Ray Short

Ray Short is the Director of Institutional Partnerships/GBI Chief of Party at NetHope. Prior to this, they worked as the Senior Global Innovation Advisor at the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) from January 2016 to December 2018. In this role, they advised the organization on program management, program development, and long-term strategy to improve the impact of technology programming supporting human rights activists and journalists worldwide.

During their time at IWPR, Ray Short transformed cybersecurity and IT programming targeting women in Latin America and the Middle East by leveraging community and technology developer feedback to increase the organization’s global impact. Ray also negotiated partnerships with private sector organizations (including Google and Facebook), leading to the development of customized products for at-risk activists, including Google uProxy and Project Shield. In addition, they expanded training and technical assistance programming targeting vulnerable, often ignored populations (including LGBT, women, and religious minorities). Ray also developed new, more scalable monitoring and evaluation tools that dramatically improved data capture and analysis while reducing stakeholder bias. Lastly, they led program development efforts via grant proposals to the US State Department, DFID, and USAID.

Ray Short attended Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, where they received a Master of International & Public Affairs with a focus on Economic Policy & Development. Prior to that, they obtained a Diplôme de Français from Université de Bourgogne in France. Ray also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Indiana University Bloomington in Communication and Media Studies.

Some of their coworkers include Jean-louis Ecochard - Chief Innovation Officer, Dianna Langley - COO, and James Eaton-Lee - Virtual Chief Information Security Officer. Ray Short reports to Lance Pierce, CEO.