Summary
Jenny Ryan is a community-focused technologist and organizer with 11+ years building decentralized communications infrastructure and commons-based institutions in the Bay Area. As co-founder and President of Sudo Mesh and a founding member of Sudo Room and the Omni Commons, she blends hands-on project management, fundraising, operations and community organizing to sustain volunteer-run mesh networks, hackerspaces, and mutual aid ecosystems. With a graduate background in communication and anthropology, her work applies ethnographic insight to designing inclusive, open-source systems that prioritize access, resilience, and collective governance. She has supported or led projects ranging from community Wi‑Fi and mesh networking to digital literacy, privacy tools, and emergency-response bio efforts, demonstrating an ability to move between technical, legal, and cultural domains. Known as a cyberanthropologist and connector, she freelances on nonprofit consulting and bookkeeping while catalyzing collaborations across grassroots groups. An unusual strength is her facility for translating anthropological concepts like liminality and proxemics into practical strategies for community space design and networked public spheres.
10 years of coding experience
14 years of employment as a software developer
University of California, San Diego
Master of Arts - MA Anthropology, Master of Arts - MA Anthropology at Wesleyan University
Danish, Spanish, English, French