Initiatives

Sarah FitzHenry is an educator working to provide equitable and engaging learning experiences for all students. After ten years as a library media specialist and technology coordinator, Sarah now serves as the Director of Education and Mission for BirdBrain Technologies. She spends her days helping the BirdBrain team to reach their goal of inspiring deep and joyful learning for every student by supporting, connecting, and empowering educators all over the world as they bring creative robotics into their classrooms. Sarah is a tech geek, maker, writer, volunteer, and host of the Flocking Amazing podcast. A Jane-of-all-trades, she can be found in Charlottesville, Virginia making mistakes, learning new things, and asking a lot of questions.

Anne Hiatt is the co-founder and executive director of the international community-based organization Opera on Tap, which has the mission of bringing opera to new audiences by taking it to places where people least expect. She is the executive producer of the organization's Immersive Opera Project, which brings together partners across the performing arts and tech sectors to explore performing arts projects integrating emerging technologies. Projects of note include the world’s first VR opera, The Parksville Murders (‘Best VR Video’ at the NYC Indie Film Festival in May 2017 and premiered online as featured content in partnership with SamsungVR, October 2017), Looking at You (a techno-noir opera that highlights the perils of surveillance capitalism on the internet, made in partnership with HERE and privacy researchers at Carnegie Mellon University), as well as Joan of the City (an opera that incorporates augmented reality and leverages the Joan of Arc archetype to tell the story of 5 women who are experiencing homelessness in modern times). Creative collaborators on Immersive Opera Projects include composer Kamala Sankaram, writer Jerre Dye, director and artistic director of HERE Kristin Marting, director Cari Ann Shim Sham*, and writer Rob Handel, to name a few.

Under Anne’s leadership, Opera on Tap has grown into a large national network of artist-entrepreneurs, performers, educators, creators, supporters, and audiences. She oversees the operations of over 30 Chapters of Opera on Tap across the US, Germany and South Africa. Opera on Tap has gained international recognition as an innovative force that is grounded in community-building and education (Playground Opera). Opera on Tap's STEAM education programs are active in 13 cities across the United States. The organization has been featured in such media outlets as The NY Times, NPR All Things Considered, The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, the LA Times, among many others. In the coming year, Anne looks forward to developing an inspired community-based project Music as the Message, alongside Emmy award-winning soprano Adrienne Danrich as well as continuing to help forge a formal affiliation with another national Brooklyn-based opera organization American Opera Projects.

For over three decades, Rich has been providing K-12 students with authentic, meaningful, and innovative learning experiences, while inspiring other educators to do the same. Rich has lived and worked in Canada, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, and the U.S.. He is currently the Director of Academic Innovation and Design at The Alexander Dawson School in Las Vegas, NV. and serves as the Experiential Learning co-lead at Columbia University Teachers College’s Klingenstein Summer Institute. Rich was the co-creator and co-facilitator of the Principals Training Center's "Problem, Project, and Design Based Teaching" course for international educators, was a senior administrator for Exploration Senior Summer Programs, and served as a national faculty member for PBL Works from 2015-2020. Additionally, Rich’s “Problem Bank” concept was a 2017 Infy Maker Award winner. Rich loves music in all its forms, and is passionate about all things related to Project Based Learning, maker education, and design thinking.

As Associate Director of Learning, Clare works in partnership with HFLI’s leadership team to advance HFLI’s national programs and vision of excellence in education for all. Clare believes education should ultimately foster students’ abilities to creatively transform their world, and she leverages a Deeper Learning by Doing® approach to promote experiences that guide learners to develop future-of-work readiness skills and competencies. She spent ten years working in Detroit education as a secondary ELA teacher, a literacy instructional coach, an assistant principal, the founding principal of University Prep Art & Design Middle School, and the director of academics for a network of ten K-12 schools. In each of these roles, Clare’s practice was grounded in culturally responsive and restorative practices, aiming to develop strong relationships, with all community members, rooted in empathy, respect, dignity, and mutual concern. Leveraging these relationships, Clare worked to create systems that centered the voices of students and families in order to co-create academic and cultural rituals rooted in learning and joy. Dedicated to liberating education in Detroit and beyond, Clare is the board co-chair of Detroit Connect, which works to connect and mobilize professionals across the state of Michigan who are passionate about advocating for equitable educational outcomes for all students. She earned her School Administrator Certification in Education Leadership through Grand Valley State University, her M.A. in Teaching Secondary Education from Oakland University, and her B.S. in Human Development from Cornell University.

Chad Orcutt is the Executive Director of Community Shop Class (Shop Class Inc a 501c3). Chad spent almost 14 years as a team manager, coach, and manager trainer at Apple Inc. before deciding to devote his life to neuro-inclusive learning and community building. He currently leads Shop Class, which is a neighborhood learning center and maker space in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento. Chad and his team have developed innovative neuro-inclusive training programs and learning experiences built from the perspective of learners impacted by ADHD, ASD, and Learning Differences. The programs use environment, emotion, and experiential learning to introduce skills in trades work, technology, and the arts. The Shop Class Workshop is an inspirational community space that celebrates creative courage and community involvement. Chad is an inventor, social entrepreneur, and community advocate. His training programs are used by Sierra Service Project, AmeriCorps NCCC, Sacramento Sustainability Academy, and many local community-based organizations looking for inclusive learning opportunities for young people in Sacramento. His flagship program, The Tiny Home Academy, is a month-long journey through trades, tools, and tech where students build a sustainable tiny home. Chad is dedicated to creating a more inclusive community through equitable access to tools, training, and makers’ equipment. As a community advocate, he is involved with many other nonprofit organizations, lobbying for more opportunities for his underserved community and raising awareness of the challenges and gifts of neurodivergent people. He is also the founder of the ADHD Inventor’s Club which supports creatives, inventors, and neighbors through project groups, meetups, and how-to videos.

Tom Pupo is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Moonlighter FabLab, a 501(c)3 Non-Profit STEAM Learning Center and Community Fabrication Lab. Under his leadership over the past 9 years, Moonlighter has provided an open and accessible space for developing and testing new projects that bridge academic inquiry and economic opportunity. To date, the organization has served over 15,000 youth, provided over $250,000 in scholarships, supported over 350 members, and built over 15 large scale social impact projects. Moonlighter FabLab placemaking projects have transformed public spaces in Miami while serving as an educational model for emerging makers and innovators. These experiences provide students with real-world projects where they learn fundamental design and technical/STEM skills. Other notable STEAM educational partnerships include programs with Maker Ed, The Fab Foundation, Make Magazine, The Nation of Makers, Fairchild Garden and NASA! Alumni of Moonlighter programs have pursued careers in design, urbanism, academia, education and tech fields. Tom has served as an adjunct professor at the FIU Honors College, FIU CARTA, and at The Idea Center at MDC. Tom graduated from The Honors College at FIU and earned his Masters in Architecture.

Jie Qi is an artist, inventor, and entrepreneur. Her mission is to combine art with engineering to create experiences of wonder, and empower creators of all backgrounds to make their own expressive and personally meaningful technologies. She is co-founder and CEO of Chibitronics, a company that produces creative learning toolkits for paper circuits. As a 2017 fellow of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard University Law school, Jie created PatentPandas.org, a resource to teach patent law through friendly panda comics, share real life inventors’ stories, and connect independent creators to free legal counsel. Jie holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in media arts and sciences from the MIT Media Lab. Her work has been exhibited at the Exploratorium Museum, Ars Electronica, and is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.