Meet the Team
At Green River, we are a highly collaborative, deeply committed group who use professional and technical excellence to create sustaining impact. We work primarily remotely, and have team members living in every North American timezone.
Looking for more than a job? Visit our careers page
Ian Kozak
CEO
Ian Kozak
CEO
Ian’s primary goal is to ensure we follow and deliver an authentic mission to create impact through excellence in engineering, and that we strive to make the world better — for all.
Ian joined Green River in 2015 as Director of Strategic Development, and later took on the role of CEO. He brings a background in software development and educational technology, and is a longtime advocate of open source licensing. His focus for many years within Green River has been Open Path, and our expanding involvement in social services and health data integration.
Ian currently lives in Vermont, with his sweetie, where they try their hand at micro-scale organic farming. Ian holds a BA in Biology and Anthropology.
Derrish Repchick
COO
Derrish Repchick
COO
Ann Frago
Dir. Finance
Ann Frago
Dir. Finance
Ann heads our finance department and business office. Prior to joining Green River, Ann worked as a financial project manager at Hewlett-Packard focusing on mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; financial system migration and SAP factory implementation for over 20 years. Afterwards she moved to finance positions in higher education working at University of California Davis in Global Affairs and California State University Sacramento as Athletics Chief Financial Officer, Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator.
Erin Van Ness
Dir. Project Management
Erin Van Ness
Dir. Project Management
All of her professional life, Erin has focused on the technical aspects of making non-profit organizations successful, from government, social, and health services to media, culture, and the performing arts. At Green River, Erin’s goal is to maintain magical clarity within complex projects. She works on managing communications and technical details, along with ensuring the quality of deployed software. She believes the key to a successful project lies in building strong relationships and maintaining excellent communication with our clients.
Maryam Abdul-Wahid
UX and Interface Designer
Maryam Abdul-Wahid
UX and Interface Designer
Maryam is a UX/UI designer with a background in software engineering. After working previously in the aerospace industry as a developer, she uncovered her passion for designing digital products that are meaningful to the people who use them. She continuously supports STEM nonprofits and networks for minorities and women ever since she was a junior member of the National Society of Black Engineers. Now she aspires to use her talents to improve the user experience of services and products for nonprofits and businesses achieving social good.
Elliot Anders
Software Engineer
Elliot Anders
Software Engineer
Elliot joined Green River with already over 10 years of custom web development experience, bringing a suite of skills from enterprise database design to interactive UI implementation. With a professional background mainly in education, aside from being at times a full time developer, Elliot was IT Director for Marlboro College, IT Director of the Mohawk/Hawlemont Regional School District, and co-author (and companion software developer) for the environmental chemistry textbook, “A Basic Introduction to Pollutant Fate and Transport: An Integrated Approach with Chemistry, Modeling, Risk Assessment, and Environmental Legislation.” He also spent several months trapped in the Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona.
Elliot holds a B.A. in Environmental Chemistry from Whitman College, and lives in Brattleboro with his wife and two children
Gig Ashton
Software Engineer
Gig Ashton
Software Engineer
Gig is a full-stack software engineer with a background in React, Python, Rust, and Java. She previously worked as research engineer with the Metagovernance Project, where she built tools for digital self-governance. Before that, she was a software engineer at a healthcare application platform startup called Commure, and a data engineer at Spotify.
Gig lives in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Outside of work, she likes to snowboard, skateboard, read speculative fiction, and practice her Swedish.
Gig has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Brown University.
Mary Ann Badavi
Technical Project Manager
Mary Ann Badavi
Technical Project Manager
Throughout her career, Mary Ann has operated as a jack of all trades in the software and web development space. With experience in UX design, front-end development, and data science, Mary Ann brings a cross-functional and collaborative approach to managing technical projects at Green River. She believes that the best way to navigate complex work is by setting clear expectations and establishing trust with both clients and teammates alike.
Previously, Mary Ann managed the delivery of custom projects at an artificial intelligence startup. She has several years of experience in the nonprofit sector and is enthusiastic about using technology for social good.
