Team
Santiago Alfaro
talfaro [at] mit [dot] edu
Sustainability/Scalability, MIT Media Lab
Santiago was born in Bogotá. He completed his undergraduate degree at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Industrial Design. In 2005, he moved to the United States and began his Masters at Rhode Island School of Design in Industrial Design. Upon completion of his Masters, he moved to Boston in 2007. After working in architecture for a year, he joined the MIT Media Lab in fall of 2008 as a Research Assistant in the Object-Based Media Group.
Crystal Mao
Crystal Mao cmao [at] mit [dot] edu
Operations, MIT
Crystal Mao is a junior studying Bioengineering and Management Science at MIT, while contemplating the ways that she can make the world a more cheery place. During her time in college so far, she has organized the “etre: the face of human rights” exhibition & lecture series in collaboration with the Consulate of Switzerland, moonlights as a stem cell research assistant at Harvard Medical School, and is embarking on a climate law project at the Sloan School. Last summer, she worked in health economics modeling and development for a large-yet-quirky biotech company. Crystal also serves as a member of the 2010 class council, MIT Mock Trial Team, and is the administrative coordinator for Camp Kesem, a summer camp for children whose parents have cancer. A native of sunny(ier) Northern California, Crystal adores figure skating, literature, and dining al fresco.
Ted Chan
tchan [at] mit [dot] edu
Systems Architecture, MBA candidate, MIT Sloan School of Management
Ted Chan is a double bottom line entrepreneur who is currently an MBA candidate at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
He is President and Founder of DBL Partners, a Boston-based consultancy focused on strategy, systems integration and risk management working primarily on socially oriented, for-profit enterprises. He has worked for two leading consulting firms before starting his own company, holding both consulting roles and serving as Head of Information Technology for one firm.
Ted also holds a degree in Organizational Psychology and History with High Honors from Swarthmore College, as well as a certificate in Emergency Management and Organizational Continuity from Boston University. He holds the Project Management Professional (PMP) designation from the Project Management Institute, and is a Disaster Recovery Institute Certified Business Continuity Planner (CBCP).
Clark Freifeld
clarkf [at] mit [dot] edu
Software Development, master candidate, MIT Media Lab
Clark Freifeld is a master’s candidate in the New Media Medicine group at the MIT Media Lab and the principal software architect of the HealthMap outbreak monitoring system.
Before joining the Media Lab, Clark was a Research Software Developer at the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program at Harvard Medical School, where, in addition to co-creating HealthMap, he contributed to the Indivo personally controlled health record, developed the MAMI microRNA target predictor, and created the Smoot systems modeling tool. Prior to his position at CHIP, Clark lived in South Africa for a year where he worked with Congolese refugees to develop a technology training and services company. He studied Computer Science and Mathematics at Yale University and his interests include Web-based user-interface design, data visualization, text mining, and technologies for developing countries. In his spare time he tutors eighth graders in math.
Sameer Hirji
samhirji [at] mit [dot] edu
Sustainability/Scalability, Bioengineering and Management major, MIT
Sameer Hirji is a Bioengineering and Management major at MIT, class of 2011. A native of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Sameer has worked on AIDS and Malaria research, as well as fishery development projects in Third World countries.
Nicole Prowell
Media & Com, Emerson College, MA in Documentary Video
Nicole is an independent documentary filmmaker in Boston. She recently completed her MA in Documentary Video from Emerson College. In addition, she has studied filmmaking at FAMU in Prague, where she produced a short fictional narrative piece about the westernization of Eastern European culture, in the Czech language. Prior to moving to Boston, she worked in New York for IBM and for the Jacob Burns Film Center, a non-profit art house focused on promoting visual media literacy. Currently, she works as a Project Manager at Charles River Media Group in Brookline, a production company specializing in HD video services. Her recent projects include a personal documentary about traveling across the country in search of happiness, entitled Happy Hunting. Nicole is a board member of the New England chapter of Women in Film & Video.
Ellen Higger
Media & Com, Emerson College
Ellen (Elliot) Higger is a second-semester sophomore at Emerson College, pursuing a degree in film production and photography, with an emphasis in cinematography. She is a self-taught photographer of six years and has experience with film and digital formats for both still and motion images.
At the age of seventeen, Elliot was awarded a full scholarship to study at the New Jersey Governor’s School of the Arts in the area of film and video. In her one completed semester at Emerson, Elliot has worked on 6 film and video productions. In addition to her work for Nextlab, Elliot is currently developing media for a national venue under the organization S.T.A.N.D.
Elliot is an active member of Boston’s South End volunteer community as well as an “artist beyond the image” in areas of music composition and writing.
