Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman (born 14 November 1981) is an Australian-American activist. She is the founder of

SumOfUs SumOfUs is a global non-profit advocacy organization and online community that campaigns to hold corporations accountable on issues such as climate change, workers' rights, discrimination, human rights, animal rights, corruption, and corporate pow ...

, and served as the

executive director Executive director is commonly the title of the chief executive officer of a non-profit organization, government agency or international organization. The title is widely used in North American and European not-for-profit organizations, though ...

until 2016. In March 2012, she and her group were active critics of working conditions at

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

supplier

Foxconn Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., trading as Hon Hai Technology Group in China and Taiwan and Foxconn internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer established in 1974 with headquarters in Tucheng, New ...

.Alt URL
/ref> From 2020 until 2022, Taren served as president of New Media Ventures, a non-profit venture capital firm focused on progressive organizations.

Early life

She is the daughter of

DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the ...

professors, former Georgetown basketball player Bruce Stinebrickner and author Kelsey Kauffman, the granddaughter of Rear Admiral

Draper Kauffman Rear Admiral Draper Laurence Kauffman (4 August 1911 – 18 August 1979) was an American underwater demolition expert, who served during the 1960s as 44th Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy. During World War II, he organized the f ...

and great granddaughter of Vice Admiral

James L. Kauffman James Laurence Kauffman (18 April 188721 October 1963) was a highly decorated officer in the United States Navy with the rank of Vice Admiral. He distinguished himself as Commanding officer of destroyer during World War I and received the Navy ...

. She was raised in

Greencastle, Indiana Greencastle is a city in Greencastle Township, Putnam County, Indiana, United States, and the county seat of Putnam County. It was founded in 1821 by Ephraim Dukes on a land grant. He named the settlement for his hometown of Greencastle, Pennsylv ...

. She graduated summa cum laude and

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

with a degree in mathematics from Duke University in 2004.

Career

She has worked in social-impact technology, Democratic politics, consumer advocacy, corporate accountability, environmental advocacy, and the U.S. labor movement, including time with groups such as

Avaaz.org Avaaz is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization launched in January 2007 that promotes global activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, animal rights, corruption, poverty, and conflict. In 2012, ''The Guardian'' referred to Avaaz as ...

, the Alliance for Climate Protection,

MoveOn.org MoveOn (formerly known as MoveOn.org) is a progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee. Formed in 1998 around one of the first massively viral email petitions, MoveOn has since grown into one of the largest grassroot ...

, and the AFL-CIO. She founded

in 2011, serving as Executive Director and growing the organization to 5 million members worldwide. She went on to serve as Senior Product Manager at Change.org, entrepreneur-in-residence at New Media Ventures, and then as the President of New Media Ventures starting in March 2022, leading the organization during the early phase of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and prioritizing work on voting rights and local media. She also serves on the board of Consumer Reports.

Personal life

She was the

partner Partner, Partners, The Partner, or, The Partners may refer to: Books * ''The Partner'' (Grisham novel), by John Grisham, 1997 * ''The Partner'' (Jenaro Prieto novel), 1928 * ''The Partners'' (book), a 1983 book by James B. Stewart * ''Partner'' (m ...

Internet activist Internet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster and more effective communication by citizen movements, the delivery of particular infor ...

Aaron Swartz Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist. A prolific programmer, Swartz helped develop the web feed format RSS, the tech ...

until his death. In 2011, Swartz was prosecuted by U.S. Attorney

Carmen Ortiz Carmen Milagros Ortiz (born January 5, 1956) is an attorney, college instructor, and former United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. In 2009, she was nominated to the position by President Barack Obama. Ortiz was both the first ...

for violations of the

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (CFAA) is a United States cybersecurity bill that was enacted in 1986 as an amendment to existing computer fraud law (), which had been included in the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. The law pro ...

(CFAA), and, facing the risk of 50 years imprisonment and a million dollars in fines if he exercised his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial and was convicted, he died by suicide in 2013. She discovered his body.MIT Concludes It Did Nothing Improper In Case Of Internet Activist's Aaron Swartz's Suicide — Swartz's Girlfriend Calls 'BS'
''

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German pub ...

'', Alyson Shontell, July 30, 2013. Retrieved September 18, 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stinebrickner-Kauffman, Taren 1981 births Living people Australian women activists Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni Internet activists People from Brisbane 21st-century American women