Thomas Kamber
Tom Kamber is an award-winning social entrepreneur, educator and activist who has created new initiatives in aging, technology, affordable housing and the arts. As founder and executive director of Older Adults Technology Services (OATS), Tom has helped over 30,000 seniors get online and created the country’s first technology-themed community center for older adults. Tom has taught social entrepreneurship and philanthropy at Columbia University and has published widely in academic journals on topics including public policy, business strategy, and technology. He speaks regularly at local, national, and international conferences, including the Consumer Electronics Show, the Institute of Medicine, the American Society on Aging, the Federal Communications Commission, TEDx Columbia, the Amplify Festival in Australia, and the International Longevity Forum in Brazil.
Tom serves on the New York City Mayor’s Broadband Task Force, the Age-Friendly New York Commission, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s Aging Policy Advisory Council, and serves as an advisor to the Great Leaders Program at Baruch College. His work has been featured widely in the media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, National Public Radio, and The Today Show, and he has won awards from local, state, and national organizations.
Tom is a co-founder and board member of the nonprofit Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance, which has won multiple Grammy awards, and is fluent in Spanish. Prior to founding OATS, Tom worked as a political campaign manager, branding strategist for a French IT corporation, project manager on a democracy-building initiative in Moscow, and tenant organizer in Harlem and the South Bronx. He has a BA in Latin from Columbia College and a PhD in Political Science from the City University of New York.