Experience: 21 years of experience in strategic planning, team building, and communications with an emphasis on digital communications and communicating with individuals with disabilities.

Relevant skill set: Project Lead, Strategy, and Accessibility.

Virginia cut her teeth in the digital space when it was only an emerging industry. She’s spent most of her career on the agency side, running digital projects and campaigns for clients like the Philadelphia Water Department, the Association of International Certified Public Accountants, Duke Energy, and the City of Durham in North Carolina. Since starting Virginia Ingram & Associates, Virginia has focused on technology-sparked solutions for business and life. She’s worked with clients to help communicate with those most important to them, primarily through digital channels. From helping flagship North Carolina magazine Our State realize the power of the web for expanded storytelling, to crafting a communications strategy and plan for the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, to creating a digital strategy and roadmap for Philadelphia’s Water Department. 

Virginia rounded out her work experience with courses in the brand and positioning at the Miami Ad School, but she’s not a strategist who stops at the big ideas. Her early years of managing projects to the last detail left a permanent mark—she’s always thinking about how to turn strategy into a plan of action. She is tech-savvy and fluent in “geek”—having spent over a decade as the go-between for business-wonks and tech-heads. Virginia brings unfettered energy and enthusiasm to her work, which is just one reason clients and collaborators like working with her.

Experience: 13 years in higher education with a keen interest in designing an education plan for individuals who never believed higher education was possible.

Relevant skill set: Statistical/Mathematical Modeling, Education, Curriculum Design, AWS.

Ariel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics of East Tennessee State University (ETSU). He earned his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University. Before joining the faculty of ETSU he held a postdoctoral joint appointment at North Carolina State University and the Statistical & Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute. His research interests include: mathematical modeling of dynamic processes; distance-learning for undergraduate mathematics curriculum; and education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). In recent years, Dr. Cintron-Arias led research training and workforce preparation initiatives that were funded by state and/or federal agencies, such as the Tennessee Board of Regents, the National Security Agency, and the National Science Foundation. Several of these initiatives facilitated by Dr. Cintron-Arias relied on a form of project-based learning denominated as undergraduate research.

Olivia is a Speech-Language Pathologist who helps individuals by assessing their communication needs and developing individualized plans to help them effectively engage with their family, friends, and community. Olivia trained under the Preparing SLP’s to Improve Language and Literacy Outcomes for Children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing grant while in graduate school. This allowed her to complete extensive coursework in literacy and literacy training strategies for individualizes who are deaf and hard of hearing as well as those who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication. She has considerable training in the function and use of hearing aids, and cochlear implants. She has a unique understanding of their effects on communication and works with clients to use these to their full advantage. She also has training in American Sign Language and is able to communicate with individuals who use ASL as their primary form of communication. Furthermore, Olivia completed a Master’s thesis, studying the impact of a speech-to-text application for vocabulary learning as an aid to students who are deaf or hard of hearing. She assisted in the development of the application and piloted the application with students. Through this experience, she gained extensive knowledge of strategies for implementing technology in the classroom to assist students with communication needs.

Olivia completed her undergraduate degree in Canada, developing a passion for travel and experiencing different cultures. During her summers as an undergraduate student, she worked at a summer camp in Maine, one of her responsibilities was helping counselors from foreign countries adjust to life in the United States and assisting them in navigating American culture. After graduating, Olivia moved to London, United Kingdom and worked as an au pair for a French family. During this time she was responsible for the care of children navigating a different culture that did not speak their primary language. These unique experiences built a desire to help individuals communicate and flourish in challenging environments.

Experience: Three years of experience working with individuals in challenging communication environments, particularly skilled at making the world accessible to individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication devices and/or members of the deaf community who do not have the same access to information the rest of us enjoy. 

Relevant skill set: Accessibility, Education, Research, Focus Groups with customers.

Experience: 30+ years in science literacy and working with the general public to explain complex scientific information.

Relevant skill set: Citizen Scientist, Researcher, TED Fellow, Education.

