Yael Weissburg
Yael Weissburg
Vice President, Community Growth, Wikimedia Foundation
“Dominator culture has tried to keep us all afraid, to make us choose safety instead of risk, sameness instead of diversity. Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, reveling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community.” – bell hooks, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope

About me

I was born in Israel, grew up in Kenya, came to the U.S. for college and did my graduate work in the UK. I landed in San Francisco in 2011 and much to my surprise have now lived in the Bay Area longer than anywhere else!

I’ve been deeply influenced by women and nonbinary people of color who have shown us how to build decades-long, resilient, transformative movements against all odds. I believe that if we are to build a vibrant, and resilient movement, we must be able to meet each other in all of our humanity. As Trans activist Kai Cheng Thom teaches us, "if we want to build powerful social movements, we must be willing to take emotional risks."

I'm relatively new to this movement, so I'm happy to receive any and all feedback, and particularly gentle corrections about how to be a better Wikimedian. I've already benefitted from folks who have given me corrections about logged-out editing on Wikipedia and creating BLPs. Thank you for those, and please keep them coming!

When I'm not working, you'll probably find me rowing with the competitive crew on Oakland's Lake Merritt or in my kitchen cooking feasts for friends, family and community.

My work

I support a growing number of WMF's community-supporting teams, including Community Development, Community Resources (aka Grantmaking), Community Programs (aka support for thematic networks like Culture & Heritage, Education, Gender, etc.) and Partnerships to implement the Movement Strategy recommendations.

One of my goals this year is to make it easier for our movement to interface with and navigate the foundation, so hopefully you'll see some easier language coming soon to describe the work these and other teams do to support our growing movement.

Disclaimer: I work for or provide services to the Wikimedia Foundation, and this is the account I try to use for edits or statements I make in that role. However, the Foundation does not vet all my activity, so edits, statements, or other contributions made by this account may not reflect the views of the Foundation.

Contact me

E-mail: yweissburg(_AT_)wikimedia.org Twitter: @rebeccayael

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