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Who We Are

ITHAKA Labs is a team of builders, researchers, designers, and problem-solvers who believe that access to education and knowledge can change lives.

Two colleagues working in front of the Ann Arbor office lockers
Grace facilitating a workshop of higher education in prison program coordinators

Our purpose

ITHAKA Labs operates at the forefront of ITHAKA’s mission to expand access to education and knowledge. Working with foundations, colleges and universities, libraries, and publishers, we discover opportunities, design solutions, and incubate and scale services that change people’s lives through learning.

Our commitments

Learn by doing, together

ITHAKA Labs believes that you can learn more by doing and building than by talking. We believe in the value of working with others to build something greater than what either could achieve on their own. We believe there is a tremendous amount that users can teach us if we know how to listen. We believe in the power of the sticky note.

Colleagues sprint planning in the Ann Arbor office

Build open, sustainably

ITHAKA Labs believes in openness. Wherever possible we make our prototypes, discoveries, code, and data openly available for the communities that we both work within and learn from. We support open infrastructure and sustainability models that optimize for access.

Man looking at laptop

Share access, broadly

ITHAKA Labs believes in expanding access to the transformative powers of education. Our work is dedicated to making knowledge more available to all, and we really do mean all. We believe that we can’t build a solution for a community without welcoming members of that community from the start.

zoom grid view of a team meeting

Our team

Meet the people behind the prototypes, partnerships, and occasional whiteboard covered in sticky notes

Alex Humphreys

VP, Innovation

I help the team find, describe and realize its vision. I also hold controversial opinions about the Oxford comma.

Andromeda Yelton

she/her

Lead Software Engineer

When I'm not developing a running habit, reading something, or obeying my cats, I write software in the education & cultural heritage worlds.

Charlie Xiang

she/her

Software Engineer

Working on the Transfer Explorer tool as a fullstack SWE. Board game / video game enjoyer & lego collector.

Chris Buonocore

Manager, Transfer Explorer

Let’s change the game in credit mobility at the national level!

Elizabeth Lovero

Senior Software Engineer

I traded gallery walls for git commits and kept the same job, really: expanding access to information.

Grace Cope

UX Designer

I wear multiple hats as designer, facilitator, user researcher, and tallest person at JSTOR Labs (ever).

Ivanok Tavarez headshot

Ivanok Tavarez

he/him

Senior Software Engineer

I like to solve problems with code, pixels, and product thinking, mostly in and around Transfer Explorer.

Jessica Pokharel

she/her

Manager, Discovery and Research

User researcher, prototype tinkerer, and design-thinking coach helping the team make smarter bets.

John Jung

he/him

Software Engineer

I manage data and data pipelines for the Transfer Explorer team.

Kelly Thompson

Data Engineer

Data engineer on the Transfer Explorer project. Always thinking about data, processes, and infrastructure.

Marleigh Norton

she/her

Senior Technical Project Manager, Transfer Explorer

Once I designed software, now I design software delivery systems. Send pictures of dogs.

Nechelle Calhoun

she/her

Senior UX Designer

Sr. UX Designer at ITHAKA Labs working on Transfer Explorer. Music producer, lifelong learner, and human to Great Dane Orion.

Ryan McCarthy

he/him

Senior Software Engineer

I make software to help incarcerated people access library resources, which are probably my favorite resources.

Stacy Burnett

Senior Manager, JSTOR Access in Prison

Literal cat-herder which comes in handy when working on JSTOR Access in Prison.

Working across ITHAKA

ITHAKA Labs is part of ITHAKA, a nonprofit with a mission to improve access to knowledge and education for people around the world. We collaborate across ITHAKA to turn ideas into impact. Ithaka S+R identifies the pressing challenges facing students, instructors, and institutions through research and engagement with the higher education community. At ITHAKA Labs, we develop, test, and scale solutions to those challenges. As we do so, we leverage the expertise that developed and infrastructure that supports JSTOR’s academic library and Portico’s preservation repository.

Collaborative strategies, research, and tools for higher education

Learn more about ITHAKA S+R
JSTOR logo

Journals, books, images, and primary sources on a platform for teaching and connecting ideas

Learn more about JSTOR
Portico logo

Long term protection and preservation of scholarly content

Learn more about Portico

Interested in partnering with Labs?

We work with colleges and universities, libraries, publishers, foundations, and nonprofit organizations to create inspiring solutions that expand access to knowledge and education.