The People Powering the Movement
Dream Tank is an intergenerational team — youth innovators, university fellows, civic champions, and seasoned experts — united by one conviction: young people aren’t the leaders of tomorrow, they’re co-creators of change today.
Together, through mentorship, collaboration, and the HEAL · DREAM · BUILD · LAUNCH framework, we turn bold imagination into real solutions.
Where the Vision Is Held
Heidi Cuppari
Heidi founded Dream Tank in 2016 on a simple conviction: children and youth are co-creators of change today. A Brown University alumna with a background spanning UBS, Acumen Fund, and global convenings on capital and impact, she has spent a decade growing Dream Tank from a single question into a global model for youth-powered systems change — and is the architect of its HEAL · DREAM · BUILD · LAUNCH framework and the Systems Change L.A.B. She works at the intersection of capital, innovation, and impact, guiding investors, family offices, and mission-driven leaders toward resourcing the next generation.
Rebecca Irby
Rebecca is the founder, president, and CEO of the PEAC Institute (Peace · Education · Art · Communication) and co-pilot of the Systems Change L.A.B. A peace educator, facilitator, and Evolutionary Leader, she has worked at the intersection of education, cross-cultural communication, and youth empowerment for decades — from developing curricula for organizations like the Red Cross and Toyota to leading youth forums on peace and nuclear abolition at the United Nations. Rebecca brings a relational, heart-centered methodology to the L.A.B., helping young people and communities turn hard conversations into real action.
Opening Doors, Holding the Ground
The civic leaders and mentors who connect youth innovation to real community and decision-making.
Sophia Boyer
Sophia Boyer is a global scaling advisor and collaborator who helps mission-driven organizations build community and grow their impact across borders. Working closely with Rebecca Irby and the Systems Change L.A.B. — and connected to global institutions including the United Nations — she helps carry youth-powered systems change to scale.
Mayor Laura Weinberg
Mayor of Golden, Colorado and a founding civic catalyst for the Systems Change L.A.B. Elected mayor in 2019 after six years on City Council, Laura brings an MBA and a systems-analysis background to building a stronger, more connected Golden — championing schools, small business, and inclusive infrastructure. She serves on the Metro Mayors Caucus and Colorado Municipal League executive boards, and helps open the doors between youth innovation and real civic decision-making.
JJ Trout
JJ curates the Golden council — weaving together the community leaders, mentors, and civic voices that make each L.A.B. real on the ground. A former Golden City Councilor (District 1) known for advancing transportation and inclusion, and deeply connected across Golden’s civic and cycling worlds, JJ brings that network and a builder’s energy to convening the intergenerational council around every challenge.
Jeff Hoffman
Jeff Hoffman is a serial entrepreneur, proven CEO, bestselling author, and global startup champion — part of iconic successes including Priceline.com / Booking.com and uBid.com. Today he chairs the Global Entrepreneurship Network, supporting entrepreneurs across 180 countries, and is a worldwide keynote speaker and award-winning film and music producer. As Global Chairman, Jeff brings that reach and belief in entrepreneurship to championing Dream Tank’s young innovators.
Patricia ‘Patty’ Saint-YL
Delaware-born and Haitian American, now rooted in Northern Colorado, Patty is a natural connector who stewards people and process with gracious ease and steady structure. With deep HR experience and a gift for weaving culture with care, she advises Dream Tank on building systems that honor the people they serve.
The Partners Who Build Alongside Us
Practitioners and founders who lend their craft, networks, and wisdom to the work.
Jen Simpson
CEO of Integrated Work and founder of Bolder Commons, Jen Simpson, PhD, brings three decades of organizational leadership across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. Creator of the KOAN method — Kind, Open, Adaptive Networks — she helps people and institutions live and work together across differences. Jen helped shape the Mines capstone proposal, contributed to the August 7 L.A.B., and co-created Dream Tank’s Peace Faire.
