Team
Federico Alegria
Outreach Coordinator for Latin America
Federico Alegria, based in San Salvador, El Salvador, is a social scientist studying the cultural uses of photography in our everyday lives. He also writes about photography and develops documentary projects. Other photography aspects he's involved in are curation, critique, education, mentoring and reviews. In 2018, he began teaching photography, research methodology, and sociology at the university level. He has coordinated research projects that are related to both semiotic and image analysis. He also works at a sociological research lab exploring aspects of representation and memory through the use of photographs. Federico is a Ph.D candidate at "Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas" (UCA) and "Universidad Don Bosco" (UDB), and his scientific contribution aims to fill knowledge gaps about the influence that social uses of contemporary photography has upon the process of self-construction.
Barbara Ayotte
Communications Director, Social Documentary Network
Editor, ZEKE Magazine
Barbara Ayotte is a communications and media strategist for leading nonprofit organizations and a writer, editor and life-long human rights advocate. She currently serves as the Director of Editorial Resources at GBH, the largest producer of public media content for PBS and partner to NPR and PRX. She was the Senior Director of Strategic Communications for Management Sciences for Health, an international non-profit development organization working on global health issues in over 30 countries. Prior to that, Barbara was Director of Communications for Physicians for Human Rights and served as Communications Coordinator for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. Barbara has a B.A. in English from Boston College.
Lisa DuBois
Photo Editor and Diversity Advisor
Lisa DuBois is an ethnographic photojournalist and curator based in New York. Her photographic work focuses on subcultures that are part of society as a whole. Lisa's photographic documentation of black subculture in New Orleans demonstrates her deep appreciation for history and tradition. Numerous notable venues, both domestically and internationally, have showcased her work. Exhibitions include the Schomburg Cultural Center for Research in Black Culture, the Gordon Parks Museum in Fort Kansas, and the African American Museum in New Orleans.
She has been interviewed on BronxNet and Nola TV. Lisa holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and a degree in metaphysics from the University of Metaphysics. She has made contributions to publications and stock photo agencies, including Getty, The Post, and the Daily News. Lisa's work as a photographer and curator at X Gallery has earned her recognition from publications such as The Guardian and The New York Times. Awards include the Harlem Arts Festival, and En Foco awarded Lisa a fellowship. In 2023, she received the BRIO award and grant for her photographic skills. The En Foco Nueva Luz commissioning fund also awarded her a grant. Lisa has worked as a creative consultant and curator with ArtontheAve, where she helped launch the first socially distanced outdoor exhibition on Columbus Avenue in New York City.
Marissa Fioruccui
SDN Reviews Manager
Marissa Fiorucci is a freelance photographer in Boston, MA. She fell in love with photography while working in biotech. After courses at the New England School of Photography, she became the studio manager for portrait photographer, Mark Ostow, and worked on major projects including a series of portraits of the Obama Cabinet for Politico. In 2018, she completed a Magnum Intensive Documentary Photography Course at the London College of Communication. She specializes in corporate portraits and events, but remains passionate about documentary.
Glenn Ruga
Founder and Director, Social Documentary Network
Executive Editor, ZEKE Magazine
Glenn Ruga is a photographer, graphic designer and curator. He founded the Social Documentary Network (SDN) in 2008 as a web platform for a global community of documentary photographers to present their work online. As a photographer, he has created traveling and online documentary exhibits on the struggle for a multicultural future in Bosnia, the war and aftermath in Kosovo, and on an immigrant community in Holyoke, Mass.
In 2015, Ruga launched ZEKE: The Magazine of Global Documentary, a print and digital magazine presenting the best stories from the Social Documentary Network.
In 2012, Ruga was one of three curators of the New York Photo Festival where he curated three exhibitions including work by Bruce Davidson, Platon, and Eugene Richards, Reza, and Lori Grinker.
From 2010-2013, Ruga was the Executive Director of the Photographic Resource Center (PRC) at Boston University. He curated numerous exhibitions while at the PRC including "Global Health in Focus" featuring work by Kristen Ashburn, Dominic Chavez, and David Rochkind. Ruga is also the former Publisher and Art Director of Loupe, the magazine of the PRC.
From 1993 through 2009, Ruga was the founder and president of the Center for Balkan Development, a non-profit organization established to help stop the genocide in Bosnia and create a just and sustainable future in the former Yugoslavia.
Glenn has a B.A. in Social Theory from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and a MFA in Graphic and Advertising Design from Syracuse University.
