Meet  our team!!!

My Story

Jack, Executive Director and co-founder of The Community Bots, is an experienced middle school teacher. Formerly, Jack established the middle school robotics program, The Bots, at The Chapin School, an all-girls, K-12, independent school in New York City. Under his leadership, Chapin’s FLL teams earned numerous awards at competitions, such as the coveted Champion’s Award at the New York City FLL Championship, and have gone on to compete against teams from around the world. Jack is currently the head of the science and engineering department at The Allen-Stevenson School in New York City.

Jack is committed to global citizenship and social justice. Creating a culture around these values resonates deeply with his educational philosophy to provide students with the tools to better engage in a complex world and to feel like they can make a difference. Having worked with mainstream students and those with learning differences, both at the middle and high school level, Jack has found that a multi-modality, skills-based approach is the most effective way to reach all kinds of young learners. His experience as a world traveler, both formerly and more recently with The Community Bots, has enabled him to tap into all kinds of communities and students from around the globe who are eager to negotiate challenges in creative and innovative ways.

Jack holds a BA in Psychobiology from Bowdoin College, a MS in Nutrition from the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He earned his teaching degree from Teachers College at Columbia University.

My Story

Cindy has been Vice President for Enrollment Management at Stevens Institute of Technology since 2022. She is responsible for the undergraduate admissions and financial aid offices, pre-college summer programs, net tuition revenue targets, financial aid discounting strategies and related budgets. Cindy also teaches a first-year introduction to entrepreneurial thinking course to undergraduate students.

Cindy started her career in the financial services industry at Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase where she held a number of positions in the cash management and global private banking businesses. She was also previously a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Series 7 and 63 licensed private banking associate. She later moved into the non-profit sector working for the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy as a senior research analyst and eventually joined Stevens in 2012 in the Undergraduate Admissions office. She held several roles in Undergraduate Admissions including admissions counselor, associate director of operations and interim director. She later joined Technolutions, an education software company, before returning to Stevens in 2017 in the Office of the Provost, as Associate Provost. 

Cindy holds a Doctor of Education in Entrepreneurial Leadership in Education from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Science in Management and a Bachelor of Science in Business and Technology with high honors, both from Stevens Institute of Technology. Cindy serves as president of the Class of 2005 for the Stevens Alumni Association, and was also previously a member of the Board of Trustees and Advisory Committee for the Hoboken Dual Language Charter School.

“The Community Bots does great work in training, building, and helping develop a passion and knowledge for STEM in young girls in underserved communities around the world, and I could not be more excited to be associated with the organization.”

My Story

Victoria grew up in three different countries and has taught world languages in elementary school (Spanish & French) and science for over thirty years in NYC. She received her doctorate from Teachers College in educational leadership. She is a frequent presenter on authentic resources and IPA design. For ten years, she was also curriculum specialist and professional development leader for Global Language Project (GLP). Dr. Gilbert has taught FLES methodology classes and served as lead instructor in NYU’s and GLP’s StarTalk program for teachers. She is currently the Chair of the Modern Language Department at Saint David’s School.

In 1999, Tori founded the nonprofit, East River Community Recreation and Education on the Water (C.R.E.W.), whose mission is to cultivate stewardship of the estuary environment through participation in its rowing and educational activities. Tori has always been a proponent of making science accessible through integrated and experiential learning and supports the mission of The Community Bots to make STEM learning capture the imaginations of young women

 My Story

Bob Hall graduated from the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health in 1995 with a Master of Science in Epidemiology. He works for VA Boston Healthcare Research as an Informatics/Data Analytics scientist where he manages a group that employs Artificial Intelligence in clinical trials. He has many years of experience in public health, epidemiology, medical writing, and data analytics to improve health and support research innovation.

He guides The Community Bots with data collection and analysis of student and teacher surveys. Bob also works as a museum educator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

 My Story

Isabella is an attorney who specialized in mass tort and product liability litigation at a leading law firm for ten years. She published numerous articles about legal issues affecting corporate defendants. In addition to representing domestic and foreign corporations, she served as pro bono counsel in lawsuits on behalf of formerly homeless individuals and families in New York City. Isabella received her JD from the Cardozo School of Law in New York City and her BA from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. She is an active member of Georgetown’s Alumni Admissions Program and serves as a Class Ambassador.

Isabella’s family is from Nicaragua, and she is passionate about the development of children’s educational opportunities in Latin America. She is inspired by The Community Bots’ mission to empower girls in underserved communities through STEM-robotics programs.

