Melissa Ryan

Melissa Ryan is the new media director at the New Organizing Institute where she is living her dream to help build a nation-wide-nerd-force: arming organizers and bloggers with mad new media skillz.

Previously Melissa served as new media director for Senator Russ Feingold's 2010 reelection campaign, as well as his political action committee, The Progressive Patriot's Fund. She was the online outreach director in the fight against Governor Scott Walker's union-busting budget bill in Wisconsin. In 2011 The Washington Post's Fix Blog named her the top political tweeter in Wisconsin.

A recognized expert in digital strategy, Melissa is regularly called upon to lend her perspective on how politics and technology intersect. She has presented at Netroots Nation, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Take Back the American Dream, UConn School of Law, and Wellstone Campaign Management Training among others. Her commentary on politics and new media has appeared on BBC, NPR, and in the Hartford Courant.

A longtime Netroots activist, Melissa was the managing editor of Connecticut Local Politics and a former weekend contributor at MyDD.