We are Educators, Designers, and Impact Entrepreneurs
The Construct team is dedicated to understanding the needs of teachers and principals as they embrace the challenges of keeping pace with a rapidly changing world.
Gina Condon
President & Co-Founder
Gina Condon is laser-focused on a simple concept that requires a complex solution: Oregon youth will thrive and Oregon industry will flourish when Oregon schools dedicate themselves to educating ALL students for the innovation economy.
With 20 years of entrepreneurial and child development experience Gina is convening visionary, cross-sector partnerships, building the collective will necessary to move schools from lecture and test-prep to project-based learning across disciplines. As Constuct’s President, Gina surfaces leaders and aligns stakeholders in public and private sectors to adapt design-thinking programs that encourage collaboration, creativity, empathy, curiosity and risk-taking for everyone impacted by school outcomes.
In the past six years, Construct has engaged thousands of Oregon students, teachers, principals, and district leaders; tech and industry problem-solvers, non-profits, business associations, and civic organizations.
A former member of the Social Innovation Incubator at Portland State, Gina brought the industry re-invention program, Breaker, to Oregon--then iterated it for K-12 students; she expanded the programs’ Breakaway Workshop for teachers and established a collaboration with College Possible to ensure under-resourced youth were at the center of the education revolution; she worked with Stanford d.school’s K12 Lab to become a convening partner for School Retool--a fellowship to support school leaders in building equitable deeper learning structures on their campus. Today, Construct is Stanford’s only West Coast Model 3 partner, delivering Retool to school leaders and their teams across Oregon. By engaging vital school cohorts in systems change, by unleashing and nurturing passionate school leaders and engaging other passionate edu-preneuers, Gina has helped to create a path to transform schools.
Before founding Construct, Gina spent a decade in youth programming and five years in Silicon Valley, building design teams for tech companies. She received her BA in Psychology from UC Irvine and her MEd from Harvard's Graduate School of Education.
If you’re interested in changing the state of Oregon education, you could start here: gina@constructfoundation.org
Erin Bray
Teacher Delight Specialist and Lead coach for Student INNOVATION teams
Erin Bray is a walking design education dynamo. After 10 years as a public high school language arts teacher, she understands that teachers are our most critical asset in the education eco-system—and that growing their practice using design methods can support a culture of innovation on their campus.
Launching the “Teachers are Designers” campaign, and leading all of Construct’s teacher and student facing workshops, Erin is inspiring a growing community of both students and educators, eager collaborators to her enthusiasm in building student-led learning experiences that prepare every young person for success in our rapidly changing world.
A dynamic curriculum and experience designer, Erin applies her expertise with a deeply-held mission to elevate voices from a multitude of intersectional identities across the education landscape.
Since joining Construct, she has co-created and facilitated Student led design challenges for hundreds of young people, investigating system-wide questions such as the Future of Learning and the Future of Health and Wellness; collaborating with partners including College Possible; Oregon Business Council and Oregon Learns; Concordia Univ; Providence Medical Group/Basecamp; the K-12 students from KairosPDX; Prescott Elementary; David Douglas, Parkrose and Reynolds HS; Cedarwood Waldorf; and Catlin Gabel. Erin has worked with dozens of educators across Oregon to build their creative confidence and encourage their exploration in innovation and design. Erin holds a BA and teaching certificate from Whitman College and a Masters in curriculum & instruction from PSU.
Get inspired by:
erin@constructfoundation.org
Jami Fluke
School Leader Ambassador
Begin with a beloved educator. Add equal measures of determination and joy, and you have Jami Fluke. Over 25 years, Jami has taught elementary, middle, and alternative school, and most recently led Dayton Oregon’s Junior and High School as Principal. Embracing risk, inspiring innovation, and reimaging what school could be —Jami led Dayton’s teachers, leaders, and students in dismantling and reassembling the systems that had become barriers to learning.
With the support of Construct and Innovate Oregon, Jami launched design challenges across the school, engaged the broader Dayton community in the education of local youth, and guided her teachers to create new curriculum like Genius Hour for all students. In just three years, Jami’s passion and collaboration resulted in Dayton High graduating 96.8% of its students--a 14% jump and placing it on the leaderboard in Oregon. Importantly, however, graduation wasn’t her only metric. Joy was just as important.
Jami’s team used funds from a CTE Revitalization grant awarded by the Oregon Department of Education to renovate their i3 Center, upgrading technical equipment to make CTE-type projects more accessible to students, and ensuring all her students a space at school to have complete creative freedom. The magic that has unfolded on Jami’s campus brought 20 Australian educators to witness the happenings in this small Oregon town, and took Dayton’s varsity invention team to Eurekafest, a four day event at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and organized by the Lemelson-MIT Program.
Jami built a new standard for how to inspire and empower in K-12 education and Construct is thrilled to have her onboard as our School Leader Ambassador.
Experience joyful support for your vision:
jami@constructfoundation.org
Kate Fitzgerald- Martinez
StoryTEller and Co-Founder
The seeds for Construct were planted in the organic backyard garden of a preschool in Portland, Oregon. When Kate met Gina Condon, they watched as Gina’s son presented an undulating caterpillar in his palm, and Kate’s daughter reached out to offer the caterpillar a flower to munch. The adult’s conversation turned quickly to the benefits of lived experiences in education, to collaboration, and to empathy. In the months that followed, the concept for launching an education non-profit to catalyze Oregon public education--transforming schools by utilizing the practices of design thinking: problem solving, collaboration, creativity, empathy, and curiosity--took root. Construct was born.
