Alex is a senior engineer at Bocoup, contributing to the web platform through the W3C ARIA Working Group, the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide Task Force and the ARIA-AT Community Group. He also works on website, dashboard and web app projects for clients. 

His career began while working as an English teacher in Taipei, Taiwan in 2012, where he stole away weeks and months hiding in the back of quiet coffeeshops and taught himself to code. The project was a startup called Hacking English, and while the dream of bottomless riches never panned out, he discovered a career instead, built around magic runes channeling electricity into flows of logic, the incredible technology called code. 

We asked what kind of web Alex wants and twenty minutes of impassioned speech later no one is quite certain they understood. He did mention something called liquid democracy several times, and something called "the hypergraph."

Alexander Flenniken

Ashley is the Senior Operations Manager at Bocoup, leveraging her passion for organization to optimize business processes and maintain operational efficiency. With a focus on aligning operations with strategic goals and values, she supports efforts in strategic planning, HR, and ongoing process improvements, fostering consensus and growth within the team.

Before joining Bocoup, Ashley earned a Bachelor’s degree from Stony Brook University and has held positions in business operations for multiple organizations including a nonprofit focused on health equity and an international touring company, supporting 58 events in 4 years. Her ability to drive impactful initiatives, her strategic mindset, and hands-on approach have contributed to substantial organizational success. Over the past 8 years, she has embraced remote work and has demonstrated expertise in implementing organizational processes, systems, and tools, facilitating seamless transitions and maximizing efficiency.

The web Ashley wants is one that fosters inclusivity, accessibility, and positive interactions, prioritizing mental health and well-being while empowering individuals to engage freely and meaningfully.

Originally from New York, Ashley now calls Atlanta, GA home, where she enjoys traveling, hosting game nights with friends, and spending downtime with her husband and their dog, Boo.

Ashley Goldstein

Boaz works on web platform strategy and product development at Bocoup with a specific focus on accessibility and privacy. He supports Bocoup’s work in web developer tools, standards, testing, and coalition building for the web platform, and builds web applications for Bocoup’s [Free Prototype Program](https://bocoup.com/blog/free-prototype-program). Along with day-to-day work at Bocoup, Boaz is a member of the Web Platform Tests Interop Program, and serves on the [Design Justice Network](https://designjustice.org/) Steering Committee, and [Processing Foundation](https://processingfoundation.org/) Board of Advisors.

From 2017-2021, Boaz was an affiliate of the [Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society](https://cyber.harvard.edu/), where he contributed to a critique of the values embedded in “open source” production, and joined both the [Ethical Tech Collective](https://www.ethicaltechcollective.com/), and [Uni Global Future World of Work Lab](http://www.thefutureworldofwork.org/). Between 2016 and 2017, Boaz ran a [contemporary art gallery with a focus on tech criticism](http://galleryopen.org/about/).

From 2011 until 2017, Boaz was an invited expert to the W3C where he started the [first community group for web games](https://processingfoundation.org/), and helped conceive of and develop the Web Platform Tests [wpt.fyi](http://wpt.fyi/) public reporting. During this same period, Boaz worked on the web video programming tool Popcorn.js, and supported the [p5.js](https://p5js.org/) project. Boaz also contributed to early web application developer tools like Grunt, and Backbone, helped write the [jQuery API documentation](https://api.jquery.com/), and start the jQuery Foundation, where he served as a board member until it was taken over by the linux foundation. Before Bocoup, Boaz was a front-end developer for an early 2000s internet health company, where he built early client side web video applications.

Boaz has a high school equivalent General Education Degree, and spent 2.5 years at Bennington College in a liberal arts program (studio art, history, anthropology, and philosophy). 

Boaz wants to see a web that is more local, and more accountable to marginalized communities.

Boaz lives in Los Angeles with his partner Siena, and has a personal art therapy practice focused on intergenerational healing.

Boaz Sender

Carmen is a Technical project manager with over 12 years of experience. Her work at Bocoup focuses on project management for web platform projects and product development projects. She is currently the TPM for our Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) project and has managed projects focused on scrolly telling, data visualizations and website development. She works closely with the technical and programs team to define sprint priorities, provide time estimates for project delivery and ensure high quality delivery to partners.

Before joining Bocoup, she worked as a product owner and a technical project manager in the international development sector in the areas of open data, gender, health and agriculture. She also has experience in civil society engagement and transparency advocacy. 

Carmen has a Bachelor’s in Political Science and a Master’s in Intellectual Property Law from Sciences Po Paris. She speaks English, French, Spanish and Portuguese and lives between El Salvador and Canada.

The web Carmen wants doesn’t promote digital colonialism and ensures the Global South is not being plundered by big tech companies from the Global North. 