Mary Ann received her master’s degree in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design, where her studies focused on technology policy and machine learning. Originally from the east coast, Mary Ann now lives in Colorado, where you can usually find her out on a hike with her dog.
Poonam Benakatti
Technical Project Manager
Poonam Benakatti
Technical Project Manager
Poonam is a Technical Project Manager at Green River. She has a passion for social impact driven organizations previously having worked in public health, non-profit, and education sectors. After landing in the analytics space, she has used her experience in human-centered management to liaise with stakeholders and ensure projects are implemented to be data driven and digestable.
Poonam holds degrees in Neuroscience from UT Dallas. As a Texas native, she enjoys warm weather sports like climbing, sailing, and playing pickleball.
Joel Berman
Software Analyst
Joel Berman
Software Analyst
With a background in solving problems and pride in offering exceptional service, Joel now uses his detective skills to support sustainable projects at Green River. After graduating from Northeastern University he worked as a software implementation consultant helping to build a benefits system for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He also has worked as a logistics project manager, while operating his own business with a mission to give back to the community. His passion lies in helping others and finding ways to change the world for the better.
An explorer at heart, Joel has traveled and lived all over the US with his faithful dog Wile E. When not on his computer you can find him playing outdoors, at a concert or chowing down a new recipe he crafted in the kitchen.
Todd Blackman
Software Engineer
Todd Blackman
Software Engineer
Todd remembers learning Logo and Applesoft BASIC in elementary school and has been programming ever since. At The University of Kansas, he earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering and an M.S. in Computer Science. After starting off professionally in Perl, Todd explored teaching and was a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching primarily Java programming in Western Samoa 2007-2008. In 2010, Todd returned to programming for industry as a lead Rails developer – first with two firms in Portland, Oregon, and then at Location, Inc. in Worcester, Massachusetts. At Location, Inc. Todd built preeminent location-based services, leveraging big data to inform decision-making. Todd describes himself today as a “full-stack website engineer with a focus on back-end systems.”
In his spare time Todd plays piano, folds origami, bicycles, draws, camps, brews beer, does basic woodworking, gardens, and fiddles with Arduinos. If there’s any time left, he squeezes in a good book or a hike.
Lucas Braun
Software Engineer
Lucas Braun
Software Engineer
Lucas came to Green River as an experienced Rails developer, with a background in geospatial data visualization, and a drive to help address the global challenges of wealth inequality and environmental degradation. Prior to moving to Brattleboro, Lucas worked as Lead Rails Developer for Annkissam, LLC, a medical work flow software vendor, and as a Web Developer with Nuesta GmbH. He also organized GeoMundus 2018, an international conference on geospatial technologies, and managed to bike across America in 42 days.
Lucas has an M.Sc. in Geospatial Technologies from James I University & University of Münster, and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Middlebury College.
Grace Charles
Data Scientist
Grace Charles
Data Scientist
Grace is a Data Scientist with a background in environmental science and public health. Prior to joining Green River, Grace worked at a think tank in Washington, DC conducting research that spanned public health, behavioral science, and causal inference. Grace was drawn to Green River by the chance to do meaningful work that has measurable social and environmental impact.
Grace holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California, Davis and a B.A. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard. For her Ph.D., Grace studied the consequences of biodiversity loss and how livestock and wildlife coexist. Her work primarily took place in the savannas of central Kenya.
Grace lives with her husband in Beverly, MA. Outside of work, Grace enjoys silversmithing in her home studio, hiking around New England, and taking photos of particularly nice looking clouds and landscapes.
Koray Comert
Business Administrator
Koray Comert
Business Administrator
Koray is the Business Administrator at Green River. He has experience in logistics, operations and finance in the non-profit sector. He holds a B.A. in history from Utrecht University, with a minor in art history. He has a strong passion for social justice, conflict resolution and music (which is just conflict resolution in different terms).
Koray currently lives in Miami where a strict diet of empanadas helps him to survive traffic jams and the tropical heat.