 My Story

Laura is Senior Program Manager in Risk and Compliance Engineering at Google. She focuses on bringing data together across Google to generate security, privacy, and safety risk signals to guide business decision-making and prioritization. Prior to Google, Laura spent 20 years in the financial services industry in roles ranging from mergers & acquisitions technical leadership, technology business management, infrastructure uplift and optimization and equities and prime brokerage engineering. Laura is delighted to assist The Community Bots Board in helping drive the important mission of bringing STEM education and opportunities to young women in underserved communities around the world, such an important step in democratizing technology through access.

 My Story

Anna is Head of Product Management for AWS Data Exchange (Amazone Web Services), a managed data sharing infrastructure service and third-party data marketplace. She develops the strategy that Product and Engineering teams execute on to deliver new features to customers. Prior to AWS, she worked at S&P Global as a Product Manager for Technology and Telecom data. She completed her B.A. in International Relations – Global Security at Brown University specializing in China. Anna mentions that she receieve lot of help throughout school, and her early career to get where she is today and is excited to join The Community Bots board as a way to pay it forward. She sees our mission to introduce STEM education and opportunities to girls in underserved communities as vital to a more prosperous, peaceful, equitable future for everyone.

 My Story

Rama was brought up in Kenya and moved to England about 35 years ago. She earned her degree in computing at the University of Westminster. Rama has had various roles as a solution consultant professional working with software companies. She currently works as a leader in solution consulting. She has worked with many customers on helping them with their digital transformation journey. Rama’s career has provided her with skills in software technology, supporting sales organizations, creating business cases, customer success and helping clients increase efficiency within their organization. Rama is a STEM ambassador where she volunteers at various schools to inspire young students, especially girls in STEM roles. She is a trustee with a charity organization called Learning to Work. Rama is passionate about inspiring women in technology and is currently a co-chair of the women’s belonging group. Rama joined The Community Bots Advisory Board as she sees an opportunity to give back to a great cause that is close to her heart.

 My Story

Stacy graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Sociology and a focus on childhood delinquency and worked at a boy’s home mentoring children. She met her husband and moved to Minnesota where she began her career in technology. Much of her career has been spent supporting global customers implementing different HR technologies. She is currently a Sr. Director at ServiceNow leading a team focused on innovation and developing new ways of implementing technology. Throughout her career, she has focused efforts on supporting and mentoring women in the workplace. Stacy is a mother to three fun-loving children who are active in hockey, baseball, lacrosse, and soccer.  She enjoys traveling, cooking, reading, running, and giving back to her community in her free time.

 My Story

Anna Jacinta Mello earned her bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in education from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, and her master’s degree in ecology from the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis, Brazil. Lastly, she earned a post-graduate specialization in special education from Associação Sagres in Florianópolis, Brazil. She currently works at The Chapin School as the Middle School Science Department Chair and Middle School Robotics Program Coordinator, leading three teams Junior Bots, FIRST LEGO League, and Makerbots. Before working at Chapin, Anna spent two years at the Cloud Forest School in Monteverde, Costa Rica as a middle and high school science teacher and for five years at the International School of Florianópolis, Brazil as a middle school science teacher.

As a graduate student, she worked as an assistant teacher at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, collaborating with the engineering and automation departments with a focus on the conservation of natural resources. Over the past 14 years, Anna has been a translator and editor of scientific articles for various chemistry, ecology, and biology journals. When she isn’t teaching, Anna enjoys watercolor painting, taking care of plants, traveling abroad, and cooking foods from her home country of Brazil.

My Story

David is the President of the Kinsley Group, a full-service energy systems company headquartered in East Granby, Connecticut. One entity under the Kinsley Group, Kinsley Power Systems, is a central distributor for Kohler Power Systems, and sells, services, and rents emergency power systems throughout the northeast. Another Kinsley Group subsidiary,

Kinsley Energy Systems, offers prime power, combined heat and power applications from 250kW to 20MW. The Kinsley holding company currently has agreements for solar operations and maintenance and has an emerging energy storage/micro grid business model as well as other energy technology options. The Kinsley Group also co-owns a national service company, Ultimate Service Associates, and David serves on its Board of Directors. 

David has served on the Board of the Connecticut Power and Energy Society and most recently as the Board Chair for Capitol Squash, an urban squash program in Hartford. He has also been the past Chapter Chair for the Connecticut River Valley Young Presidents Organization (YPO) chapter. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1990.

