SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The Wiki Education Foundation board has elected two new board members, Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer and Sue Gardner.
Sue Gardner was the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) from 2007 to 2014 – a period of tremendous growth for Wikipedia’s readership and articles. The WMF was the fastest-growing non-profit in the United States by revenue growth and received Charity Navigator’s highest rating for governance and fiscal management. Gardner also oversaw the creation of the Public Policy Initiative, which later emerged as the Wikipedia Education Program and Wiki Education Foundation.
Dr. Bartsch-Zimmer is the Helen A. Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago, where she was tenured at age 29. She is currently the Inaugural Director of the University’s Stevanovich Institute on the Formation of Knowledge, which examines the historical, social, and intellectual circumstances that give rise to different kinds of knowledge across different cultures and in different eras.
“Dr. Bartsch-Zimmer’s expertise in the intellectual history of the west and its foundation in classical antiquity will bring deep theoretical insight to our board’s work,” said Dr. Diana Strassmann, Carolyn and Fred McManis Distinguished Professor in the Practice at Rice University and chair of the board of the Wiki Education Foundation. “At the same time, Sue Gardner’s unparalleled understanding of Wikipedia, and her incredible record of accomplishments at the Wikimedia Foundation, will help the Wiki Education Foundation build even stronger bridges between Wikipedia and academia.”
Bartsch-Zimmer, a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, has held professorships at the University of California at Berkeley and Brown University. The author or editor of some ten volumes on classical literature, philosophy, and rhetoric, she earned her B.A. summa cum laude from Princeton University, and her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. She is currently investigating the Chinese critique of the Western philosophical tradition.
Gardner was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from Ryerson University, and a Knight Innovation Award from the Knight Foundation in 2013. Forbes ranked her as the world’s 70th most-powerful woman in 2012. Gardner continues to serve as a special advisor to the Wikimedia Foundation and various non-profit, grant-making and policy organizations.
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About the Wiki Education Foundation:
The Wiki Education Foundation is a grant-supported non-profit institution which supports the use of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects in higher education contexts across the United States and Canada. It is based in San Francisco. To learn more, visit www.wikiedu.org.
Press Contact
Eryk Salvaggio
+1-415-770-7723
eryk@wikiedu.org
