Who We Are

Founded in 2017, The Culture of Repair Project has evolved from a local grassroots effort — organizing community repair events, to a global initiative focused on supporting teaching about repair in primary and secondary schools and other educational settings.

The Culture of Repair Project is fiscally sponsored by Philanthropic Ventures Foundation.

 

Founder, The Culture of Repair Project

Vita and champion eclipse-watcher Carlos!

Vita and champion eclipse-watcher Carlos!

Vita Wells

  • Born and raised in South Texas, hailing from a long line of fixers and doers

  • Multiple rounds of community service work in Mexico, Ecuador and the Barrio of San Antonio

  • Corporate finance, logistics systems and investment management

  • Williams College BA (history), Yale Divinity School MAR (social ethics and theology), Yale School of Management MPPM (finance)

  • Arts: museum and industrial arts school governance, textiles, artist (www.vitawells.net)

  • Camino de Compostela — walking the field of stars many thousands of km, many hundreds of flechas (I’m not so fond of Santiago)

  • Fixing and doing all the way through

Director of Operations

Liliana Coelho

  • Creative Operations Strategist, supporting over 18 small businesses and projects in turning ideas into actionable and impact-driven sustainable ventures.

  • Former Director of Operations and Engagement for The Maintainers, a global research and practice network interested in the concepts of maintenance, infrastructure, repair, and the myriad forms of labor and expertise that sustain our human-built world.

  • Previously a Research Fellow for the Center for Guaranteed Income Research in Ithaca, NY coordinating data on unpaid caregivers.

  • Operations Manager for Blue Daisi, a consultancy in zero waste and sustainability for businesses.

  • Supported rural teachers and schools as a core member of the Rural Schools Collaborative leadership team.

Consultant

Kyle Cornforth

  • Served as Executive Director of Maker Ed, an organization committed to transforming education with project-based, culturally competent pedagogy.

  • Served as Managing Director of the Edible School Project, Berkeley, CA

  • Led policy reform for Berkeley Unified School District’s lunch program, advised on USDA policy for school food, and led professional development for teachers globally on how non-traditional education experiences are essential to truly prepare students for their lives on this planet.

  • Currently consults on strategy, organizational development, operations, and communications for multiple nonprofits.

  • Kyle has over two decades of nonprofit executive experience at the intersection of education, organizational development, social justice, and advocacy.

 

Advisory Committee

 
 

Repair x Reuse Washington is the home of Repair Economy: “Growing and strengthening Washington’s network of community repair events/activities, tool libraries, remakeries, repair shops, and reuse entities to build a cleaner, more resilient, more equitable, and more interconnected future.”

Kami Bruner

Repair x Reuse Washington
Chief Convener

  • Hailing from Nashville Tennessee

  • Community organizer in environmental and social issues from early on

  • Organizing, supporting, advocating and agitating around the circular economy, zero waste, and sustainability in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Seattle

  • Favorite work: systems thinking, organizational capacity-building, and serving as connective tissue between great people and great ideas

  • Favorite pastimes: scavenging, repurposing, and creative engineering.

  • University of the South (Sewanee) BA (religious studies)

  • Tulane University MS (sustainable organizational development and community disaster resilience)

 

Brooke is an interdisciplinary, research-based artist who combines studio and social practice and works in drawing, painting, printmaking, performance, and installation.

She and her work have been widely recognized through many exhibitions, grants, fellowships and residencies.

Brooke Toczylowski

Artist
Principal of Noisy River Consulting

  • Practicing Artist and principal of Noisy River Consulting, providing strategic support to non-profits, schools, and governmental institutions

  • Twenty-plus years in education and non-profits—as a teacher, curriculum coach, facilitator, and leader

  • Co-Founder and the former Executive Director of Agency by Design Oakland (California), which grew out of collaborative research with Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

  • Led the collaboration among Agency by Design Oakland, Maker Ed, and the Culture of Repair Project in creating the Cultivating a Repair Mindset Toolkit and professional development program

  • Back to her New England roots in 2021, after sojourning in New York, Oakland, Venezuela and Guatemala

  • Williams College, BA (Studio Art and American Studies); Clark University, MFA; San Francisco State University (teaching credential)

 

A Note From Vita, Inviting Helpers:

The Culture of Repair Project was born from feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the damage we've done to the Earth, the ache made all the more acute by its seemingly inexorable acceleration. Immobilized by the scope of what's called for, I felt that if I could define a tight focus for my efforts, so that I could see the impact of my work, I would actually do something.

I did do something, and quickly found that repair is a global movement.

So here I am, working side-by-side with people both down the street and around the world.

I want to bring congenial and skillful spirits into the Project to expand its impact.
Bonus would be a familiarity with the field of repair and maintenance activism and scholarship.

If you’re interested, check out the Get Involved page for opportunities both on-the-ground local, and in cyberspace.

Please contact us if you’d like to help out.

 

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