Ellen has provided access to hands-on biotechnology lab training to the general public since 2011 and has taught hundreds of adults and students the joy of genetic engineering for the good of the world. She holds a Ph.D. in Cell & Molecular Biology from New York University, spent over 30 years in the biotechnology industry and is currently founder & president of the community lab Biotech Without Borders, a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission to provide access to biotech education to all. Dr. Jorgensen is passionate about increasing science literacy in both student and adult populations, particularly in the areas of molecular and synthetic biology. In 2009 she co-founded Genspace, a community biolab in Brooklyn that was named one of the World’s Top 10 Innovative Companies in Education. She is a SynbioLEAP fellow, recipient of a Shuttleworth Foundation Flash Grant, an alumnus of the Amsterdam School of Creative Leadership THNK, and Education Committee Chair of the GP-write consortium to construct a human genome. Her efforts to develop innovative ways to support citizen participation in science have been chronicled by Nature Medicine, Science, Discover Magazine, Wired, Make, BBC News, Dan Rather Reports, PBS NewsHour, The Discovery Channel, and The New York Times. In 2017, Fast Company magazine named her one of their Most Creative Leaders in Business. In 2018 she co founded Carverr, a biotechnology company that uses biomolecules and microbes to ensure the security of foods. Her TED talks, “Biohacking: You Can Do It Too” and “What You Need To Know About CRISPR” have a combined 3 million views.

She also spearheaded a citizen science project that was focused on water quality at a Superfund site in the Gowanus Canal.

Leslie is a unique design leader who creates change in the digital and physical worlds. She has built award-winning products and services with companies that include Time, Inc, Pentagram, HBO, Razorfish, HUGE, Meetup, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and more. After 20+ years in the digital realm, Leslie attended SCI-Arc's M.ARCH architecture program to inform and complement her design in virtual spaces. Currently, she is Head of Design for Haven Life, a leading life insurance tech startup, where her team recently released a new experience that breaks the traditional model in the industry, and she leads the experience, product, and brand design. With her UX background, Leslie is also designing a line of functional bags to make everyday lives easier.  She writes fiction, surfs in the Rockaways, listens to uncommon music, and plays tennis.  Leslie has degrees from Mount Holyoke College and the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University.  She is based in Brooklyn and LA.

Experience: 25 years of experience in advertising, marketing, and user experience with a specialty in digital communications.

Relevant skill set: User Interface Design, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Usability Testing.

Experience: 26 years working in communications, user experience, and the customer service industries; 40+ years being an instigator of ideas. Steven has an uncanny ability to excavate a gem out of a tiny sliver of an idea.

Relevant skill set: Customer Experience Transformation, Strategy.

Steven is the founder of CX Pilots where he works with companies in the Fortune 10 as well as the Fortune 10,000 by helping them transform their strategies and operations to become more systematically empathetic to their internal and external customers. Over the past year, he has begun to tighten his focus on the “client experience” (as opposed to the customer experience) for the CPA, Legal, Architecture/Engineering, Investment Banking, and Insurance industries, where the relationship is the product. His superpower is helping executives see customer experience (CX) through the lens of economics, organizational development, and innovation management. He leads a team of 12 independent customer experience consultants focused on helping organizations know more about their customers so they can serve them more strategically. As a veteran of Digital Strategy and Strategic Marketing, he specializes in building change management programs to help companies take advantage of better ways to operate and go to market (in fact, 28 of the Fortune 500 companies have trusted him to design and implement significant changes). 

Steven lives in Raleigh, NC. When he’s not traveling to advise and support his clients, he is either googling Calculus problems to help his creative high school junior Oliver pass classes that don’t excite him or sending money to East Carolina University’s Engineer School in support of his oldest son’s Simon STEM habit.

Wythe Marschall is a Ph.D. candidate in the anthropology of technology and ecological design within Harvard University’s Department of the History of Science. Wythe currently researches agricultural technology startups. His first book project examines the rise of vertical farming in New York City.

Wythe is also a research associate for Cornell University’s Small Farms Program, a senior research advisor to the industry nonprofit FarmTech Society, and a marketing advisor smart agriculture startup Grow Computer. In addition, he was the writer of the YouTube show Crash Course: History of Science.

