Born and raised in Boston and Cambridge, Jahime is a Umass Boston student part of the Next Up program. He is a person of many experiences and is willing to help the team as much as possible. Jahime has experience with Adobe programs, 3D printing, green screen work, video editing, community engagement and management, and is willing to learn more skills from the team and in return help The Foundry with his creativity and strive to bring The Foundry even closer to the community.

Stephanie Couch joined the Lemelson-MIT Program as Executive Director in 2016, and is a resident of Cambridge, as well as a member of the Foundry Consortium. Previously, she was the Interim Associate Vice President of Research and Professional Development at California State University, East Bay; Bayer Executive Director of the Institute for STEM Education, and Director for Gateways East Bay STEM Network at California State University, East Bay, as well as Deputy Director, Policy Programs, and Research, California STEM Learning Network and Director of Statewide Initiatives, School of Education University of California, Davis.

The Director and Co-founder of Jean Appolon Expressions, Jean Appolon is a successful choreographer and teacher based in Boston and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He received his earliest training and performance opportunities in Port-au-Prince with the Viviane Gauthier Dance Company and the Folkloric Ballet of Haiti. Appolon continued his dance education in the U.S. with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Joffrey American Ballet School, graduating with a BA in 2003 from a joint degree program at The New School. Appolon teaches regularly at Boston Ballet, The Dance Complex (Cambridge, MA), and the University of Massachusetts Boston. Appolon was recently appointed a 2017 Brother Thomas Fellow and was also inducted to the 1804 List of Haitian American Changemakers in the U.S.

Betsy Bard has lived in the Baldwin neighborhood for over 40 years. She recently retired from the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School where she served as a social worker for 35 years. Her responsibilities included supervising child care internships and managing the onsite day care center. To expand her passion for social justice and theater, Betsy has worked as a teaching artist and playwright for Youth Underground which is the educational component of the Underground Railway Theater. She has created eight plays based on the methodology of investigative theater that have been performed at The Central Square Theater and have toured extensively to high schools and colleges. Betsy is a board member of Central Square Theater and the Citizens’ Committee on Civic Unity for the City of Cambridge.

Polly Carpenter is an architect and design educator whose work focuses on bringing the power of design to children, educators and the public through hands-on architecture and design activities. Initiating K12 design education through the Learning By Design program of the Boston Society for Architecture, Polly has taught hundreds of children, teacher and architect workshops. A North Cambridge resident, she is a director of the Association for Architecture Organizations and a former trustee of Boston by Foot. As an architect she has a background in educational, institutional, and residential design working at architectural firms, large and small, in Boston and New York. Polly is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Selvin Chambers grew up in the Port neighborhood of Cambridge. Selvin is a board member of the Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House, the Community Arts Center, the Men of Color Health Task Force, and is the Executive Director for LifeScene, an organization focused on removing barriers so that youth and families can find, access, and receive skills to build assets, resiliency, and self-sufficiency. . Selvin previously served as the Boston Regional Executive Director for BUILD, an entrepreneurship program for high school youth, the founding Executive Director of Root in Salem, The Food Project, and as executive director of the Elizabeth Peabody House, a community-based provider of early childhood education, youth development and enrichment, and family services, in Somerville, Mass. His previous posts include leadership roles for the city of Boston’s Centers for Youth & Families and the city of Cambridge Youth Programs. He has also worked for City Year, the country’s premier provider of services aimed at preventing student dropout. Chambers served as deputy director of City Year in Chicago and as program director for the organization’s operations in Boston; Columbia, S.C.; Columbus, Ohio; and San Antonio, Texas.

Joyce Chen is a shared community space and STEAM enthusiast, and former long-time resident of Cambridge (having just moved across the border to Somerville). She currently leads strategic partnerships at Mercury, a banking startup. Prior to Mercury, Joyce was in venture capital and also led the global expansion of Venture Cafe, a global network of nonprofit organizations focused on building community for founders and creating pathways to entrepreneurship for all. Often housed in shared multi-use spaces, through Venture Cafe Joyce saw the power in activating an excellently designed space through programming and community engagement. Joyce has previously worked at MIT in various roles, including running accelerator programs and bootcamps for entrepreneurs, as well as large-scale international tech conferences. Joyce previously served on the City of Cambridge’s appointed Foundry Advisory Committee.

