We are excited to welcome Ro Friend, Associate Director of Information Privacy and Security to HealthierHere! Learn more about Ro in her welcome interview below.

What are you most looking forward to working with HealthierHere and our partners?

As someone that has provided a lot of care in my personal life for individuals staring down massive disparities in their need for healthcare and stability and their actual access to care and support, I’ve seen firsthand just how draining and debilitating it can be to both find and pursue available resources. I’m thrilled to be able to leverage my expertise in support of finding new ways to make receiving support easier for marginalized communities, while ensuring that this is done in a way that maintains trust and safety.

What drives your passion for this work?

In my teenage years I had a lot of utopian passion for the potential of the internet. The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve become skeptical of my early optimism. I’m particularly terrified by the ways in which the internet age has lead to a massive reduction in privacy and anonymity for nearly everyone. I’m intensely focused on finding ways to mitigate these effects wherever I can, especially in the context of facilitating access to social services, critical information, and care.

What is something about you that others might not know?

I have over 2000 cassette tapes that I’ve accrued over the last 20 odd years. They are all strange and obscure outsider music releases ranging from field recordings to noise to computer music.

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See Ro's full bio and learn more about our staff on the HealthierHere Team page.

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