Impact & Empowerment
THE CHALLENGE:
Technology has become essential to everyday life. Access to employment, healthcare, benefits, education, financial services, and community resources increasingly requires the ability to navigate digital systems. For people who have not had the opportunity, access, or support to develop those skills, technology can become another barrier rather than a tool for independence.
OUR APPROACH:
By providing patient, accessible education, DFI helps turn digital barriers into opportunities. We build practical skills in digital literacy, online safety, fraud and scam awareness, privacy, and responsible AI use. Our goal is not simply to teach people how to use technology—it is to give individuals and communities the knowledge and confidence to use it safely, independently, and on their own terms.
Meet the Team
Bringing together experience, advocacy, and a shared commitment to making technology accessible for everyone.
Theo
Founder & Executive Director
Theo Guething founded The Digital Freedom Initiative after years of working alongside individuals navigating recovery, homelessness, reentry, and other major life transitions. Through that work, he repeatedly saw the same barrier: people were increasingly expected to access employment, services, healthcare, education, and essential resources through technology they had never been given the opportunity to learn.
Theo created DFI to help close that gap through practical, patient, and accessible digital education. His approach is grounded in meeting people where they are, teaching at their pace, and building skills that foster confidence and independence rather than dependence.
Through DFI, Theo works to expand digital access and literacy while partnering with community organizations, businesses, and government leaders to address digital exclusion as a broader systemic issue.
Holly
Marketing Manager
Holly brings lived experience and a background in peer recovery coaching and reentry advocacy to her work with The Digital Freedom Initiative. She has seen firsthand how limited access to technology and digital skills can create significant barriers to employment, housing, benefits, healthcare, and essential support services.
Holly believes technology should create opportunities—not barriers. Her work with DFI is rooted in the belief that digital literacy is about more than learning how to use technology; it is about building confidence, increasing independence, and expanding access to opportunity. As Marketing Manager, she helps communicate DFI’s mission and connect its programs with the individuals, communities, and organizations they are designed to serve.
Ayla
Media Director
Ayla brings more than 20 years of public service and experience working with vulnerable and underserved communities to her role as Media Director for The Digital Freedom Initiative. Her career has centered on education, advocacy, public safety, and making complex information understandable and accessible to the people who need it.
As DFI’s Media Director, Ayla works behind the scenes to transform ideas and educational content into clear, engaging, and accessible resources. She oversees DFI’s website, social media, promotional materials, and physical and digital media while collaborating on the research and development of new educational content.
A lifelong early adopter of technology, Ayla believes that access alone is not enough. People need understandable education and support to use technology safely and confidently. Her work with DFI reflects a longstanding commitment to empowering communities through knowledge, because an informed community is a stronger community.