Tooba Ali is a Product Manager for the Corporate Development team at IBM with a passion for user-centric design, racial equity and software development management. She has experience leading diverse, cross - functional, agile teams on high profile engagements, from conceptual design to shipping worldwide. In her free time, she loves to create content on Pinterest, volunteer to teach kids, and backpack in Southeast Asia.

Maddy is a Visual Designer at IBM CIO. As a designer, she works on visual design, user experience, and motion projects that aim to make work better for IBMers. Before IBM, she worked at a digital marketing agency and has experience in branding, web design, and social media marketing. She loves that projects that let her experiment and is currently exploring how designers can work better on cross-functional teams.

Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Lehman College. His work challenges accepted perceptions of network experience and has been exhibited globally. His artworks, “Bumplist” and “America’s Got No Talent” are in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. His Scrapyard Challenge workshops have been held in over 17 countries in Europe, South America, North America, Asia, and Australia since 2003.

Michael is the Head of Product at Baton Technologies. Baton specializes in improving and scaling software implementations through software as a service. In the past, he was working in product and data roles in finance, logistics, and insurance. He is from Cleveland, OH and graduated from Carnegie Mellon.

Valerie Casasanto is the Outreach Lead for NASA’s ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2) mission at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. She designs and implements a myriad of programs to help educate and engage young people, especially girls and underrepresented students in ICESat-2’s science. She integrates the arts into her programs to inspire and engage audiences in NASA Earth Science.

Winnie Cheung is a Senior Director of Digital Consumer Insights at Nickelodeon (ViacomCBS) working to deliver impactful insights on kids and families. Working on Nick Jr. and Noggin, Winnie focuses on research with the preschool audience, which involves spending a lot of time with kids three to five years old to understand what keeps them engaged, learning and at times, burst out in giggles. Winnie’s research and insights has contributed to the development Nick Jr. and Noggin games, interactive experiences, short form videos and emerging technology.

Joe Chung is a creative technologist and educator who is interested in technologies that help people learn and connect with each other better. A graduate of MFA Design and Technology at Parsons School of Design and MA Instructional Technology and Media at Teachers College, Columbia University, Joe has experimented with VR/AR, sensors and visualizations to help learners bridge the gap between information and knowledge. Joe is also a trained educator, specializing in secondary school mathematics and computer education.

Walter has worked inside and outside the NYC DoE to impact student's learning experience and equity in the classroom. Currently he works with Pear Deck and supports educators throughout the Northeast as they engage their students in their lessons and use their students understanding and voice to inform instruction. His cites his passion for his work and lessons learned as a student in NYC's Public Schools as the source of his success.

Vinny has over 20 years of experience as developer, technical team lead, and technical consultant. He has an enduring passion for technology from nerding out over cool command line tricks to debating the impact of the blockchain. He has worked on naval radar systems, fantasy baseball games, and just about everything in between. He lives in Kew Gardens, Queens with his family and spends his free time cooking or gaming.

Saul lectures at the Lifelong Learning programs of Tufts, Rutgers, and RIT since retiring in 2020. Previously he held senior technology, business, and strategy roles at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, uReach Technologies and Spirent Communications. After a career in computer and communications systems he created the Demystify Technology series to bridge the gap between media hype and reality, covering topics such as AI, driverless cars, private space exploration and CRISPR gene editing.

Amelia graduated from Queens College in May 2018 with a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Economics with a minor in Accounting. On her days off she likes to explore New York City and search for amazing food spots.

Mai Fujiwara is the Owner and Executive Producer of Wildcat NYC, a creative consultancy and production company that produces campaigns, commercials and branded content in the worlds of art, technology, music, fashion, and film. She is also a board member of EIM Haiti, an adult education institution in Port-au-Prince, where she leads the Cultural Exchange Program.

Seth Giammanco is a Principal at Minds On Design Lab, a strategic design studio with digital expertise. We’re passionate about elevating small and mighty teams in the social sector. We connect people to your work through beautifully designed branding, web, and print. For more than 15 years, he has led the creation of digital solutions combining product management, web/mobile interface design, and hands-on technology skills.

I am an experienced copy editor, content marketer, and branding expert. A pro when it comes to ideation and strategy, I've worked in digital and print publishing, social media marketing, email marketing, video production, event management, and event production. I am passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion and helping the next generation of leaders in tech.

Deren Guler is a technologist, designer, and educator who’s work focuses on designing accessible technology solutions and tools. She is the founder of the brand Teknikio, a line of creative electronic parts and kits for future inventors. She is also Adjunct Faculty in the Design and Technology department at Parsons School for Design and leads workshops around designing for the future around the world.

