The Los Angeles School of Creativity and Technology (C-Tech), is a TK-8 school, launching Fall 2020, offering a comprehensive computer science and entrepreneurship core curriculum to students in South Los Angeles.
Mission
Our mission at C-Tech is to empower the next generation of innovative global leaders to build the future and create a better world. Our vision is to build a school community of 21st century innovators fueled by student choice, computational thinking, entrepreneurship, and global immersion.
Founding Team
The founders of C-Tech are an MIT-trained educator, Margeaux Randolph; USC Professor, Dr. Brendesha Tynes; and tech executive and former LAUSD dean and educator, Qiana Patterson. All are former teachers and collectively, they have over 40 years of experience in the K-12, higher education, non-profit, and private sectors. In addition, our extended team consists of school leaders, board members, future teachers, parent leaders, business leaders and community partners that have worked with us over the last two years to launch C-Tech. Our Board consists of leaders from a variety of sectors: education, medicine, law, non-profit, and technology.
Leadership Team
Margeaux Randolph
Executive Director
Margeaux Randolph is Co-Founder and Executive Director of C-Tech. She is a manager at Mursion, a Silicon Valley start-up, providing a blend of artificial intelligence, live human interaction and immersive virtual reality training in the K-12 and corporate sectors. Prior to Mursion, Margeaux served as Chief Program Officer at Reframe Labs, where she supported diverse leaders to design and launch innovative schools. Margeaux is a former math teacher, and blended learning technology math coach in LAUSD. She is a graduate of M.I.T., and the University of Southern California.
Executive Director
Qiana Patterson
Co-Founder
Qiana Patterson, Co-Founder of C-Tech, is a seasoned tech executive and K12 educator. She was the founding COO of Edlio an LA-based K12 edtech company; she also served as Interim CEO of Educational Networks a leading content management software platform company. Qiana worked as a teacher and Dean of Students in LAUSD. She currently leads Public Private Partnerships with HopSkipDrive the leading on-demand transportation for children and seniors. She is a graduate of the University of Washington, UCLA's teacher credentialing program and USC's Marshall School of Business.
Co-Founder
Board of Directors
Dr. Brendesha Tynes
Co-Founder & Board Chair
Dr. Brendesha Tynes is Co-founder and the Board Chair of C-Tech. She is an associate professor and founding director of the Center for Empowered Learning and Development with Technology at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education. She is a graduate of Northwestern and earned a doctorate in Human Development and Psychology in Education from UCLA. Dr. Tynes’ app Rate My Media was rated #2 in the top apps for 2016 by Black Enterprise. She is a former high school history and global studies teacher.
Co-Founder & Board Chair
Marlene Castaneda
Board Member
Marlene Castaneda comes from a multi-generational family of teachers. Although at the start of her professional life she chose a career in law, her wish to work in education never faded. Today, Ms. Castaneda is completing a M.S. in Education at Mount Saint Mary's University. She obtained two B.A. degrees from the University of Washington, Seattle in Anthropology and Romance Languages & Literature; she also received her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Washington School of law.
Board Member
Tyler Bell
Board Member
Tyler Bell is a graduate of Morehouse College where he studied Political Science. Tyler has actively continued to pursue his passions in people, education and technology. He’s taught High School, worked on Capitol Hill, and led a startup to achieve incredible success serving as their Head of Talent. Currently, Tyler is serving as a Consultant for the Annenberg Foundation where he scales Diversity & Inclusion efforts across the Tech and Venture Capital ecosystem in Los Angeles.
Board Member
Dr. Roberto Vargas
Board Member
Roberto Vargas MD, MPH is Associate Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Associate Dean of Medicine at Charles Drew University and, Associate Natural Scientist at the RAND Corporation. Dr. Vargas leads NIH funded programs focused on reducing disparities in cancer care and improving cardiovascular disease outcomes in South Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the Harvard School Public Health, Jefferson Medical College, and the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his chief-residency at Yale University.
Board Member
Hattie Mitchell
Board Vice-Chair
Hattie Mitchell is the Founder and President of Crete Academy in South LA. Crete aims to provide a high-quality college preparatory education, while simultaneously manifesting the expectation of not only attending college, but graduating and pursuing dreams after earning the degree. The vision for the school is not only to help low-income or homeless students but also their families.
Board Vice-Chair
Katherine Alston
Board Member
Katherine Alston is a former Aerospace Engineer turned Entrepreneur. She has over a decade of experience leading engineering teams for manned and unmanned aerial systems. Her work supported Space Station, Delta IV, F-18, F-35, B-1, B-2, and Space Launch System (Mission to Mars). Katherine is the founder of Katheral Wellness Center and Kathy's Kitchen., which manufactures healthy smoothies and juices to communities of color. Katherine is a graduate of MIT, earned a Masters in Robotics and Control Theory from Columbia University and a Masters in Computer Science from Cal State San Bernardino.
Board Member
Erica Copeland
Board Member
Erica Copeland's civic-mindedness and her personal conviction to help others inspired her to make our society more equitable as a Fulbright Scholar to Indonesia, as an intern at the White House Office of Public Engagement and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and as a leader at various community-based organizations in Los Angeles. She currently works as a Civic Engagement Coordinator with United Parents and Students (UPAS). In her position, Erica works to engage residents in South L.A. in civic life and also organizes community members to use the power of their voice to engage public officials in dialogues about neighborhood improvement.
She is an honor graduate of both the George Washington University with a bachelor’s degree in International Development and Syracuse University with a master’s degree in Public Administration.