● Our Team
WHO WE ARE
The Plenary, Co. is driven by a small core team of multidisciplinary leaders co-creating with a community of 100+ specialists, experts, creative collaborators, and grassroots civic visionaries.
Our community of multidisciplinary leaders and changemakers is committed to creativity, informed futures, and the constant re-imagination of what's possible. From our small internal team to our broad network of advisors, directors, creatives, contributors, partners, patrons, volunteers, community members, and more — our work is fueled by the belief that change depends on exchange, generosity, and collaboration.
The Plenary, Co. is run by a small, core team of staff, interns, and volunteers who work closely with the organization’s leadership to drive our programs forward.
● Our Founder & Director
Stephanie Fine Sasse
Stephanie is a civic designer, systems architect, and creative sensemaker driven by the art and science of cultural change.
Stephanie Fine Sasse ‘s work bridges science, art, culture, and public life. She trained as a neuroscience researcher at Harvard University, publishing peer-reviewed work on emotion and decision-making, and co-publishing Science Not Silence, an anthology of global science advocates, via MIT Press.
She has led community and national organizing efforts through the March for Science and served as the lead producer of the SIGNS (Science in Government, Institutions & Society) Summit in partnership with Field Museum, convening a global community of established and emerging organizers. As a Global Philanthropy Forum Fellow, she curates civic imagination exhibitions and stewards a growing national collective reimagining how civic culture can be supported and sustained.
Stephanie also serves on the Steering Committee for SF Futures, where she has interviewed over 100 civic leaders to map the city’s systemic civic challenges and opportunities, and is a Visiting Creative at Art + Water, an equitable art and teaching model in San Francisco founded by JD Beltran and Dave Eggers. As a committed neighbor, she also serves as Vice President of the Dogpatch Arts and Business Association and proud member of the Bayview Alliance.
Stephanie is also a designer and speculative fiction writer, and is currently working on her first collection of short stories.
Much of The Plenary, Co.’s work is rooted in the frameworks and scholarship developed by our Founder and her collaborators.
→ FOLLOW STEPHANIE’S WORK ON SUBSTACK
⬤ Founding Board Members
Inspired by emerging alternative models designed for agility and experimentation, we’ve built a leadership structure with a small, active board and a large circle of contributing expert voices. In addition to steering the organizational strategy and vision, our board shapes, guides, and contributes to projects.
Maya Bialik, EDM
EDUCATOR, RESEARCHER & CURRICULUM DESIGNER
Maya is a scholar, teacher, and author who has been part of The Plenary since its early days (i.e. when we were still called “The People’s Science”). Since earning her M.Ed. in Mind, Brain, & Education from Harvard in 2012, she has been collaborating with educational organizations around the world to make their work more meaningful. In addition to studying and applying the learning sciences across real world contexts, she has an extensive background in improv as a performer, coach, and director. In 2019, she co-authored “Artificial Intelligence In Education”, and in 2015, she co-authored “Four-Dimensional Education”, which has since been translated into ten languages.
Maya integrates her unique background spanning the arts and sciences to help people think critically about patterns in knowledge, and think creatively about what's possible.
TWITTER →
EMAIL →
Crystal Dilworth, PhD
NEUROSCIENTIST & SCIENCE COMMUNICATOR
Dr. Crystal Dilworth is an AAAS IF/THEN Ambassador for Women in STEM, host of VOA-Tek on Voice of America, and “Dr. Brain” on CBS’s Mission: Unstoppable. She has spent almost a decade bringing the stories of science and scientists to television audiences around the world. Throughout her career she has interviewed scientific experts from high-school students to Nobel laureates, sharing their process of discovery and illustrating the diversity of people who contribute to the advancement of scientific understanding.
While earning her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Caltech, Crystal also applied her experience as a professional modern dancer as the in-house choreographer. She’s also worked as consultant in the business sector where she uses her knowledge of neuroscience to design clear communications strategies to move human behavior.
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⬤ Regular Contributors
As a small-but-mighty organization, our team is made up primarily of part-time collaborators and project-based contributors. The following individuals (and in some cases, their teams) play critical roles as project-specific contributors, key partners or contractors, recurring creative collaborators, and/or ongoing organizational support.
⬤ Co-Creators
The Plenary believes that change happens at the level of the collective, and welcomes shared owndership and collaborative design models. We often invest deeply in co-created initiatives spanning individual and organizational leadership, working closely with external collaborators on a collection of core, interrelated projects.
These individuals play or have played essential roles in crafting the conceptual foundation and/or collaborative programs we steward.
⬤ Key Partners & Advisors
We work with advisors and partners across core and collaborative initiatives, often exchanging insights and ideas across mission-aligned projects.
Note: while valued partners and advisors, these individuals do not have final say over – and cannot be held responsible for – the content produced by The Plenary.
⬤ Shout-Outs
From advising project directions to helping to run our events to providing feedback on new initiatives, our volunteers help keep us going strong.