Staff

Susan Benesch, Executive Director

Susan Benesch, Faculty Associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, teaches human rights at American University’s School of International Service and directs the Dangerous Speech Project.

Susan has taught human rights and refugee law at Georgetown and Princeton, among other universities, and has lectured at schools including Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Virginia, and Humboldt University in Berlin. A human rights lawyer trained at Yale, she has also worked for the Center for Justice and Accountability, Amnesty International, and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First).

Her interest in speech dates back to her first career as a journalist. Before law school, she was chief staff writer for the Miami Herald in Haiti. She also covered wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, and reported from many countries for the New Republic, the Columbia Journalism Review, and the Crimes of War website, among other publications.

Areas of focus: International law, human rights law, freedom of expression and the U.S. First Amendment, online content moderation, gender-based violence and internet abuse.

Cathy Buerger, Director of Research

Cathy Buerger joined the Dangerous Speech Project (DSP) in September of 2017. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut (UConn), where her research examined the impact of human rights education on political beliefs and behavior in Ghana.

Her current research at the DSP focuses on global responses to dangerous and hateful speech as well as the process of identity formation among those who choose to respond to such speech. She also coordinates the DSP’s Global Research Fellowship.

Cathy is a Research Affiliate of UConn’s Economic and Social Rights Research Group, Managing Editor of the Journal of Human Rights, and an Editor for the Teaching Human Rights Database.

Areas of focus: Human rights and civil society, effective responses to harmful or dangerous speech, higher education, culture and discourse norms.

Tonei Glavinic, Director of Operations

Tonei Glavinic joined the Dangerous Speech Project in December 2011. Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, they have been working on social justice and human rights issues in the United States since 2006, with a particular focus on LGBTQ communities and education equity.

Tonei’s work at the DSP includes managing administration, strategy, and communications, and working with coalitions related to content moderation and internet governance including the Christchurch Call Advisory Network (of which they are co-chair), the Global Network Initiative, and Change the Terms. Outside of the DSP, Tonei  facilitates educational programs Civic Education Project at Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development and the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University, serves on the Board of Directors for Trans Lifeline, and operates a private tax practice.

Tonei holds a BA in Political Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from American University and an MA in Social Justice and Community Development from Loyola University Chicago, and is an Enrolled Agent.

Areas of focus: Internet governance and public policy, privacy and security, LGBTQ issues, nonprofit management and governance, event coordination.

Emeline O’Hara, Communications Manager

Emeline O’Hara joined the Dangerous Speech Project in September 2021. She studied Intersectional Feminism and Film at Hampshire College, and has been involved in justice centered community building since the murder of Jamar Clark by the MPD in her hometown of Minneapolis, MN in 2015.  Previously, Emeline worked as the Social Media Manager for Roots ConnectED, and Media Archivist at the Labor Education Service.

Outside of her work for the Dangerous Speech Project, Emeline is a writer and actress whose work has been screened across the globe, most notably Jean Malek’s My Father at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.  She has spoken on panels addressing gender discrimination and harassment, where she has detailed her own experiences of gender based violence within the indie film industry.  Her personal social media presence merges her passions for story-telling and educating the public on relational and structural power dynamics.

Emeline holds a Social Marketing Certification, and was inducted into the TikTok Creator Fund in 2020.  She currently resides in Manhattan with her dog, Harlow.  Together, they spend their free time with their neighbors to build healthier communities.

Areas of focus: Intersectional feminism, prison-industrial complex abolition, transformative justice, power dynamics, community building, anti-fascism, online content moderation.

Advisory Board

Nighat Dad (Chair), Executive Director, Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan.

Murithi Mutiga, independent journalist and Project Director, Horn of Africa, International Crisis Group.

Julie Owono, Executive Director, Internet Sans Frontières

Courtney Radsch, independent journalist and expert on internet moderation and regulation.

Bruce Schneier, internationally renowned security technologist and prolific author.