Our Board
Brightworks is a K-12 independent school founded in 2011 by the Institute for Applied Tinkering (IAT). The IAT operates several programs, which today include Brightworks, Tinkering School, the Curious Educators Division, and the Innovation Lab. These programs all work together under the Board’s stewardship to advance the IAT’s mission to develop, practice, and share educational methods that challenge and support all children to engage deeply in their learning via real interests and real tools.
Alison Lee
Alison has spent over a decade as an entrepreneurial operator in K12 education management and edtech, including at Teach For America and AltSchool. She has also supported Creative Arts Charter School in San Francisco as a Board Member. In addition to advocating for learner-centered, whole child education, Alison enjoys working in the Sonoma wine industry and tinkering in the kitchen.
Kate Schox
Kate Schox is a founding partner at Trucks Venture Capital. Trucks.vc is a seed-stage venture capital fund for entrepreneurs changing the future of transportation. Our investments make transportation safer, cleaner and more accessible. She is also the co-founder of Schox Philanthropy. Schox.org is a philanthropic fund inviting select startup founders to commit 1% equity and make donations to curated nonprofits.
Kate also plays an active role in her community as a volunteer yoga teacher and board member to several Bay Area non-profits. She holds an M.A.A. (Master of Applied Anthropology) from the University of Maryland, College Park, as well as a B.Ed from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Kate lives in San Francisco with her husband Jeff, their son (in Middle School at Brightworks), and 2 year old dog.
CLAUDIA LEON
For the last 20 years, Claudia León (she, her, ella) has worked in Social Justice and Community Empowerment for disenfranchised populations through various capacities. She has developed extensive strategies for managing complex projects, specifically in her work with the Chicana/Latina Foundation, by developing empowerment programs for Latinas in higher education. Over the past eight years, she has expanded to facilitating conversations on racial equity with the Latinx Racial Equity Project. For the last four years, she has been a member of the Caravan for the Children, a grassroots collective of Women aiming to Uncage, Reunify, and Heal children who were separated at the border. Claudia is the Director of Programs for Instituto Familiar de la Raza, addressing generational trauma with ancestral healing and mental health practices. These experiences have shaped her understanding of how providing culturally competent spaces for shared learning, healing, and empowerment can significantly impact positive change in our communities, schools, and our children. Claudia has a deep passion for continuing and relearning her ancestor’s indigenous practices impacted by colonization. She is part of a local urban garden collective and other healing circles. Born and raised in the SF Bay Area by parents from Michoacán, Mexico, she aspires to continue living in joy with her son who currently attends Brightworks.
Kathryn Grantham, Treasurer
Kathryn is an avid entrepreneur interested in building community-based ecosystems where the benefits are inclusive of all stakeholders. Her background includes founding a social justice bookstore in NYC, working in tiger conservation on a multi-country wildlife corridor, exploring permaculture in shaping social networks at MIT's Media Lab, and launching a plant-based natural health business. She holds an MBA from Harvard where she challenged the commonly held belief that 'doing good' was less important than shareholder wealth. And Kathryn now lives in San Francisco where she founded and runs Black Bird Bookstore. All three of her children attend Brightworks and Tinkering School.
Elijah Shannon Selby
Elijah Selby is a Feminist Business Coach at The Feminine Rising and podcaster at the Business as Activism podcast. She is passionate about creating change in the world and taking action to dismantle systems of oppression that cause harm. She believes that Brightworks' approach to education is an integral part of creating that change. Her twelve year old son loves Tinkering School and is in his fourth year at Brightworks.
KAVITA GOBBURI
Kavita is a seasoned expert in affordable housing and community development finance. Her passion lies in investing in communities that support diverse and vibrant populations. She has a track record of success in helping community-based organizations, CDFIs, philanthropy, and impact investors to make capital investments, create affordable housing, and revitalize communities. She currently works as an independent consultant supporting mission-driven clients to make investments in underserved communities.
LAURA
Laura is an entrepreneur, designer, self-taught software engineer, people leader, and investor.
Matt Brocchini, Founding Member and former Chair
Matt is a product strategy consultant and co-founder of Tinkering Labs. He's been involved with Tinkering School and Brightworks from the beginning, and his two children participated in many Tinkering School sessions over the years.
Michael Gough, Founding Member
Michael is the Vice President Product Design at Uber. Previously he led design at Microsoft, Adobe, Macromedia and Nike. He homeschooled three children who each had the good fortune of spending a healthy number of summers at Tinkering School.
Monique Brinson
Founding Head of Cultivation/CEO of EnCompass Four Corners, Monique Brinson brings 19 years of experience as an administrator in Pleasant Hill, Oakland, Santa Monica, and Boston in private, charter, and district schools and along with 10 years experience as a founding teacher in Boston’s small autonomous schools movement.
An athlete and artist as well as an organic academic and community leader; Monique has embraced an intersectional lens and sees the importance of the inner work- that starts with Self, is guided by Family, connected to Community, and is rooted in Ancestors. She is equally passionate about cultivating the heart, head, hand learning and leadership for the soul.
Olivia Teich, Chair
Olivia is a tech product leader, board director, advisor, and investor. She builds products that help people work better together, including at Dropbox, Jive, and Blend, and briefly led innovation in personalized learning at AltSchool. She learned how to be very good at the wrong things in public school, spent two years at a boarding school in Andover, MA, and was lucky enough to go to art school in Florence, Italy for a year before attending Stanford. She now makes wine, art, food, and spaces when not helping founders. Her son is a Brightworks student (Middle School) and a Tinkering School alum.
Patrik Lundh
Patrik Lundh is a cultural anthropologist who has studied STEM education in K-12 classrooms and informal learning settings since 2007. Before becoming an education researcher, Patrik conducted ethnographic research on human rights organizations in Russia and worked as a preschool teacher. He also tinkers in his garage, plays guitar, and writes young adult novels.