My Story

Heriberto Torrado is the IT Director of The Harlem School of The Arts (HSA) in New York City where he creates, directs, and supervise all projects related to IT, web design, and HSA programming. In addition, Heriberto runs his own IT company, NetworkDreams, for the past fifteen years, working with companies in Spain, France, and Italy. He is now starting operations in the United States (New York).

Prior to moving to the United States, Heriberto spent more than fifteen years in Spain offering IT classes to public institutions such as the central government and local municipalities within Spain, as well as private companies like CapGemini, Ernst & Young, MoviStar, Medicsa, and Flextronics.

Heriberto has a degree in Computer Science from the Complutense University of Madrid, a master’s degree in Design and Communication from the Escuela Superior de Publicidad de Madrid, as well as certifications in computer network electronics and industrial electronics.

Heriberto is passionate about technology and computers and how to apply technical knowledge to improve people’s quality of life.

My Story

Dr. Forrester is an award-winning educator in the 2020 CSTA Teaching Excellence Awards. She is the Director of Technology at The Chapin School, an all-girls, K-12, independent school in New York City. Since joining Chapin in 2018, Vivienne serves as the head of upper school academic technology and upper school computer science teacher, where she revolutionized the upper school’s technology curriculum, launching new courses and collaborative programs across divisions. She also serves as the co-coordinator of the upper school FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team. Vivienne previously spent nine years with the District of Columbia Public Charter School system, serving in various STEM Leadership and computer science teaching positions. She also worked as a computer instructor with the National Training Agency in Jamaica. 

Vivienne earned a Bachelor’s degree in Education with a major in Computing and Accounting at the University of Technology, Jamaica. She received her Masters’ degree in MIS and a Ph.D. in Information Systems from Nova Southeastern University

(NSU). Vivienne currently serves as a Board Advisor to the STEM Builders Learning Hub, Jamaica. She strongly believes in lifelong learning, is committed to cultivating transformative competencies for students in STEM, and is invested in closing the gender gap in STEM Education.

My Story

Jedidah’s brings to The Community Bots over a decade of marketing expertise in driving demand, adoption, retention, and engagement for software and SaaS products. As a Senior Product Marketing Manager in various industries, including HR, finance, education, and productivity tech, she has delivered results through innovative market plans and go-to-market strategies.

Beyond her professional achievements, Jedidah is a passionate advocate for women’s equality in the workplace and society. She has dedicated her career to uplifting women and girls by volunteering her digital marketing skills to women-focused non-profits and small women-owned businesses. Jedidah amplifies women’s stories and issues through her writing and speaking, creating tools to better their lives and inspire change.

As an avid dancer, yoga enthusiast, hiker, reader, and foodie, Jedidah brings a vibrant energy to everything she does. She is also a proud and dedicated mother of two beautiful daughters, fueling her commitment to creating a more equitable world for future generations.

Jedidah’s enthusiasm for joining The Community Bots Advisory Board stems from her deep-rooted belief that educating women and girls has the power to uplift entire families and communities. With a MBA from California State University, East Bay, where she specialized in Marketing Management and graduated Magna Cum Laude, Jedidah brings a wealth of knowledge and strategic thinking to Board.

My Story

Neena was born in India but lived in Dubai for 15 years before moving back to India where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. Neena went on to complete her Masters in Computer Science at University of Leicester in the UK. She then worked as a web developer in London and met her husband who was based out of California.

Post wedding, she moved to Silicon Valley in 2013 where she started out volunteering at an organization called FACTR to help build their website while working as a UX support engineer at ServiceNow in San Jose. Currently, she manage a team of engineers based out of Santa Clara, California and Sydney, Australia.

On the personal front, Neena has two rambunctious boys, 3 and 6 years old, who keep her very busy after work. She enjoys traveling and just this year her family visited New York, Paris, Nice, Eze, Monaco, Amsterdam, Abcoude, Austin(TX), Mumbai and Bangalore!.

Neena is a strong advocate/speaker for women in tech and is part of “Power Of 10” Club for women. Recently, she was invited to be part of a career panel at her organization’s global meet.

Neena is thrilled to be part of this team because the mission resonates with her, and nothing makes her happier than seeing women succeed and have a bright future!

My Story

Kristin Royer is a video editor and motion graphics designer currently living in Seattle, Washington. Over the years, she has produced explainer videos, documentary shorts, music videos, and social media content. For the last three years, she has worked as a video producer at the technology company ServiceNow, producing training content. She loves to explore storytelling through various digital media and is thrilled to be lending her skills and experience to the Community Bots.

