Pro-Social

My parents instilled in me at a very young age the importance of helping others. I come from a union family, and my parents showed us through their actions how important it was to take an active role in the world around us.

When I was five years old, we worked at the election polls, handing out leaflets and helping to promote candidates that stood for worker’s rights and education. We learned then and throughout childhood how important it was to help those in need. Volunteering and being civically active were important parts of my high school and college life.

My world changed when my Mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident while her school district was on strike and she was leading negotiations for her union. I’ve outlined some of my non-profit work below, but it extends far beyond what you see on this page. Especially today we all need to be active participants in everything from making it easier for people to vote, to increasing funding for education and the arts, to ending child poverty.

My work with Echo Pro-Social Gallery is something I’m so proud of. I was able to support and work together with my wife Michan to create a permanent installation in Mafunga Park in the Lower East Side of NYC.

One of my first projects was founding the KidsBridge Children’s Cultural and Tolerance Centers of New Jersey. Following that I was on the Board of the Children’s Hope Foundation, where we worked to improve the lives of children living with HIV and AIDS in NYC.

Today, my work continues in many of the same areas I was engaged with years ago, but the way these issues are becoming a part of our lives is different. AI is a big one. We’re at a critical point with AI and its related technologies, and we need to ensure everyone can see themselves in the ways AI technology comes to market.

AI is becoming a larger and larger part of our media consumption and our world. We can only fix bias in AI is to fix the training data. Mistakes are happening with AI that are the same mistakes that were made in the early days of the Internet. That means we know what those mistakes are and must ensure that they’re corrected with AI because we missed them with the Internet. When it comes to AI we need to ensure that people of color are not overlooked or underrepresented as AI rolls out across the media landscape.

We all should be taking a stand and working to ensure AI’s diverse and inclusive future. That means pushing for the adoption of the Monk AI Skintone Scale. Today’s six-shade AI skin tone standard is called the Fitzpatrick Scale, and with only six shades, it misrepresents and leaves many people of color behind. My Dad’s family is originally from Cordova, Spain, and with the Fitzpatrick scale, many of them will not be represented correctly in today’s off-the-shelf AI technology.

Some people of color are overlooked, misrepresented, and left behind with today’s AI Skintone standard. There is a solution, Dr. Ellis Monk a young Harvard Professor has developed the Monk Skin Tone (MST) Scale, a 10-shade AI Skintone scale that Google is already using for research. It changes everything. Here is a great 90-second video about it.

Developed by Harvard professor and sociologist Dr. Ellis Monk, it was designed from the ground up to be more inclusive of the entire skin tone spectrum we all know and see daily. Dr. Monk’s commitment and extensive research into how skin tone and colorism impact our lives is what led to the development of the Monk Skin Tone Sale. We all must work together to ensure the broader global adoption of the Monk Skin Tone (MST) Scale.

Dr. Monk worked with Google to release the scale for free so anyone can use it for research and product development. Below is an image of the ten shades of the Monk Skin Tone Sale. It’s easy to use and far more representative of all of us than the Fitzpatrick Scale, which is currently the industry standard.

What’s so unique about Dr. Monk’s MST Scale is that it “transforms the continuous skin tone spectrum into 10 tones that introduce enough granularity to reflect a diversity of communities.” This is an entirely new concept for Machine Learning (ML), and Dr. Monk accomplished this without increasing the complexity required for ML evaluation and training. This eliminates any objections that the Monk Scale is too complicated or adds unnecessary complexity to the AI process.

I invite you to click here to learn more about Dr. Ellis Monk and the Monk (MST) Scale.

BACKGROUND ON MY PAST PRO-SOCIAL WORK

I was appointed National Campaign Director for the NCAYV (National Campaign Against Youth Violence) during the Clinton Administration.

Following the White House, I founded the youth non-profit SHiNE, and within 3-years secured $36MM in cash and media support for the fight against discrimination. When MTV went dark for the only time in their history we were was asked to lead all of their broadcast/digital programs for 16 hours to empower youth to join us in the fight against discrimination.

In addition to what you see below I was also the youngest recipient of the Theodor Herzl Award from the State of Israel for my humanitarian efforts, past recipients include Michael Milken, Margaret Thatcher, and Ted Turner.

