Team

David Bornstein, Founder and Editor
David started his career as a computer programmer in Montreal, Canada. Feeling restless, at 23, he set off for a year backpacking around Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, and discovered that he loved writing about people’s stories. He moved to New York, enrolled in journalism school at NYU, and wrote freelance articles for Newsday on crime, politics and city life. After hearing about the Grameen Bank from a friend, he borrowed money to travel to Bangladesh with the idea of writing a magazine article about the bank. He spent the next four years alternating between writing computer programs (to pay the bills) and writing a book: The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank. For his next book, How to Change the World, Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, he traced the work of Ashoka and social entrepreneurs in Brazil, India, Poland, Hungary, South Africa and the United States. His newest book, Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know (written with Susan Davis) offers a brief overview of the field of social entrepreneurship and explores where it may be heading. David sees Dowser as an opportunity to report on thousands of social innovation stories, broadening and deepening the coverage of this field.

Emily Spivack, Director
Emily's work spans social innovation, culture, and fashion. Motivated by her mother’s five bouts with cancer, Emily founded Shop Well with You after winning the Brown University Entrepreneurship Program's Business Plan Competition. She served as the organization’s Executive Director for six years, enabling thousands of women with cancer to improve their body-image and quality of life. Since 2007, Emily has curated a collection of stories about clothing and memory from eBay posts for her blog, Sentimental Value. She has hosted creative writing workshops at Philadelphia’s Institute of Contemporary Art and the First Person Arts Festival and has written about fashion, art, and craft for Urban Outfitters, NBC and KnitKnit. In addition to her ongoing role as President of Shop Well with You’s Board of Directors, Emily serves on the Board of Brown University’s Entrepreneurship Program, is an award recipient of Eileen Fisher’s Women Change the World Everyday campaign, and was one of Glamour’s Top 10 College Women.

Manuel Rosaldo, Project Manager
Manuel once biked from Seattle to Washington D.C. to raise awareness about America’s oil dependency, then performed a rap song about it on the steps of the capital building.  As an undergrad at Wesleyan University, Manuel founded a student-run ESL program for campus janitors, which continues to thrive today. Manuel has worked as a labor organizer and community organizer, a research assistant for David Bornstein and an undercover spy for a social justice movement (he could tell you, but he’d have to kill you…). He has a Masters in Global Affairs from New York University, where he wrote a thesis on the debate over the commercialization of microfinance in Mexico.

Contributors

Nick Cain
Passionate about social change, Nick Cain worked in Rwanda and South America before settling in Seattle, where he manages international partnerships for Vittana.

Gretta Cohn
Gretta Cohn is a radio producer living in Brooklyn, NY. grettacohn.com

Katie DeRogatis
Katie DeRogatis is a student of journalism and gender and sexuality studies at New York University whose personal interests include music journalism, environmental activism, and Internet nerdism.

Margaret Eaton
Margaret Eaton is an independent consultant and freelance writer who helps social change groups reach their goals and tell their stories. margareteaton.com

Gabriella Kessler
Gabriella Kessler is a French-American documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY.

Carey Kirkella
Carey Kirkella is a freelance commercial and fine art photographer specializing in documentary, environmental portraits and is based in Brooklyn, NY. careykirkella.com

Elyse Lightman
Engaged in both writing and social change, Elyse Lightman works in international development and is based in Brooklyn, NY.

Rebecca Robinson
Rebecca Robinson is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Portland, Oregon who uses print and audio to tell stories of homelessness, social innovation, and everything in between. rebeccarobinson.wordpress.com

Steve Spillman
Steve Spillman is a freelance writer and culture blogger who has lived nearly everywhere, but currently resides in New York. stevespillman.net