Jessica Hochman, PhD, has 20 years of experience working as a teacher, professor, researcher, and consultant. She is one half of We Need 2 Talk, an educational partnership that facilitates critical conversations about race. Jessica also works for the Equity and Disproportionality Lab at Temple University. She has taught workshops and courses, and facilitated professional development programming in addition to publishing articles and book chapters on technology, literacy, and identity.

Olivia Ing is an entrepreneur, a designer and a creative strategist whose work spans at the intersection of technology and creativity. She is currently the founder of Playspaces, a platform aimed to cultivate the next generation of creators through hands-on collaborative learning experiences.

Danny Jimenez is a Library Technical Assistant III at NYPL’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He was a New York Comic Con 2021 Panelist for "The Future Is Mobile: Leveraging Digital Media for Libraries & Classrooms" Panel. His short story, Like An Old Tree, was published in the Anthology "Ni de aquí, Ni de allá: A multi-perspective account of the Dominican diasporic experience". He’s now serving his third year as a judge in Emoti-Con and seeks to improve literacy around the world!

Sarah Judd is the Curriculum Manager for Open Learning at AI4ALL. Sarah has been a Computer Science teacher in classrooms ranging from 2nd-10th grade, a curriculum developer at Google CS First and Girls Who Code, and volunteered in after-school programs including Bootstrap and FIRST robotics. They have also worked as a web engineer, and holds a BS in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Chloe is a New York-based UX designer with over ten years of experience from diverse industries such as the Amazon ecosystem, an AI-based IBM Watson imaging viewers, and designing enterprise-level digital platforms and services from visually impaired children to adult financial experts.

BiaSciLab is a 15 year old hacker. She was the youngest speaker at H.O.P.E. and has spoken multiple times at DEF CON and internationally on security. She received national attention when she hacked the election system at DEF CON 26, this was highlighted at a Congressional Hearing on Election Security, inspiring her to build her own election system, Secure Open Vote.

BiaSciLab is also the Founder and CEO of Girls Who Hack, teaching girls the skills of hacking so that they can change the future.

Diane Levitt is the Sr. Director of K-12 Education for Cornell Tech. She drives the campus engagement with the NYC computing education community, including the Dept. of Education's CS4All initiative, and works with individual schools to catalyze K-12 computer science. She is responsible for Cornell Tech's annual conference, To Code and Beyond, convening educators, nonprofit and industry leaders, policymakers and funders to examine best practices and innovative solutions in K-12 computing education.

Eric Lewis is the Engineer Of Things at Power Home Remodeling where he focuses on cyber security. He is also a Hacker, Programmer and Maker. Board member of DEFCON 610, a member of TOOOL, and 2600. When he is not breaking things, he likes to teach others programming, fixing, hacking and other useful skills.

Larry is well known as a media executive and for his long-standing mental health advocacy work with the JED Foundation on behalf of high school and college students. He works to create strong communities with equal access to education, healthcare, clean energy, and professional opportunities.

During the evenings, you are likely to find Larry on Manhattan’s Lower East Side where he is Chairman of Caveat Media.

Michelle Lipira is a multifaceted senior UX designer creating consumer and business solutions on the Adobe Fonts Team. She collaborates across the organization to develop scalable solutions designed to work across multiple platforms.

In her previous role at GoPro, she was able to unite her passions of travel, sport and photography to lead the design of multiple cameras from concept to launch. With the advent of the smartphone, Michelle was one of the first designers at Motorola to work with Android. Motorola is where Michelle started her career as a designing iconography for feature phones in domestic and international markets. Michelle has a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communications from the Art Institutes.

David is a Media Solutions Architect at Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution (DMED), a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. He earned their BFA in Film & Television from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. David has spent his career in Media & Entertainment, Media Research, and Technology.

Sarah has continued to reinvent herself in the field of education – from formal math teacher, to informal environmental and outdoor educator, to natural history and science manager, to general after school director, to educational consultant. Her last metamorphosis led her to Mouse, coaching teachers as they teach students about technology and design. She has been guided through these changes by her identity as a strongly-opinionated woman who is systems-focused and a people-centered manager.

Stephen Marshall is a Software Developer located in Denver, Colorado, and works in the Aerospace Industry. Originally born in France, Stephen's mother is North African from Algeria. Raised in the DC area, he moved to Colorado in 2007, and taught himself to build his first website in 2010. He has worked in a number of different industries, both as a salesperson and teacher/educator before completing training at the University in Denver for both Full Stack Developer and Data Analytics programs. Stephen continues to help others learn and grow as a teacher assistant for DU coding programs.