Below are a few of my more notable achievements in the area of public service, youth empowerment, corporate social responsibility, fundraising, and non-profit innovation.

SHiNE = SEEKING HARMONY IN NEIGHBORHOODS EVERYDAY

Founded the nonprofit SHiNE to leverage my social and digital marketing success and influential personal connections to bring media, celebrities, and brands together to create large-scale online and community-based programs and resources for youth. Within three years, I secured $6 MM in cash and $30 MM in media support from P&G, Kodak, Chrysler, Levi’s, MTV, Nintendo, and others. The celebrities that I secured to help with SHiNE included Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, Dave Matthews, Kelly Rowland, Nick Cannon, Green Day, Lauryn Hill, Alanis Morissette, Tori Amos, Everclear,

Partners in the initiative include the Anti-Defamation League, the National Conference For Community And Justice, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Leadership Conference On Civil Rights, the Gay, Lesbian And Straight Education Network, National Mental Health Awareness Campaign, SHiNE (Seeking Harmony in Neighborhoods Everyday), and the Human Rights Campaign.

We were the lead partner when MTV went “dark” for the first time in its history to To Take a Stand Against Discrimination. At the time in place of music videos and series such as “Road Rules” and “The Real World,” the cable network will aired a continuous on-screen scroll listing the names of hundreds of U.S. hate crime victims.

The action followed the premiere of “Anatomy Of A Hate Crime,” which explored the 1998 murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, and an MTV News special on hate crimes, which also kicked off MTV’s year-long “Fight For Your Rights: Take A Stand Against Discrimination” campaign. The scroll ran continuously and commercial-free for seventeen a half hours.

We led the year-long campaign, where the network also worked with various civic organizations to inform young people about ways to take action against all types of discrimination — including racial, religious, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and physical and/or mental ability biases. We were responsible for several broadcast specials, news segments, and profiles of popular artists. Together with my team, we also put together multiple PSAs featuring popular celebrities, a free action guide that walked young people through the steps they could take to take a stand against discrimination in their community. You can read more about it here Billboard Magazine.

MUHAMMAD ALI SCHOLARSHIP FUND

Developed and secured MTV/CBS Viacom to fund and still manage the Muhammad Ali Scholarship for future civil rights leaders and recruited Dave Matthews, Beyonce, Method Man, Sean Combs, Nick Cannon, and others to take part in judging and promoting this landmark scholarship.

NATIONAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST YOUTH VIOLENCE

Recruited by the Clinton Administration to serve as the first-ever Director of the White House’s National Campaign Against Youth Violence (NCAYV) to help direct the national conversation, public policy, media response, and youth engagement efforts to reduce youth violence, bullying, and discrimination.

Developed the US’s first youth digital engagement plan. Managed the campaign-related activities of our board members including Mel Karmazin (CBS/Viacom), Steve Case (AOL), and Robert Iger (Disney/ABC).

PTTOW

Founding member of PTTOW, a C-Level invite-only Youth Marketing Conference, and I recently curated our 3rd Annual Forum that included special guest participants, His Holiness the Dali Lama, will.i.am., and Kelly Slater.

MTV FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS

Together with MTV developed the Fight For Your Rights campaign, the first online youth pro‐social network to advance social change and when MTV went “dark” for the only time in its history, together with my team, I developed the content and led MTV’s US TV and social networks for 16 hours to engage youth against discrimination.

STOP THE HATE

Together with the Ad Council, the President’s Initiative on Race SHiNE delivered the very powerful “Stop The Hate” Ad Council digital and television PSA campaign. The National Crime Prevention Council, SHINE, and the Ad Council joined me with a coalition of celebrities to launch a series of anti-hate public service announcements (PSAs) in response to so many innocent groups and individuals being assaulted and discriminated against after September 11th. The PSAs include teen and adult-targeted messages to encourage all Americans to unite rather than react with feelings of hate.

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, more than six hundred hate crimes were reported to the Council of American-Islamic Relations and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. We want to encourage the belief that all Americans have a role to play in promoting tolerance.
Celebrities Appearing in the TV Commercial: Jimmy Fallon, Dennis Quaid, Mary Louise Parker, Omar Epps, Rosie Perez, John Turtorro, and Steve Buscemi.