Public Lab is open for anyone to join — please join us!

The team members below run the Public Lab nonprofit organization, which supports the open research community with digital infrastructure, building organizational partnerships, community development, planning and executing organization-wide events such as Barnraisings and conferences, fundraising, and facilitating open source publication of the community's work, along with a variety of other tasks.

Also see our Fellows program.

Liz Barry (she/her)
Director of Community Development
Location: New York City, NY
Contact: liz@publiclab.org

Director of Community Development at Public Lab and co-founder of TreeKIT, Liz develops geographic tools and civic science methods for collaborative cities. Her background is in urban landscape design, and she teaches at Columbia University and Parsons the New School for Design. Previously, she worked at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill planning international new cities and campuses, at Durham Inner-city Gardeners (DIG) coordinating youth urban horticulture enterprise, and has travelled around the country catalyzing interaction among strangers with a “Talk To Me” sign – a project that received international press including the New York Times, AP, CNN, Oprah and NPR’s This American Life. She likes to play outside.

Stevie (Lewis) Klass (she/her)
Senior Program Director
Location: Miami, FL
Contact: stevie@publiclab.org

As Senior Program Director, Stevie is responsible for overseeing program work of the non profit team. She came to Public Lab in 2014 with a background in environmental science, community engagement, and resource management. Stevie has over 10 years of experience working with community groups, nonprofits, and state and federal government. Her past work experience includes positions with Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, the National Park Service in response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, and the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring.

Stevie holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Dickinson College and a MSc in Environment and Development from the University of Edinburgh. She is a 2012 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and a 2014 Loyola University Institute for Environmental Communications Fellow. In her spare time, Stevie enjoys doing pottery, spending time with her dog, and all things outdoors.

Jeanette Lim (she/her)
Research Coordinator
Location: Bellingham, WA
Contact: jeanette@publiclab.org

Jeanette is a biologist with experience in research, education, and science communication. She has studied and written about how hagfish slime clogs fish gills, how lobsters use their paddling appendages like tiny jet packs, and how robots can help us learn about swimming fish. Her favorite part of science is sharing it. Prior to joining the Public Lab team, Jeanette managed content for an open online library about nature and nature-inspired technologies. Jeanette has a PhD in biology from Harvard University and earned previous degrees from St. Francis Xavier University and the University of British Columbia. In her spare time, she enjoys sewing, food tours in new cities, and exploring the outdoors with her family.

Jordan Macha (she/her)
Executive Director
Location: Houston, TX
Contact: jordan@publiclab.org

Jordan is Public Lab's Executive Director. A Gulf Coast native, Jordan brings deep experience in community building and leadership to advance climate and environmental justice. With a background in coastal & urban water management and policy, she helmed restoration and resiliency efforts across the Gulf region. Through her previous work with Bayou City Waterkeeper in Houston, Healthy Gulf, and the Sierra Club, Jordan worked to further just recovery and equitable resiliency models, coastal restoration initiatives, and clean energy policies across the Gulf region. She is currently a member of the Texas Water Development Board's Regional Flood Planning Group for the Trinity Watershed, and served as the Harris County representative for H-GAC's Natural Resources Advisory Committee. Jordan is a previous Fellow with the Women's Earth Alliance Accelerator, Oak Spring Environmental Leadership Program, and the Loyola University Institute for Environmental Communications. Residing in the Lower Galveston Bay Watershed along White Oak Bayou, Jordan enjoys exploring her backyard bayous, consuming culinary delights, and traveling locally and abroad.

Ashley D. Mocorro Powell (they/them)
Community Manager
Location: Salish Sea Bioregion
Contact: amocorro@publiclab.org

Ashley praises the source of every briny breath 🌊 . Glaciers, watersheds, and estuarine universes — the point where land meets water — are some of their most influential teachers. Etched into their skin, through the magic of citrus thorn, is a celestial story and cosmology that leaves them dreaming of coral kingdoms, bioluminescent trails, giants climbing pandanus, and heartbeats echoing through rainforests. Ashley organizes for biocultural diversity, environmental justice, and just climate futures. They were born and raised (diasporic + settler) in the shadows of stratovolcanoes, EPA Superfund sites, and armored seawalls within the boundaries of the Medicine Creek Treaty (1854). Some of Ashley’s fondest memories include (1) aninipot blinking in their hair, (2) witnessing the return of the Elwha River mouth - post the removal of the great dams, and (3) chasing arctic bumblebees under the midnight sun.