Megan Eborn
Software Engineer
Megan Eborn
Software Engineer
Megan is a full stack developer, with a penchant for user workflow implementation and dynamic data visualizations. A graduate from Dixie State University in Utah, Megan originally moved to Brattleboro to join the Green River team, where she has become, among many other things, our resident D3.js whisperer.
When not writing code, you can find Megan at the top of a mountain on her snowboard. She now lives in Cedar City, Utah, with her fiancé.
Megan has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Technology.
Martha Edwards
Software Engineer
Martha Edwards
Software Engineer
Martha is a full-stack software engineer with a particular love for building user interfaces. She joined Green River’s Open Path team in 2024. Martha is a New Englander but currently lives in central Pennsylvania. Previously, she worked as a software and data engineer at The New York Times. She holds a BA in Computer Science from Brown University.
Aaron Frary
Software Engineer
Aaron Frary
Software Engineer
Aaron is an engineer looking to effect sustainable change for people facing systemic injustice. Along with a strong background in computer science and mathematics, Aaron has production experience in Android and iOS development, C++, and Rails development. Prior to Green River, Aaron was a founding employee at Valt Inc., a cross-platform password management tool (since acquired by DropBox), and was a Software Engineer at MeedMobile.
Aaron has an A.B. in Computer Science from Harvard College. He lives with his husband and a growing herd of goats in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Adam Garcia
ETL Engineer
Adam Garcia
ETL Engineer
With a passion for advancing public health and social equity, Adam began his career working as a statistician and researcher at Tufts University and later the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Prior to Green River, Adam worked at the Vera Institute of Justice, where he led reporting on a suite of federally-funded immigration court orientation programs and created a public-facing data repository and dashboard illuminating the spread of COVID-19 among people in ICE detention centers.
Adam holds a B.A. in Community Health from Brown University and a M.P.H. in Biostatistics from the Boston University School of Public Health.
Adam lives in Brooklyn, New York with his cat Lenny, and in his free time he enjoys spending time with friends, reading, and watching good and bad tv.
Cseca Gazzolo
Technical Project Manager
Cseca Gazzolo
Technical Project Manager
Cseca is an engineer-turned-project-manager. Originally from Chicago, Cseca moved out east to earn her B.A. from Wellesley College. She worked as a data migration specialist for nonprofits before joining Nordstrom as a back-end software engineer for two years. Just prior to joining Green River, she spent a year on the Watson Fellowship exploring religious diversity around the world.
Cseca is a privacy-first technologist. She is currently studying for a CIPP/US certification in data privacy and likes to lead all her projects with ethics front-of-mind.
When she’s not working, she enjoys writing, singing, being in the water, and practicing her German.
Aaron Gerber
Software Engineer
Aaron Gerber
Software Engineer
Aaron is primarily a backend developer, with a rich multi-platform background in Python, PHP, and Node.js. Prior to joining Green River, Aaron spent 10 years building backend systems for mobile apps for InspiringApps, based in Boulder, Colorado. Originally from Iowa, he’s also worked in corn and soybean fields with 3 generations of family, and spent 2 years in Niger as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Aaron has a B.A. in Psychology and Computer Science from St. Olaf College. Outside of work, you can find him running, cycling, playing the piano, and walking Søren, an “adorable bichon poodle mix” – though not all, of course, at the same time.
Jonathan Golightly
Interface Designer, Software Engineer
Jonathan Golightly
Interface Designer, Software Engineer
Jonathan’s path to being a designer and developer started in high school where he was exposed to the art of photography and the technical wonders of the BASIC programming language. After studying photography at the University of South Carolina, Jonathan worked at the Columbia Museum of Art for almost 9 years where he did everything from art handling to exhibition design to photography to to full-on application development. He realized his artistic/design skills could be combined with his latent, yet blossoming, technical skills to help do good for the world. This was the case at his previous job with EcoHealth Alliance where he helped design and develop applications to help monitor infectious disease outbreaks.
Jonathan can sometimes be spotted on back roads with a large format camera photographing power lines using a 19th-century process called wet plate collodion. Or wearing a veil stealing honey from his honey bees. Or on a trail above the tree line receiving Nature’s “good tidings.” Or volunteering to help out his community.
