Creative Technologies + Design
Sarah Kim received her BA in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado Boulder. She has a passion for education and has worked in higher education for over six years. Her primary focus in the CTD program will be in leveraging creative technology to encourage and empower students from underrepresented communities. Her other interests include music, sound design, and social media. |
Tord Johan Rieber received his Bachelor in Business Administration from Hult International Business School in London, England. His work in the CTD track bolsters his passion for exploring the great outdoors through his focus on designing and creating visually appealing outdoor gear that lessens the impact on the environment. |  Ian Smith earned his B.A. summa cum laude in Film Studies from CU Boulder and continues his academic journey with the CTD program. His wildest dream is to be on the forefront of emerging narrative mediums like virtual and augmented reality in order to shape the interactive future of film and gaming. His passion for genre films, especially horror, steer his creative impulses towards the weird and sublime.
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Ted Thayer completed a B.S. in Engineering Physics with a minor in Biochemistry and a certificate in Engineering Management from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He studies product development and execution to support his STEAM toy startup (MyraMakes.com). Ted’s core interests are creating innovative technologies and designing new methods to facilitate collaboration and learning. |
Monica Bolles received her bachelor of science in music with a focus in technology at CU Denver. She has worked as an audio engineer and music producer for the past five years in Denver, Colorado and Nashville, Tennessee. Currently her interests lie in working with sound in three-dimensional environments and creating immersive and interactive experiences, with a specific focus in fulldome production.
Matthew Dickey received his Bachelor of Arts in the field of the Studio Arts and a minor in Technology, Arts & Media from the University of Colorado. His graduate work in the CTD program focuses on the intersection between the worlds of creative design and fine arts.
Emily Lin attended University of Colorado Boulder, earning a BA in Psychology, with a minor in Technology, Arts, and Media. She is currently working as a graphic designer for the university and has a strong interest in visual communication. Her goals for the CTD program include developing her creativity as a designer and acquiring new skills she applies to innovative visual communication.
Wei Miao received his bachelor’s degree of Computer Science and Technology from Jilin University in Changchun, China. After graduation he worked as a software testing engineer in Pactera, a software outsourcing company, in Beijing for 3 years where the clients he worked for included Microsoft and ST-Ericsson. He has always been interested in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, and he has a great passion for designing and building robots for home living and school education.
Danny Rankin received a BA in Environmental Studies from CU Boulder in 2015. His primary focus is the development of ecologically focused, open-source hardware for use in sustainable agriculture, something he explores both in his academic work as well as in everyday experimentation on his small farm, located just east of Boulder, CO.
Madison Sabo received her BS in psychology with a minor in Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) from the University of Colorado Boulder. She currently works as a graphic designer for the university. Sabo hopes to leverage her background in psychology with technology and media to create software solutions based on understanding how users think, act and behave in order to deliver compelling designs.
Mitchell Wolfe received his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder as well as two minors in Creative Writing and Technology, Arts, and Media. He plans to study media creation and the development of design as a means of communication. His interests include photography, web design, branding, and story-telling.
Keke Wu received her B.Eng in Digital Media Technology from Central China Normal University and recently received her MFA in Multimedia Production from Communication University of China. She shows great interest in both art and technology and hopes to reach a balance between her skills. Her future plan in the CTD program is to explore more about human-computer interaction with a focus on mobile design & development, interactive design.Information & Communication Technology for Development
 Babatunde Adegoke
|  Nate Beard holds a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Information Management from the University of Colorado. After school, he was an editor at Unreasonable Group and worked entrepreneurs in emerging markets, investors and startup mentors around the globe before moving to Kenya. He has experience in startups, UX, writing, and technology and interests in education, entrepreneurship and global development. |  Before attending CU Boulder, Ole Bjelland graduated from Queen Mary, University of London with a BA in Politics and Business Management. Currently Ole is studying for a Masters in Information and Communication Technology for Development with a special focus on how to leverage technology to provide education opportunities in marginalized developing country contexts. He is designing lesson plans for MakerSpace education models that focus on encouraging empowerment and agency through vocational training in refugee communities. Beyond his research, Ole has a passion for outdoor activities in all seasons ranging from skiing to hiking to hammocking! |  Ryan Doner received his B.S. in Neuroscience and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Arizona with an emphasis in learning and memory. He is fascinated by the interplay of technology and psychology, particularly with respect to mindfulness meditation. He hopes to design virtual reality experiences that reduce consumerist behaviors and encourage compassion for environmental and humanitarian issues. |
 Jennifer Lee grew up in northern California, east of San Francisco. She has an undergraduate degree in studio arts with a certificate in Technology, Arts, and Media (T.A.M.) from the University of Colorado. She is always looking for opportunities to develop, learn, and add to her skill set, hoping to establish human connection through technology and design. She currently resides in Denver.