For 30 years, Kate has directed her energy into her personal mission of providing opportunity, fairness, and equity for young people, ensuring everyone has the tools they need for personal wellness and educational success. In non-profit development, she has secured millions in grant awards for organizations with humanitarian, well-being, and educational missions, including for both the Natural History Museum and the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles. Kate’s diversified experience includes being a film producer, script writer, LGBTQ student group facilitator, and student information system project manager with clients in education, youth support services, and healthcare. Besides Construct, Kate works with the National University of Natural Medicine to nurture an equitable, affordable, and holistic approach to wellness. Kate’s film company, intention action, has a simple directive: create film and video for good. Kate is thrilled to share the bounty of Construct’s growing garden with everyone in the school system who is ready to embrace not a program, but a new education mindset.
Begin telling your Construct story: kate@constructfoundation.org
Curriculum Designers and Facilitators
Nandini Ranganathan, PhD
Education Entrepreneur, Mathematician, Futurist, and Curriculum Designer. Nandini is the Founder of CETI (the Creative and Emergent Technology Institute) an integrated model for advanced/professional education, research, practice, and community engagement in creative and emergent technology and design. Formerly a professor of mathematics at UT Austin and Reed College, Nandini moved to the Pacific Northwest College of Art to create Make+Think+Code a community- and technology-focused lab at the intersection of art, science, technology, and society. Nandini has a PhD. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan and an A.B. in Mathematics from Wellesley College. Her interests and work include innovative curriculum and program design, and training educators and leaders in creating interdisciplinary project-based learning experiences to inspire imaginative inventions and solutions to major social, environmental, and technological challenges. Nandini has designed curriculum to train k-12 educators in Texas, Oregon, and Washington. She served on the Advisory and Planning Committee for SW-T.I.M.E. (the Southwest Washington partner of the Transition Mathematics Project) with Clark College and WSU Vancouver and helped design curriculum that focussed on applications of mathematics in the world to help students successfully prepare for college STEM fields and careers; worked on a curriculum for a certificate in Middle School Mathematics Education; created collaborations with high schools, community colleges and state schools; helped develop college readiness standards for Washington; worked with Washington MESA to increase STEM opportunities for a more diverse group of students.
Mike Strong
Educator and Instructional Leader, High Tech High School Network, San Diego, School Retool, and Construct Coach and Facilitator. Mike has spent the last 16 years both in the classroom with students and as an instructional coach for other teachers and school leaders. His work in the classroom and as an adult learning designer at High Tech High’s Graduate School of Education focused on the benefits of Project Based Learning and understanding the work that educators are doing (and not doing) as critical battlegrounds for equity in our schools. Mike has been a School Retool coach nationally and facilitator since 2016 and joined the Construct team in the summer of 2019 to launch Oregon's first Hacktivation Station (a continuation of School Retool) Mike is co-facilitating with Jami Fluke for Construct’s 5th School Retool cohort. Mike’s Master of Arts (M.A.), focused in Teacher Leadership, was received at High Tech High Graduate School of Education.
Program Mentors
Susie Wise, PHD
Freelance learning experience designer, equity designer, and innovation coach. Currently, working as a design entrepreneur-in-residence at Playworks National HQ. Susie is a faculty member at the National EquityProject. A frequent teacher and coach at Stanford University's d.school on a wide range of topics including design research, equity design, innovation practices, and storytelling. The co-founder of the K12 Lab at Stanford University’s d.school and co-creator or School Retool.
Juliette Lamontagne, ED.D.
Chief Learning Architect at Bionic Solutions. Designing human systems that enable new business growth. Founder of Breaker, dedicated to closing the gap between education and employment. Juliette spent fifteen years piloting innovation initiatives with the New York City Department of Education – as a classroom teacher, professional developer, and teacher trainer. Her work is recognized by TED, where she is a Senior Fellow, and by the Institute of Design at Stanford University where I was a d.fellow in 2013.
Board of Directors
Board Chair: Madeline Turnock, Strategic Communications Office of the President, Concordia University Portland
Board Secretary: Heidi Rahn, Board Secretary, Program Manager, METRO
Board Treasurer: Matt Bryant, Board Treasurer, Sr Program Analyst, Arnerish Massena, Inc
Vanessa Wilkins, Founder and Lead Innovator, Future School Lab
Chris Tebben, Principal, Sapient Solutions
Susie Wise, Strategic Advisor and Coach, School Retool
Eric Park, Innovator and Creative Director, Cambia Health Solutions
Kate Fitzgerald Martinez (Ex-Officio), Co-Founder of Construct, Storyteller
Wilson Smith, Design Director, Nike Footware
Carr Biggerstaff, Executive Director, Chehalem Valley Innovation Accelerator
Keith Brown, Chief Information Security Officer, IBM Systems.
Advisory Board Members
Annmarie Cheesbro, Arbor Center Teaching Coordinator and adjunct professor at Marylhurst University
Eric Cress, President, Urban Development + Partners
Zalika Gardner, Co-Founder, KairosPDX
Lori Heino-Royer, Director Business Innovation / Strategy and Program Management Office, Daimler Trucks of North America
Juliette Lamontagne, Chief Learning Architect, Bionic Solutions