Juan Ruiz González
Software Engineer
Juan Ruiz González
Software Engineer
Juan is a software engineer with a passion for improving processes through the use of technology. Prior to joining Green River, Juan brought over 10 years of experience developing software, leading teams, implementing systems, and managing IT infrastructure. He is technology-agnostic, with a background in AWS Serverless Application Model, Flask, Laravel, Zend, Angular, Python, PHP, Typescript, and JavaScript.
Juan has a Bachelors degree in Systems Engineering and a Masters Degree in Business Administration. He lives in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Outside of work, you can find him spending time with his family, eating out, or working on personal projects.
Angela Gougherty
Software Analyst
Angela Gougherty
Software Analyst
Angela has a passion for serving communities and has worked within the housing/homeless sector for the past 10 years. She has specialized knowledge and experience related to the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) where she served as the System Administrator for Oakland County (MI) and the State of Michigan. During her tenure, much of her focus has been on streamlining processes to improve efficiencies in data collection, managing the implementation of HMIS and establishing outcomes to inform stakeholders.
Angela has a Master’s of Urban Planning with a concentration in Housing and Community Development from Wayne State University. She currently lives in Detroit where she enjoys bike riding, gardening, and attending gallery openings.
Dave Greiner
Software Engineer
Dave Greiner
Software Engineer
Dave is a full-stack software engineer with a background in Azure, C#, and SQL and a primary focus on back-end development. Before joining Green River, he was a Senior Software Engineer working with a group that facilitates local school districts receiving state and federal grant funding. He was drawn to Green River following a drive to perform meaningful work that utilizes technology to create a positive social impact.
Dave currently lives in Saint Albans, Vermont and spends his free time with his wife, daughter, and fur-babies. He also enjoys exploring the outdoors through backpacking, hiking, and camping, as well as experimenting in the kitchen with baking, brewing, and all sorts of vegetarian-friendly recipes.
Jacob Hickson
Cloud Data Engineer
Jacob Hickson
Cloud Data Engineer
Jacob is a data and analytics professional committed to enabling mission-driven organizations to solve high-impact problems with modern technologies and strategies for data analytics, governance, and management.
Prior to Green River Jacob spent a decade in the education sector, including a brief stint as a 6th grade math and science teacher and prominently featuring time as an analyst and data engineer at EAB, a higher education services and technology company. He brings several years of SQL and python ETL in AWS to facilitate business intelligence and analytics for several functions across complex organizations.
Jacob has a B.A. in economics from Dartmouth, featuring minors in education policy and Chinese literature and language.
He lives with his wife and two children in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, and spends most of his time outside work tending to house and garden projects, enjoying parks and open space, and reading whatever the library has to offer.
Anthony Hogg
Partner Success Manager
Anthony Hogg
Partner Success Manager
Anthony’s career spans over a decade in nonprofit leadership, with specialized expertise in Homeless Services, Mental Health Services, and Income and Support Services. As the former Director of Operations for the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition, he adeptly managed critical operations including HMIS, Coordinated Entry, Landlord Engagement, and Outreach and Benefits Services. His innovative approach has led to the development of multiple system designs, both for individual agencies and community-wide initiatives. Anthony is compassionate for operational efficiency and consistently strives to optimize data collection processes, ensuring the acquisition of valuable insights while minimizing the workload on staff.
Holding a Master’s in Public Administration with an emphasis in Leadership, Anthony’s academic background has reinforced his professional endeavors, equipping him with the strategic acumen to effect positive change. Residing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, he continues to contribute his vast knowledge and skills toward fostering community development and organizational excellence.
David Houghton
Software Engineer
David Houghton
Software Engineer
David is a linguist, specifically a semanticist, who has been working for over a decade as a programmer. David completed his Ph.D. in 2000 from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He specializes in natural language processing and machine learning. In addition to his work with Green River in Ruby, David programs in Java, Perl, Scala, Haskell, Python, C++, and Lua. David loves writing useful code, and especially enjoys developing algorithms.