Peter Crawley is a resident of East Cambridge. He is a Principal at Satoria Sustainability Consulting, and has led at the intersection of strategic consulting, real estate and sustainability for more than 20 years, serving as the principal advisor to top real estate owners and scores of operating companies. Independently and through a partnership with the Sustainability Roundtable, Inc., where he served as Director of Research & Consulting, Peter has helped the executive teams at Fortune 1000 enterprises develop and implement highly profitable Sustainability strategies. Prior to working with the Sustainability Roundtable, Peter served as the Director of Sustainability Services at the environmental engineering firm EBI Consulting, and as Director of the Sustainable Business Leadership Program of MA. He has also taught on Sustainability, Leadership, and Corporate Social Responsibility as an adjunct professor at Boston College’s Carroll School of Business. Peter began his career in real estate development and has managed the design and permitting process for mixed use projects as large as $300 million. He has worked in real estate acquisitions, finance, and planning for companies such as John Hancock Properties, Meredith Management and the Boston Redevelopment Authority. He is past President of the East Cambridge Planning Team.

I am a dancer, illustrator, musician and pre-medical student. My current focus has been on providing programming for the street and club dance communities, while engaging the general public, through The Flavor Continues. My main focus is to bring equity into spaces I go into, whether it’s through representation, education, or creating innovative initiatives.

Emmanuella Fedé is a first generation Haitian-American early childhood educator and aspiring Atelierista. Born and raised in The Port, Cambridge, she began acting on her passion for education when she was 14, as a junior counselor for PBHA's summer program. Since then she has worked in various community groups, non profits, and school settings. Most notably as a lead school age teacher at the Community art Center. She graduated from Lesley University in 2022 with a B.A in Psychology and Early Childhood Education.

Amy Green Deines became the dean of the Lesley College of Art and Design in 2019. Deines brings to Lesley 20 years of experience in higher education, most recently at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she served as dean and chief academic officer. Prior to her time at Cranbrook, Deines served in multiple roles at Lawrence Technological University’s (LTU) College of Architecture and Design, including associate dean of the college and dean of graduate programs.

While at LTU, Deines raised $1.5 million to create the Detroit Center for Design and Technology, which opened in the spring of 2016. As a destination for design thinking, serving college and high school students, young and seasoned professionals, architects, artists, designers, innovators and entrepreneurs, the center is a place where students and faculty can collaborate with the broader community on issues that impact everyone.

Deines regularly lectures and participates in reviews at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard, Yale School of Architecture, and the School at Art Institute of Chicago, as well as international academies. Amy earned her BFA in design from Wayne State University and her master of Architecture from Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Kellyanne Mahoney is a National Board Certified Teacher and experienced curriculum developer who spent 13 years working in the Boston Public Schools. She currently serves as a Youth Program Specialist for Autodesk, focusing on creating K-12 STEAM learning content, managing education programs, facilitating professional development for educators, and building strong relationships with the New England education community and beyond. For the past several years, Kellyanne’s work has also been centered on using design thinking to bridge the problems faced in schools with the problem of creating equitable onramps into the innovation economy for students.

Originally from Jamaica, Kim has been a proud Cambridge resident for over 30 years since moving to the states for her undergrad at Boston University followed by her MBA at Northeastern University. Working as a full time Realtor since 2000, she recently achieved the accolade of International Presidents Premier – the top 1% of Coldwell Banker Realty sales agents worldwide for 2021.  Prior to working as a realtor, she was a Financial Analyst at Harvard University and National Grid, and an Internal Auditor at Boston Private Banking. Kim is a proud supporter of Breast Cancer research. When she’s not busy with homes or charity events, Kim loves unwinding with 80’s or reggae tunes in the sunniest spot she can find.