Ms. Tara Chklovski,Founder and President. Ms. Chklovski has an undergraduate degree in Physics, a M.S in Aerospace Engineering, is part-time faculty at the Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering Department at USC and a lecturer at the Los Angeles Trade Technical College. She has previously worked as the principal at a 300 student K-6 school in India. She has consistently and cost-effectively doubled Iridescent’s impact every year by heavily relying on technology, synergistic partnerships, rigorous evaluation and volunteers. She brings extensive knowledge of involving underservedcommunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), training and supporting engineers and mobilizing hundreds of volunteers to unite and accomplish big projects.
Her love for science as well as art is reflected in Iridescent's mission to bring the beautiful side of science to the public. Click here for some examples of educational science murals painted by Ms. Chklovski.Click here for a video of Ms. Chklovski teaching how to build model airplanes.
Ms. Lindsey Jenkins-Stark,Vice President. Ms. Lindsey Jenkins-Stark has a multi-subject credential from the University of California at Dominguez Hills, and an undergraduate degree in sociology with a focus in law from the University of California at San Diego. She was a Teach for America corps member in Los Angeles from 2006-2008. She is a distinguished middle school teacher who has taught math, science and social studies. She has been a member of a Los Angeles Unified District School decision-making committee, as well as lead teacher for her grade level.
Ms. Robyn Hightower,Researcher. Ms. Hightower has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Southern California and a Masters of Arts in Psychology from New York University. She is interested in social psychology and consumer behavior and has gained research experience in a variety of settings in academia and industry, including one of USC's social psychology labs and market research firms. To Iridescent she brings an understanding of how to conduct quantitative research that produces insights about respondent's preferences, attitudes and motivations. Her research aims to identify barriers that prevent or derail students' persistent interest and participation in science courses.
Mr. Sinchai Tsao, Director of Engineering Curriculum. Sinchai Tsao has a bachelor of science in Biophysics and a bachelor of arts in International Relations from Brown University. He received his M.S in Biomedical Engineering from University of Southern California and is currently a doctoral student in Biomedical Engineering. His research focus has been on Diffusion Tensor Imaging, an Magnetic Resonance Imaging technique that allows for the study of Neuronal Connectivity in the Brain. His teaching interests are in the use of biological analogs and naturally occurring phenomenon to help motivate concepts in Physics and Engineering. Sinchai hopes to help others become lifetime learners in the science and technology and to appreciate it's impact on our society.
Ms. Vanessa Cortinaz Garza, Regional Director. Vanessa Cortinas Garza graduated cum laude in three years from Tulane University.She holds a Master’s in Education from UCLA and a CA CLEAR credential.As a Teach For America corps member, Vanessa taught fifth grade in East Harlem, NY.Upon returning to her hometown, Los Angeles, she served as a sixth grade teacher at Stevenson MS in Boyle Heights.In 2007, she joined KIPP: L.A. Prep as the Dean of Curriculum and Instruction and became a Fellow in the Charter School Leadership Academy at Loyola Marymount University.Later, Vanessa served as the Instructional Leader for Excel Charter Academy, a PUC school, where she co-led the school to a 70-point API gain resulting in a 770.
Board of Directors
Dr. Timothy Chklovski, Founding Engineer, Structured Commons. Dr. Chklovski brings start-up and management experience through his role as the founder and CEO of aQuery, a document understanding company which has attracted top-tier venture capital backing and employed a large development team. Dr. Chklovski has graduated from MIT with a PhD in Computer Science and also holds M.Eng and Baccalaureate degrees from MIT in Computer Science, as well as Baccalaureate in Math. Dr. Chklovski is a Founding Engineer at Structured Commons.
Ms. Elyssa Elbaz manages the Elbaz Family Foundation, which supports environmental and educational causes. She is a former Assistant United States Attorney, where she was a member of the Violent and Organized Crime division. Prior to working as a prosecutor, she worked for the law firm of O'Melveny and Myers and clerked for a federal judge. She has also worked as a journalist for a number of newspapers and wire services in Los Angeles. Elyssa has a bachelor's degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Claremont McKenna College and a Juris Doctor from the UCLA School of Law. She serves on the following non-profit boards: the UCLA Law Alumni Board, the Claremont McKenna College Center for Human Rights Leadership, Whole Child Foundation, and X Prize (as the ethics chairperson). She is also a partner of Los Angeles Social Venture Partners.