You can usually find Carmen working from a room filled with plants, books and accompanied by her dog Kivu, who stares at her all day requesting to be taken out for another walk.

Carmen Cañas

Chris Cuellar is the Manager of Engineering at Bocoup, where they strive to create a welcoming and inclusive learning culture for Bocoup engineers. 

Chris is based in unceded territory of the Tongva people and their neighbors (Los Angeles, California) and has nearly 15 years of experience building and creating on the web platform. Chris is also an artist, educator and community organizer. In 2015, Chris co-founded Color Coded, a tech learning space for people of color in Los Angeles, and has served as a guest lecturer at the UCLA Design Media Arts department. Chris has also been actively involved in the housing rights movement, and has also served on the board of the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust. 

The web Chris wants is basically just Geocities and LiveJournal. Let’s get back to basics! 

Chris is passionate about continuing to work at the intersections of digital technologies, movement-building and radical pedagogy.

Chris Cuellar

cypress works at Bocoup as a Senior Software Engineer, primarily working on custom websites and data visualizations for clients like 18 Million Rising and HR&amp;A. She enjoys equipping mission-based organizations with the tools and technology they need to do great work.

With an undergraduate degree in psychology and interactive media, cypress first learned how to code with creative coding frameworks like Arduino and Processing. After years of working as a software designer/developer building custom solutions for clients like IBM, GE, and Swell Investing, She worked at GitHub as a software engineer on GitHub Desktop and then went on to take an engineering manager role.

As an engineering manager, she led the team building GitHub Sponsors and other projects to make open source software more sustainable on GitHub. She also helped lead the master to main branch convention transition in git and on GitHub. At Discord, she led the Client Platform department at Discord, supporting and leading the teams that rolled out the custom Discord font gg, rebuilt the Android app in React Native, and tirelessly ensured all Discord apps meet the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.

cypress has also organized with Write/Speak/Code, taught UX design and programming wearables at UCLA Extension, worked as a UX Designer for Linksys, and is a long time contributor to p5.js.

cypress wants a web that is one infrastructure of many for liberation.

Originally from Ohio (Shawnee land), cypress is currently based in Los Angeles (Tongva/Kizh land) with an unruly collection of plants and a faded red wind chime. She enjoys talking about mixed identities, rugby, and all the ways you can be outside.

cypress masso

Erika is a Senior Engineer at Bocoup. As an engineer at Bocoup, they contribute to web applications like ARIA-AT App, both internal and external CMS projects, and Bocoup’s infrastructure.

Prior to Bocoup, Erika held DevOps positions at several companies. They worked on building cloud environments, automating hardware testing, and coding serverless systems. They have a Computer Science degree from Smith College.

Erika envisions a web that accommodates all its users and provides a safe, consentful experience.

Outside of work, Erika enjoys spending time with family, playing music, and long drives.

Erika Miguel

Grace is a Senior Product Manager at Bocoup. Grace is a product leader and strategist who brings her creative problem-solving and technical experience to ensure products reflect client priorities and are values-aligned. By engaging in co-design and collaborative process, she actively centers marginalized voices and embraces the leadership and contributions of those who will be most impacted by the work.

Grace is a certified professional in accessibility core competencies (CPACC) and aims to improve access on the web through thoughtful design, technical implementation, and strategy. She has managed product teams as a director, and led products across an array of non-profits, agencies, startups, and studios.

The web Grace wants is supportive and safe...and cute.

Interdisciplinary at heart, Grace has a BA in Environmental Studies and Dance from Oberlin College. Grace enjoys a walk, talk, and hopefully peeps a bird along the way.

Grace McCants

Howard is a Senior Open Web Engineer at Bocoup. He mainly spends his time working on projects targeting the web platform and promoting better accessibility practices on the web through the applications being created.

Prior to Bocoup, he completed his BSc in Computer Science at the University of the West Indies. During his time there, his passion for software development grew and he started creating mobile applications with his peers. After graduating, he went on to work in various tech stacks where he led deployments across web, server and mobile applications.

His hope for the future of the web is for people to be enabled, inspired and connected to each other, sharing different ideals and initiatives to come together and build a better web experience.

Howard Edwards

Isaac is a Designer at Bocoup with more than 10 years of experience working on the web. His work on Bocoup focuses on designing with empathy following inclusive design practices. 

Before joining Bocoup, he worked as a web and graphic designer in the mobile game industry. 

He holds a BA degree in graphic design from Universidad del Valle de Mexico.

The web Isaac wants is welcoming and inclusive.

Isaac is originally from Mexico and currently living in the middle of the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona with his wife, their two kids, and two dogs.

