Williamson, Theresa
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Theresa Williamson founded Catalytic Communities (www.catcomm.org) in 2000, and has worked as Executive Director for nearly eight years. Winner of the 2006 Tech Awards from the Tech Museum of Innovation in Silicon Valley, CatComm uses technology to link grassroots community groups in Rio de Janeiro and around the world so they can learn from each other's successes and support one another's work. In this role, she oversees all program strategy, development and activity. Theresa is currently working in a part-time capacity transitioning the organization towards sustainability and a participatory culture. In addition to her work with Catalytic Communities, Theresa works in a consulting capacity on other campaigning Web-based projects, currently involving tropical forests via www.forestsnow.org and www.globalcanopy.org
In May 2004 Theresa received her Ph.D. from the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. Entitled Catalytic Communities: The Birth of a Dot Org, her dissertation won the 2005 Gill-Chin Lim Award for Best Dissertation on International Planning and was one of three finalists for the 2004 Barclay Gibbs Jones Award for the Best Dissertation in Planning. She has published articles from this dissertation and related research in Progressive Planning, The Journal of Urban Technology, and Cidadania.org. Prior to her doctoral research and decision to found CatComm, Theresa had been active in a number of movements for years, since the early age of 12.
