Disinformation reshapes public discourse, erodes trust, fragments communities, and influences decision-making—but how does it take hold, and what makes it so effective? This event, moderated by Colin Woodard, invites nonprofits, funders, elected officials, and communication professionals to explore these questions together. Keynote speaker Renée DiResta will share findings on impacts and mitigation approaches from years of research on rumors and propaganda, and on understanding how narratives spread online. A panel of local leaders featuring Dr Nirav Shah will provide on the ground examples of coordinated disinformation campaigns as well as successful strategies to help communities unite.

Through expert insights and case studies, we’ll examine:

• The pathways and funding behind disinformation campaigns.
• Their impact on community cohesion and democratic processes.
• Lessons from Maine about resilience and truth-sharing focused on public health, immigration, environment and climate, and democracy.

Keynote Speaker

Renée DiResta

Renée DiResta (she/her) is an Associate Research Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown. Previously, she was technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory, a cross-disciplinary program of research, teaching and policy engagement for the study of adversarial abuse in current information technologies. She studies the many ways that people attempt to manipulate, harass, or target others online. Much of her work focuses on rumors and propaganda, and in understanding how narratives spread across social and media networks. DiResta researches novel and rapidly-developing problems, then communicate findings both to the public and to those best positioned to mitigate them. She advised Congress, the State Department, and myriad civil society and business organizations on the mechanics of online manipulation in its many forms: computational propaganda, conspiracy theories, terrorist activity, and state-sponsored information warfare.

Moderator & Host

Colin Woodard

Colin Woodard is the Project Director of Nationhood Lab at Salve Regina University’s Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy and a POLITICO contributing editor. He is a New York Times bestselling historian, Polk Award-winning journalist and one of the most respected authorities on North American regionalism, the sociology of United States nationhood, and how our colonial past shapes and explains the present, offering a fascinating look at where America has come from, how we ended up as we are, and how we might shape our future. Woodard has written six books and was state and national affairs writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, where he was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. He lives in Maine.