In his spare time, David plays with his kids, studies a little Finnish, and tinkers with his open source projects. David loves living in Brattleboro, VT, which he describes as beautiful, comfortable, and scaled to suit his aesthetics.
Kyle Lawlor
Software Engineer
Kyle Lawlor
Software Engineer
Kyle is a former physicist turned full stack software engineer who has a preference for backend engineering work. He has previously worked in software development in the higher education sector at Columbia University and Teachers College. Most recently he worked with Regen Network building infrastructure for ecosystem service credits.
He is passionate about pursuing a future where humans live more harmoniously with nature, and act as forces of regeneration. He lives with his partner Jo and step-daughter Skyler and our two cats Mo and Leon. He is also proudly part of a neurodiverse family and cares deeply about accessibility and inclusivity.
Felipe Lima
Software Engineer
Felipe Lima
Software Engineer
Felipe works primarily as a front-end engineer, implementing highly usable, interactive interface components. Primarily self-taught, he brings curiosity and enthusiasm to all his projects, along with rich experience in React, NodeJS, and Ruby on Rails.
Felipe has a degree in Advertising from Universidade Unigranrio. He currently lives in Rio de Janeiro, where he plays the piano in his spare time.
Dee Mendoza
Technical Project Manager
Dee Mendoza
Technical Project Manager
Dee has a background in nonprofit, education, and technology spaces. Her past community-based work included lead-facilitating social justice workshops, managing nonprofit coalitions, and building an award-winning public health program. Dee pivoted to tech in 2019, specializing first in cybersecurity assessments before working as a full stack engineer on an automation platform that serves millions of users globally. She brings technical expertise, a passion for effective collaboration, and a deep commitment to social impact to her current role as a technical project manager at Green River. Outside of work, Dee loves reading fantasy novels, sporadically adopting new artsy hobbies, and paddle boarding with her dog, Wifi.
KT Merseles
Technical Project Manager
KT Merseles
Technical Project Manager
KT brings humor, collaboration, and strategic operational insight to managing projects. Hailing from the non-profit space, they have worn many hats such as program director, accidental techie & business systems expert, project manager, events coordinator, and door-to-door fundraiser. This unique experience provides them with the insights needed to understand how technology solutions can operate and optimize from within an organization’s existing operational structure.
They were drawn to Green River for the opportunity to expand the impact they can make within organizations.
Outside of work, you can find them training their pitbull, snuggling their puggle, or in the pottery studio making large vessels to contain their iced coffee dependence.
They have a BA in English from Clark University.
Ash Otocki
UX Team Lead
Ash Otocki
UX Team Lead
Ash is the UX Team Lead and comes with an extensive background in visual design, front-end web development, and communications.
After attending Dreyfoos School of the Arts as a graphic design and communications major, Ash followed their deep interest in people and human behavior and received a BA in Anthropology, and a BA in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences from Florida Atlantic University.
Ash’s goal is to understand the client vision. With thoughtful research, planning and testing, Ash believes that every project has the potential to be an enjoyable and engaging experience for all users.
When they’re not designing Ash can usually be found running around in the woods.
Zach Parks
Software Engineer
Zach Parks
Software Engineer
Though decidedly a full-stack developer, Zach has especially rich facility in UX implementation, using React, NodeJS, and GraphQL to craft scalable and usable software. Before joining Green River, he was a Senior Software Engineer for Zato Health, working on an interoperability platform for healthcare, and a Lead Developer, Digital Products for Rowan and Littlefield Publishing Group.
Zach has a B.A. in Sculpture and Philosophy from Marlboro College
Eduardo Rojas
Software Engineer
Eduardo Rojas
Software Engineer
Eduardo is primarily a front end developer, though he came to Green River as an experienced fullstack engineer. A self-taught programmer who started his professional career when he was 15 years old, he has worked for multiple startups, and has an especially rich facility in fullstack development — focusing on integrating all the pieces of a project using tools like React, Node JS, and Python. Prior to Green River, Eduardo was a lead developer for Leadsales, a startup focused on providing a complete platform for small business sales and support administration.
