STAFF

Meg has been a leader in community arts and education in Vermont for the last 20 years.

Meg was founder of the Langdon Street Café, the collectively run art and music venue in Montpelier that that Seven Days named “the crown jewel of the Montpelier arts community.”

Hammond came to Generator in January 2020 from Goddard College where she was Director of Development. At Goddard she led a successful campaign for a multi-phase renovation of the historic Haybarn Theatre in 2014 and produced the Haybarn Theatre Concert Series featuring world-class performers. Hammond was costume designer and stage manager for the original Vermont productions of Hadestown which went on to Broadway to win 8 Tony awards in 2019. Hammond holds a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Arts. She is here to empower entrepreneurs, artists, and makers of all kinds and increasing educational opportunities in STEAM pathways.

Contact Meg here.

Veronica is a lifelong learner with a knack for inquiry. She brings to Generator seventeen years of experience in the education sector with a focus on advancing equity of access to authentic opportunities that are relevant to the learner and serve the broader community. For the past seven years, she worked for the Vermont Agency of Education to provide systems level support for the implementation of Act 77, Flexible Pathways initiative through student-centered policy and program development for statewide dual enrollment, early college, and work-based learning programs. Prior to the Agency, Veronica taught secondary English in Boston and Lawrence, MA where she co-designed multidisciplinary performance tasks with academic and CTE instructors in order to help students make the connection between academic principles and real-world applications.

Veronica grew up in a small town in southern NH, spending summers in coastal Maine. Her inquisitive nature led her to studying abroad, traveling the USA, then eventually, settling in Vermont with her family. Veronica holds an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a BA from the University of New Hampshire.

Contact Veronica here.

A Vermont Native with a career spanning multiple art and maintenance industries over the last decade and a half, Mason is a person who has worn many hats in his life. After getting his B.A in Theater, he moved to NYC to work as a freelance carpenter off-Broadway. He was the technician in charge of humidity control on a traveling exhibit of The Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Foreman of a scene shop in Brooklyn where he supervised the creation of stages for product launches, helped Nike put a traveling skatepark on a barge, and oversaw the build out of multiple sets for off-broadway productions.

Returning to Vermont in 2014, where lucrative theater work is hard to come by, Mason began his journey as a maintenance technician. Working first for the Burlington Housing Authority, and then the UVM Medical Center, he put his natural curiosity and enjoyment of taking things apart to work in a new way. At the medical center, Mason took every opportunity to learn new skills and increase his knowledge, working on large HVAC Systems, chillers and 600hp boilers in order to keep the hospital running and helping to keep people comfortable while they healed.

Mason loves to take things apart, see how they work and then put them back together. He’s always discovering new ways to fix things and working on his family’s homes or his truck. When he’s not working or fixing things, he’s fishing, camping, seeking out delicious food, or playing Dungeons and Dragons with his brother and their friends.

Contact Mason here.

Mary grew up in an old house in Upstate NY where she learned the value of making things with your own two hands. As the Development Specialist she helps connect people to the mission of Generator, seeks out funding opportunities, and supports the administrative office.

Mary‘s professional career has followed values driven organizations, bringing a focus on storytelling, research, and community engagement to her work. Prior to Generator, Mary worked as the Development Director of Goddard College, and previously at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where she helped run a successful $120 million capital campaign. She is passionate about the arts and creating greater access and inclusion for people of all backgrounds.

Mary is an avid maker, working primarily in garment sewing and quilting, but also dabbling in woodworking, jewelry making, and fabric dyeing. She can also make a mean pie. When she’s not at Generator she spends her spare time writing, fumbling along with the ukulele, and hunting out the best swimming holes.

Contact Mary here.

Alex is a freelance maker and teacher who specializes in metal fabrication. He grew up in the idyllic suburbs of northern Virginia and went on to get a degree in geography from the University of Kansas. After a subsequent career as a pizza artist, he hit the road and found himself working as a commercial fisherman on the coast of Maine. Now in Burlington, Generator is where Alex spends most of his time. His goal in life is to learn how to do everything, or at least everything that interests him.

Need help with something tool or workshop related?

Contact Alex here.

Mae is a Burlington local with a brewing industry background where she specialized in project management, event planning, and product innovation. She had a hand in creating and releasing a beer from start to finish, planning launch events in major US cities, and liaising with artists around the world. 

