Virtual Tour of The Foundry makerspace in Buffalo, NY
Empire State Maker Faire 2020
October 16th-17th
Meet The Foundry's Education Director Deb Sarlin and Executive Director Megan McNally as they walk through The Foundry on a tour of their space in Buffalo, NY.
Megan McNally
Megan McNally is co-founder of The Foundry, a makerspace in Buffalo, NY. She holds a degree in Environmental Policy from Barnard College, has experience in green building construction and worked at Yestermorrow Design/Build School. She moved back to Buffalo to run a woodworking business from 2011-2014. From her own experience as a woman business owner in a non-traditional trade, she was passionate about creating The Foundry as a place to support other women and people of color exploring the possibilities of making and entrepreneurship . She has been the recipient of Women Who Move The City Award, BizJournal's 30 under 30 Award, Protege of The Year from University at Buffalo’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and a finalist for the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo Centennial Awards.
Deb Sarlin
Deb has worked in urban settings (at schools in East New York in Brooklyn and in the Bronx) and rural setting (in orchards and inoculating chickens), and a twisting path across the northeast has led her to Buffalo. After receiving an MFA from Columbia University, she promptly accepted a fellowship in a foundry (Tallix in Beacon) and then another as a Blacksmith (Peter’s Valley in the Delaware Water Gap National Park). She has provided educational leadership at the Shelburne Craft School; taught in Art, Education, and Computer Science departments; and has toiled in libraries to support college professors developing strategies for using technologies and tools for teaching, analytic mapping, and 3D printing or scanning. Deb stepped away from Higher Education to work on community maker projects and an augmented reality application, and still can’t quite believe how lucky she has been to have landed at The Foundry.
