Meet Our Team

We’re teachers, artists, scientists, technologists, activists, tinkerers, parents…makers.
We believe the future of learning is in making.

MakerState Administration Team

Stephen Gilman

Founder and Executive Director

Stephen Gilman is the founder and executive director of MakerState. Stephen and his son Ben started MakerState to bring fun STEAM building and learning projects in robotics, coding, game design and more to all kids, schools and communities (STEAM: science, tech, engineering, arts, math). Stephen’s mission is to help transform K-12 education from lecture-based memorization to student-centered, inquiry-based, experiential learning, empowering our kids with life-transforming passions and creative masteries in 21st skills and 21st century technology. Stephen is a founding board member of the Urban Assembly Maker Academy, a founder of the Carnegie Learning Center, a founding teacher and dean of Bronx Collegiate, a public school based in Outward Bound experiential learning, and a founding board member of the volunteer network, UlsterCorps. A veteran 82nd Airborne paratrooper, Stephen is focused on bringing our warriors back into civilian life with a youth-empowering purpose equal to their former missions of national defense. Stephen enjoys historical fiction writing, game design, geocaching, hiking, biking around NYC, and creativity of all kinds, especially if it’s with his son, Ben, and partner, Michele.

Marie Valencia

Operations Coordinator

Marie is our fearless Operations Coordinator. She is a wife and a mother of two. Marie’s special focus is team management and performance coaching, which is so important for backing up our Maker Fellow instructor team and our admin support team. Marie is an advocate for the universal right of all children to receive an engaging, mastery-based education and believes that learning is a never-ending process. Marie to loves to create artworks and hang at the beach with her family.

Zach Makowski

Tech Coordinator

Zach is an actor in New York City who recently completed a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Hope College. Zach enjoys playing games on computers, designing with 3D rendering software, and tinkering with in home appliances. He’s been playing guitar since high school and can be found practicing in the park or on his back porch. Zach has been working with kids as a camp counselor or after school assistant on and off over the past five years. His passions include music, acting, designing, and board games. He can be found partaking in any of those passions any night of the week.