(TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- Davey Alba, a technology reporter covering disinformation for the New York Times, will speak at the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts on Wednesday, March 2 at 11:00am, part of the OCC Foundation's Blauvelt Speaker Series.

For the past decade, Alba has been covering some of the most compelling topics in tech, including artificial intelligence, conspiracy theories, and the impact of technology on civil rights. She has recently written about misinformation in the U.S. Presidential and midterm elections and viral falsehoods about QAnon, anti-vaxxers and the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Before joining the New York Times, Alba was a senior reporter at BuzzFeed News and has written for various publications, including WIRED, Gizmodo and IEEE Spectrum. In 2019, she won the Livingston Award for excellence in international reporting for her feature, How Duterte Used Facebook to Fuel the Philippine Drug War. The story also won a Mirror Award for best story on journalism in peril.  Alba moved to the United States in 2010 after attending De La Salle University in Manila, and has a master's degree in science journalism from Columbia University. She lives in Brooklyn. 

Tickets to the Main Stage event are $15. To purchase tickets, visit grunincenter.org or call the Grunin Center Box Office at 732-255-0500. Access to the livestream is free; advance registration is required.  

The Blauvelt Speaker Series is funded in part by the generosity of the late Bradford Thomas & Eleanor G. Blauvelt and The Wintrode Family Foundation. This year’s 2021-2022 additional sponsors include Arlene and Frank Dupignac, Jr.; Helen M. Earles, Ph.D.; Judi and Stephan Leone; New Jersey Natural Gas; and Novins, York, Jacobus and Dooley.