|  Emily Long graduated from Colorado College with dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Music and English. After serving two years in the Peace Corps in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand, Emily moved to Telluride, Colorado, to learn how to ski. Concurrent to her ski training, she worked as the program director for Telluride Mountainfilm, where she was responsible for creating the Moving Mountains Symposium on Wilderness in 2014. Currently, in addition to her graduate work at ATLAS in ICTD, she consults for several cleantech nonprofits, and is the proud mother of daughters Eliana and Raina. |  Carolyn Moreau grew up in New Zealand, is a journalist and filmmaker and currently works as a videographer in the communications department at CU. |  Tim Morrissey received a B.A. in English with distinction from the University of Colorado. Currently, he owns and operates a small business with his wife and works for the CU-Bookstore. |
 Denise Powell holds dual B.A. degrees in English and Journalism from the University of Iowa and has worked as a professional editor in the publishing industry for many years. An advocate for women, she founded The Voices Project, an online literary magazine for women to express themselves through poetry to promote social change. She has worked in Ghana, West Africa, with OAfrica, an NGO that helps keep orphans and vulnerable children in families and currently serves on its US board of directors. An avid traveler, Denise has visited 43 countries. Through the ICTD program, she hopes to learn how to best combine creativity with technology to help struggling communities across the globe. |  Joanne Reid has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Colorado and has skied on the CU Buffs ski team. |  Fujiko Robledo Yamamoto, LCSW, graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Master of Science in Clinical Social Work. For the last 5 years, she worked at a non-profit providing clinical treatment to children and families who have experienced abuse. She is interested in merging concepts from psychology, education, and neuroscience to design tools to help people of all ages learn in a playful and interactive manner. |  Kari Santos has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and has worked as a software engineer for more than 20 years. Her projects have included digital communications technology, digital video, Facebook and websites. She works for a Boulder startup designing software for enhanced e-books. A few years ago, she, her husband and their three children traveled through Asia for a year, volunteering about a third of the time with NGOs in four different countries. |
 Gena Welk has a B.S. in Business Administration from CU Boulder, as well as an M.A. in Digital Media from the University of Denver. After taking time off to focus on raising a family, she is now taking time to focus on technology and how it’s changing the world. She is passionately interested in privacy issues, telecom policies in the US and abroad, and the way the human brain is adapting to screen technology plus the negative effects it could be having on our children. |
Alea Akins studied at Colorado State University and graduated with a B.A. in Language, Literature and Cultures with an emphasis in Spanish and a B.A. in Technical Journalism and Public Relations. She served in the Peace Corps from 2008-2010 in Ecuador where she was a public health and community development volunteer partnering with the Ministry of Health, Plan International and USAID. She sees ICT as an effective and relevant method of engagement and a tool for working with young people locally and internationally.
Chris Bopp received his B.S. in Information Technology from Rochester Institute of Technology. He has consulted for many organizations, providing guidance on information systems design and security. Bopp gained experience in bridging technology and social issues while at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and is interested in using big data to understand and evaluate development initiatives.
Mary K. Bowannie is of the Zuni and Cochiti Pueblos of New Mexico. She is entering the ATLAS MS-ICTD program to further her work on the technological issues and challenges facing the over 500 federally-recognized Tribal Nations in the United States. Bowannie served as the lecturer in the Native American Studies department at the University of New Mexico, focusing on journalism and politics in Native American communities. She incorporated her media experiences into the classroom where she had students look critically at the media’s impact on Native America. Her specialties include online instruction in the areas of current events in Indigenous communities, voting and tribal communities, and tribal gaming.
John William Buckner received a B.A. in Mass Media Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations from Hampton University. After a successful career as an account executive and project manager, Buckner is shifting his career toward assisting socially-responsible enterprises to use technological solutions to enable personal, organizational and community development. In the MS-ICTD program at ATLAS, he is focused on inner-city development with an emphasis on program analytics to evaluate the efficacy of education and prevention programs that address teen marijuana use in relation to dropout rate in urban schools.
Chris Carruth lectures at CU-Boulder’s ATLAS Institute where he also works as research assistant with the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT). In addition, he is growing a monitoring and evaluation consultancy that focuses on self-reporting and empowerment through the use of conventional and visual methods.
Cassiane Cladis received her undergraduate degrees in International Affairs and in Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) from the University of Colorado Boulder. She focused on Sub-Saharan Africa, spending a semester in Senegal, and studied French. She currently is in charge of the social media marketing and branding of a start-up company in Denver.