My Name is Henry McKelvey; I am 56 years old, I have two Master's Degrees, one is in Information Systems and one is in cybersecurity. I am working on a D.Mgt-IS&T. It is proving to be hard work, but I am learning so much from the experience. I work for the University of the Potomac as an Adjunct Professor. I worked for the NAACP as a Dir. of IT Sec. I was a Sys-Eng. at AECOM. I worked as a Sr. Sys Eng. at Rockwell Collins. While working for Verizon Labs (2004-2009), I helped develop technology for which I received 14 Patents. My hobbies are Electronics Troubleshooting, Hacking (Maker/Hacker), Building Computers, Systems Automation, Old Tube Radio Restoration, and TV/Electronics Repair.

Hello there. I am Microsoft’s Account Executive for the New York City Department of Education. I started off my career as a High School English teacher back in the UK before transitioning to a role in Tech where I look to scale the impact of Teaching & Learning for all through technology. I know that anything is possible with the right access, equity, mindset and inspiration.

Josh Miller works and teaches in the intersection between art, design, and software development. After receiving a Masters in Computer Science and an MFA in New Media, Josh taught courses in web & graphic design, video game design, creative coding, UX, and application development. Josh’s true interests lie in the intersection between design, programming and innovative user experiences. This influences not only his teaching, but also his professional practices, where he focuses on development of interactive installations and user-focused online experiences.

Collin is a strategic marketing, promotional partnerships and media sales executive, skilled in creating concepts that leverage brand positioning through successful cross-platform offerings, by using integrated media, original content, emerging digital platforms, new technologies and experiential activations that connect to the audience in an authentic and inventive way.

Shea Molloy is a Vectors and Illustrations strategist for the Design Content team at Adobe Stock and an MS candidate for the Data Visualization program at Parsons New School. Her background is in user experience/user interface design and design research, with a love for civic tech and hackathons. She sits on the board of the community-owned wifi non-profit NYC Mesh and also volunteers her time with local community groups.

I'm a Computer Scientist who loves finding ways to use technology and data for making a better world. I believe that education and deep work are the keys to achieve this goal. I've around 15 years of professional experience as a software engineer, project manager, and educator. I enjoy sharing my experiences and learning with others, so I also have been involved in education along my professional journey teaching computer science and data analytics skills from undergrad to postgraduate students.

Maggie has been working in some combination of education, design and creative technology for over 10 years. She absolutely loves working with students to conceive of, design, and build creative technical solutions to real world problems.

When Maggie is not being cool and awesome with NYC teenagers, she’s usually making other things like dog portraits, live paintings, music videos, and pie.

Claire is the Lead Immersive Designer for the IBM Security Command Center. She works with clients to fine tune their incident response planning to a cyber crisis. Claire is a digital storyteller with experience working in video game design, app design, UX, graphic design, and video storytelling.

Heriberto “Eddie” Palacio III is a multidisciplinary Artist that explores human relations and awareness through art making and research that investigates social constructs, masculinity, gender studies, emotional intelligence, and African American studies. Palacio is an Afro Hispanic who identifies as a pansexual man. He has gone on to study at Tennessee State University in Nashville, TN earning his BFA in Art and is continued his education at Watkins College of Art in Nashville, TN earning his MFA in Visual Arts in 2020..

Lev Parsons is a physics and astronomy educator in both formal and informal spaces. Since 2018 he has developed 3 educational apps available on the iOS app store and is currently working on a startup whose mission is to democratize VR education. When he’s not working on tech projects, he loves designing and sewing costumes.

I was born in Bangladesh and moved to Queens, NYC when I was 5. I joined Mouse when I was in high school. My experiences in the program pushed me to get a BS in Computer Engineering from Binghamton University. My current career path was started with an internship at AppNexus (Now known as Xandr). From there, I accepted a return offer as a Services Rotational Associate. After 1.5 years in the rotational program, I received my full time placement as an Integration Engineer.

Hafa Adai! I am an operational meteorologist at The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecasting Office (WFO) in Guam. I was part of Mouse Corps between 2011 and 2013, and I participated at Emoti-Con myself! I am super excited and looking forward to seeing this year’s projects.

Hannah Peikes is a senior analyst of digital consumer insights at Nickelodeon primarily focusing on preschool. In this role she is responsible for being the child/parent voice as digital preschool content is created through speaking with both kids and parents on a regular basis. Previously, Hannah worked as a project director at a market research company focusing on youth, media and technology. She holds a Master's in Technology, Innovation and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Bachelor's in Disability Studies/Child Development from Vanderbilt University.

