Rachel Brown

Rachel Brown is a fellow at the Center For Prevention of Genocide at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum who recently conceptualized and authored Defusing Hate: A Strategic Communication Guide to Counteract Dangerous Speech. Defusing Hate, a resource for practitioners seeking to design communication-based interventions to prevent group-targeted harm. The guide draws from diverse fields, such as marketing, cognitive neuroscience, and behavioral psychology, to design effective communication-based interventions that prevent violence.

Currently, Rachel is developing and piloting a new approach that brings local practitioners together with cutting-edge experts from these same fields to design strategic communication-based interventions. She also trains and supports organizations seeking to counter dangerous speech in their communities.

Rachel was a 2012 PopTech Social Innovation Fellow for her previous work founding and leading Sisi ni Amani Kenya, a Kenyan-based organization which is internationally recognized as a pioneer in developing effective approaches to using technology and communication-based interventions to support local peace activists. Sisi ni Amani Kenya used a text messaging platform in combination with grassroots programming to organize, educate, and engage communities in violence prevention and civic engagement throughout Kenya’s 2013 election cycle.