CiviliNation's Board of Directors is responsible for establishing and continuously refining the organization's mission and purpose. It monitors and strengthens CiviliNation's programs, ensures the organization's ethical integrity, and enhances its public standing. Meet the Board below.
Kami Watson Huyse
Kami Watson Huyse, APR, is a passionate speaker and national leader on the topic of social media strategy. A 26-year-veteran of public relations, she speaks at social media events and conferences all over the country. Her work in social media has earned her two Society for New Communications Research Social Media awards and IABC's Gold Quill of Excellence Award. She shares the strategies, techniques, and tools that communicators need to connect with their online community and drive results using social media.
She is the CEO of Zoetica, a social media marketing agency that works with brands, and is the founder of Smart Social Secrets, which conducts social media training and courses. She also leads the Houston SocialMedia Breakfast, a free monthly meetup and livestream of over 100 communicators, featuring topics that communicators can use to use social media more effectively. You can connect with her on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or via email at kami@zoeticamedia.com.
Amy Vernon
Amy Vernon is an internationally known and respected pioneer in social content strategy and audience engagement and development. She spent 20 years working for daily newspapers around the country and was a member of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning staff of the Miami Herald. An inaugural inductee of the New Jersey Social Media Hall of Fame, Amy was named the 15th-most influential woman in tech on Twitter by Business Insider and Peer Index.
She has consulted on social media and content for a variety of companies and organizations, including the American Museum of Natural History, Verizon and VentureBeat, and has driven millions of page views through her work. She is an advisory board member for NewsFundr, a new media organization dedicated to enabling journalists to make a living while exposing important stories.
Amy has been a mentor for Women 2.0, Women Innovate Mobile and Bella Minds, among other organizations, and has spoken at dozens of conferences, including SXSWi, ONA, ASNE/APME, SMX, MobCon, SEJ Summit, and Mediabistro. A graduate of Northwestern University, she lives with her family in New Jersey and has a very photogenic Siberian husky named Lumi.
Jimmy Wales
Internet and technology entrepreneur Jimmy Wales is founder of the online nonprofit encyclopedia Wikipedia and co-founder of privately owned Wikia Inc., including its entertainment media branch Fandom, powered by Wikia.
Jimmy serves on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit charitable organization he established to operate Wikipedia. In 2006, he was named one of Time magazine's most influential people in the world for his role in creating Wikipedia.
In 2019, Jimmy launched WT Social, a news-focused social network.
Andrea Weckerle
Andrea Weckerle is the founder of CiviliNation and the author of Civility in the Digital Age: How Companies and People Can Triumph over Haters, Trolls, Bullies, and Other Jerks.
She earned her Juris Doctor at the University of Richmond School of Law, where she served on the Senior Staff of the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology. She also holds a Master of Arts (MAIS) degree with a focus on Public Relations/Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University.
After law school, Andrea worked within the Legal Management Services division of on international professional services firm where she helped design, develop and implement comprehensive alternative dispute resolution systems for Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding CiviliNation, she ran her own boutique communications consultancy and also worked with national agencies, where her experience included legal and corporate communications, online communications and social media.