Eduardo has a background in electrical and mechanical engineering, and holds multiple certificates in artificial intelligence and stochastic models for predictive analysis.
Sarah Ryder
Technical Project Manager
Sarah Ryder
Technical Project Manager
Sarah brings to her position as project manager a strong technical background from working as a full-stack developer for over fifteen years. Before joining Green River, she spent several years providing IT leadership in higher education and K-12 environments, and she has extensive customer service experience, including doing technical support for dial-up internet back when that was a thing. In all of her roles, Sarah takes a flexible, inclusive, service-oriented approach by focusing on communication and building relationships. She was drawn to Green River by a desire to collaborate with others who share common values and do meaningful work.
Sarah has a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and she studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain in 2003. She grew up in the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts and currently resides in Turners Falls, MA. In addition to juggling priorities at Green River, Sarah is a bartender and a massage therapist licensed in the state of MA. She enjoys hiking, kayaking, yoga, cooking, brewing beer, DIY home projects, and volunteering in the local community.
Kyle Schwartz
DevOps Engineer
Kyle Schwartz
DevOps Engineer
Kyle came to Green River with a love for automation, security and distributed systems. Before joining Green River, Kyle worked as a consultant designing scalable business solutions for SMB and enterprise clients. Kyle remembers provisioning systems with PXE, bash and python scripts early in his career. He much prefers working with cloud infrastructure and its focus on API first deployment and configuration.
Kyle spends his free time with his wife and daughter, tinkers with his home lab, and volunteers for his town’s technology committee.
Guillaume Sparrow-Pepin
Software Engineer
Guillaume Sparrow-Pepin
Software Engineer
Guillaume is a developer with a primary focus these days on front-end frameworks. Guillaume came to Green River looking for a way to use his skills as an engineer to create positive change in the world. A Vermont native, Guillaume studied Computer Science and music at the University of Vermont. He has worked as a iOS engineer, freelance web-developer, and at The Putney School as a Network and Systems Administrator and teaching programming.
Aside from programming, Guillaume plays piano and accordion with his Celtic band Nova. He lives with his partner at his rural home in Westminster, Vermont and enjoys gardening, swimming, and hiking with his dog Mona.
Theron Toomey
Software Engineer
Theron Toomey
Software Engineer
Theron joined Green River in 2005 where he works on projects involving supply chain certification, green building, and social equity.
As a full-stack engineer, Theron works primarily in Ruby on Rails, Knockout, and React.
Previously, Theron worked at The Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University where he helped support research into climate change, public health, and ecology.
Theron attended Marlboro College as an undergrad where he studied computer science and network security.
Bobby Wang
UX and Interface Designer
Bobby Wang
UX and Interface Designer
Bobby is a designer passionate about developing technology for social good. At Green River, he crafts delightful and intuitive experiences grounded in people’s real needs and desires. Bobby previously worked as a product manager on a search tool that improves the way people find affordable housing. He also has experience as an industrial designer and engineer in consumer electronics.
Bobby holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Masters in Urban Planning from Harvard University. He lives in Philadelphia where you will likely find him running along the Schuylkill River in the early morning hours.
Kevin Wiliarty
Software Engineer
Kevin Wiliarty
Software Engineer
Kevin is a backend engineer with a strong facility for frontend development. Before coming to Green River Kevin worked for more than a decade in academic computing, first at Wesleyan University, then at Smith College, and most recently at Hampshire College. Throughout his career, Kevin has cared passionately about working in the service of a greater social good. His background in web development includes PHP, WordPress, Python, Django, Javascript and React.
Kevin holds a Ph.D. in Germanic linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley where his specialties included historical linguistics, cognitive semantics and second language acquisition. He earned his B.A. in German from Harvard University. He occasionally publishes literary translations from German to English, and these days he is working steadily toward fluency in Irish.
Kevin lives with his wife and two kids in Middletown, Connecticut where he plays bass in a string band. He also enjoys walking and knitting.