BRITTANY HOWARD //dIRECTOR of operations

Brittany has been with Hope Tech since the beginning. She has helped develop curriculum within our program including character design, story development, color theory, game development and graphic design tutorials. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Art in 2005 from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and she loves using her creative skills to give back to the community.

Aside from Graphic Design she also teaches Hope Tech Labs and provides other operational support for Hope NLC.

Brittany also enjoys being an active member of her neighborhood and the local church.

glenn simon // principal stem instructor, Hope tech

Glenn Simon is a STEM instructor for Hope NLC. Glenn retired from Hewlett Packard Enterprise in February 2021 after 38 years in R&D. Glenn was lead mechanical engineer on multiple server and networking equipment development programs. Later in his career focused on developing thermal expertise to solve challenging high-density thermal cooling systems, authoring or co-authoring over 40 patents.  Glenn graduated in 1982 from Stanford University with a BSE in Product Design.  Glenn's interest in software development led him to Hope Tech, where he hopes to inspire and encourage youth to pursue STEM fields of study.

KAREN STEAD // LITERACY director, hope literacy

Karen started officially working for Hope NLC since 2024, but has been supporting  and watching its growth since its inception.  She brings her technical background from working at Hewlett-Packard as a software engineer in the early 2000s and her educational experience through  tutoring  classical education classes from 2011-2024.  She enjoys using her skills to help develop educational assistance products for Hope NLC.

Karen earned her Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science/Physics with a minor in Math from St. Mary's College of California and is currently finishing a Master of Arts in Classical Pedagogy at Southeastern University.  She has had the opportunity to attend Oxford University in a visiting student program and has worked with numerous students over the years developing their thinking, communicating, and problem solving skills.  She greatly enjoys seeing youth grow in their love of learning and their desire to explore new things.

sam worthen // apple man

Sam first joined Apple in 1998 in the warehouse assembling the iMac G3.  Sam has been a key contributor in multiple departments and groups within Apple and now works with Apple Engineering as an Analyst Manager. 

In his spare time, Sam enjoys working with his community, sketching out cartoons, and illustrating on the computer.

Sam's passion is in coaching and developing others.  He is excited to do this through teaching local youth technical skills.

Eden Chen // Fisherman Labs

Eden is a co-founder and a managing partner at Fishermen Labs, one of the fastest growing digital creative agencies in the US. Eden has advised and built products for Snapchat, IAC, Walmart, Sony, the United Nations, and countless startups and serves in strategic, design and technical roles. 

Before this, Eden was the founder of Lightmark Capital, a Los Angeles based hedge fund. Prior to these ventures, he worked as an investment banker at Citigroup. Eden invests and sits on the board of numerous startups and nonprofits including Pioneers and Resource Global. He has been interviewed by Bloomberg and US News and has written for Venture Beat, and Entrepreneur magazine. Eden was selected as a part of Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, LA Business Journal's 20 in their 20’s, and Emory Magazine’s 40 under 40 list. Eden graduated with honors from Emory University. 

Watch Eden's Ted Talk on Observation here.

Adam Temple // Bixly

In 2009 Adam founded Bixly, a software development agency, and grew it to a multi-million dollar company within four years. He loves working with a fabulous team to create helpful things.