Each of our regional hubs across the US is supported by an ambassador, who is an RSA US Fellow and has taken on a community organiser role in their local area.

You can read more about the regional ambassador role. If you want to create your local hub, please email Claire Byrne, RSA US Community Manager at claire.byrne@thersa.org.

Meet our current regional ambassadors and the regions they help run.

Jason Sydoriak FRSA

Jason is an economist within the US Department of Transportation. A former US marine, Jason spent a number of years as a congressional staffer before finding his current finance focused career path.

Connect with our Boston Ambassador here: boston@rsaus.org. 

Evan Weissman FRSA

Evan is the founding executive director of Warm Cookies of the Revolution, a civic health club that blends innovative arts and culture with crucial civic issues. Prior to founding Warm Cookies of the Revolution, he spent 12 years as a company member of the collaborative Buntport Theater Company, who the Denver Post called 'Monty Python’s anarchist grandchildren', winning over 100 awards as playwright, director, designer, and actor. His work with Warm Cookies includes creating live events, installations, videos, music, and books. He is horrible at drawing and swimming, among many other deficiencies. Evan lives in Denver with his wife Kristin and their kids Ezra Huck and Tavi Scout

Rick Griffith FRSA

Rick Griffith is a British-West-Indian designer, collagist, writer, letterpress printer, and optimist futurist, based in Denver, Colorado. He is a columnist for PRINTmagazine.com and a 2-time programming chair for the AIGA National Conference. He is currently the 2023 Acuff Chair at Austin Peay State University.

He is a co-founder of the graphic design consultancy MATTER, the designer behind the Black Astronaut Research Project, The Pledge for Spaces, and the Introductory Ethic for Designers and Other Thinking Persons. With his partner Debra Johnson, he runs MATTER and The Shop at MATTER– a revolutionary design and social justice bookstore in downtown Denver. He DJs a live internet radio show Design to Kill on Tuesdays at 4 pm Mountain Time where he plays non-confirming music.

Connect with our Denver Ambassadors here: denver-boulder@rsaus.org. 

Kat Calvin FRSA

Kat Calvin is the founder and executive director of Spread The Vote and the co-founder and CEO of the Project ID Action Fund. A lawyer, activist, and social entrepreneur, Kat has built a national organization that helps Americans obtain the IDs they need for jobs, housing, and life and that also allows them to go to the polls.

LA based Fellows can reach Kat via email.

Carrie Norton FRSA

Carrie Norton is the Founder & CEO of Green Business BASE CAMP, and a founding member of Finpublica’s Board of Directors. She is a systems entrepreneur, advisor, executive coach, and investor with a track record for helping entrepreneurs, organizations, and investors embed sustainability into their DNA and grow responsibly. 

As a leader in the entrepreneurial field, Carrie is committed to reclaiming, redefining, and redesigning entrepreneurial success in service of well-being, equity, and inclusion for founders, investors, and organizations in the private and public sectors. She is especially committed to advancing women's leadership and success at all levels, and to actively collaborating to manifest a regenerative future.

Connect with our LA Ambassadors here: los-angeles@rsaus.org. 

The role of NYC Ambassador is currently vacant and we are actively recruiting for this role. To express your interest in this role please complete this short application form. If you wish to connect with the NYC Fellowship community then please reach out here: nyc@rsaus.org.  

Michael O’Bryan FRSA

Michael O'Bryan is the founder of organisational design strategy firm Humanature, and a practitioner and researcher in the fields of community development, organisational culture, and human wellbeing. He is an advocate for human rights and social change with an approach that pulls from developmental-science research, including trauma theory, and his own hands-on, programmatic experience working in historically excluded communities. Michael is a distinguished resident Fellow at Drexel University’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation and a lecturer in city planning at the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design. Most recently, Michael was awarded the 2022 Diversity in Business Award by The Philadelphia Business Journal.

Connect with our Philadelphia Ambassador here: philly@rsaus.org. 

Melissa Barker FRSA

Melissa Barker is the founder and CEO of The Phoenix Project, a social impact startup focused on healing and empowering survivors of gendered violence and assault.

As the San Francisco ambassador, she is eager to bridge tech and social good in the areas of trauma healing and transformative care.

Connect with our San Francisco Ambassador here: bay-area@rsaus.org. 

Jayshree Venkatesan FRSA

Jayshree Venkatesan is a Senior Research Director at the Center for Financial Inclusion, a think tank housed within Accion. Jayshree spends all her time thinking of ways in which financial services can be designed and delivered so they have positive outcomes for consumers, and feels there is a need to adopt a cross-disciplinary approach to have positive impact. She has worked for many years as an independent global consultant to partners including the World Bank, CGAP, JICA, where she focused on customer-centric business models and challenges faced by low-income consumers in emerging markets to access and use financial services.

Jayshree is also a senior policy fellow at the Henry J. Leir Institute for Migration and Security housed within the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy where she works on challenges faced by vulnerable segments such as migrants/refugees in accessing financial services. In 2014, she was awarded the Chevening fellowship for leadership by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK.

Jacqueline M. Baker FRSA

Jacqueline M. Baker is a speaker, author, leadership consultant and advisor known for her unique approach to modern etiquette and leadership. As the author of The Unexpected Leader: Discovering the Leader Within You and Leader by Mistake: Becoming A Leader One Mistake At A Time, she frequently speaks and writes on the leadership-for-all concept. Her inspiration and expertise comes from more than a decade as the founder and principal consultant for Scarlet, a consultancy that provides leadership training to Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, community organizations and individuals across the globe. She also leverages her experience serving in a number of corporate board and community service roles. An avid dinner-party hostess, Jacqueline creates space and opportunities to gather groups for compelling conversation, delicious cuisine and untraditional ways for continued leadership development. She is also the host of the podcast, Just Start™: From Ideas To Action.

Connect with our Washington DC Ambassadors here: dc@rsaus.org. 

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