Kristin received her bachelor’s degree from the Pennsylvania State University and received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Baltimore. She is currently learning Spanish and hopes to someday be able to roll her Rs.

My Story

Gabriela Hull has been involved with The Community Bots since its early stages, developing the organization’s social media outlets and fundraising to support our programs. Fluent in various languages, she helped translate our website and robotics programs from English to Spanish.

She is currently a student at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She is on the track to double major in philosophy and Chinese, while being an active member in the Dartmouth Law Journal, the Tamid Consulting Group, and the Photography Club. She is also the president of the Roosevelt Group in Hanover and conducts research with a religion professor. Upon graduation, she intends to pursue a law degree and continue her work with not-for-profit organizations.

My Story

Eric Bae is a helping to design merchandise for the organization. He is currently a sophomore at Dartmouth College studying Russian and history. An eclectic researcher, Eric has travelled far and wide for his research endeavors, from studying tuberculosis at Stony Brook University to doing archaeological research in Romania.

He currently works with the Dartmouth Jewish Sound archive to document the oral history of diasporic Russian communities. After graduation, he intends to pursue law school and take up teaching at university.

My Story

Sage Silverstein graduated from the University of Delaware in 2016 with a degree in Psychology. After working for a few years in the corporate fashion industry, she decided to pursue her passion for helping others by becoming a nurse. In May 2022, Sage graduated Magna Cum Laude from New York University College of Nursing. She recently accepted a job at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC as a Registered Nurse on a Women’s Oncology unit.

Sage loves animals and the beach and enjoys reading, painting, and spending time with her friends. Sage recognizes the many mentors who have helped her along in her career and is excited to work with The Community Bots to help inspire and empower young women in STEM.

My Story

Najwa Fertitta is a New York native and recently moved back to Long Island after living in Philadelphia, PA for the past 6 years. After graduating from the University of Delaware in 2017 with a degree in Finance and International Business, she decided to work at JPMorgan Chase in Wilmington, Delaware. Najwa has continued to dive into many parts of the company ranging from Finance, Project Management, Marketing Strategy, Corporate Development, and most recently Wealth Management in JPMorgan’s Banking and Investing organization. This most recent opportunity is what brought her back home to New York and working in NYC for the first time, which has been a goal of hers since graduating.

Najwa loves cooking and enjoys coming up with new recipes and dishes to feed her family and friends. Her latest favorite is making soups from scratch when it becomes cold outside. One day, Najwa hopes to open a small restaurant of her own where she can offer dishes that make people happy. This opportunity to join and help support the Community Bots is very exciting and Najwa is looking forward to bringing her business and strategic acumen to inspire young women and girls in the STEM field.

My Story

Meenakshi is a Junior at Mission San Jose High School, Fremont, California. She is passionate about various STEM subjects including programming, mobile Apps, Math, and AI research. Meenakshi has won multiple research & technology competitions including the Junior Grand Prize award at the World Technovation Girls 2021 challenge, Bay Area County Science competitions, and Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Meenakshi’s story goes beyond her own accomplishments. She is also a dedicated mentor, having inspired and guided over 40 young girls, and she has conducted numerous informational sessions worldwide, providing workshops on ideation, coding, and pitching. 

In her leisure time, Meenakshi finds happiness in nature photography and the Indian classical dance Bharatanatyam, and if those don’t work, breaks a few boards practicing the martial arts Taekwondo! With a dream as big as her ambitions, Meenakshi aspires to be a tech entrepreneur who bridges cutting-edge technology with diverse communities.

My Story

Cecilia is a student at the University of Denver where she is studying political science and Spanish, and she is a member of the university’s division I gymnastics team. She serves as a senator of the university of Denver undergraduate student government, sparking her interest in leading social change from the ground up. Cecilia is excited to use her leadership skills and passion for women in education as part of The Community Bots team

My Story

My Story

Cecilia is a student at the University of Denver where she is studying political science and Spanish, and she is a member of the university’s division I gymnastics team. She serves as a senator of the university of Denver undergraduate student government, sparking her interest in leading social change from the ground up. Cecilia is excited to use her leadership skills and passion for women in education as part of The Community Bots team

My Story

Tania Romero is a Nicaraguan writer-director and cinematographer. Her work has been selected at the 69th Cannes Film Festival Short Corner, Cine Las Americas, SXSW, WorldFest Houston, and ICARO International Film Festival among other festivals. As a visual storyteller, her work focuses on marginalized communities and aims to amplify the contributions of women in our society.  She is an assistant professor of media production and media studies at Villanova University.

