About Us

Board & Staff

We are a diverse group of professionals who know that learning new things can inspire hard work, innovation, and excitement.

Drawing on our personal experiences and professional networks, we are driven to provide fresh content to teachers, engaging students as problem solvers in the process.

Meet the team

Board

  • NK-LInkedin

    Natalie Kuldell, Founder and Executive Director

    Recognized in 2020 as a STEM Trailblazer by the Million Women Mentors and with the HA Rey Curiosity Award, Natalie is a highly regarded educator and curriculum developer who has taught for more than a dozen years in the Department of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She studied Chemistry as an undergraduate at Cornell, completed her doctoral and post-doctoral work at Harvard Medical School, and taught at Wellesley College before joining the faculty at MIT in 2003.

  • Keira Krausz

    Keira Krausz, , Board President

    Keira is an award-winning direct-to-consumer marketing expert, with particular strengths in digital transformations, creative, brand development, media attribution, optimization and expansion. From 2013-2019 she served as Chief Marketing Officer and then President of Nutrisystem, Inc., where she led all sales and marketing. Keira is currently Chief Marketing Officer at HealthPlanOne and serves on the Board of Second Nature Brands, where she leads the Digital Committee. She studied at Cornell University as an undergraduate and received her MBA from Dartmouth College.

  • Drew Endy_thumbnail

    Drew Endy

    Drew dreams of ten billion people flourishing as citizens in partnership with all life on Earth, as soon as possible.  To this end he helped launch new undergraduate majors in bioengineering at MIT and Stanford.  He also co-founded the iGEM competition, a global genetic engineering “olympics,” and, separately, two DNA construction companies.  His past students now lead companies like Octant and Ginkgo Bioworks.   Read more

  • Theresa Lynn

    Theresa Lynn

    Theresa is Senior Vice President of Advancement for United Way of Central Massachusetts. During her years as an entrepreneurial leader and strategic advisor for non-profits, Theresa built her expertise in driving change, building public/private partnerships, and fundraising.

  • Don Shobrys

    Donald Shobrys

    Don’s career has centered on helping people to make better decisions more rapidly, with a particular focus on managing the supply chain of manufacturing companies. He has engineering degrees from MIT and Northwestern and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Johns Hopkins. Don’s career started at Exxon, was past Chair of the MIT Annual Fund, President of the MIT Alumni Association, and Member of the MIT Corporation. He is currently the Co-Director of the MIT Venture Mentoring Service.

     

  • JZ-light

    Joshua Zinns

    Joshua is the Founder and Managing Principal of Botanic Properties. He is responsible for setting the strategic vision for the Company and ensuring that Botanic delivers world-class solutions for its stakeholders, including investors, tenants and the communities in which it builds. Joshua proudly serves as the president of The Botanic Foundation, which he founded to support equitable and inclusive growth within the life science industry by focusing on education and job training opportunities for historically under-served communities. The Foundation is developing state-of-the-art laboratory and classroom Learning Labs to support its educational mission. Joshua received his BSBA from the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis in 2001 and served as Chair of the Washington University Real Estate Alumni Association.

Advisory Board

  • John Dellapa

    A graduate of Boston College and George Washington Law School, John is a member of Mintz Levin’s Corporate & Securities practice. For 30 years, he has advised biotechnology, life science, medical device, and clean technology companies on a broad range of legal issues, including on the structuring of collaborative research and development efforts, strategic alliances, and joint ventures. John’s practice is heavily focused on transactions involving licensing and technology “spin-outs,” sponsored research, and supply and distribution relationships.

  • Angela Girodier_Headshot

    Angela Girodier

    Angela will be a graduate of Emmanuel College (May 2022) with a double major in Biology and Secondary Education. As an alumni to the Spring 2017 BioBuilder Apprenticeship Program, she has experienced first hand the effects of STEM opportunities, research, and networking. Her plans are to work as a High School Biology Teacher to strengthen scientific knowledge, while providing students learning experiences that will shape both students’ scientific and personal learning, understanding, and growth. She believes that all students, no matter their background and cultures, should be allowed the opportunity to learn and to gain real-life experiences and exposure that stimulates curiosity and drive. Her past research experiences include Massbiologics and Merck Research Laboratories where she assisted in Protein Developmental and Molecular Interactions, respectively.

  • Katie Hart_new headshot

    Kathryn Hart

    Katie is an Assistant Professor of biochemistry in the Chemistry Department at Williams College (Williamstown, MA). Her current research focuses on understanding and engineering protein function and energetics. She has taught professional development and student workshops for BioBuilder and is a co-author of BioBuilder: Synthetic Biology in the Lab. She holds a B.S. in Biology from Haverford College and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of California, Berkeley.

  • Rebekah Ravgiala_headshot

    Rebekah Ravgiala

    Rebekah teaches Biology and Advanced Placement Biology at Tyngsborough High School in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts. She holds a B.A. in Biology and a doctorate in Mathematics and Science Education. She has been actively involved in the BioBuilder community since 2011, leading a BioBuilderClub team, and serving as a member of its Board of Directors. She is a recipient of the ASBMB Fostering K12/University Partnership Grant and the AMGEN Excellence in Science Teaching Award.

