Social Progress

Becky Bond, co-founder, co-founder of The Social Practice, served as Senior Adviser to the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign, and was an architect of the campaign's distributed organizing program. She co-wrote the book "Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything," a manifesto for volunteer-powered campaigning at scale to win big change. In 2018, she was an advisor on field strategy for Beto O'Rourke's historic Senate campaign in Texas, which was the largest organizing effort of U.S. midterm elections and set a new standard for volunteer engagement. Prior to working on the Bernie Sanders campaign, she served as political director of CREDO Mobile and an innovator in organizing and politics for more than a decade. Currently, she serves as an advisor to the Real Justice PAC which fights to end mass incarceration and hold police accountable by electing reform-minded District Attorneys. Becky advises advocacy groups, unions and electoral campaigns at The Social Practice, and is an internationally renowned speaker, organizer and strategist.

Zack Malitz, co-founder, co-founder, was the field director on Beto O’Rourke's historic 2018 Senate campaign. He led a more than 800 person team that organized tens of thousands of doors to knock on more than 3 million doors, make more than 20 million calls, and send more than 56 million peer-to-peer text messages. In the 2016 primary, Zack helped lead the digital organizing department for Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, and played a key role in defining the groundbreaking volunteer organizing that came to be known as "big organizing." In the general election, he managed NextGen Climate's $12 million campus organizing program, which included 180 full-time field staff and more than 500 student fellows on 235 campuses in 8 states. Zack co-founded the Real Justice PAC, which fights to end mass incarceration and hold police accountable by electing reform-minded District Attorneys to county prosecutor positions; helped launch the ACLU's nationwide grassroots organizing program People Power; and has trained activists in the U.S., U.K., and Canada in "big organizing" tactics.

Jo Beardsmore is a co-founder of UK Uncut, a volunteer led network which used distributed organizing techniques and direct action to disrupt government narratives around the economic necessity of austerity. A precursor to the Corbyn project, UK Uncut pioneered many of the narrative frames now utilized by Momentum, the people-powered, grassroots movement working to transform Britain in the interests of the many, not the few. As an advisor to Momentum, he provided support in establishing Momentum’s organizing model, and helped to plan Momentum’s inaugural conference, ‘Building to Win’. Jo has extensive experience facilitating collaboration between social justice organizers in the U.K. and U.S., including in the campaign for Medicare for All, working with National Nurses United.

Rapi Castillo is the co-founder of Coders for Bernie Sanders and the Progressive Coders Network. He’s a full-stack, data-visualization, and mobile developer specializing in React, React Native, Swift, Python, and PHP – with 12 years of experience. He is also a grassroots organizer for the past three years. As a developer, he helped develop a street canvassing platform mobile app that was used during the Ocasio-Cortez campaign. He also developed the Bernie Sanders events map during the 2016 Democratic primaries, which has been used by other progressive campaigns after. He has worked with various organizations including the megamap for Beautiful Rising, 350.org, and United Nations. As an organizer, he is the co-president of Progressive HackNight, a community of tech workers organizing in New York City which has organized 35 hack nights in just one year.

Jin Ding has been an innovator in political technology and operations for political campaigns and advocacy organizations for a decade, with a deep expertise in legal compliance. She was previously the director of technology for CREDO SuperPAC and a product manager for Action Kit, the leading digital organizing toolset. She currently acts as the director of technology and operations and the Real Justice PAC. At The Social Practice she delights in everything that’s involved in making teams and processes more efficient, and is experienced with using a range of technology, political or otherwise, to solve problems.

Adam Klug is a co-founder of Momentum, the people-powered, grassroots movement working to transform Britain in the interests of the many, not the few. As a school teacher on summer break, Adam volunteered on the Jeremy Corbyn for Labour Leader campaign in the summer of 2015. Four weeks after Corbyn's victory, he became one of three staff members who helped to establish and build Momentum. He worked as a National Organizer, playing a central role in developing Momentum from its launch in a borrowed office space with no money, to a volunteer-driven membership organization of over 42,000 paying members, internationally renowned for innovative campaigning and revitalising the Labour Party. During Corbyn’s 2016 leadership campaign, Adam was the Head of National Volunteer Mobilization where he introduced a host of innovative, distributed, volunteer organizing techniques, enabling people to participate in the campaign at scale. Adam played a leading role in developing and delivering Momentum’s highly regarded general election campaign in 2017, combining grassroots organizing and cutting-edge digital media. He has acted as a spokesperson for the organisation and has advised progressive campaigns internationally, including in: Canada, the USA, Australia, Tanzania and across Europe.

Emma Rees is a co-founder of Momentum, the people-powered, grassroots movement working to transform Britain in the interests of the many, not the few, where she served as National Coordinator. Back in the summer of 2015, Emma volunteered on Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Leader campaign on her summer break as a primary school teacher. Just four weeks after his victory, she became one of three staff members who helped to establish and build Momentum from the ground up to a volunteer-driven, membership organisation of over 42,000 paying members. On Jeremy Corbyn’s 2016 leadership campaign, Emma was the Director of Programming, where she was responsible for the integration of all aspects of the campaign, including: digital, communications and grassroots organizing. Emma coordinated Momentum’s internationally renowned general election campaign which played a decisive role in Labour’s phenomenal comeback. Emma has been a spokesperson for the organisation and she has advised campaigns in North America, Europe, Australia and Tanzania on Momentum’s messaging, training and organizing techniques.

Lilia Villa is the former director of digital engagement for Dream Corps, working on a wide range of initiatives including #YesWeCode, #cut50, #GreenForAll, and the #LoveArmy. At Dream Corps she helped bring people together through a lens of love and power, using digital tools to enable in person, volunteer driven activism. As National Digital Organizing Director for Southwest and Latino Outreach on Bernie 2016 she managed the national campaign’s messaging across regional staff and volunteer groups using tools to drive turn out including email, peer-to-peer text, and phone banking; both in English and Spanish. Lila also led Bernie 2016 volunteer teams to engage in direct voter contact in the territories, coordinated press, and advised in the creation of contextually conscious policy platforms and media. In 2015, Lilia co-founded We Help Nepal, a network supporting locally-led, peer-to-peer Nepal earthquake relief efforts, and launched an online campaign that crowdfunded over $500,000 within weeks under the #WeHelpNepal tag on social media. The organization now continues funding long-term resilience projects. Prior to 2015 Lilia was an engineer and email delivery expert at NationBuilder.