Recently, Charlene Brenner has announced that she will be taking on a new role at the Sustainability Institute on July 1st, 2024. We want to use this opportunity to celebrate her years of contribution to the organization we wanted to look back at all that she has accomplished thus far.

Charlene originally joined the STEAM Factory in the Summer of 2014 as its Project Coordinator, working closely with Roman, Jim, and Arnab and very quickly became vital to the organization, with her taking on many of responsibilities to get STEAM Factory to where it is today. “With the maturation of the STEAM Factory, Charlene’s role as Project Coordinator had become increasingly important as she was now the only long-term constant within the organization. More and more of the core responsibilities were being placed on Charlene and she was doing an excellent job,” said Roman Holowinsky, one of three original co-founders of the STEAM Factory, in the book Pathways to Collaboration.

After joining STEAM Factory, Charlene kept taking on more and more responsibility and dealt with the issues that came with it with proficiency, leading her to her position today, a whole decade later, as Program Director of the STEAM Factory and spearheading some of the most iconic events that the STEAM Factory holds to this day, such as;

• STEAM Exchanges
• Franklinton Fridays
• Partnerships and collaborations with COSI, Wild Goose Creative, Gravity, and many others
• Teaching Team Science classes
• And receiving the Distinguished Staff Award, one of the highest honors a university staff member can receive.

 Maurice Stevens, a beloved friend and fellow member of the STEAM Factory, had the following to say about Charlene in a recent email they put out for Charlene’s announcement of her leaving,  "From the moment Charlene joined The STEAM Factory, she has been the cornerstone of our community. Her tireless efforts in facilitating collaboration and fostering innovation across diverse disciplines have been instrumental in shaping the vibrant, inclusive, and utterly unique network we are today. It is hard to overstate the significance of her role in expanding our membership from a small group of 15 junior faculty and staff to a thriving community of over 300 members across 70 departments. Her work has not only enriched our academic pursuits but has also cultivated a sense of belonging, mutual respect, and dedication to the social good that is incredibly rare and generally undervalued in institutions like ours."

Before being involved with the STEAM Factory, Charlene had worked on many other teams and projects over the years, mostly in grant writing and as a law clerk at various firms. She will be moving on to a position with the Sustainability Institute beginning in early July.

Good luck Charlene and thank you for everything you have done for the STEAM Factory!