Speaker Bio
Cliff Schmidtliteracybridge.org |
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Cliff Schmidt is the Executive Director of Literacy Bridge (literacybridge.org), a nonprofit organization empowering children and adults with affordable tools for knowledge sharing and literacy learning, as an effective means towards advancing education, health, economic development, democracy, and human rights. Cliff started Literacy Bridge after spending six weeks in rural Ghana to research ideas for the Talking Book project with local nonprofits, universities, and government agencies. Aside from his service as a grassroots lobbyist for organizations working to end global poverty (such as CARE and RESULTS), most of his prior experience comes from business, nonprofit governance, and engineering. Prior to founding Literacy Bridge, Cliff ran a successful open source software consulting business for clients throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North America, specializing in intellectual property issues, nonprofit governance, privacy policies, and community development. He also served many nonprofit organizations, such as the Eclipse Foundation and The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), where he served on the board of directors and as the Vice President of Legal Affairs. In the 12 years prior to his consulting work, Cliff worked as an industry standards representative for Microsoft, as the open source programs manager for BEA Systems, and as a submarine officer for the US Navy. Cliff received his undergraduate degree from MIT and his M.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington. |
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