The People
Our Team
The instructors, organizers, and leaders behind every program we run.
The instructors, organizers, and leaders behind every program we run.
Jason founded Newburgh Creates with a belief that every young person deserves access to creative and technical education — regardless of cost. He leads the organization's strategy, fundraising, community relationships, and program development.
Dave leads the technology behind our robotics and coding labs, and he's building our music program. He also manages our IT needs and our website, develops our online presence, and works on partnerships and business development to help Newburgh Creates grow.
Hanna shapes our programs, from planning the labs to supporting the instructors who teach them. An illustrator and muralist, she also leads Art Lab and our Digital Art & Illustration class.
Newburgh Creates works with mission-aligned partners who bring specialized expertise into our labs and communities.
OpenHub Project is a Hudson Valley technology resource center that designs curricula, runs coding workshops, and builds real-world tech skills through hands-on, project-based collaboration. Their mission — combining technology with entrepreneurship — aligns directly with Newburgh Creates' lab programs.
Little Friends Learning Loft is a Montessori-inspired early learning center at the Newburgh JCC that encourages imaginative play and child-led learning. Its director, Miss Rebecca, teaches Cardboard City at Newburgh Creates.
Story Forge Game Store is a tabletop game shop and play space at 113 Liberty Street, our neighbor in the same building, with board games, card games, role-playing games, and two rentable game rooms, including Pendragon's Parlor, a room decorated like a fantasy tavern. Opened in January 2026 by Newburgh resident John DeFrancesco, it hosts Magic: The Gathering nights and youth Dungeons & Dragons sessions. On Friday nights, Game Forge Fridays starts at Story Forge with tabletop storytelling and character building, then moves next door to our studio for Minecraft and pizza.
Our instructors bring professional expertise and a passion for working with young people. Every lab is led by someone who does this work in the real world — and loves teaching it.
Jason coaches our FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge teams, and he fills in as an instructor from time to time across the after-school and homeschool classes, from robotics to art. Most days you will find him at 113 Liberty Street working on a robot or helping with an art project.
Dave coaches our FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST LEGO League teams. He teaches BattleBots, BUILDLab, and homeschool technology programs. A software developer and freelance web designer, he builds web sites and works with embedded systems. He is also a pianist who studied extensively with world-famous pianist and teacher Seymour Bernstein. He teaches piano lessons at Newburgh Creates and across the Hudson Valley. Read Dave's article about the benefits of robotics for kids →
Hanna teaches the Art Lab series (printmaking, paper mache, and art journaling), the Saturday Digital Art & Illustration class, and the art and design side of the homeschool mornings at Newburgh Creates. An illustrator and muralist who works as Little House Ink, she has painted more than 30 murals for schools, businesses, and towns across the Hudson Valley and beyond, and has spent years as a creative mentor to adult artists with disabilities. Read Hanna's article on Art Lab →
Ahona leads Game Forge Fridays, the Friday-night game design program run with Story Forge Game Store, taking students from tabletop storytelling and character building to collaborative Minecraft builds. She is the multimedia manager and an instructor at OpenHub Project in Newburgh and part of the Google Developer Group Hudson Valley team. She received a B.A. in Media Arts and Sciences from Wellesley College.
Miss Rebecca teaches Cardboard City, the after-school program where students design a city like urban planners and then build it from cardboard and recycled materials. She is the Director of Little Friends Learning Loft, the Montessori-inspired early learning center at the Newburgh JCC, and holds a BFA in Fine Arts and Art Education from the School of Visual Arts.
We're always looking for skilled instructors, mentors, and organizational partners who believe in what we're building in Newburgh. If you have expertise in art, technology, design, or education — and you love working with young people — we'd love to talk.
We also welcome volunteers who can support programs, events, or administrative functions. Every contribution matters.