My Story

Alden is currently in his senior year at the Fieldston School. He has been on various FIRST and RoboCup robotics teams since he was eight years old. For the past two years, Alden has been working as an instructor at a FIRST robotics community STEM center in Washington Heights, New York City. This past summer, Alden worked to organize a robotics program for students in Holguín, Cuba. Outside of his passion for robotics, Alden is an avid swimmer and a grilling enthusiast.

My Story

Grace Schwab is working to raise awareness for organizing fundraisers, speaker events, and merchandise release. She is a sophomore at Dartmouth College studying English and government. In her free time, she competes as an attorney and witness on Dartmouth’s Mock Trial Team, she edits the Dartmouth Law Journal, and she works at the Dartmouth Library as a student librarian. 

My Story

Kelly Whelan is a Healthcare Account Manager at Cisco Systems in New York City. Kelly has been with Cisco since 2014. Most recently, Kelly held a position within Cisco’s Learning and Certification Organization, where she spent 5 years managing financial analytics for Cisco’s Career Certification Program (CCIE/CCNP/CCNA).

Kelly graduated from Miami of Ohio where she studied Strategic Communications and Information Systems. During her free time, Kelly enjoys traveling, exploring new restaurants, and cheering on Washington D.C. sports teams. Kelly is a new member of The Community Bots Junior Board and is looking forward to sharing her passion for women/girls in STEM.

My Story

Sherezada is an experienced robotics coach and science teacher. Her love of science led her to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Public Policy at Harvard University. She then completed her teaching credentials to share that love of science with younger generations and encourage underrepresented groups to pursue science careers. STEM has always been at the forefront of her curriculum. She is the founder and coach of the Robotics Club at LREI. The team has received numerous awards, including representing the USA at a world championship in Japan. 

Sherezada has also led robotics workshops for non-profit organizations. She facilitated educator and student robotics workshops in the Middle East through the SEED Foundation, and most recently, she joined Community Bots to teach Lego robotics to Roma girls in Spain. Sherezada is excited to be part of The Community Bots team, helping empower girls to love science and technology.

My Story

Nicolás is a rising Junior at Friends Academy in Long Island. Prior to Friends Academy, Nico attended The Allen-Stevenson School in New York City before completing 8th grade at the American School of Madrid, Spain.

Nico is a member of the Diversity Student Committee, the Admissions Club and the Stock and Finance Club and participates in a number of community service projects and volunteer activities. At school, Nico enjoys History and Social Studies, Math and languages. He is fluent in English and Spanish and is proficient in French. Nico is a nationally ranked tennis player and a member of the National Society of High School Scholars

My Story

Kate is a junior at the St Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire. Although originally from London, England, Kate currently lives in Toronto, Canada. She is the captain of the St. Paul’s School First Robotics Team as well as the head of the Girls Advancing in STEM Club. Kate also participates in the coding and engineering club and tutors students at her school in computer science courses. She loves her math, biology and computer science classes as well as being a member of the track and cross country teams.

My Story

St. Joseph’s Academy, an all-girls school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The school, through the leadership of John Richardson, Co-Director of Technology, has donated refurbished laptops to NicaPhoto, Politecnico Fundacion MIR (School for Girls), and Students of Granada. Moreover, John and his colleagues joined The Community Bots at NicaPhoto in Nicaragua to deliver donated laptops and to help develop NicaPhoto’s computer lab. We are deeply appreciative of St. Joseph’s Academy’s ongoing generosity and support.

Our Partner

Princenton University – Language Project are our official translators of our curriculum materials into Spanish. We are deeply appreciative of their generous support. For more information about each organization, please click on their logos below.

Our Partner

PerMondo is our official translators of our curriculum materials into Spanish. We are deeply appreciative of their generous support. For more information about each organization, please click on their logos below.

Our Partner

People-Places-Things fosters cultural exchanges around the world and provides resources for teachers who want to teach English as a second language. People-Places-Things is partnering with Ciudad Mundo and the US Embassy Bolivia to offer the Access Plus program. The Community Bots works with a cohort of young Bolivian professionals in Access Plus who are assisting us with our social media efforts.

Our Partner

Fundación Ciudad Mundo is a non-profit organization that promotes personal and professional development of students, professionals, teachers and entrepreneurs, through experiences that transform their lives, so that they can transform their environment. People-Places-Things is partnering with Ciudad Mundo and the US Embassy Bolivia to offer the Access Plus program. The Community Bots works with a cohort of young Bolivian professionals in Access Plus who are assisting us with our social media efforts.