Team

Project Director · Silvana Fumega 

Silvana is the GDB Project Director. She has served as a consultant for numerous international organizations, governments, and civil society groups. She acted as Research and Policy Director of ILDA until December 2022. Since January 2023 she has been an independent consultant. Silvana holds a PhD from University of Tasmania, Australia. She also holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and a degree in Political Science from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In the past few years she has focused her work on the intersection of data and inclusion.

She is also the co-founder of Data Against Feminicide, a Research Affiliate at the Data + Feminism Lab, MIT and member of The Data Tank’s Global Advisory Council.

Research Director · Amy Johnson

Amy is the GDB’s Research Director. An anthropologist and scholar of science and technology studies by training, Amy studies how digital technologies intersect with the public good, with particular attention to data policies and practices, government use and democracy, and language and creative expression. She regularly speaks on these topics, and her research and analysis have been featured in The Washington Post, Boston Globe, The Globe and Mail, Forbes, Spiegel Online, and Motherboard, among others. Since 2018, Amy has also run workshops that use futurist and speculative techniques to investigate the societal impacts of technology. Partnering with academic institutions, nonprofits, and thinktanks, she has led speculative explorations of topics such as artificial intelligence in Asia, digital ID systems, and positive visions of democracy. She earned her PhD from MIT’s Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology & Society, and is a current affiliate and past fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and a visiting research fellow at the Language and Technology Lab at MIT.

Capacity Building Lead · David Zamora

David is a digital technology consultant and indexes expert, with focus on digital transformation, transparency, open government, and open data. His working experience involves numerous countries of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. In his years in the government, he led key e-government initiatives related to public contracting and local governments. He worked on open data for the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs; worked on open government, transparency in infrastructure, and digital transformation for the Inter-American Development Bank; and worked on open contracting for Hivos. He also supported the strategic planning of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration. David leads the Public Sector Transparency Index and the Public Sector Digital Experience Index of Costa Rica. He coordinates the Infrastructure Transparency Index of CoST and coordinated the Latin America and the Caribbean Open Data Barometer edition. He is a proprietary member of the National Open Data Commission of Costa Rica and a member of the Open Government Fellowship of the Organization of American States. David holds a MA in information technology management from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and a Bachelor degree in international trade from the University of Costa Rica.

Project Management Support · Aremí González Ruiz

Aremí holds a degree in Law from the Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas and a master’s degree in Human Rights from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. She has participated in academic exchanges abroad in Canada, France, and India, where she had the opportunity to collaborate with the Coordination of Women’s Empowerment at Tata Steel foundation. In 2013, she founded the non profit organization “Por amor a San Cristóbal”, and since then, her professional experience has focused on working with civil society organizations. She has developed projects related to the promotion of human rights, operations management, and institutional strengthening. Aremí has also participated as a columnist and speaker on gender equality, pro bono legal work, the 2030 Agenda, and human rights in both Mexico City and Chiapas. the public good.

Communications Lead · Fiona Chawana

Fiona is a communications researcher and consultant. She completed a Masters in Media Studies and Bachelor of Arts Honours in Media Studies investigating social movement ideology at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. While at the University she worked as a tutor and part time public relations consultant for Insync Political Communications. She has worked as a researcher for the UNESCO-ICFJ study on online harassment of women journalists. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Media and Society Studies from Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. Her work at the GDB has triggered interest in data policy in Southern Africa and the world, particularly exploring ways to use of data for the public good.

Senior Advisor · Nicolás Grossman

Nicolás is a sociologist and journalist specializing in Open Data and GIS. For more than 6 years he has led the Open Data and Data Journalism strategy of Properati, one of the most well-recognized private-sector platforms using open data in Latin America. In addition to writing widely, including for the OGP, he has participated as a speaker at numerous open data events in Argentina and Latin America and has run data journalism workshops for prominent journalists from some of the most important newsrooms in Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia. In 2018 he founded Socios.red, a web tool that supports government transparency in Argentina by connecting information about companies, political parties, and governments. Dozens of journalists and researchers use the platform every week; when launched, the platform garnered media headlines through a joint investigation into private interests’ influence on government. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Sociology at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and is concluding his Master’s studies in International Political Sociology at the National University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF), studying the challenges and risks of big data and AI from the perspective of less developed countries.