She enjoys being the administrative eyes and ears of her creative community and gains inspiration and knowledge from the people around her. In return, she manages their agendas and makes sure everything is running smoothly. Mae likes to support and promote creatives and learns a great deal of various skill-sets along the way.

Outside of work, you can find Mae screen printing, practicing guitar, hanging around the local yoga studio, or taking a very long walk listening to a very good podcast.

Contact Mae here.

Sam grew up in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts and moved north to attend the University of Vermont (Natural Resources ’08). Much of Sam’s previous work has focused on connecting youth and young adults to unique experiences. He’s been a teacher, farm educator, camp counselor, outdoor program director and professional development specialist. Systems are his jam: he loves a well-crafted spreadsheet as much as a well-carved wooden spoon. As Program Coordinator, Sam helps keep things organized, tracked and documented. He loves being around the energy and creativity of the Generator community. When not keeping tabs on things, Sam can typically be found outdoors— on bikes, boots, boats, shoes, skates and skis; or (if it’s rainy) inside making greeting cards out of old magazines.

Contact Sam here.

Ben comes to Generator with 14 years’ experience as a mathematics teacher. During his career he has focused on creating an engaging environment that puts the students at the heart of the classroom.  Ben is a big believer in learning through mistakes, projects, discussion and having students be the ones to investigate and answer their own questions as a team. During his seven-year career at Spaulding High School in Barre, he helped to create a STEAM program in coordination with the Work Based Learning program that was already in place.  He also taught and developed an engineering course, robotics course and various mathematics classes.

Ben loves a project and being in the out of doors. Whether it’s renovating his 1930s colonial, installing solar panels on his camper, baking pies from scratch, or using his 3D printer to make board games, he’ll jump at the opportunity to get creative. He is one hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is at!

Ben lives in Barre with his wife and two dogs.

Contact Ben here.

Lisa is an innovative problem solver interested in systems thinking, collective sense making, and in highlighting the strengths and capabilities of individuals and communities. Along with her extensive experience as a college-level instructor and as a social entrepreneur focused on advancing the early childhood education workforce, Lisa brings her commitment to professional development with undergrad and advanced degrees in early childhood education, business administration, and leadership for social change in education.

At the core of all of her contributions are the values that motivate Lisa to engage fully in her work: play, curiosity, intention, community, creativity, and experimentation. She is excited to be part of the Generator team and is energized by the opportunity to join others in discovering new ways to bring ideas to life.

Outside of Generator, Lisa enjoys spending time outside with her family and is crazy about her two dogs, Roy and Pepper. She also loves to doodle and can be found graphic note taking as she listens to non-fiction audio books and dystopian novels. Music, dance, art, and motorcycle riding inspire Lisa and are the interests that draw her out into the community. She is otherwise quite happy to be at home.

Contact Lisa here.

Chantal joined Generator after several years of work on wildlife and climate change projects, for which she wrote about everything from bighorn sheep to native forest restoration.

Chantal is happy to be a part of the Generator community and truly enjoys sharing the stories of Vermont makers both new and experienced. She hopes her work will help spark local collaborations across crafts, mediums, and more.

Chantal lives in Williston and spends most of her time cooking, climbing, or hiking with her dog, Penny.

Contact Chantal here.

SHOP LEADS

Seamus Hannan

Wood Shop & CNC Router

Seamus Hannan is a Burlington-based woodworker juggling dozens of custom projects at any given time. His personal work often involves combining fine hardwoods and veneers with LED lighting into light boxes. Seamus is one of our wood shop’s Volunteer Shop Leads and his studio is here at Generator, so there’s no better person to connect with if you’re considering joining Generator for access to the wood shop — he’s in it all the time! Seamus is also an audio engineer and live music lover. You can check out Seamus’s work here.

Juju Lobo

Wood Shop & CNC Router

Juju/Julianny here! Being a part of Generator has been an experience of much growth and learning. From an ‘artisanal’ background and nature lover, I joined the space with many ideas and very little experience. Fast forward a few years and now I’m now woodshop lead and tool training instructor, and yours truly member rep! Here I was able to network, get trained, exchange ideas, work, collaborate, make friends and much more – I really enjoy this community! If you see me around, and want to say ‘hi’ or bounce ideas around, don’t be shy!

