Ross Comstock

Seasoned career professional. Currently working for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a top-ten philanthropic organization, as their VP of Information Systems and Technology. Involved in the development of tools to support networks of people and organizations working together on positive change, including the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. Interested in helping to develop a metaverse for good, to help accelerate the pace of positive change. My organization is deeply focused on racial equity. SDG 10 is the Sustainable Development Goal focused on reducing inequality. Recognize that progress against all of the goals (poverty, education, health, environment, etc.) must be achieved by considering the impact of inequality -- or looking at the big challenges of the world through a lens of racial equity. Cybersecurity is a part of my role, protecting the assets of a leading philanthropic organization, but also helping to protect the network of thousands of nonprofits that we work with and support. Earlier in my career I worked in lots of interesting subject areas including real-time embedded systems, defense applications, semiconductor manufacturing, video games, geospatial software tools development, higher-ed, and nonprofit technology. I was the former lead for technology and quality at Direct Relief in Santa Barbara, California. Direct Relief is now the third largest nonprofit charity in the USA. My work with organizations has been recognized with the Drucker Prize for Nonprofit Innovation, the Esri President's Award, the Fast Company Nonprofit Innovation award, and Computerworld Honors.