Team

Allen Gunn is Executive Director of Aspiration (www.aspirationtech.org) in San Francisco, USA, and works to help NGOs, activists, foundations and technologists make more effective use of technology for social change.

Gunner has worked in numerous technology environments from NGO to Silicon Valley start-up to college faculty to large corporation, serving in senior management, engineering, teaching and volunteer roles. He is an experienced strategist, mentor and facilitator with a passion for designing collaborative open learning processes, and he believes in melding hard work with serious fun.

The common thread that connects all facets of Gunner's work is a focus on open approaches to capacity building and knowledge sharing in social change efforts. Aspiration prioritizes work that supports and contributes to open communities of practice who create technology and content that benefit nonprofit and foundation efforts. The organization has designed and facilitated almost 700 extremely open learning and knowledge sharing events, in over 50 countries across the globe, predicated on a philosophy of active participation that puts each participant “in control of their own destiny”, in contrast to approaches that place audiences in passive listening roles. Aspiration publishes all licensed work products, including software tools, books, papers and training materials, under open licenses; for published documents and media, the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike, and for software the GNU General Public License whenever possible.

Gunner is an active facilitator, contributor, advisor, and/or partner in a number of organizations and projects, including Digital Freedom Fund, European Digital Rights (EDRi), SustainOSS, FOSS Responders, Gathering for Open Science Hardware, OpenReferral, OpenStreetMap US, OpenStreetMap Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Tor Project, Tails, Jolocom, The Committee on Sustainability Assessment, Greenpeace USA, Rainforest Action Network, Open Architecture Collaborative, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, Simply Secure, and Mozilla.

He is a board member of Global Exchange, Forward Change, Peer 2 Peer University and Localization Lab, serves on the Project Leadership Committee for the Reproducible Builds Project, and also serves in formal advisory roles with The Everett Program, Houdini Project, Ranking Digital Rights, The Center for Tech Cultivation, SAFETAG, Electronic Frontier Foundation Security Education Companion, CorpWatch, LocalizED, Social Movement Technologies, The Engine Room, and United for Iran. He is a former board member of The Ruckus Society, Idealware and US Treks/Internet Treks.

Gunner is also a guest lecturer and former faculty member in Computer Science at Foothill College in California, and served on the Computer Science faculty at Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia early in his career. Prior to his role at Aspiration, he served as Chief Tech Organizer for The Ruckus Society, and prior to that he was co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Pensare, an eLearning dotgone. He has served as senior software engineer at firms including Novell, NetManage, and a number of startups, and has shepherded large software projects through all stages of development, from inception, design, engineering, and testing to deployment, support and marketing, in environments ranging from start-up to large corporation to nonprofit.

Josh oversees communications, fundraising, and operations at Aspiration. He is especially passionate about Aspiration's Manifesto, having worked in a performing arts nonprofit where he saw firsthand many of the technology challenges and hurdles that nonprofits face.

Originally from Salt Lake City, Josh received a degree in vocal music performance from the University of Oklahoma before moving to Kansas City, Missouri, where he worked for the Kansas City Symphony for three years. In the intervening years, he has worked in the financial services industry while continuing to pick up gigs as a singer. He is thrilled to be back in the nonprofit world and proud to be a member of the Aspiration team.

Evelyn directs Aspiration's core programs focused on strengthening facilitative leadership, technology capacity, and network connections between movement organizers, capacity builders, and technologists. Her primary focus is creating and facilitating collaborative spaces for emerging leaders to connect, share practices, and strengthen their skills and knowledge. She is passionate about creating joyful, inclusive, and equitable learning opportunities with those working in environmental, racial, and social justice movements.

Evelyn leads Aspiration's CA Nonprofit Technology Festivals and Nonprofit Software Development Summits. She has also facilitated virtual and in-person convenings with the Mozilla Festival, Digital Freedom Fund, Allied Media, Mobilization Lab, and Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Evelyn holds degrees in Sociology and Latin American and Latina/o Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. With several years of experience working as an educator, community organizer, and coordinator of youth leadership programs, she is dedicated to building technological capacity and skills with community organizing principles and values. Evelyn loves being part of Aspiration's team and is motivated by our mission to break down technological barriers and empower organizers and their movements.