Fred Dillon

Activist, Change agent, Concerned citizen, Connector, Gay, Producer, Project manager

I provide planning and project management leadership in the development of HopeLab’s products to improve the health and quality of life of young people with chronic illness. In that role, I lead interdisciplinary teams of HopeLab staff, vendors, and external collaborators to develop and refine HopeLab innovations in an iterative, customer-focused process. I work closely with HopeLab’s Research unit to ensure that HopeLab product development is linked with high-quality scientific evidence and that HopeLab customers, young people themselves, are involved every step of the way. I oversee the ongoing development of HopeLab’s Re-Mission video game for teens and young adults with cancer. I also lead the organization’s obesity-related product development programs. I managed HopeLab’s international Ruckus Nation idea competition, which launched in September 2007 and engaged participants from 71 countries and all 50 U.S. states to generate more than 400 ideas for products to increase physical activity in young people. I also oversaw HopeLab’s Ruckus Research project to identify barriers and drivers of physical activity among young teens to inform the development of Ruckus Nation ideas into potential products. Insights from this work were then applied to the development of Zamzee, an activity meter and online rewards platform powered by physical activity. Prior to joining HopeLab in 2006, I served as Deputy Executive Director for Policy and Communications at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF), where I oversaw all aspects of the agency’s government affairs and communications efforts. I am currently on the board of director of Project Inform, a national HIV and Hepatitis C treatment and advocacy organization. I am a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where I studied Social Welfare and Public Policy.