About THE METACHANGEMAKERS TEAM

The Metachangemakers Project an interdisciplinary team of researchers based primarily at Stanford University. The team studies the processes by which individuals become motivated and empowered to make a positive impact on the world. They are also advised by consultants who have educational and changemaking experience with a variety of organizations, including the World Innovation Summit for Education, the Ashoka Foundation, the Weaving Lab, Stanford University, Harvard University and Columbia University.
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​DIRECTORS AND LEAD RESEARCHERS

​Brandon Reynante

Brandon is a doctoral candidate in the Learning Sciences and Technology Design program at Stanford University. He is passionate about crafting learning experiences, strategies, and socio-technical systems that seek to unleash the collective creativity of humanity to solve complex societal problems. His dissertation research is focused on creating an educational intervention that integrates engineering systems design and speculative fiction writing to empower youth to imagine societal transformation pathways to a future where climate change has been mitigated.

​Prior to Stanford, Brandon was a lecturer in humanitarian engineering and social innovation at UC San Diego, where he developed curriculum, managed community partnerships, and taught and advised 1500+ students who collaborated with local and international nonprofit organizations to co-create solutions to pressing social and environmental challenges. He also founded and led LifeCycled Materials, a nonprofit organization that developed technologies and educational programs to empower communities to transform waste into the building blocks for sustainable development. Before that, Brandon managed and performed analysis-driven design of complex mechanical systems, such as clean energy technologies, at an engineering consulting firm. Brandon holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC San Diego, where he was president and education outreach coordinator of an engineering honor society, and an S.M. in Aerospace Engineering from MIT, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.

John Wilcox

John is a PhD candidate in the philosophy and psychology departments at Stanford University. In his research, he designs and tests training interventions to improve human judgment and decision-making.

He has lectured and taught hundreds of students at several universities, including Stanford University, the University of Melbourne and the University of Auckland. He is currently the instructor for a teaching methods course in the philosophy department at Stanford University, and other topics he has taught include social science research methods, logic and ethics.

He has also worked on various changemaking projects and metachangemaking programs. He worked in local communities in New Zealand and the Cook Islands to help empower adolescents with the motivations and skills to positively contribute to their communities. He also coordinated regional metachangemaking initiatives in the north island of New Zealand.

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ReseaRch TEAM

​Karen Ge

Karen  studies symbolic systems and education at Stanford University. She is passionate about metachangemaking and effective altruism, and she has also worked as a teacher at the Harvard College Association for U.S.-China Relations.

​Kuhan Jeyapragasan

Kuhan leads effective altruist initiatives at Stanford University. He is also the program lead at the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative. 

 
​Chris Lacopo
 
Chris is an educational consultant who graduated with a Master's in Education from Stanford University in 2020 after decades in private school teaching, coaching, and leadership. He was previously a dean and a teacher at Horace Mann School, and his current work focuses on leadership development and emotional intelligence. Chris is also the manager for the Program Research project within the Metachangemakers Project.

​Jake McKinnon

Jake is a Stanford University alumni in Computer Systems & Theory. He is interested in the potential long-run impact of metachangemaking, and has led some metachangemaking projects through Stanford Effective Altruism and related organizations.

Will Roderick

Will is a designer and engineer who obtained his PhD in engineering from Stanford University. He is interested in the factors that influence motivations for making a positive impact. 

​Ollie Stephenson

​Ollie is a PhD candidate in geophysics at the California Institute of Technology. He has lobbied local, state and federal policymakers on issues such as funding for scientific research and earthquake safety and in 2021 he was selected for the American Geophysical Union's 'Voices for Science' program. He is interested in societal resilience to natural disasters and has worked with a variety of social movement organizations in the Los Angeles area.

ADVISORY BOARD

Ross Hall

Ross is a co-founder of the Weaving Lab and is the former Director of Education at the Ashoka Foundation. He has extensive experience with educational programs around the world and is passionate about the cause of cultivating changemakers.

Robert Horn

Robert is an American political scientist who taught at Harvard, Columbia, and Sheffield (U.K.) universities, and has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Center for the Study of Language and Information. He is known for the development of information mapping.

Zineb Mouhyi

Zineb is the co-founder of the Weaving Lab, an international NGO and network of weavers, i.e. social changemakers pioneering new approaches to collaboration and ecosystemic transformation. She is also a co-founder of YouthxYouth, a global community of youth education activists and adults dedicated to the reimagination and transformation of education for collective liberation. She has extensive experience with metachangemaking programs and has previously worked at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE).