Emily Pilloton founded Project H in 2008, believing deeply in the power of design and building to excite learning and citizenship. Her first crush, MacGyver, sparked her love of constrained problem-solving and tinkering. She went on to study architecture and building because it was the one thing that allowed her to geek out about everything, from math and structural engineering to ethnography and the fascinating behavior of people. Emily believes that by giving youth, particularly girls and students of color, the skills to design and build their wildest ideas, we can support the next generation of creative, confident changemakers. Her ideas and work have made their way to the TED Stage, The Colbert Report, the New York Times, and more. She is the author of two books, Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People, and Tell Them I Built This: Transforming Schools, Communities, and Lives with Design-Based Education. When she isn’t welding with her 10-year-old Camp H girls or co-teaching Studio H, Emily loves to run, write, rabble-rouse, and eat unreasonable amounts of Mexican food.
West Virginia born and bred, Matthew Miller is currently the lead design/build instructor at (co)studio, a public high school design build program based in Carbondale, CO. An accomplished designer and fabricator, he has worked for several leading social design practices including Project H Design and Architecture for Humanity. Matthew holds degrees in architecture from the University of Tennessee and Cranbrook Academy of Art, and has taught architecture and design at the Rhode Island School of Design, the College of Creative Studies, and UC Berkeley, among others. Matt has extensive experience as a designer/builder, with a range of projects extending from the blighted streets of Detroit to the agrarian slopes of southwestern Uganda.
Prior to joining the (co)studio team in the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado, Matt co-founded and led instruction for Studio H—an award winning and widely published high school design/build curriculum.
