Brian Purchia (he/him) is the CEO and founder of Riff City Strategies and co-founder of CivicMakers. A long-time media and public policy strategist, he has led some of the most high profile efforts at the intersection of government and technology.

Brian is a strategic advisor for San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation and was the driving force behind the nation’s first open data law, open source software policy, and API for government. The media and public policy strategist also built the City of Porto Alegre, Brazil’s Office of Civic Innovation, modeled after the work he led for former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. He has advised and led communications for tech start-ups, politicians, VCs, and civic tech organizations. Before opening his own communications and public policy firm, Brian worked in media, as a reporter in Washington, DC.

Lawrence (he/him) is a maker, communicator and civic geek who uses technology to help civic leaders in the public and private sector engage key audiences.

He is the founder of CivicMakers, a strategic consultancy and community of practitioners that believes in the power of inclusive, collaborative design.

Lawrence helps residents, communities, governments and businesses listen to and collaborate effectively with each other. He released the government of San Francisco‘s first mobile app based on open data, built the B2B content marketing program at Change.org, and launched Accela’s Contractor Central app to streamline municipal licensing and permitting.

Lawrence thrives on bringing people together to make better decisions and collaborate more effectively through thoughtfully facilitated events and convenings. He has hosted dozens of civic networking events and spoken at SXSW Interactive, SXSW Eco, Personal Democracy Forum, Code for America Summit and the Nonprofit Technology Conference.

Lawrence lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and son, where he composts compulsively, watches birds and writes happy-go-lucky songs about bicycles, numbers and unicorns. His musical PSA for San Francisco’s best bicycle route, the Wiggle, has been viewed over 20,000 times.

Eva (they/them) supports CivicMakers’ public outreach, engagement, community-based research, and bilingual facilitation. They hold a BA in Sociology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and are a native speaker in English, Spanish, as well as fluent in Portuguese and French, and intermediate in Italian.

After spending several years working in arts and education, such as autobiographical story-telling with Latinx newcomers in San Francisco, toddler art, and youth murals, Eva focused their work on supporting San Francisco’s most vulnerable population: unhoused, marginally housed, and survivors of sexual assault. Eva learned anti-oppression framework, trauma informed lens, harm reduction practice, DEI, and de-escalation skills through their work in San Francisco at Hospitality House, Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, Mission SRO Collaborative, the Mission’s first Navigation Center, the Youth Program of the LGBT Center, and San Francisco Women Against Rape. As Director of Community Initiatives at Clarion Alley Mural Project, they led an initiative of stakeholder engagement and partnership building, resulting in increased safety and a certificate of honor by the Supervisors Office for the fight against transphobia.

Eva brings a unique lens with their multi-cultural background, trauma-informed work, and experience providing professional development training in Communication, Gender Diversity Equity & Inclusion and Conflict De-escalation. They are exceptionally talented at ensuring that anyone who speaks with them feels respected and has a seat at the table.

In their free time, they bring music and drag art to venues in San Francisco and beyond, including Freight and Salvage and Stern Grove.