Matt Crum thrives on creating people-centered technical solutions that are as effective and intuitive to use as possible. This ranges from sustainable school-based education technology to front end Javascript applications that make tools easier to use. He was influential in designing the framework for World Vision International’s globally-used Community Knowledge Center and telecenter design. He has a BS in Computer Science from West Virginia University.
In the MS-ICTD program, Neil DiMuccio focused on how technology impacts financial innovation in the field of microfinance. For his practicum semester abroad, he served as client relationship manager in Kenya with Zidisha.org, the world’s first peer-to-peer international microlending site. He is currently pursuing a career in social finance. During his undergraduate years, he focused on economics, political science and Latin American studies.
Scott William Dudley, aka ‘Koda’, earned a BS in Computer Science with an English minor at the University of North Texas in 2003. His career focused on interactive media and the social Web as well as virtual community and social media. Most of this experience revolved around the videogames industry. He works as a consultant and serves on the board for two non-profits, including the Presidential role at Apogaea Inc., a 501(c)(3) for the arts.
Luke Groeninger received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from CU. He also served in the United States Army for seven years, where he gained first-hand experience in international development during his three deployments in Iraq.
Andrew Kiproff studied New Media: Interactive Development at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Following graduation, he pursued a career in online and digital marketing, which resulted in extensive international travel and the creation of an organic cotton supply chain, Connect One Threads, that connects international artists with farmers and producers across Turkey. While studying ICTD, Andrew hopes to continue expanding his sustainable clothing community, while facilitating constructive social change.
Lakshmi Haridas is a computer engineer experienced in semi-conductors. As an MS-ICTD student, she had a focus on mobile.
Matthew Hulse worked as a researcher in the World Bank headquarters, Washington D.C. As part of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Transport, Water and Information/Communication Technology (TWICT) group, he aided initiatives in telecommunications, software infrastructure, energy and technology-for-change.
Kevin McElhinney created a free and open source Web-based solar photovoltaic monitoring platform to track solar input, usage and system health. His pilot site was in Laschobas, Haiti. He is currently a web engineer with VerbalizeIt and describes himself as a jack-of-all-trades technologist and a service-oriented problem solver. Kevin McElhinney created a free and open source Web-based solar photovoltaic monitoring platform to track solar input, usage and system health. His pilot site was in Laschobas, Haiti. He is currently a web engineer with VerbalizeIt and describes himself as a jack-of-all-trades technologist and a service-oriented problem solver.
Joey Lyon received a B.A. in Communication at CU Boulder and entered the MS-ICTD program in the fall of 2014. He studied geographic information science (GIS), with specific study of interactions between health, education, and social inequality. For his practicum assignment, he analyzed and mapped grant programs, while producing web content for the National Center for Women and IT, located in ATLAS. He is currently working in San Francisco as the National Development Associate for Peer Health Exchange.
Born in Argentina, Barbara MacFerrin grew up in the U.S. and earned her B.S. in Information Systems Security. She has worked in Information Technology in various environments ranging from the aerospace industry to healthcare and wellness. In addition, she has worked as a social worker with the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. In ICTD, MacFerrin plans to combine her technical background with her longstanding passions for travel, discovery and photography to help empower underserved communities.
For her practicum semester, Maryam Moghaddam-Zadeh spent two months in Iran working with the Iranian Epilepsy Association as a consultant, helping them use technology for better communication with epilepsy patients, doctors and the public. She received her B.S. in electrical and computer engineering, and a B.A. in psychology from CU-Boulder.
Alexandra Morgan-Kisarale is the Director of Learning Solutions at CSMlearn, a Boulder-based, mission-driven technology company, where she leads business development in emerging markets as well as customer engagement and support in the U.S. and abroad. Prior to joining CSMlearn, she spent two years working in Haiti leading educational technology initiatives, including the deployment of 21 school-based laboratories and educational research efforts at World Vision’s Haiti Office. She has a BA in Political Science.
Mustafa Naseem served as director of the Innovations for Poverty Alleviation Lab (IPAL), a part of the Information Technology University (ITU) in Lahore, Pakistan. He interned at the FCC, Nokia Siemens Networks and the World Health Organization. He received his degree in electrical engineering from Pakistan’s National University of Science and Technology. He rejoined CU/ATLAS in September 2017 as ICTD Expert in Residence.
Grant Oberholzer graduated from Liberty University receiving a bachelor’s degree in business management in 2011. After working in the IT industry, he chose to continue his education at CU-Boulder. He is currently employed by CU’s Anthropology Department as an IT administration assistant. 
Jenny Phelps earned her BFA in Interior Design at the University of North Texas. After working as a commercial designer, she received her elementary teaching license. She then served from 2009 to 2011 in the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan as an education volunteer, also aiding in health and human rights. After her service, she worked at an international school in Venezuela. She is focused on a career that incorporates technology in positive ways to develop awareness of health-related issues and education on both global and local levels.
