Kids On Computers

Board of Directors

Randy Tate
Randy Tate
Javier Henderson
Javier Henderson
Serena Robb
Serena Thomas
Stormy Peters
Stormy Peters
Hermes Ojeda Ruiz
Hermes Ojeda Ruiz

 

Randy Tate
Vice President

Randy Tate first learned of Kids on Computers while attending the Open Source Convention in 2012, and joined quickly thereafter in August. He was first drawn to the organization for the re-purposing of donated hardware with Linux. Since he has joined the team Tate has traveled to Mexico, Nepal, and Morocco as a leader to set up computer labs for underprivileged schools.

Randy’s current role is Senior Principle Engineer at Optum (part of UnitedHealth Group), building cloud-based APIs for transacting HIPAA X12 healthcare data.

Randy graduated from the University of Utah in 1998 in Computer Science and has actively worked as a software engineer and architect for over two decades.

Samantha Sterner
Secretary

Samantha joined Kids on Computers in 2021 and has taken the place of secretary. Samantha is pursuing her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at Western New England University.

Serena THOMAS
Treasurer

Serena Thomas joined Kids on Computers in 2008 and since has been a Director and Treasurer. She has helped develop short-term and long-term strategic plans such as coordinating the collection of donated computer equipment, planning installations, shipping equipment to recipient schools, and selecting education and training materials. Serena was able to obtain $10,000 in grant funding for Kids on Computers, as well as securing state nonprofit and federal 501(c)3 status within 8 months.

Thomas started her education and career in computer engineering in 1987 but switched to non-profit management in 2005 after working at Honeywell and HP. Since then, she has worked as a Volunteer Coordinator and Program Director, as well as serving on various Boards and city commissions.

Stormy Peters
Co-Founder

Stormy Peters is a founding member of Kids on Computers. Stormy is currently working as Director of the Mozilla Developer Network. She is also on the board of directors for Software Freedom Conservancy.

She joined Mozilla from the GNOME Foundation where she served as Executive Director. Previously, she worked at OpenLogic where she set up their OpenLogic Expert Community. Before that, she worked at Hewlett-Packard where she founded and managed the Open Source Program Office that is responsible for HP’s open source strategy, policy, and business practices. She has also acted as an advisor for HFOSS, IntraHealth Open and Open Source for America,

Stormy graduated from Rice University with a B.A. in Computer Science.

Abel Lifaefi Mbula
Hermes Ojeda Ruiz

Hermes was born in Miahuatlán, Oaxaca. He joined Kids on Computers since the foundation started. Since the first lab setup, he has worked actively on Kids on Computers activities. He has participated in setting up almost all the labs in Oaxaca, México. Currently am coordinating the Social Service Students program in collaboration with Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca to improve the support to the schools and training teachers more often.

Hermes is a Computer Engineering currently working as a freelance Ruby Developer. He graduated from Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca, Huajuapan de León, Oaxaca in 2007. He has supported Open Source projects since 2006.

Javier Henderson

Javier joined Kids on Computers in 2013 and has since gone on two trips to Mexico. Javier was a Senior Network Engineer at Cisco but is now a Senior Engineer at Crowdstrike.

Mbogo Umaru
Mbogo Umaru joined Kids on Computers in 2019 after Randy Tate visited Uganda to set up the Mwebaza Labs. He assisted with the setup of the labs and teacher training. In August of 2020, He also assisted in the setting up of the Muwanguzi lab.
Robin Kimzey

 

Thomas Peters
Co-Founder
Thomas Peters with student in KoC lab.
Thomas Peters with a student in KoC lab.

Thomas Peters is from South Dakota, has an M.A from the University of Northern Iowa, and has traveled around the world teaching English. He’s been with Kids on Computers (KOC) since its inception in 2009 when he found the very first school for a KOC lab, 18 de Marzo, in the Oaxaca area of Mexico. He set up contacts with the school principal, local authorities, and extended community.

He continues to play an organizing role, finding new schools in Oaxaca, evaluating them, and establishing relationships. He’s made contacts with the local University (UTM), city and state government officials, and technical members of the community.

He’s spent a lot of time working for Kids on Computers in Mexico and traveled to Assam, India to help set up two labs.

Previous Boards of Directors

2016

  • Javier Henderson
  • Thomas Peters
  • Avni Khatri
  • Gustavo A. R. Silva
  • Stormy Peters
  • Randy Tate
  • Serena Robb (non-voting Treasurer)

2015

  • Javier Henderson
  • Thomas Peters
  • Avni Khatri
  • Jeff Pullen
  • Robin Kimzey
  • Gustavo A. R. Silva
  • Stormy Peters
  • Randy Tate
  • Serena Robb (non-voting Treasurer)

2014

  • Vedanta Barooah
  • Stormy Peters
  • Avni Khatri
  • Thomas Peters
  • Robin Kimzey
  • Serena Robb
  • Bill Mullaney
  • Randy Tate

2013

  • Vedanta Barooah
  • Stormy Peters
  • Avni Khatri
  • Thomas Peters
  • Robin Kimzey
  • Serena Robb
  • Bill Mullaney
  • Randy Tate