Michael Sturtz—designer, sculptor, teacher, and manifester—founded The Crucible in 1999 as a venue to teach industrial arts in a truly creative and noncompetitive learning environment. Michael earned his BFA from Alfred University and his MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During his 12 years as Executive Director, Michael forged a $1,750 seed grant and his idea into the largest nonprofit industrial arts educational facility in the nation. After leaving The Crucible in 2011, Michael began teaching at Stanford’s design school, where he launched The Stanford Creative Ignition Lab @ Autodesk. In 2017, Michael began leading the Design Kitchen at GoogleX, which is the moonshot factory where uncomfortably ambitious, potentially world-changing, new ideas are developed and taken out into the world.

Website: http://michaelsturtz.com

Susan Mernit is the executive director of The Crucible, a nonprofit arts education organization based in West Oakland that fosters a collaboration of arts, industry, and community. Through training in the fine and industrial arts, The Crucible promotes creative expression, reuse of materials, and innovative design, while serving as an accessible arts venue for the general public in the Bay Area.

Before joining The Crucible, Mernit was co-founder and CEO of Hack the Hood, a Bay Area nonprofit that works to address the needs of low-income young people of color, ages 16 to 25, by empowering them to pursue jobs in tech in the Bay Area and across the region. Its 168-hour intensive “Bootcamp” builds a powerful and effective roadway to mid- and high-skills jobs with advanced training for in-demand tech careers through a direct service and train-the-trainer model. Mernit co-founded Hack the Hood while running Oakland Local, an impactful hyperlocal news site, and while working as a consultant for The Knight Foundation’s Community Impact Challenge program.

A former VP at America Online and Netscape, and a former Yahoo! Senior Director, Mernit has spent her life working at the intersection of media, tech, and the arts. She has consulted for a number of organizations, including Public Radio International, Salon.com and TechSoup Global. She led a 2008 Tech Stars company start-up and worked with Jeff Jarvis to launch The Yuckiest Site on the Internet, one of the first youth websites, later acquired by Discovery Communications. In her earliest days, she was a teaching artist for Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York, a published writer and small-press bookmaker, and a proud counselor at Buck’s Rock Work Camp.

A skilled trainer and speaker, Mernit has taught workshops on social media, news, and strategy for The Poynter Institute, the Knight Foundation, and the Knight Digital Media Center at USC/Annenberg School of Journalism. She was a Carlos McClatchy Fellow at Stanford University School of Journalism and is a longtime Oakland resident.

A former VP at America Online and Netscape, and a former Yahoo! Senior Director, Mernit has spent her life working at the intersection of media, tech, and the arts. She has consulted for a number of organizations, including Public Radio International, Salon.com and TechSoup Global. She led a 2008 Tech Stars company start-up and worked with Jeff Jarvis to launch The Yuckiest Site on the Internet, one of the first youth websites, later acquired by Discovery Communications. In her earliest days, she was a teaching artist for Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York, a published writer and small-press bookmaker, and a proud counselor at Buck’s Rock Work Camp.

A skilled trainer and speaker, Mernit has taught workshops on social media, news, and strategy for The Poynter Institute, the Knight Foundation, and the Knight Digital Media Center at USC/Annenberg School of Journalism. She was a Carlos McClatchy Fellow at Stanford University School of Journalism and is a longtime Oakland resident.