Andrea began her career as a high school English teacher at John McDonogh Sr. High School and subsequently trained teachers at the University of New Orleans and The New Teacher Project. She has worked at the Louisiana Association of Charter Schools where she oversaw grantmaking for over $5 million in charter school startup funds and launched a $1.5 million below-market rate Bridge Loan Fund. She was named “40 Under 40” by Gambit Magazine, 2010 City Business Women of the Year, World Economic Forum Young Global Shaper, and is an appointed board member of the New Orleans Business Alliance, the official economic development arm of the City of New Orleans. She graduated from Stanford University, attended Harvard Graduate School of Education and the University of New Orleans, and was trained in business at Dartmouth University’s Tuck School of Business.

Julia feels fortunate to be situated on the front lines of social innovation, helping New Orleans’ entrepreneurs transform their ideas into reality. Julia received a B.A. in International Relations from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. She has been fortunate to travel to 28 different countries and to have spent two years living abroad, one year in Hong Kong and another in Switzerland. In the past, Julia has worked on organic farms, and has written for several environmental publications including The Bear Deluxe, Table Magazine and Edible Vineyard.

Danielle is a recent graduate of Tulane and is thrilled to both manage and work in such an innovative and exciting space as the Propeller Incubator. An International Development and Anthropology major, she developed an interest in tackling social issues through community-based innovation and volunteerism throughout college. During the summer of 2012, Danielle cycled across the U.S. with Bike & Build, a young-adult focused non-profit that raises money and awareness for affordable housing. She is also passionate about healthy eating and local food initiatives and is inspired by the incredible impact Propeller has already made in these sectors. Danielle is grateful to play a part in the entrepreneurial innovation happening here at Propeller and in New Orleans.

Neil brings worldly entrepreneurial experience to Propeller. Born in Britain, Neil has worked extensively in the USA, Europe, Africa, the Indian sub-continent and Asia. He holds an MBA with Distinction from IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland and is a qualified executive coach. He is a successful entrepreneur and turnaround specialist with expertise in consumer goods, financial services, technology and higher education management. Currently, Neil serves as a business mentor for development of strategic entrepreneurial growth with the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative in New Orleans, Louisiana. He also serves as mentor and coach to TED Fellows of the world-renowned TED Conference.

Terry is responsible for overseeing the financial matters of Hammerman & Gainer, International. Terry joined HGI in December of 2009 after a 6 year stint in Houston, Texas. Prior to joining HGI, Terry was the Financial Reporting Manager for Weingarten Realty, a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust with a portfolio of properties in excess of $4.5 billion. Terry was responsible for the reporting of financial information and footnote disclosures for all public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition Terry performed valuation analysis on all assets held in Weingarten’s portfolio and analyzed ownership interest and profit sharing of each newly formed Joint Venture.

Prior to Weingarten, Terry worked as a Senior Auditor with UHY advisors, the 16th largest public accounting firm in the country, and with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Terry is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a bachelor’s degree in Accountancy from Southern University. He is a member of the Society of Louisiana CPAs.

Katie Walmsley currently lead the campaign at Teach For America Greater New Orleans to raise $36.5 million over the next four years, building community will and support to reach the goals in the region’s 2015 plan. Over the past seven years she has served in positions of increasing responsibility and impact in business development, interactive marketing and operations. Most recently, she served as Director of Marketing & Product Development for KODA, a social media startup in the careers and recruiting industry, raising $5m and spearheading online marketing, communications and product redesign. Prior, she held managerial positions in finance and operations at McMaster-Carr, a large supplier to industrial and commercial facilities worldwide. Katie served as a full-time volunteer in New Orleans before becoming a part of the city’s entrepreneurial movement and launching KODA’s New Orleans office. She joined SENO’s Steering Committee in June 2009, leading the Accelerator Corps pilot project and planning for its scalability. Katie also served as Media Director for NOLA Recycles, driving a plan for city-wide recycling that has been implemented as of May 2011. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with an A.B in Business Economics from Brown University.

David Robinson-Morris, Jr., is the Marketing Communications Consultant at PLAYNOLA and a Principal at DRM Strategic Public Relations. After graduating from Loyola University, he began his career at the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development. He was the senior publicist for the Departments of Housing, Economic Development, Film and Video, Arts and Culture, Code Enforcement, Finance, and Law. He also served as liaison between the Mayor’s Office of Communications and the New Orleans City Council Chief of Staffs, and the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority. For several years David was the associate director of alumni relations at Loyola University New Orleans and was responsible for multiple alumni associations, as well as programming events and maintaining contact with alumni in chapters across the country.

Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors for NOLA180 Langston Hughes Academy Charter School, is a member Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Alpha Kappa Psi Alumni Advisory Board, and is a member of the Board of Directors for Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans (Propeller).

Nadiyah Morris Coleman is an experienced youth and human services administrator. Currently, Nadiyah is the Director of Work Force for the city of New Orleans. In the past, she lead the Summer Youth Development Programs. In this role she was responsible for revamping and managing the city’s summer youth employment program. Under her leadership, the summer youth employment program tripled in size, serving an unprecedented 3,000 youth, improved outreach and established strategic partnerships that created a pipeline of summer opportunities to support the growth of a viable workforce.

Nadiyah’s previous experience includes leadership roles in government and non-profit organizations. She was Director of the CP3 Afterschool Zone, a system of quality out-of-school time programs for local public school students. She served as manager of Louisiana’s Office of Social Entrepreneurship, the nation’s first state office of social entrepreneurship, establishing and supporting the work of innovative organizations across the state.

Billy Perez is Special Counsel in the Transactions and Corporate Advisory Services Practice Group for Adams and Reese LLP. He has extensive experience in all aspects of corporate and securities matters for both public and private companies. Prior to joining Adams and Reese, Billy was General Counsel for an international computer hardware manufacturing company. He also co-founded and/or operated several companies in diverse fields including manufacturing, high-tech, food service and retail. He is licensed to practice law in Louisiana, the District of Columbia, and Virginia.

Bebe Ryan is co-leading Revolution Foods in South Louisiana, working to increase access to healthy, wholesome food serving more than 5,500 students across 18 schools daily. Prior to joining Revolution Foods, Bebe led Talent Management and Human Resources efforts for Firstline Schools. She also directed the growth and resource development efforts at KIPP New Orleans Schools, raising more than $10 million in public and private commitments and led the growth of the network from 2 schools serving 550 students to 7 schools serving 1700 students. She has worked on hurricane recovery efforts in the Office of the Mayor of Lake Charles, Louisiana and in fund development for Teach for America—doubling annual revenue across the State of Louisiana. Bebe graduated from Bowdoin College with a BA in History and French. She serves on the board of directors for Odyssey House of Louisiana, a substance abuse and prevention facility, and Propeller: A Force for Social Innovation.

Dr. Usdin is the president of Swamplily, LLC. In this capacity, she has helped match the strategic interests of philanthropic organizations with the needs and capacity of local non-profits and governmental agencies in diverse areas. In the last six years, she has worked with the Ford, the Open Society, the Conrad N. Hilton, the Louisiana Disaster Recovery, and the Greater New Orleans foundations. In addition, she has taught courses on building community engagement in public health efforts for the South Central Public Health Leadership Institute, the Centers for Disease Control, and Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and has facilitated strategic planning processes for groups such as the City of New Orleans, National Network of Public Health Institutes, and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Dr. Usdin was recently awarded a Bellagio fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in psychology from Duke University, has a master’s degree in public health from the University of California at Berkeley and a Dr.PH. from the international health department at Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. The focus of her academic work was on the planning and evaluation of community development and change initiatives.