Within the UN system, Rachel Powers worked with member states and private sector stakeholders to highlight the ICT opportunity for persons with disabilities. In the nonprofit field, she supported the development of information systems to streamline vaccine supply chain logistics. She is passionate about technology issues that have lasting effects on the greater community of global development, international policy, technological innovation and consumer well-being. She received a BA in linguistics at the University of Washington.
For her practicum semester, Hawra Rabaan worked with Dar Si-Hmad for Development, an NGO located in Southern Morocco. She helped develop a monitoring application for the fog-harvesting infrastructure in the Anti-Atlas Mountains. With a BS in information technology, Rabaan is originally from the east coast of Saudi Arabia. Growing up in Pittsburg, PA, she went back to Riyadh, SA at the age of 8 where she spent most of her life. She is passionate about women’s rights and empowerment, youth and education.
Joellen Raderstorf worked in Namibia observing first hand the power of social enterprise in assisting community development for her MS-ICTD practicum. She is now the business development manager for divi, a start-up company that uses technology-enabled micro-credit to bring solar lighting to off-grid communities in Africa. Her work continues to be fueled by the core belief that “poor” people do not exist, only people lacking access.
Schanuel’s background is in web development and technical support. She currently works for CU-Boulder’s Anderson Language & Technology Center. Her interests include user research, experimental psychology and design.
Dani Rodriguez got started in technology-centered classes in the ATLAS Technology, Arts & Media (TAM) program while she pursued her BA in English Literature. She always had a mind for theory and discourse analysis. The MS-ICTD program encouraged this interest while developing skills in programming and a holistic understanding of global development and IT innovation in emerging markets. Throughout her undergrad career, Rodriguez was active in community studies through the Puksta program and Institute of Ethical and Civic Engagement. She is finishing up her degree while serving as an Americorps VISTA volunteer with Utah’s Refugee Services Office.
Milee Shrestha received her undergraduate degree in New Media Art, Computer Graphics from the University of Electro-Communication, Chofu Tokyo. Her post-graduate research enhanced her understanding of theories and conventional and unconventional applications of computer science and technology.
Leland Smith is a long-time technology enthusiast who has spent the last few years learning how to properly apply it to development. He came to Boulder from Washington D.C. with previous experience in the Peace Corps, USAID contracting, and web development for Ashoka, a social enterprise non-profit. After finishing up coursework with ATLAS, he’s now back in DC doing a practicum with Tetra Tech International Development, helping to build a technology-for-development unit out of their old geospatial technologies group. He’ll be staying on with Tetra Tech after graduation in the DC area.
Abigale Stangl is interested in practicing mixed-methodology research to appropriately and creatively enhance the design of technologies, services, and environments. She applies her background in environmental planning, information communication technology for development (ICTD), and interaction design to support communities looking to use technology to cultivate meaningful experiences and informal educational opportunities.
Vickie Stubbs received her undergraduate degree in Japanese, German and Political Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder. After working in industry for many years and then the ATLAS Institute where she witnessed students go through the MS-ICTD program, she decided to utilize her political science and language skills in a way to benefit society.
Part of the first graduating cohort of the MS-ICTD program, Nicole Stephan went on to Western States Art Federation (WESTAF) where she leads the development of the nation’s first creative economy data portal and visualization tool, the Creative Vitality Suite. Prior to attending the ICTD program, Stephan worked as senior designer with Wall Street on Demand (Markit on Demand). She has a BFA in graphic design from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit.
McClees Stephens has worked internationally since her first trip to Australia in 2004. Since then, her work has taken her all over the world, especially Latin America. She has found great joy in learning the history of the Internet, how it is built and impacts societies. Simultaneously, she is learning how societies have prospered before its invention for thousands of years.
Rachel Strobel has experience with counter human-trafficking efforts in Mexico City, working with survivors and influential politicians. She has developed technology solutions for various NGOs in Mexico and Kenya. Strobel also worked with the prestigious Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) in London, where she helped with policy and regulatory analysis. She received her BA in communications at CU-Boulder.
With a BS in computer science, Aaron Vimont worked at a computer engineering company before pursuing the MS-ICTD. Attracted by the MS-ICTD program’s versatility, he wanted to explore new ways to learn and use computer science. Completing an internship with the FCC’s Accessibility and Innovation Initiative, he is now Technical Project Manager and Webmaster at the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT).
Alexis Wagnon focused her master’s degree studies on sustainable development and communication technology strategies that can be used to revolutionize international and community development. As a communications and social media strategist, she has worked with the Boulder Conservation Center, Silicon Flatirons and Jamba Juice. She received her BA in communications and social marketing from Texas A&M University.