Alicia Wanless Email & Phone Number

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Director of the Information Environment Project, which is a multistakeholder effort to help policymakers understand the information environment, think through the impact of efforts to govern it, and identify promising interventions to foster democracy.

Director of the Information Environment Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which aims to foster evidence-based policymaking for the information environment, which evolved from the Partnership for Countering Influence Operations. Alicia led the creation of a multistakeholder network in partnership with the G7 Rapid Response Network to support efforts in Ukraine. Alicia was a technical advisor to Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder and is a founding member of its Global Cyber Group. She is also an expert advisor to the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital Safety.

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Directing the Partnership for Countering Influence Operations, which aims to answer difficult policy problems related to influence operations; to find ways to measure the effect of adversarial influence operations; and to develop methods for measurement and evaluation of countermeasures. Along with a growing team, responsible for developing, fundraising and implementing the initiative, after initially proposing it.

Ottawa, Canada Area

Exploring the information environment through content and network analysis, and applying researching on behavioural advertising and behavioural economics to the development of communication strategies, doctrines, and training with integrated information activities. Alicia has supported clients including M&C Saatchi and Facebook.

London, United Kingdom

Information Ecology: How can methods from physical ecology be applied to understand the information environment? This research aims to identify what types of information ecosystems are susceptible to which types of information disturbances assessing how conflict actors use the latter to their advantage.

London, United Kingdom

Mapping the digital media space to identify patterns of content dissemination, key influencers, and assess how target audiences are engaging online, using these insights to create tailored strategies for beneficiary capacity building, including increasing strategic communications skills and fostering influencer-driven networks to amplify the spread of quality information.

Ottawa, Canada Area

Responsible for over all strategic communications for an innovative non-profit think-do tank, including management of communication staff, resources, and external support. Developing an initiative to support Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) by strengthening local, authentic narratives in Syria. Supporting the development and amplification of those voices by developing training material and providing expert communications advice.Developed and delivered A Brave New Journalism training program, covering digital safety, verifying and integrating user-generated content into news, and creating content that spreads. This program has since been adapted for training programs and online portals for Syrian and Vietnamese audiences. Providing strategic communications advice to individual projects executed by the SecDev Foundation for audiences in former Soviet Union, and Syria. Supported #HackingConflict, a #DiploHack challenge with over 100 participants and high level visitors such as the King and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, and Dutch and Canadian Foreign Ministers, among others. The event trended on Twitter Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City with more than 2.5 million impressions.

Spencerville, Ontario

At Crowder House, we study how information shapes perspectives and behaviours in an online environment. Researching the spread of messages and ideas through the Internet, and how target audiences adopt them, we seek to better understand how minds and actions are shaped in a Digital Age. Through Crowder House I created and managed the Spencerville Mill's Heritage Fair from January 2011 to June 2013, with the aim of engaging new audiences in participatory historic experiences. Raised over $200K in grant funding during the course of the event, attracting tourism from Quebec, Nova Scotia, the UK, the US and Germany.

Spencerville

Managing international campaign focused at the niche market of history travellers. Niche tourism marketing for 9 major events, over 13 months attracting 80k+ visitors, accounting for over $10 million in visitor spending and 1% of annual regional visitor spending. Raised $150K in marketing & staffing funds. A full report can be found here: http://bit.ly/13DbUmv

Ottawa

Community & Business Development Manager for Eastern Ontario - responsible for rolling out services in a virgin market.

Gatineau, Qc

Seconded to the Department of Foreign Affairs & International Trade to support the organisation of preparatory meetings in advance of the 2010 G8/G20 Summits

Advisor to Chair of Foreign Affairs & International Trade Committee & OSCE PA in Canada, liaison with multicultural community groups.

Toronto, Canada Area

Founder of an independent consultancy focusing on security and systemic analysis as well as project management of technological security implementations. Created and ran international conferences and symposiums on topics such as cyber crime; recognised analyst on foreign affairs and global security

Toronto, Canada & Nigeria

Project Co-ordinatorSeaBoard Group, Aug. 2005 - Nov. 2006• Responsible for overall governance of procurement & implementation of a federal automated fingerprint identification system for the Nigerian police force as part of its anti-corruption reformsSecurity AnalystSeaBoard Group, Feb. 2005 - Nov. 2006• Researched, analysed & commented on topics such as biometrics, lawful intercept, identity-based security measures, network security, telecoms & business performance

Toronto, Canada Area

Business & concept development for new youth-focused lifestyle event with online community

Toronto, Canada Area

Provided logistical support for nationally televised awards show; Oversaw the redevelopment of official website.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, War Studies, Phd Researcher

Information Ecology: How can methods from physical ecology be applied to understand the information environment? This research aims.

Honours B.A., Russian & East European Studies

Research focused on mass manipulation through techniques such as language engineering, nationalism, and propaganda.

Coursework, European & Russian Studies