Ricky Gaines

Ricky advances the Foundation’s values and policy positions around freedom of expression, access to knowledge, privacy, and censorship online while defending knowledge as a human right. He also drives the implementation of the Foundation’s human rights commitments as articulated in our Human Rights Policy, including coordinating human rights impact assessments across Wikimedia projects. Ricky represents the Foundation as an alternate Board member for the Global Network Initiative (GNI). He joined the Foundation after building a career in human rights at various non-governmental organizations and at the United States Department of State, where he worked to protect and uphold human rights throughout Latin America. Ricky speaks English and Spanish fluently, and volunteers locally to care for stray animals in his community.