Who We Are

Every summer we assemble a killer team of artists, carpenters, kid ninjas and makers of all types. Read below to learn about our founders and our summer team. Check back to see who else has joined the team.

JOSHUA ROTHHAAS
FOUNDER AND PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Josh spent 4 years (2011-2015) managing and directing Tinkering School in San Francisco. In addition to expanding their flagship overnight camp, he established new day camp programming as well as after-school and weekend workshops, growing Tinkering School from an organization that reached under 100 kids to one that reaches over 1000. Beyond administering camp and building lots of cool things, he earned a reputation for being a child whisperer. Josh has an innate talent for connecting with children on an individual level and helping them to engage with their project from a place of authentic enthusiasm. He's committed to creating a failure-positive environment where ideation and experimentation thrive. Josh loves logic problems, magic tricks, and ukulele sing-alongs, but above all, he loves listening to kids share nice things about each other around the fire.

KATIE RICHMOND
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY

Katie joins Project Ember with an assemblage of skills harvested from a life of saying yes to strange and wonderful projects. As a graduate from the University of Southern California with a degree in film production, she had early opportunities to manage large casts and crews, collaboratively designing and building imaginative worlds. After a year spent working on farms in New Zealand altered her life ambitions, new adventures led to her training with the National Outdoor Leadership School's (NOLS) outdoor educator program, becoming certified as a Wilderness First Responder, and completing a year-long immersion with the WE Center for Relational Education. She has mentored with Girl Ventures, Deer Hill Expeditions, Rocketship, Vilda, and spent the 2015 summer working at Tinkering School overnight, where her collaboration with Josh began. No matter the task, from farming to face painting, she is happiest when she is working with her hands and with other people. Katie spends much of her downtime at camp painting faces, teaching the staff games intended for the kids, and sweeping up the trail of glitter that always manages to follow her around. 

Dianne Hurvitz
Day camp director

Dianne joined Project Ember as a collaborator in 2017.  In 2019, as Project Ember expanded to 2 simultaneously run camp sites, Dianne took on the role of day camp director. Prior to joining the Project Ember family, she spent time in the worlds of musical theater production and filmmaking, and a decade in education roles including as a ski instructor, kindergarten teacher, building a k-8 wellness program, and most recently as a music teacher. Each opportunity has only served to increase Dianne’s passion for coaching kids towards wonder and curiosity.

Dianne’s current creative projects often include making earrings, her Project Ember-inspired tool earrings being among her favorites.  With students and campers, she has built a fair few musical instruments, countless tables and shelves, sets for a musical, a percussionist octopus with garden habitat, and more. Dianne loves her current role supporting campers and collaborators, ready to add off-the-wall ideas, and eagerly watching as we add that essential ingredient of camper collaboration to create projects that will inspire and amaze every time.

JENNY GRATTON
lead collaborator

Jenny joins Project Ember from across the pond! Having spent the summer of 2015 collaborating with Josh and Katie at overnight camp, she gained valuable insight into the world of creative summer camps and the progressive educational movement in the San Francisco/Bay area and can’t wait to come back and experience more!

She has significant experience with working with young people back in the UK, teaching Art and Design subjects to students aged 11-18 for the past five years. She is a creative educationalist, teaching through exploration and experimentation. As a kinesthetic learner herself, Jenny loves nothing more than supporting and encouraging young people through the process of learning-through-doing; building their confidence, resourcefulness and resilience. With experience in both traditional and alternative education provision, Jenny has worked with young people with a variety of needs and from a variety of backgrounds. She is extremely passionate about the importance and value of community, engagement and inclusion, which are at the heart of everything she does.