Cotton

Board Chair

Paul Cotton has 45+ years of experience in all aspects of software development. He is credited with Microsoft’s cloud computing interoperability and standards strategy. In 2017, Paul retired from Microsoft after 17 years of leading the company’s web services standardization efforts within the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), OASIS, and WS-I. Paul also has represented Canada on international standards committees, worked with IT startups, and been an angel investor. His overseas experience includes IT assignments for CUSO, CIDA, and the United Nations in Tanzania, Chile, and Burma. Early on, Paul worked for IBM and Fulcrum Technologies. Paul has an undergraduate degree and a MS in mathematics from the University of Waterloo. He currently convenes an international group that works on standards for Artificial Intelligence. Paul has traveled to over 90 countries!

Tony Cavalieri

Finance and Development Committee Chair

Tony Cavalieri is a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where he works on agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa. Tony has worked extensively in international development, with both the public and private sectors. Before coming to Seattle, he worked with the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, DC, and consulted for the USAID. He also was a Conservation Agriculture Advisor for The Nature Conservancy. During his 22 years with Dupont Pioneer Hi-Bred International, he conducted research on drought tolerance and physiological approaches to improving crops and held various leadership roles, including Vice President. Tony served on the board of trustees of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture and the Science Center of Iowa. He received his PhD in biology from the University of South Carolina.

Dena Morris

Governance and Country Office Committee Chair

Dena Morris is the former president and CEO of Washington Global Health Alliance, a state membership organization. Before moving to Seattle, she led the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control’s Congressional engagement in Washington, DC. Under Dena’s leadership, the agency secured emergency appropriations to fund the response to the Zika virus, defended its opioid prescribing guidelines, and worked with Congress and stakeholders through the Flint, MI, water contamination discovery and response. Dena worked on Capitol Hill as the legislative director for U.S. Senator Richard Durbin for nine years. At B&D Consulting, she was Senior Vice President and co-chair of the health and disability rights practice team. Dena earned a bachelor’s degree at Indiana University and a master of public policy at Georgetown University.

Kevin Reed

Secretary and Legal Counsel

Judicial Commissioner Kevin Reed is a magistrate of the General Sessions Criminal Court of Shelby County, Tennessee. He is primarily responsible for setting bonds, reviewing warrants, and presiding over preliminary hearings and petitions for orders of protection in domestic abuse cases. Kevin began his career in criminal law and worked as an assistant public defender for five years, before moving to private practice. He later built his own personal injury and family law practice. Kevin is a frequent speaker on domestic violence issues, and he specifically advocates for more men to take a stand against domestic violence. He received a BS in engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and JD from Howard University School of Law.

Margo Schneider

Margo Schneider is the senior director of digital strategy at UW Medicine, leading technology, communications, and creative teams to advance digital health innovations that improve the health of the public. Prior to UW Medicine, Margo built and led Seattle Children’s first digital content strategy program. She also helped OnHealth.com build the consumer health startup that was ultimately acquired by WebMD and was a consultant for Microsoft where she oversaw the strategic development and management of customer evidence programs spanning North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Margo lives in Seattle, is an amateur travel photographer, and is trying to become fluent in Spanish. 

Cliff Schmidt

Board President, Founder and Executive Director

Cliff Schmidt founded Amplio (as Literacy Bridge) in 2007 to address global poverty through innovative technology, the Talking Book audio device. Cliff is a two-time recipient of Microsoft’s Integral Fellows Award (2010, 2014) and has received a range of awards, including the top prize at The Tech Awards (2012), a Computerworld Honors Award (2013), and Wise Award (2015) for the Talking Book program. He also was selected as a Clinton Global Initiative member, and featured  as a PBS Newshour Agent of Change. Prior to starting Amplio, Cliff was a software developer for Microsoft and a nuclear engineering officer for the U.S. Navy Submarine Force. He received a BS in cognitive science from MIT and a MS in computer science and engineering from the University of Washington. Cliff loves music and plays the tenor sax.

Revi Sterling

As director of USAID’s WomenConnect Challenge, Revi Sterling promotes the use of technology to create new social norms that empower women. Previously, Revi was Chief of Party at NetHope and directed the Women and the Web Alliance, a private/public partnership with USAID, Intel, NetHope, World Vision, World Pulse, and UN Women. Revi founded and directed the nation’s first ICT for development graduate program at University of Colorado Boulder. At Microsoft Research, Revi managed university research programs and  spearheaded the company gender and technology initiatives. Revi has a PhD in media, technology, and society from UC Boulder. She consults widely on using technology to empower women and marginalized populations.

David S. Vogel

David S. Vogel is a data scientist who has earned international recognition for his predictive modeling accuracy. He has won the prestigious KDD Cup several times and the Heritage Health Prize in 2013. As the Founder and CEO of Voloridge Investment Management, LLC, an award-winning quantitative hedge fund, David has been cited in Bloomberg, Barron’s, and other media for his expertise on charitable and financial topics. He currently serves as board member to Environmental Defense Fund, JUST Capital, and Amplio. He is part of the Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. As founder/trustee of VoLo Foundation, he conducts scientific data research gathered to create awareness around the effects of climate change. He has a BS in mathematics from MIT and a MS in scientific computing from New York University.