Arena
Arena is an organization founded by "a group of former Obama Administration alumni, tech entrepreneurs, and grassroots activists in December 2016." Arena seeks to channel the "unprecedented wave of civic enthusiasm and activism" in three main ways: "through in-person and collaborative summits, by spotlighting promising work throughout our community, and through an accelerator for promising new organizations and candidacies."
Arena was co-founded by Ravi Gupta,[1] a former campaign staffer for Barack Obama and special assistant to then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and Swati Mylavarapu, a Founding Partner at Incite Ventures.
Catherine Vaughan, co-founder and CEO of Flippable, is listed on the Arena website as a "Fellow."[2]
The Dilemma
From the Arena website:
- "We are in the midst of an unprecedented wave of civic enthusiasm and activism that, if channeled strategically and organized logically, can overwhelm the anti-democratic forces that have captured our country.
- "But we must take the time to organize our community. That’s what The Arena does."[3]
Advisory Board
- Allison Zelman
- Ben LaBolt
- English Sall
- Erin Fitzgerald
- Martin O'Malley
- Jason Green
- Jason Kander
- Jeohn Favors
- Liz Simon
- Matthew Siegal
- Michael Simon
- Molly Jong-Fast
- Scott Goldstein
- Sejal Hathi
- Suraj Patel
- Teddy Goff
- Tracy Chou