Building a Nation of Makers: Celebrating the Creativity, Ingenuity, and Diversity of the Maker Community

Dorothy is co-founder of NationofMakers.org, co-producer of the National Maker Faire and the DC Mini Maker Faire. She aspires to enable solutions to the world’s challenges through the collective skills of the diverse maker community.

Amy Hurst is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and runs the prototyping and design lab. Her research focuses on technologies for empowerment, and engaging people with disabilities in the maker movement.

Shawn is an engineering professor who is interested in pathways from Making to engineering. He has partnered with the Navajo Nation to host STEAM camps where students create Rube Goldberg machines, as a part of his NSF Early CAREER award.

Kipp Bradford is an engineer, entrepreneur, consultant, educator, and passionate “Maker”. He has founded start-ups in the fields of transportation, consumer products, HVAC, and medical devices, and holds numerous patents for his inventions. Some of his more interesting projects become kippkitts.

Jerry is CEO of the non-profit SAM Academy where he runs the Sanger Community Science Workshop, one of five in California whose mission is to provide space and opportunity for youth in under-served communities to tinker, make, and explore their world through STEM.