Dear John,
We are thrilled to announce the five exceptional individuals selected for Higher Ground Institute’s Media Innovation Fellowship ([link removed]) : Laura Liibbe, Andrew Markoff, Steven McAlpine, Jesse Thomas, and Liz Utrup.
These fellows are creating products and programs that can transform how progressive campaigns and organizations approach our evolving media ecosystem. The 2024 election cycle made clear that even record-breaking ad spend can't compete with decentralized, creator-driven networks and information environments where voters actually spend their time. We need to evolve our campaign playbook.
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That's why we launched the Media Innovation Fellowship: a three-month intensive that provides $15,000 in funding, strategic coaching, and a supportive community for leaders building the next generation of progressive media tools and strategies. We received over 100 proposals—many leveraging generative AI and rooted in culture, storytelling, and creator ecosystems—revealing a movement full of creativity, urgency, and drive to mobilize, if resourced.
Our Media Innovation Fellows stand at the forefront of this shift, ready to build critical components of the new campaign playbook. We’re proud to introduce them to you. Learn about them below and read the full announcement here ([link removed]) .
Learn More ([link removed])
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** Laura Liibbe
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The Fellow: Laura Liibbe is a media strategist and product leader with 15+ years of experience reaching immigrant communities. At Noticias Para Inmigrantes, she scales progressive media products, leads audience research, and experiments with platforms like WhatsApp to build trusted, multilingual content that informs and empowers Latino immigrants.
The Project: Trusted Messaging: Strengthening Community & Civic Participation Through WhatsApp with Noticias Para Inmigrantes.
Laura and her team are creating a playbook for progressive media to use WhatsApp Channels as high-trust infrastructure to engage Latino and immigrant audiences, build trust and affinity, and test scalable models for civic information, activation, and revenue.
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** Andrew Markoff
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The Fellow: Andrew Markoff built the analytics engine that powered the Biden and Harris campaigns’ paid media strategy—the most expansive and expensive political ad effort in American history. He has served as a campaign manager and senior strategist for candidates nationwide, leading teams to victory in competitive races from school boards to governors’ offices and Congress.
The Project: M3 Media.
A cross-channel media planning platform that optimizes campaign budgets and buying decisions to efficiently reach and persuade the voters the left needs to win.
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** Steven McAlpine
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The Fellow: Steven McAlpine, co-founder and CEO of INTRVL, is a “40 under 40” recognized leader in pioneering measurement and optimization techniques for digital media campaigns designed to influence public opinion. Prior to INTRVL, he led audience targeting and measurement at Hawkfish and media analytics initiatives for Fortune 500 marketers like Johnson & Johnson, Macy’s, and Dick’s.
The Project: Audience Profiling for Creator Programs with INTRVL.
He is building audience profiling capabilities that help organizations working with creators better understand which audiences are being reached and how they engage with content. These capabilities will provide insights into audience attitudes and electoral participation, enabling more strategic programming decisions.
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** Jesse Thomas
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The Fellow: Jesse Thomas is a pioneering social impact strategist. An Obama For America-trained organizer, marketer, and technologist, Jesse has led strategic impact and mobilization efforts for some of the nation's largest political campaigns, nonprofits, and mission-driven brands.
The Project: Activating Live Audiences: Performance Marketing for Social Impact with The Civics Center.
This project explores how nonprofits and movements can leverage commercial performance marketing techniques from the live-streaming content industry on YouTube, Twitch, and Kick. The project tests new ways to drive measurable social actions—like voter registration—through sustained sponsorships with livestream creators and their communities.
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** Liz Utrup
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The Fellow: Liz Utrup started in politics on President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign. She has since amassed extensive communications and operations experience across political campaigns, government, issue advocacy, and paid media. Liz is currently Managing Director at A|L Media, where she directs account services for paid media campaigns on behalf of Democratic candidates and causes across the country.
The Project: The Real People Project.
The Real People Project is a voter research initiative that uses online ethnography to gain a deeper understanding of voters' social media engagement. The project's goal is to gain insights into informative and persuasive digital content to help shape more effective communication strategies.
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