Savannah Badalich

Organization:	Civic Hall
Affiliation:	NextGen@ICANN
Country:	USA
Email:	s.badalich@protonmail.com
LinkedIn:	Savannah Badalich
Twitter:	@sbadalich

Savannah is a community organizer and digital strategist working at the intersection of human rights and technology, with a specific focus on safety, trust, and inclusion on Internet platforms. She is a program manager at Civic Hall and leads their civic accelerator program, CivicXcel. She also leads campaigns and develops programs focused on gender-based violence prevention and consults for various human rights organizations.

She attends Columbia University’s graduate program in human rights focusing on how online platforms' features, content policies, and recommendation algorithms facilitate radicalization to white supremacy online. Savannah is a NextGen@ICANN61 member.

Education & Research

Savannah attends Columbia University’s Institute on the Study of Human Rights MA program with a concentration on extremism, human rights, and the Internet. Her thesis research explores how online platforms' content features, content policies, and recommendation algorithms facilitate the radicalization of white women to white supremacy. Her research focuses on Youtube, reddit, and Twitter. Savannah was was one of fifteen participants selected as a NextGen@ICANN member to attend and present her current research at ICANN61 held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from 10 to 15 March 2018.

Career History

She currently works as a program manager at Civic Hall – a collaborative community center and nonprofit dedicated to building technology for the public good and helping others do the same. Savannah leads the civic accelerator, CivicXcel, which provides civically minded professionals, activists, and entrepreneurs with hands-on training on using technology and design thinking to create a solution to a social issue.

Savannah also develops programs, leads campaigns, and delivers conference presentations focused on gender-based violence prevention. She previously worked as a program manager at Breakthrough, a human rights organization working to make gender-based violence culturally unacceptable through culture change. At Breakthrough, she managed the fellowship program, action incubator project, and digital organizing strategy. She continues to work with Breakthrough as a program consultant and curriculum developer.

She also consults for MasculinityU, a coalition of individuals offering a national speakers bureau, curriculum development, advocacy and programmatic consulting, and guided facilitation. Her focus areas are on sexual assault prevention, online harassment and violence education, community organizing, and LGBTQIA+ experiences and issues.

While at UCLA, she was at the forefront of the campus sexual assault movement and created a national sexual violence prevention organization – 7000 in Solidarity. Her activism was featured on CNN, Aljazeera America, MSNBC, Associated Press, Washington Post, and VICE. She previously consulted universities, legislators, activist groups, California State Legislature, and the Obama White House.

She also hosts a an Internet-only radio show called The Gay Agenda, which showcases queer artists, politics, and humor.