Mr. Matthew Funk,Managing Director, Fulcrum Capital. Mr. Funk analyses distressed and special situations investment opportunities for the Austin-based firm. Previously, he was a bankruptcy lawyer and litigator at law firms including Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; a term law clerk on the First Circuit Court of Appeals; and a project manager at the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was a Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal; his M.B.A. from INSEAD, where he was co-head of the student investment fund; and his B.A. from Yale College.
Mr. Ritt Keerati,Managing Director, JANA Partners. Mr. Keerati evaluates investment opportunities for the New York-based hedge fund, focusing on technology sector. Previously he was an investment analyst at GSC Group and W Capital Partners and an investment banker at Credit Suisse Group. Mr. Keerati graduated Phi Beta Kappa with distinctions from Stanford University with double degrees in Computer Science and Economics.
Mr. Donald Lacey Jr., Vice President, Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking. Mr. Lacey is a magna cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School and holds S.B. degrees in mathematics and economics from MIT. Prior to his current position at Citigroup, Mr. Lacey was an investment banker at Lehman Brothers and Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Prof. Shrikanth Narayanan, Professor of Electrical Engineering,Computer Science, Linguistics and Psychology,University of Southern California. Prof. Narayanan received his M.S., Engineer, and Ph.D., all in electrical engineering, from UCLA in 1990, 1992, and 1995, respectively. From 1995-2000 he was with AT&T Labs-Research, Florham Park and AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill--first as a Senior Member and later as a Principal member of its Technical Staff. Currently, he is a Professor at the Signal and Image Processing Institute of USC's Electrical Engineering department and holds joint appointments as Professor in Computer Science, Linguistics and Psychology. He was a Research Area Director of the Integrated Media Systems Center, an NSF Engineering Research Center at USC, and was the Research Principal for the USC Pratt and Whitney Institute for Collaborative Engineering, a unique partnership between academia and industry (2003-2007).
He holds the first Viterbi Professorship in Engineering at USC. He is a recipient of an NSF CAREER award, USC Engineering Junior Research Award, USC Electrical Engineering Northrop-Grumman Research award, a Mellon award for mentoring excellence, an Okawa Research Award, an IBM Faculty Award and a faculty fellowship from the USC Center for Interdisciplinary research. He is a recepient of a 2005 Best Paper award (with Alex Potamianos) and a 2009 Best Paper Award (with Chul Min Lee) from the IEEE Signal Processing society and was selected as Signal Processing Society Distnguished Lecturer for 2010-2011. Papers co-authored with his students have won awards at InterSpeech 2009-Emotion Challenge, IEEE DCOSS 2009, IEEE MMSP 2007, IEEE MMSP 2006, ICASSP 2005 and ICSLP 2002. His research interests are in signals and systems modeling with an interdisciplinary emphasis on speech, audio, language, multimodal and biomedical problems and applications with direct societal relevance. His laboratory is supported by federal (NSF, NIH, DARPA, ONR, Army and DHS) and industry grants. He has published over 350 papers and has 7 granted and 10 pending U.S. patents.
Mr. Aniket Ullal,Senior Director, Standard and Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. Aniket Ullal has over 10 years of experience in launching and managing knowledge based businesses. He currently has product management responsibility for S&P's US Indices, including the widely tracked S&P 500 and S&P/Case-Shiller indices. He has also worked in McGraw-Hill's education business, where he helped launch a successful online formative assessment product for school districts. Previously he has worked as a business development manager at Infosys Technologies and as a consultant with Andersen. He is a graduate of Mumbai University, the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.
Dr. Chaitanya Ullal, Researcher in Material Science at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Gottingen, Germany. Dr. Ullal is a graduate from MIT with a PhD in Material Science. Dr. Ullal has prior experience in non-profits, having previously served as Co-President of the Boston chapter of AID, Association for India Development, an organization that received a 4-star rating (the maximum rating) from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent evaluator of charities.
Paul Yarin, Founder, Blackdust Design. Mr. Yarin is an engineer and product designer who conceives and develops innovative, robust, and useful devices. His consultancy, Blackdust Design, develops interactive systems for the medical, computer, and entertainment industries. Recent projects include networked interactive devices for Samsung’s new Manhattan showroom, a laparoscopic surgery simulator in use at eight major medical centers, a body-worn system of interactive tags, and custom sensing devices for installations and exhibits. At the MIT Media Lab, Paul conducted research in human-computer interaction and developed interactive electronic devices and environments. He holds two degrees in Mechanical Engineering: a Bachelor’s from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s from Stanford University. Click here for a video of Mr. Yarin talking at the final presentation event of our Energy City Project.