Alahna Moore (she/her)
Kits Fulfilment Coordinator
Location: New Orleans, LA
Contact: alahna@publiclab.org

Alahna was born and raised in coastal Louisiana and the majority of her work focuses on documenting landscape change along the Gulf Coast. She works to develop innovative means of data collection and digital curation to communicate environmental change through spatial, material, and historical frameworks. She has many experiences in this capacity: as a self-employed UAS pilot, as the chairperson of the Communications Committee for the Louisiana Master Naturalists, as an archaeologist in New Orleans, as a GIS researcher with NASA DEVELOP, and as a photogrammetrist for the National Park Service. Alahna earned a M.S. in cultural resource management and a B.A. in anthropology from the University of New Orleans, and is currently working towards her doctorate in environmental communications and citizen participation.

She’s always eager to chat about archaeology, 3D modeling, maps, drones and satellites geomorphology, public history, urban legends, swamps, mushrooms and mycology, environmental education, the National Historic Preservation Act, cultural preservation, and dogs (especially Labradoodles).

Mimi Spahn Sattler (she/her)
Education Manager
Location: New Orleans, LA
Contact: mimi@publiclab.org

As the Education Manager at Public Lab, Mimi works to develop and expand our educational programming, and to build a network of educators interested in making their classrooms a part of the Public Lab community. Mimi joins the team with experience in laboratory science as well as K12 STEM education. Her work at Public Lab allows her to live out her dream of making science accessible for everyone. Mimi has a BA in Neuroscience from the University of Southern California and earned her Masters in Cell & Molecular Biology at Tulane University. Outside of work, Mimi enjoys all things science fiction, Louisiana’s native plants, and spending time with her dogs.

Sebastian Silva
Systems Administrator
Location: Madre de Dios, Peru
Contact: web@publiclab.org

Our sysadmin, Sebastian, learned to program at age five using a turtle (LOGO). Since his teenage years, a self-learning path in informatics was enlightened by being involved in Free Software communities. This gave him a chance to earn a living early on as a Software Developer and Systems Administrator. Featuring insatiable curiosity, and a holistic approach, he received his formation in Psychology at the Catholic University in Chile.

Sebastian first heard about Public Lab in 2010 when they helped a group of indigenous people from the Shipibo tribe to map their settlement in downtown Lima city. Impressed at the time, he was himself leading volunteering efforts around improving free educational software on OLPC laptops in rural Peru. He is co-founder of the SomosAzucar R&D team, whose mission is to bring libre technology to public classrooms in Latin America.

Sebastian enjoys gardening servers and keeping them running smoothly and orderly. Having worked before in the industry as SysAdmin, since 2012 he has been a core member of the Sugar Labs Infrastructure Team, and has assumed responsibility of Public Lab servers in 2015. Being a Karate instructor, loving husband and father of two homeschooled children, Sebastian also enjoys nature and tranquility.

Jeffrey Warren (he/him)
Lead Code Community Coordinator
Location: Providence, RI
Contact: web@publiclab.org

The creator of GrassrootsMapping.org and co-founder and Research Director for Public Lab, Jeffrey Warren designs mapping and civic science tools and professionally flies balloons and kites. Notable software he has created include the vector-mapping framework Cartagen and orthorectification tool MapKnitter, as well as open spectral database and toolkit Spectral Workbench.

He served from 2015-17 as Vice President of the board of the Open Source Hardware Association, is on the board of alternative education program Parts and Crafts in Somerville MA, and an advocate of open source software, hardware, and data. He co-founded Vestal Design, a graphic/interaction design firm in 2004, and directed the Cut&Paste Labs project, a year-long series of workshops on open source tools and web design in 2006-7 with Lima designer Diego Rotalde.

Jeff holds an MS from MIT and a BA in Architecture from Yale University, and spent much of that time working with artist/technologist Natalie Jeremijenko, building robotic dogs and stuff. To find out more, visit unterbahn.com.

Jess Wright (they/them)
Business and Operations Manager
Location: Remote in the USA
Contact: jess@publiclab.org

With a background in finance, volunteer management, and operations, Jess is deeply connected to finding meaningful ways to engage team members while maintaining efficiency and productivity. Jess is a lover of systems, believer in the power of a solid spreadsheet, and manager of over six years.

Before joining the team at Public Lab, Jess held management roles in tech nonprofit and human rights nonprofit organizations. Jess loves to travel and spend time outdoors and lives on the road full-time in a custom built home-on-the-road exploring public lands in the United States.

AprioCloud
Location: Atlanta, GA

A small accounting team led by Adam Rimes from AprioCloud handles Public Lab’s accounting and financial reporting.