BRITTANY HOWARD //dIRECTOR of operations

Brittany has been with Hope Tech since the beginning. She has helped develop curriculum within our program including character design, story development, color theory, game development and graphic design tutorials. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Art in 2005 from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and she loves using her creative skills to give back to the community.

Aside from Graphic Design she also teaches Hope Tech Labs and provides other operational support for Hope NLC.

Brittany also enjoys being an active member of her neighborhood and the local church.

ISAIAH CHAPMAN // junior web DEVELOPER

Isaiah Chapman is a Sacramento native. He participated in Hope Tech Innovation Challenges 1 and 2 in High School and also worked on an Innovation Engine project during his senior year. His creativity and knowledge of programming and video game development makes him a great fit for Hope Tech. Isaiah is currently attending the University of California at Riverside where he is working on his degree in biomedical engineering and is the outreach chair for the National Society of Black Engineers.

Julie o’connor // literacy director, hope literacy

Julie is a seasoned educator and mentor. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Education from Cal State University of Northridge, with a second degree in Deaf Education, and is certified for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, TESOL through Arizona State University. She has taught in public, private and homeschool classroom environments, along with personalized, one-on-one tutoring, reading intervention and credit recovery.  

She has performed reading assessments and created Individual Literacy Plans for students. She has taught grades 1-12 and specialized in American Sign Language, Theater Arts, and English. She has started and operated multiple, education oriented, and youth support organizations.

Julie's personal struggle with reading as an elementary student, as well as her own children's struggles, have been the driving force for her passion for teaching literacy to children. She loves to hear a child go from "I can't" to "I can!"

Julie is a wife, mother and grandmother. She has been a foster parent and mentor to children, women and young mothers in her community and while living in Mexico during 2005. She has been heavily involved in church leadership and ministry over the years. She enjoys traveling, the beauty of nature and meeting people, locally and afar.

darci soldano // associate director, hope literacy

Darci has had an extensive career in education for more than 25 years. Her teaching/educating career has been dynamic, including homeschooling her three children in entry-level through higher-level curriculum. For almost 20 years, she worked as a facilitator in the non-profit sector, writing and adapting lessons, and implementing creative strategies for each of the children to better understand the content. She recently has been a lead tutor/educator at the Distance Learning Center that provides dozens of students in the Oak Park community much-needed school support in the wake of the pandemic. She continues to serve as an Instructional Aide, driven to empower every student to know their worth, both inside and out of the classroom.

 Darci and her husband Brett have lived in Carmichael, California for the last 20 years where they have raised their three children. Darci and Brett continue to invest and serve in their local community and neighborhood.

sam worthen // apple man

Sam first joined Apple in 1998 in the warehouse assembling the iMac G3.  Sam has been a key contributor in multiple departments and groups within Apple and now works with Apple Engineering as an Analyst Manager. 

In his spare time, Sam enjoys working with his community, sketching out cartoons, and illustrating on the computer.

Sam's passion is in coaching and developing others.  He is excited to do this through teaching local youth technical skills.

Eden Chen // Fisherman Labs

Eden is a co-founder and a managing partner at Fishermen Labs, one of the fastest growing digital creative agencies in the US. Eden has advised and built products for Snapchat, IAC, Walmart, Sony, the United Nations, and countless startups and serves in strategic, design and technical roles. 

Before this, Eden was the founder of Lightmark Capital, a Los Angeles based hedge fund. Prior to these ventures, he worked as an investment banker at Citigroup. Eden invests and sits on the board of numerous startups and nonprofits including Pioneers and Resource Global. He has been interviewed by Bloomberg and US News and has written for Venture Beat, and Entrepreneur magazine. Eden was selected as a part of Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, LA Business Journal's 20 in their 20’s, and Emory Magazine’s 40 under 40 list. Eden graduated with honors from Emory University. 

Watch Eden's Ted Talk on Observation here.

Adam Temple // Bixly

In 2009 Adam founded Bixly, a software development agency, and grew it to a multi-million dollar company within four years. He loves working with a fabulous team to create helpful things.