Janine Underhill
A visual futurist and founder of Idea360 / Imagine Better Futures, Janine Underhill helps groups see and design the futures they want — capturing complex ideas as living, visual maps. A WBENC-certified graphic facilitator, she partners with Dream Tank on Systems Change L.A.B. strategy and brand voice — showing up throughout the Mines capstone to help facilitate, contributing to the August 7 L.A.B., and co-creating the Peace Faire.
Claire Thompson
Founder of Produce the Future, Claire Thompson is a possibility coach and culture creator with nearly two decades producing large-scale events and creative productions. She helps visionaries move from bold idea to embodied experience — through a full lifecycle of Vision, Planning, Promotion, Production, Harvest, and Rest — and brings that producer’s craft to how Dream Tank brings its gatherings and broadcasts to life — including the August 7 L.A.B.
Ramzi Faris
President of Indu5try, Ramzi is a seasoned veteran of the media, entertainment, and technology industries with over twenty years of hands-on experience. From founding his own artist-management company to producing for Fashion TV and directing digital ventures for Times Square Communications, he brings storytelling, strategy, and an ever-growing network to Dream Tank’s work.
Alice Bromage
With 20+ years in the British Army and an entrepreneurial family background, Alice Bromage is a resilience specialist who helps people and organizations unlock their potential. From the City of London to the wilds of Africa and the Middle East, she leads coaching, team development, and motivational training — and serves as UK Ambassador for the world’s first female anti-poaching unit. Alice brings grit, global perspective, and the conviction that there’s more in you than you think.
Ashley Kulik
A co-founder of Dream Tank in 2016, Ashley Kulik helped shape and co-create the organization through its first five years. A millennial catalyst for intergenerational education, she has spent her career mentoring young people — from an inaugural Watson University scholarship in social entrepreneurship to co-founding the Kiva Center for outdoor ecological education. Her early work weaving nature, entrepreneurship, and youth agency helped lay the foundation Dream Tank builds on today.
Navroop Sahdev
Navroop Sahdev is a pioneering economist and technology futurist, and the founder and CEO of Rethink Markets, a global think tank on the economics of emerging technologies. Co-author of the first book on the economics of blockchain and a Connection Science Fellow at the MIT Media Lab, she works at the intersection of emerging tech, economic science, and strategy — helping Dream Tank think rigorously about how youth-led innovation scales.
The Next Generation, Leading Now
The young people whose imagination is the engine of everything we build.
Ava-Celeste Matos
A dynamic Brown University leader and strategist, Ava-Celeste now serves Dream Tank as a youth advisor and mentor. Instrumental in structuring the Design Our Futures N.O.W. Brown pod and stewarding the Guardianship Council, she pairs a passion for systems change and social entrepreneurship with a gift for empowering younger leaders toward regenerative, youth-led solutions.
Kalyahn Varanasi
A passionate STEM innovator and Dream Tank Program Design Fellow, Kalyahn designs and coordinates programs that address climate anxiety in youth. With a background in electronics and hands-on STEM, he pairs technical skill with a commitment to solving real-world problems for his generation.
Anya Smith
Anya is a Dream Tank fellow and advisor training to become a Dream Tank facilitator. She brings fresh energy and a learner’s heart to the work — growing into a leader who will carry the HEAL · DREAM · BUILD · LAUNCH practice into new rooms and new communities.
Summer Cuppari Gould
Summer has come a long way since her early days with Dream Tank. Now a senior at the Leeds School of Business at CU Boulder — majoring in Marketing with a minor in Sociology — she continues to fuel her passion for entrepreneurship and social impact as a co-author and assistant producer, amplifying the voices of young changemakers.
Cody Pace Gould
Cody is the young visionary behind Island17, a youth-driven, SDG-inspired virtual world. Now a first-year college student spending his first semester abroad in Prague, he continues to develop Island17 — merging social impact with cutting-edge technology — alongside collaborators including Brown University students.
The Future Is Being Designed Right Now
By the young people who will live in it — and everyone willing to build alongside them.