  • Bridget Stewart_headshot_resized

    Bridget Stewart

    Bridget is a highly accomplished healthcare executive with unique start-up experience developing products, and launching and scaling pandemic response services nationally. As the Vice President of Strategic Operations and Implementation at CIC Health, she has directed the delivery of end-to-end COVID testing resulting in over 6.5M tests across 18 states as well as facilitating over 1.2M vaccinations. She is a dedicated mentor to many, taking on teaching roles in MHA and MPH programs at the collegiate level and serving on numerous nonprofit boards, including the UNH Alumni Board that elected President in July 2021.

  • Mary Tamer_Headshot

    Mary Tamer

    Mary’s professional work oscillates from communications to project management to education policy, with more than 20 years of experience garnered in the newspaper, nonprofit, and education sectors.  A longtime volunteer in the Boston Public Schools, she was appointed in January 2010 by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to serve a four-year term on the Boston School Committee, overseeing the district superintendent and a budget of $1 billion. She holds a bachelor of arts from the University of New Hampshire In English/Journalism and a master’s in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

  • Val Tutson_headshot

    Valerie Tutson

    Valerie is a graduate of Brown University with an master’s in Theatre Arts and a B.A. in the self-designed major, Storytelling as a Communications Art. For two decades, Valerie has been telling stories from around the world with an emphasis on African traditions. She teaches workshops and classes to students of all ages, and hosted “Cultural Tapestry,” an award-winning cable television show celebrating diverse cultures for 12 years. She is founding member of the Rhode Island Black Storytellers and most recently served as its executive director and the festival director of FUNDA FEST. Valerie has received numerous awards for her work in the community including the Legacy Award from Big Brothers and Sisters of Rhode Island, a Community Service Award from Oasis International, and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Rhode Island College.

Staff

  • Kateri Atkins

    Kateri Atkins, Director of Operations

    Kateri joined BioBuilder in December 2022 to direct BioBuilder’s operations. Kateri has a Bachelor’s degree from Old Dominion University majoring in biology with a minor in chemistry. She has worked as a scientist for over 20 years. Most recently she was the Head of US Protein Operations with UCB Biosciences, a global biopharma company, where she was responsible for leading their molecular biology and protein production teams. Prior to that she was the Vice President of Operations at Beryllium Discovery, where she was responsible for operational and scientific management of core operations. She has extensive experience in scientific management, operational management, resource management, project and budgetary management. Kateri has a talent for being able to create bridges between different organizational groups and driving successful and motivated cross functional collaborative teams. She is originally from Queens, New York but has lived across the United States and abroad with her now retired Navy submariner husband.

  • Chloe Weisberg

    Chloe Franklin, National Program Coordinator

    Chloe is a STEM educator who earned her bachelor’s degree in biology in 2014 from the University of Chicago, where she was also a founding member of the synthetic biology club and iGEM team. She has a master’s degree in educational studies with a focus on inquiry-based secondary science instruction. As an AmeriCorps member, Chloe worked in community outreach and racial equity advocacy in a North Carolina school district. She is passionate about educational equity and increasing access to STEM education at the secondary level.

  • Maggie Hall_headshot

    Maggie Hall, Boston Program Coordinator

    Maggie earned her bachelor’s degree in Anthropology in 2015 and master’s in business administration in 2021 from Wayne State University, where she worked as a Project Coordinator for the Office of International Programs and Educational Outreach. As a Project Coordinator at Wayne State University, she developed and managed summer programs for international students visiting the university, led pre-med students on short-term study abroad programs in China, and managed international recruitment initiatives in Canada and India. She is currently pursuing her master’s of public health in epidemiology and biostatistics at the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health. Maggie is a dedicated global health and education accessibility advocate.

  • Vivek Bajaj_headshot

    Vivek Bajaj, Teaching Fellow

    Vivek joined BioBuilder in January 2019 when he starting teaching school groups and optimizing new labs to run in our Learning Labs. He holds a PhD in microbiology from Harvard Medical School and a Master’s in education from Lesley University. Before joining BioBuilder, Vivek taught in two area private middle schools and, most recently, in a local STEM after-school program.

  • Hiroko_headshot

    Hiroko Kaczmarek, Education Specialist

    Hiroko joined BioBuilder’s curriculum and teaching team in September 2021 after teaching Biotechnology for five years in Worcester, MA and Cambridge, MA. She has participated in several BioBuilder programs including co-teaching High School Apprenticeship Challenge in Worcester and enrolling her Cambridge students in BioBuilder Idea Accelerator program. Prior to teaching, she worked to develop CRISPR-mediated gene therapy approaches for ALS as a postdoc at UMass Medical School. She holds a B.A. in Biology and a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Physiology.

  • KBS_headshot

    Kate Bacon Schneider, Teaching Fellow

    One of BioBuilder’s longest serving teaching fellows, Kate has been leading BioBuilder workshops and programs since 2016. Over the years, she has developed and taught Learning Lab workshops to introduce middle and high school students to synthetic biology. She has worked with the BioBuilder’s Apprenticeship Challenge program since its inception n 2016, and started teaching in the Learning Lab in March 2018. She received her Ph.D. in Biology from MIT and previously was an instructor in the MIT Department of Biology.