Literacy Bridge
Directors
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Cliff Schmidt
President
Cliff Schmidt started Literacy Bridge after spending six weeks in rural Ghana to research ideas for the Talking Book project with local nonprofits, universities, and government agencies. Aside from his service as a grassroots lobbyist for organizations working to end global poverty (such as CARE and RESULTS), most of his prior experience comes from business, nonprofit governance, and engineering.
Cliff ran a successful open source software consulting business for clients throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North America, specializing in intellectual property issues, nonprofit governance, privacy policies, and community development. He also served many nonprofit organizations, such as The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the Eclipse Foundation, the OpenSEA Alliance, and the Free Software Foundation, including service on the board of directors and as the Vice President of Legal Affairs for the ASF. In the 12 years prior to his consulting work, Cliff worked as an industry standards representative for Microsoft, as the open source programs manager for BEA Systems, and as a nuclear engineer and submarine officer for the US Navy. Cliff received his B.S. in Cognitive Science from MIT and his M.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from University of Washington.
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Arthur Tao
Vice President
Arthur Tao has more than 20 years of management and development experience in the software industry. In addition to his work at Literacy Bridge, he provides business and product leadership in an early stage startup. Previously, he worked at Microsoft, DEC, and Merck as a senior program manager. He has extensive experience in the management of large and complex software projects, international outsourcing, and working in a multi-national and multi-corporation environment.
Arthur grew up in Hong Kong, came to the US for college, and received his B.S. from Swarthmore College, and his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. Arthur holds a patent in the area of high performance and high volume database application processing.
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Kevin Reed
Secretary and Legal Counsel
Kevin Reed is an intellectual property and entertainment lawyer who practices from his base in Memphis, Tennessee. He began his legal career by practicing criminal law for the Shelby County Public Defender. He then went into private practice and began developing his intellectual property and entertainment law practice. As an entertainment lawyer, he develops contracts for artists, labels, and managers and structures business foundations for start-up labels and nonprofits. He also secures copyrights and performance rights for songwriters and musicians and negotiates recording contracts for artists in various genres.
In addition, he is a board member of the Oak Spring Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization established to service the needs of the people of Northeast Shelby County. He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and his JD from Howard University School of Law.
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David Hijirida
Treasurer
David Hijirida began his career as a management consultant and has worked over 10 years in the financial services industry across marketing, financial planning, and corporate strategy roles. He currently works at Amazon.com, managing credit products and developing new credit and payments related business initiatives.
David holds degrees in physics from both MIT (BS) and Cornell University (MS); he also holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Advisors
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Joe Appiah-Kusi, M.D., MPH
Dr. Joe Appiah-Kusi is a physician, educator, researcher, policy analyst, strategic planner and humanitarian. He has been a professor at a couple of universities including University of Washington and University of Phoenix teaching courses in the humanities, ethics/law, public affairs, history, multiculturalism, doing business in different cultures and comparative health care system. He was a General Practitioner for the U.S. Army Medical Command in Europe, Adviser to WA state DSHS, Medical Practice Investigator for WA state Medical Disciplinary Board & the Board of Medical Examiners. Has received a number of distinguished awards including UN/WHO Fellowship, AMA, AHA and SAMA Fellowship. He is a renaissance scholar and global citizen diplomat serving as an Adviser to Seattle Art Museum on the interpretation of African and the Oceanic Art collection.