Isaac Durazo

Mike designs and implements automated testing systems. He participates in web standards, and he maintains Bocoup's technical infrastructure.

Mike studied human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University and computer science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to that, he routinely guarded the lives of swimmers of the Massachusetts South Shore. Also he delivered newspapers.

The web Mike wants is safe, interoperable, and bizarre.

Mike encourages you to dance like no one has asked you to stop multiple times.

Mike Pennisi

lola is Bocoup’s Web Platform Program Lead, helping to guide our contributions to the web platform.

lola got into tech in 2014 after graduating with a degree in Creative Writing and English Literature. After a coding bootcamp, she spent time as a Software Engineer and Technical Support Engineer before getting her masters in Computer Science. lola has also held positions as a Senior Web Developer Advocate and System Structure Design Engineer, sat on the steering committee for Open Web Docs, and she ran a non-profit for 5 years with the aim of teaching Black girls, women &amp; non-binary people how to code.

The Web lola wants is safe from surveillance and prioritises traditionally disadvantaged folks.

She is a multidisciplinary artist with a particular interest in photography, film &amp; textiles, &amp; an anti-cheesecake activist.

Lola Odelola

As a Software Engineer at Bocoup, I deliver software across the javaScript stack to clients. My team and I are currently developing features for the ARIA-AT App alongside Meta.

This is my first professional position as a software engineer. I attended and completed Microvers’ one year, remote full stack web development program. I also graduated from Bard College with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.

The web Paul wants is safe, free to use, and not controlled by any government or corporation.

Paul loves new gadgets and new tech.

Paul Clue

At Bocoup, Sarah leverages her background in neuroscience, instructional design, and emerging technologies to design processes and products that meet the needs of all stakeholders. She seamlessly manages diverse project teams to work towards complex deliverables, and has successfully developed strategic roadmaps, web apps, detailed research proposals, wireframes, and more. Overall, Sarah prioritizes transparency, openness, and iteration to ensure that marginalized voices are uplifted and reflected at every stage across the project lifecycle.

Before joining Bocoup, Sarah has conducted research on inclusive learning design and pedagogy, managed international teams of designers and educators, and co-founded and ran a Muslim art magazine. She graduated with a B.S. from Duke in Neuroscience with a focus on Education and Child Policy, and went to the Harvard Graduate School of Education and graduated from the Technology, Innovation, and Education track. Currently, she is also an adjunct professor in the Interactive Media Arts department at NYU, designing and teaching courses that center research-based and socially critical art that engages new media.

In her free time, Sarah volunteers with 8BallCommunity’s zines team, makes art, and enjoys long bike rides.

Sarah Z. Hakani

Sheila co-leads Bocoup and oversees strategy and operations. Since joining in 2019, she has managed the team and led Bocoup’s annual strategic planning process with the goal of aligning our business operations, resources, and practices with our mission and values. She leads the development of corresponding policies focused on social justice, as well as public facing tools like the [Bocoup Code of Conduct](https://bocoup.com/code-of-conduct). She serves as an [Advisory Committee Representative](https://www.w3.org/Consortium/membership-faq#ACRep) to the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), and a [Product Advisory Board](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/MDN/MDN_Product_Advisory_Board) member for MDN (Mozilla Developer Network). She also provides strategic support to Bocoup’s partners.

At Bocoup and in her prior roles, Sheila is focused on cultivating effective, justice-oriented companies and work spaces. She previously held leadership positions in strategy and operations at nonprofits focused on health equity ([The Health Initiative](https://healthinitiativeusa.org/about), [Health Leads](https://healthleadsusa.org/)) and disability justice ([Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education](http://www.mcie.org/)). 

She has an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Vassar College, where she studied social movements. She received her masters degree in International Business, with a focus on Change Management, from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Rennes. Sheila is interested in the intersection of grassroots organizing and formal organizational structures, with a particular focus on how formal organizations can adopt strategies and tactics from grassroots organizing to better align their practices with their stated values. 

The web Sheila wants reflects a shared commitment to community care and accountability. One where we protect each other.

Sheila lives in Philadelphia and enjoys heavy books and remarkably light tv shows. She went camping once and it wasn’t for her.

Sheila Moussavi

Stalgia Grigg is a Senior Engineer at Bocoup. She works across different work streams in different capacities, from individual contributor to tech lead. For nearly a decade, Stalgia has worked to build accessible, open-source technologies with a directed interest in projects that have the potential to upend entrenched power relations. She previously worked alongside teams at the Processing Foundation, Conditional Studio, and Mozilla, among others. They have also worked as an educator, teaching development for the open web to college students at UCLA, USC, and CUNY. Stalgia wants to help build a web that makes business strategies based on surveillance obsolete.

Our Team