Previously, Wythe co-founded the Biodesign Challenge; lectured in the English Department of Brooklyn College, CUNY (where he received his MFA in 2009); taught science fiction and the history of the life sciences at Harvard; curated art-and-science exhibitions; and worked in health and wellness advertising, most recently as a copy supervisor for Neon (a DraftFCB company).

Experience: 13 years making health and science information interesting to the masses.

Relevant skill set: Content Strategy, Copywriting, Science Communications.

Experience: Nine years experience working with individuals in challenging communication environments, particularly skilled at making the world accessible to individuals with autism and helping individuals who have experienced a health trauma such as a stroke or a swallowing disorder determine what is next in their life.

Relevant skill set: Accessibility, Education.

Heidi’s career spans multiple disciplines, populations, and communities. She began as a high school special education teacher in South Philadelphia where she was tasked with preparing high school seniors for entry into the next chapter of their lives. At this job, she discovered a passion for helping non-traditional learners and problem-solving ways in which those with a variety of disabilities could interface effectively with the communities in which they lived and worked. From Philadelphia, she took her teaching career, west to Denver, Colorado where she worked in a variety of urban school settings where new challenges arose including but not limited to: specific work with those on the autism spectrum and young adults who spoke English as their second language. 

Her work in diverse, urban communities helped her examine how the education system does and doesn’t work for all and how improved access and methodologies could open new doors for those who may not fit a one-size-fits-all model for learning. Heidi returned to graduate school and received her Master’s in Speech Pathology because she had seen first-hand how communication gaps and breakdowns inhibit access for disenfranchised individuals and communities. Just as she applied outside-the-box thinking to her teaching career, she brings the same perspective to her clients with communication disorders. As technology and communication mediums continue to develop, Heidi believes that improving accessibility for all is paramount to building a more inclusive community be it through education or communication.

Christie Nicholson is an award-winning science journalist, facilitator, and entrepreneur. Most recently she was the founding member of D10X, Citibank's internal accelerator that nurtured 150+ startups as well as instilled an innovative mindset within the firm. Christie is also a contributing editor at Scientific American magazine. For the Alan Alda Center, Christie has coached more than 3,000 scientists on how to communicate effectively with colleagues, policymakers, and the public. Over the last decade, Christie has facilitated small and large groups within non-profit organizations, companies, and government in order to help people align on complex topics, narrow ideas and implement valuable programs. For these same organizations, she speaks regularly about social innovation, clear communication, and human-centered design. Christie is on the advisory board of South by Southwest Interactive and is the board chair of PopTech. She is an alumnus of the startup accelerator AngelPad and holds degrees from Dalhousie University in Canada and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was awarded the Eibel Fellowship. Christie is currently building a new consultancy, the Institute for Innovation and Communicating Complexity in New York City.

Experience: 27 years building businesses, facilitating meetings, and objectively writing about complex scientific information.

Relevant skill set: Science Communications, Facilitation, Start-Ups/Pilots and Experimental Design.

Experience: 26 years in development and making technology accessible to individuals with communication barriers.

Relevant skill set: WordPress, Front End Development Consulting, Accessibility.

When Scott built his first website years ago, there was an actual book that contained a directory of all URLs. He quickly learned how to apply his background in business to a newly developing Internet, learning directly from several of its pioneers. Scott specializes in creating standards­-based websites that are editable by non­technical administrators. He writes accessible, semantic code that embraces Section 508/WCAG standards. With 20+ years of web development under his belt, Scott has helped shape the internet as a place that anyone can use. Since the beginning, Scott has worked to remove technical hurdles and help communicators use technology to connect with their audiences. He built his first content management system for a multi­million ­dollar software re­seller, replacing a 500 page hand­-edited HTML site with an expandable system that enabled the marketing team to keep content up­-to-­date. Scott and Virginia worked together for several years, building a web team from scratch at one of the most respected agencies in North Carolina. They created a website to support BeActiveNC (a fitness initiative of the NC Department of Health and Human Services) and overhauled WRAL.com, the state’s leading news site. Scott currently freelances on a variety of projects. He consults with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on technical recommendations and mentors an agency that does award­-winning work for departments throughout the University. He has also built websites for programs like the NC Early Childhood Foundation. And he still receives an annual Christmas card from Sean Lennon because of web work he did for Sean and his mom Yoko.