Alex Brumlik

Wood Shop

Growing up in Chicago, I found myself constantly drawn to the world of art and sculpture.  I studied metalsmithing and welding at my local college but in pursuit of a degree I changed my studies to fine woodworking and found myself out here in Vermont.  I obtained my BFA (Bachelor of Fine Art) degree from NVU up in Johnson, and spent the vast majority of my time in Fairfax, home of the Vermont Woodworking School.  Surrounded by wildlife and corn, there wasn’t much to do besides focus on my art, and it drove me to reach new levels in my craft.  Now back in society, I see so many disposable items, so many instances of “Planned Obsolescence” that bother me, driving the consumer mindset of modern society.  Along with my pursuit of fine craft lies a deeper meaningfulness to the work I do, which is the elimination of need to replace goods over and over.  A well-built piece can serve for hundreds of years, sparing the limited materials and resources of nature that we see dwindling around us.

Justin Heininger

Jewelry

Justin Heininger is a former Web Developer and artist living Hinesburg, Vermont. Born and raised in Vermont, Justin graduated from Champlain Valley Union High School in 1990, and the University of Vermont with a B.A. in Studio Art in 1994. He enjoys cooking, listening to music, and relaxing next to campfire in the summertime.

Greg Kuchyt

Metal Shop & CNC Router

Greg spent 14 years working as a Linux jack of all trades for a SUNY campus and the University of Vermont before stumbling into the world of machining and manufacturing. Greg entered the realm of machining on manual machines as a means to produce custom tools for volunteer work in the Vermont rock climbing community. On the way he discovered a whole world of manufacturing technology that has captured his interest ever since. Greg is excited by the idea of applying his experience programming and working on complex IT systems to the modern computer aided manufacturing environment. He works as a developer for a manufacturing applications engineering group that specializes in developing post-processors and digital twins for complex CNC machine tools.

Sam Damphousse

Laser Cutter &

Adobe CC

Sam is a graphic designer in the outdoor industry, currently working at Anon Optics here in Burlington. Sam is also a maker who enjoys bringing a deep understanding of illustrator to making the leap into digital manufacturing and rapid prototyping. Sam’s favorite part about the laser cutter is how quick you can identify a problem and work through multiple iterations to find a solution as well as the ability to make 3d artwork. Current projects include making a catan board, holiday ornaments, and making a set of small custom tool holders for his home shop.

When not around Generator you can find Sam outside Mountain biking or skiing.

TBD

Vinyl Cutter &

Adobe CC

We’re currently recruiting a Vinyl Cutter and Learning Lab Shop Lead!

Interested? Email us!

Tommy Waters

Electronics

Tommy is a life tourist, constantly exploring new ways of creating and interacting with the world. Professionally he is a software and electronics engineer, but has a variety of interests ranging from drawing and woodworking to fiber crafts and origami. Tommy’s curiosity takes him in many different directions and Generator has enabled this passion by giving him access to a wide array of tools allowing him to constantly be pushing his skills. When not in Generator, you may find him rock climbing in the area or rollerblading down by the waterfront.

Fletcher Pratt

Metal Shop

Fletcher Pratt has been welding at Generator since 2018 and has used Generator’s metal shop for building bicycle frames.

TBD

Metal Shop

We’re currently recruiting a Vinyl Cutter and Learning Lab Shop Lead!

Interested? Email us!

Sara Skloss

3D Printers

Sara likes to experiment with small electronics and 3D printing projects. She recently designed and built an amplified crystal radio – with all the resistors and capacitors 3D-printed using a graphene-filled filament. She is currently working on an equatorial platform for a Serrurier truss Dobsonian telescope that she designed and machined over the summer. Sara received a B.S. in Engineering Physics with an emphasis in Materials Science and Nanotechnology Systems from University of Wisconsin Platteville. She is currently employed by GlobalFoundries as a Process Engineer.

Ryan Shanley

Sewing Studio

Ryan has a diverse skill set in fixing things, primarily to keep them out of a landfill, but also as a useful pastime. He began sewing 8 years ago when he wanted a hammock and did not want to buy one. This interest has grown, allowing him to fabricate a variety of things, including lightweight backpacking tarps, chalk bags, and hundreds of hammocks. He also does gear patchwork and repair, including zippers! Ryan is an active backcountry skier, rock climber, mountain biker, backpacker, and anything outdoorsy – activities that often result in him needing to fix or fabricate something. Ryan is excited to share his passion for making cool and useful things with others!