Skip to main content
Resources

ICANN Fellowship Selection Committee

ICANN Fellowship Program


Membership Makeup | Responsibilities | Terms of Service | Application Assessment | Committee Members

Last Updated: 5 April 2023

Fellowship Selection Committee Membership Makeup

  1. Each Supporting Organization/Advisory Committee (SO/AC) shall nominate one representative to serve on the ICANN Fellowship Selection Committee, for a total of up to seven individuals.
    1. SOs/ACs are strongly encouraged to consider diversity criteria when selecting a Selection Committee member including, but not limited to, geographic and gender diversity.
  2. Each Selection Committee member will serve a two-year term, as detailed in Terms of Service (below).
  3. Selection Committee member expectations:
    1. Represent the global Internet community, with a strong history of experience with specific sector(s) of the Internet ecosystem including, but not limited to, technical Internet issues; government, academia, commercial or non-commercial issues; I* entities; underserved and/or under-represented communities and/or Internet related development, or other fellowship programs
    2. Be an active member of the appointing SO/AC for at least two years (Definitions of active membership may vary, but generally include penholders for ICANN policy/procedural comments contributing significant time to the SO/AC)
    3. Have a good understanding of ICANN and work conducted by other SOs/ACs
    4. Have attended ICANN meetings as an active contributor/panelist/chair to a policy session
  4. Additional notes:
    1. It is desirable for Selection Committee representatives to have contributed meaningfully to cross-community working groups and/or be an active member of I* organisations
    2. Nominated Selection Committee members may be Fellowship Program alumni

Fellowship Selection Committee Responsibilities

The ICANN Fellowship Selection Committee is responsible for assessing all applications for the ICANN Fellowship received through the online application system. Selection Committee members will then determine which applicants have best met the posted Applicant Selection Criteria. A time commitment of approximately 30-40 hours over four to five weeks is required (for each application round).

Additional responsibilities:

  1. Support outreach efforts of the Fellowship Program
  2. Work closely with Fellowship Program staff to follow the implementation and evaluation process
  3. Update criteria for Fellowship selection regularly (every two years)

*Relevant ICANN staff, such as Global Stakeholder Engagement (GSE), review applications from their respective regions and sectors and provide comments on candidates' engagement, future potential, and regional strategic priority.

Terms of Service

  1. Members of the Selection Committee shall serve for a total of two years (6 application rounds)
  2. Selection Committee members are expected to devote a significant amount of time to the Fellowship Program; if a member chooses to resign, the relevant SO/AC will nominate a replacement for the remainder of the tenure
  3. When the Selection Committee changes (every two years), former Selection Committee members are encouraged to share their experiences and insights with the new Section Committee members
  4. Selection Committee members will be supported by ICANN staff as needed, via conference calls and email
  5. Selection Committee members may not serve as Fellowship Program mentors

Application Assessment and Decision-Making Process

  1. Up to 45 Fellowships will be available per round, including Fellowship mentors
  2. Each Selection Committee member assesses the application based on the following applicant criteria: (1) diversity, (2) experience, (3) ICANN knowledge and engagement, and (4) potential for future engagement. Selection Committee members will review and revise the criteria every two years, as appropriate.
  3. Fellowship Program slots will be filled based on the scores and qualitative assessments drawn from the Selection Committee's reviews, while considering the need for regionally diverse candidates from a range of sectors, including those from underserved and/or under-represented communities, along with sectors that lack diverse representation within ICANN.

Fellowship Selection Committee Members

Current Members

As part of The New Fellowship Program Approach, the Selection Committee is composed of members nominated by their respective Supporting Organization/Advisory Committee. The following members begun their selection process starting with ICANN78 – ICANN83 inclusively:

Community Group

Selection Committee Nominee

ALAC Laura Margolis
ASO Not participating
ccNSO Stephen Deerhake
GAC Mistura Aruna
GNSO Taiwo Peter Akinremi
RSSAC Gaurav Kansal
SSAC Not participating

Past Members

The following members were part of the Selection Committee for ICANN75 – ICANN77 inclusively

Community Group

Selection Committee Nominee

ALAC Abdulkarim Oloyede
ASO Not participating
ccNSO Margarita Valdés
GAC Mistura Aruna
GNSO Sebastien Ducos
RSSAC Amir Qayyum
SSAC Not participating

The following members were part of the Selection Committee at ICANN74

Community Group

Selection Committee Nominee

ALAC Abdulkarim Oloyede
ASO Not participating
ccNSO Margarita Valdés
GAC Mistura Aruna
GNSO Tomslin Samme-Nlar
RSSAC Amir Qayyum
SSAC Not participating

The following members were part of the Selection Committee at ICANN72 and ICANN73

Community Group

Selection Committee Nominee

ALAC Abdulkarim Oloyede
ASO Not participating
ccNSO Margarita Valdés
GAC Mistura Aruna
GNSO Heather Forrest
RSSAC Amir Qayyum
SSAC Not participating

The following members were part of the Selection Committee from ICANN65 till ICANN71 inclusively:

Community Group

Selection Committee Nominee

ALAC Alfredo Calderon
ASO Not participating
ccNSO Pablo Rodriguez
GAC Karel Douglas
GNSO Heather Forrest
RSSAC Amir Qayyum
SSAC Not participating
  • Nashwa Abel Baki – Asia-Pacific: 3 years / 9 rounds
  • Carolina Aguerre – Latin America and the Caribbean: 2 years / 5 rounds
  • Nadira Al-Araj – Asia-Pacific: 2 years / 4 rounds
  • Christine Arida – Asia-Pacific: 3 years / 7 rounds
  • Fahd Batayneh – Asia-Pacific: 3 rounds * now ICANN staff
  • Tatiana Chirev – Europe: 3 years / 10 rounds
  • Mouhamet Diop – Africa: 3 years / 10 rounds
  • Ayman El-Sherbiny – Asia-Pacific: 1 year / 3 rounds
  • Demi Getschko – Latin American and the Caribbean: 3 years / 10 rounds
  • Steven Huter – North America: 3 years / 9 rounds
  • Erick Iriarte Ahon – Latin America and the Caribbean: 3 years / 8 rounds
  • Gaongalelwe ("Gao") Mosweu – Africa: 3 years / 7 rounds
  • Pierre Ouédraogo – Africa: 1.5 years / 5 rounds
  • Alejandro Pisanty – Latin America and the Caribbean: 3 years /10 rounds
  • Dustin Phillips – North America: 2 years / 4 rounds
  • Vanda Scartezini – Latin America and the Caribbean: 3 years / 9 rounds
  • Aftab Siddiqui – Asia-Pacific: 4 years / 8 rounds
  • Nelly Stoyanova – Europe: 3 years / 10 rounds
  • Sorina Telenau – Europe: 3 years / 6 rounds
  • Gaurab Raj Upadhaya – Asia Pacific: 3 years / 10 rounds
  • Hong Xie – Asia Pacific: 3 years / 9 rounds
Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."