Team (List) | Harvard's LPCE 2/5

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Team Members

Director on Creativity and Entrepreneurship, located in the Office for Undergraduate Education, Sam works to connect education-innovation and creative-entrepreneurship communities. Previously, he was the Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard University for HILT's Operation Impact, an arts administrator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Creative Entrepreneurship lecturer at Boston University, and a school teacher and arts department chair. He independently consults on education innovation and arts education integration best practices via his arts and education startups, he advises multiple arts and education ventures, and serves on several start-up and arts-admin boards.

Interests:
Alternative Education, focusing on how to learn rather than what to learn
Trans-disciplinary Collaboration
Creating and Facilitating Creation
Innovation Consulting
Sustainability and Addressing Environmental Issues
Cultivating Openness and Critical Thinking Skills

Sam Magee

Director on Creativity and Entrepreneurship

Maria Guo is the Assistant Director on Creativity and Entrepreneurship. She helps design, develop, and implement seminars and courses for the undergraduate student community. She also manages the Mentor Council and supervises the LPCE fellows. Maria founded the Jackson School Mentor Program at the University of Washington, where she received her Bachelor's degree. She received her Master's degree from Columbia University.

Interests:
Law and Education
Academic and Career Advising
Clean Water and Sanitation

Maria Guo

Assistant Director, Creativity and Entrepreneurship

Leslie Coles is the Manager Of Accelerators and Partnerships for the LPCE. She also co-founded and leads the non-profit Moms as Mentors, an organization focused on equipping moms with the tools and opportunities to raise girls to be confident leaders. Previously, Leslie served as the Project Manager for the Playful Journey Lab at MIT where she managed interdisciplinary global research projects and before that served as Director of Programs at VentureLab, a non-profit teaching children the entrepreneurial mindsets and skill sets to be tomorrow’s innovators.

Interests:
Advancement of girls and women
Social Entrepreneurship
Increasing diverse representation in STEM and Entrepreneurship
Preparing today’s youth for tomorrow’s world

Leslie Coles

Manager Of Accelerators and Partnerships

Lumas Helaire, PhD serves as the Assistant Dean for Population Health Management and Health Equity Education at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and is a visiting lecturer in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. He helps the dean and members of the Harvard Chan School faculty identify, develop, and promote health equity collaborative initiatives. Dr. Helaire also works with Harvard HealthLab, an accelerator for social impact ventures which offers comprehensive support to Harvard University students entering the innovation space and working in interdisciplinary teams.

Dr. Helaire also serves on the Board of the Center for Community Health Education and Research Services, Inc. (CCHERS), a community-based organization promoting the development of academic community health centers.

Prior to joining Harvard Chan School, Dr. Helaire served as the senior associate director of the University of Michigan’s Office of Academic and Multicultural Initiatives where he oversaw their operations and programs. He also directed various student development programs including GEAR UP, a federal pre-college program that partners with schools in preparing students from low-income backgrounds for post-secondary education. At the University of Michigan, he was also the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) lead for the suite of offices under the Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion and chaired the university’s Annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium planning committee, coordinating the annual keynote lecture which hosts national and international activists and social justice organizers.

From 2013-2021 he served as the inaugural board president for the James and Grace Lee Boggs School in Detroit, Michigan. The school uses project-based curricula to nurture creative critical thinkers who contribute to the well-being of their community.

Dr. Helaire received his BA in Psychology with honors from Morehouse College, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate. He then earned his MS in Developmental Psychology and PhD in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan.

Lumas Helaire

Course Head CE10 & CE 11: StudioLab on Creativity & Entrepreneurship

Maria Peña is the Assistant Director of Administration for the Lemann Program on Creativity and Entrepreneurship (LPCE) and the Mignone Center for Career Success (MCS). At LPCE, some of Maria's responsibilities include providing budget oversight, processing financial transactions, and supporting staff with human resource-related matters. Before her time at Harvard, Maria worked as an elementary school teacher. Her past experiences include working in early childhood education and health care. Maria holds a B.A. in American Studies and Teaching & Learning Studies from Wellesley College and an M.Ed. in Learning & Technology from Western Governors University.

Interests:
Learning new things every day
Reading fiction/fantasy books
Cats

Maria Peña

Assistant Director of Administration

Alanis Carmona is a doctoral candidate in the Biological Sciences in Public Health program (BPH) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Alanis is from Chicago, IL and went to Bates College in Lewiston, ME where she obtained a degree in Biochemistry (major), Chinese (minor), and Public Health (concentration). She is a member of the Ubellacker Lab at T.H Chan where she will be looking at metabolomic and lipidomic profiles in breast cancer metastasis.

Before joining the BPH PhD program, she was a technician at The University of Chicago looking at the ECM microenvironment and its influence on obesity and T2D. Her time spent at UChicago inspired her to continue research linked to metabolic illness to elucidate new and innovative ways to understand and contribute to the development of therapeutic options for many. She is thrilled to be part of BPH community and looks forward to exploring new facets of metabolic related illness throughout her PhD career. She is even more excited to be part of the LPCE initiative through Health Lab and hopes to help shine light on current societal issues that encompass public health and beyond.

Interests:
Yoga
Running
Traveling
Coffee

Alanis Carmona

LPCE Fellow

Lara Rahman

LPCE Fellow

Bradford Dickson is a musician and student-athlete passionate about the intersection of
music, education, and entrepreneurship. He is in the class of 2027 pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Music at Harvard College, while simultaneously
enrolled in coursework at Berklee College of Music as part of the Harvard-Berklee Joint
Studies Program. Bradford began his LPCE journey as a student in CE10 and CE11
and now serves as a fellow with the Lemann Program on Creativity and
Entrepreneurship. Originally from Imperial Beach, California, he is a Division I athlete on
the Men’s Water Polo Team and has performed the national anthem on cello at varsity
matches. As a musician, he has played cello for over a decade—appearing at venues
like Carnegie Hall—and also sings, plays piano, and guitar.

Bradford Dickson

LPCE Fellow

Past Team Members

Amy Shi

Sandra Mwangi

Rowen VonPlagenhoef

Katrina Hagedorn

Megan Gole

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