Joey focuses on strengthening his community and making a positive impact on society, especially for our world’s most important change-makers: learners. His current job working for the Meta Education Modernization Team gives him the opportunity to support this educational audience and many more individuals across the nation through its many programs and initiatives. Joey always encourages others to follow their passion, and he knows that leading by example will build a stronger world.

Azfar is an award-winning filmmaker who's worked with US. Dept. of State, Govt. Of Canada, UN, BBC & CNN in the past few years. His projects have been called “poignant” by UN SC Ban Ki-moon, “transformative” by Rolling Stone Mag, & “unabashedly idealistic” by NPR. For the past few years, Azfar has been working on technology storytelling for global Fortune 50 clients. Recently, he designed and launched part of Google Assistant's Indic corpus & Persona. Currently he's an OmniChannel lead at Verizon.

Serena Robinett is an Education Specialist at Soundtrap, a Spotify company. She works with districts, schools, and teachers to support them in utilizing Soundtrap in their classrooms. She aspires to support teachers and students in developing their creativity and sharing their individual voices by using Soundtrap. Prior to joining Soundtrap, Serena was the Instrument Music Director at a middle school in Queens and a technology teacher at a K-8 school in Harlem.

I am an artist and designer who is passionate about creativity, learning and technology. I strive to design visual concepts of the possible future systems to impact people with the positive and meaningful user experience combined with emerging hi-technologies. I combine different worlds in my work. I enthralled by VR, Interaction Design, Book Illustration, and Puppetry because they give me layer upon layer of artistic achievement and imaginative play, and they also connect me to users and audiences that I love to work with -- children.

Kate is the Director of Instructional Design in the Boot Camps division of online education provider, 2U. She oversees the development of intensive short courses that teach adults in-demand technology skills. She's worked at the intersection of media, tech and education for over 15 years and obsesses over the ways those things influence our culture--and how we can harness them for good! Before working at 2U, Kate was lucky enough to geek out on this stuff with fellow nerds at Mouse, the San Francisco Film Society and the Jacob Burns Film Center.

I worked as a biomedical engineer, getting FDA approval for medical devices, with Siemens Medical Systems and Zimmer TMT. I loved getting people access to better medical innovation. For the last 7 years, I’ve been a full-time volunteer robotics coach for 4 FIRST robotics teams. I also help the Greater NY Girl Scouts with their FIRST Lego League teams. I’ve Judged FIRST FRC, FTC and World Robot Olympiad and NJ Science Olympiad events and now Makeblock’s MakeX Spark competitions. Engineering is the coolest profession that no one has ever heard of. I’m devoted to showing students how cool tech careers can be!

Shaneequa is a mission-driven marketer, and lover of all things content, with a passion for supporting communities of color. She has dedicated her career to working with education-based organizations and teams that provide students and educators with the tools and resources they need to thrive. Her career journey has led to her current role as a Digital Marketing Manager with the Education Modernization Team at Facebook, where she leads marketing efforts across programs dedicated to increasing access to STEM and computer science programming.

As a human-centered designer, I believe that design is empathy. I create systems, services and products that are better catered to people’s needs by giving them the agency to participate in the design process. Growing up as a third culture kid has meant my upbringing and community are my greatest inspiration. It has inculcated empathy in me to different kinds of people and perspectives. My passion project is figuring out how to make the education system more responsive to today's youth. This is important to me as a creative that struggled in a system that prioritizes academia over the arts.

Holly Tienken is an Assistant Professor in the Communication Design department at Kutztown University. Holly received her BFA from Kutztown University and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts. In addition to teaching, she is also an independent designer focused on identity design for hospitality and real estate markets. In 2007 she co-founded Bag the Habit, a line of reusable shopping solutions made from 100% eco-textiles and introduce an interactive, educational program WE CREATE THE FUTURE designed to teach positive “reusable” habits to students.

Will Turnage has spent the past 20 years helping big companies and small startups design and create digital products. He currently leads technology at I&CO in Brooklyn, NY, and prior to that he worked at places like R/GA NY and Sony Music. Outside of work, he's an Advisor to several startups, has served as a mentor for Techstars and AFSE and has launched a line of mobile cooking apps.

Matt Turner is Strategic Advisor and Technologist helping organizations deliver the most of value from their data, content and technology. Matt has developed industry strategy for software companies and worked with customers including Disney, BBC, Chevron, Boeing, BBC, WarnerMedia and more. Matt is also a member of the Bronx Digital Equity Coalition focused on bridging the digital divide.