Karen Cornish

Community Learning Coordinator

Karen is a grower, maker and educator sharing her passion through school and community workshops, and the occasional jar of jam. As Community Learning Coordinator at HatchSpace Karen brings an affinity for customer service, data-driven planning and marketing, and instruction design to her work supporting and growing our education programming.

Other fun titles include: Color Farmer, Citizen Scientist, and Lifelong Learner. Trained as a graphic designer, Karen has a diverse background in theater production and textile arts, and has been growing lovely things (plants, children, ideas) for decades.

Jesse Fox

Shop Steward

Jesse has a passion for exploring the way things are made. A varied career has taken him from metal shops to wood shops to bicycle shops to music recording studios. He loves to keep machines humming, to help people figure out the best way to realize their design vision, and to lay down a steady beat. In his free time, Jesse likes to set aside power tools and get out the mallet and froe as he delves into making Windsor and ladderback chairs. 

Lars Hasselblad Torres

Executive Director

Lars is a visual artist with passion for building community spaces where creativity, learning and entrepreneurship thrive. He brings to his role as Executive Director a keen eye for operational detail, a restless appetite for problem-solving, and a deep interest in the status of the arts and crafts in American life.

Prior to joining HatchSpace Lars served as Executive Director of Artisans Asylum in Boston, where he led the organization's relocation and expansion efforts. He has also had stints as an appointee to Vermont's Agency of Commerce and Community Development, director the MIT Global Challenge, Innovation Advisor to the US Agency for International Development, and founder of the Booker T. Washington Public Charter School for Technical Arts.

Tom Bodett

Tom is a writer, humorist, storyteller and lifelong carpenter and furniture maker. His love of woodworking and the 40 year pursuit of ever-elusive perfection have produced his most fulfilling creations. As he winds down his publishing and entertainment career the importance of craftsmanship, and the joy it adds to his life, compels him to make more dust and shelves and fewer dust-covered books on the shelf.

Phil Feidelseit

Vice President

Phil earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Northwestern University and worked as a chemist at the Uniroyal, Inc. Research Center followed by a teaching career at Windham College and Dartmouth College. Phil later launched NEW ENGLAND LABORATORIES under whose auspices he performed specialized chemical analysis and wrote computer applications for the nuclear power industry. He has been a member and served in leadership positions with the Brattleboro Outing Club for decades, was a founding member of Brattleboro RacquetSports, Inc., and has served as the president of the board of directors of Brattleboro RacquetSports, Inc. since 2000. He has absolutely no cabinetry skills but does appreciate fine woodwork and remains active as a decent athlete.

Stephen Shriner

Treasurer

Dyllan Nguyen

Secretary

Dyllan is a Boston based artist/designer/builder. When not working in his studio he can be found teaching children and adults to make things, developing curriculum and programs for youth, and mentoring teens in design and fabrication at The Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts and Artists for Humanity.​

Gail Grycel

Board Member

Gail Grycel, retired owner of Twin Birch Woodworking in Westminster West, Vermont, has been a custom cabinetmaker since 1984. The balance of beauty and function exists in her cabinetry and furniture throughout New England. For over twenty years, and in three states, Gail has empowered women and girls through her class offerings in adult learning programs, woodworking courses in  her studio, at HatchSpace, and the Claremont Makerspace, Rosie's Girls summer camp sessions, mixed gender workshops and one on one tutoring. She is dedicated to sharing her knowledge and experience to all who want to explore the love of making things out of wood. 

Gail Fletcher

Board Member

Gail Fletcher is a retired educator, having spent 23 yrs in public education.   Her last 20 years were with the Springfield, VT School District, working as a Technology Coordinator followed by a return to classroom instruction in the Tech Center where she developed and taught the Information Technology Program.  A long time amateur woodworker, retirement has allowed Gail time to further pursue her  love of woodworking . 

Gail earned her B.S, Education in Industrial Arts, from Keene State College and M.A., Teaching  With Internet Technologies, from The Graduate Center, Marlboro College.  

Monica Hastings

Board Member

A Native of Brattleboro, Monica Hastings is a painter, potter, and budding woodworker. A few years ago, she signed up for a Woodworking for Women class and was instantly hooked. With a 25-year career in the forest products industry promoting the value and sustainability of North American forests, it was high time to make some sawdust herself.

Monica believes utilization of our forests is critical to their preservation. She currently serves on the Board of Managers of National Hardwood Lumber Association allowing her to participate in policy development supporting the preservation of this precious resource.

When not making stuff, she can be found hiking the local forests in search of inspiration.

Advisory Board

Bruce Berg

Advisory Board Member

Bruce comes to woodworking through his interest in furniture design. After retirement from a career in equipment design at DuPont, and moving to Vermont in 2007, his newly-found free time and a need to make pieces for a new house jump-started this work, and formal woodworking classes with Garrett Hack further stoked his passion for the craft. He has served on the boards of Hilltop Montessori School, the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, and is currently on the board of Groundworks Collaborative. Bruce has a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. 

Steven Vannoy

Advisory Board Member

Steven Vannoy took his first woodworking class at the Oregon School of Arts and Crafts in 1990. He has been an amateur woodworking enthusiast ever since. Steven enjoys making musical instruments of all kinds. With a background in computer programming the CNC was a natural tool for him to be drawn to. He is currently psychology professor and is excited to teach hands-on woodworking skills at HatchSpace.

Douglas Cox

Advisory Board Member

Douglas Cox is a well-regarded violin maker, working in West Brattleboro since 1985.  He trained in the late 1960’s as a teenager at the State Violin Making School in Mittenwald, Germany.  His German training has been tempered with extensive experience with vintage instruments and his own values of efficiency, simplicity, and freedom and strength of style.  Over his 50 years of making, nearly 1000 instruments have been placed in the hands of players internationally, some at the highest levels of prestige.

Jim Mahoney

Advisory Board Member

Jim tinkers with a CNC milling machine at the HatchSpace. He teaches computing at Marlboro College where he's been since finishing a PhD in physics in 1988 at MIT.

On Tuesday nights you can find him dancing Argentine tango just up the street.