Ashlynn Wells is based in New York and has worked in the impact space for nearly five years. She has a background in marketing and communications, along with project management. She has led teams for the NASA Space Apps Challenge, the largest hackathon in the world. She has worked with innovators, problem solvers, and communities across the globe, and is excited to join the Scale For ClimateTech team, supporting the climate space and helping companies scale their impact.
Silja Tobin is the Senior Communications Specialist for SecondMuse where she leads marketing and communications for Scale For ClimateTech.
With over 15 years of experience in marketing and strategic communications, Silja has worked across impact-driven organizations and the nonprofit performing arts sector. She believes in the power of storytelling to drive meaningful change and support innovation.
When Silja isn’t at work, she can be found exploring the landscapes we’re working to protect—hiking, backpacking, and cross-country skiing throughout the Pacific Northwest with her husband and stepdaughter.
Mikhail Hutton is currently the Senior Program Manager, Climate for SecondMuse, leading the For ClimateTech initiative across New York State. He brings extensive experience from a variety of leadership roles, most notably as the CEO of Candidus and roundit, which was later acquired under his leadership. His expertise includes operations, Customer Success, and go-to-market strategies, which he applied across different B2B ventures.
He is a graduate of Penn State University and he lives in New York City with his wife and 3 kids. In his free time Mikhail is very involved in the NYC tech community as well as various non-profit organizations.
Naya Shim
Program Manager, Climate
Naya supports the delivery of SecondMuse’s Climate programs, overseeing the design, execution, and continuous improvement of the Scale For ClimateTech program and other entrepreneur support initiatives. Her role includes supporting teams, managing timelines, resources, and stakeholder relationships to ensure successful program delivery. Naya holds a Master’s in Climate and Society from the inaugural class of Columbia Climate School. Since graduation, she has focused on supporting early-stage climatetech entrepreneurs and is passionate about scaling carbon management solutions and advancing a just energy transition. Prior to joining SecondMuse, Naya spent over two years at Activate, where she played a key role in building and supporting programs for both the New York and Anywhere teams. She focused on cultivating community, coordinating large-scale virtual and in-person events, and creating new initiatives to enhance program experience and impact. In addition to program management, Naya particularly thrives in lean-team environments and enjoys the process to reach optimization and operational efficiency. At Activate, she was able to help improve and streamline workflows during the early stages of the two program teams.
Lara Croushore is Head of Climate at SecondMuse, an impact and innovation company that works with communities to build economies at the intersection of climate, equity and tech. She has nearly 20 years of experience developing innovative policies and programs to advance climate solutions that benefit people and protect the planet.
Before joining SecondMuse, Lara served as Chief Strategy Officer for Climate and Sustainability in the New York City Mayor’s Office. During her time at City Hall, Lara led citywide climate action planning — such as the development of New York City’s Green New Deal, OneNYC 2050 — and also managed New York City’s global partnerships to scale climate action efforts worldwide. Prior to the NYC Mayor’s Office, Lara was Vice President and head of Smart & Sustainable Cities at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. In this role, Lara led a multidisciplinary team to grow the green economy in New York City by working with local entrepreneurs and global business leaders to develop technologies and sustainable business strategies to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. Most recently, Lara served as the founding employee and Managing Director of Urban Ocean Lab, a non-profit policy think tank developing ocean-climate solutions for the future of coastal cities.
Lara has an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University’s Climate School, and an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science from Boston University.
Jackie serves as Operations Manager and IT supervisor for NextCorps. She has worked supporting the entrepreneurs at NextCorps in several capacities since 1999. She graduated from SUNY Fredonia with a BA in theatre arts production and has remained involved in Rochester’s vibrant arts community with Blackfriars Theatre.
Kathleen Martin is the Business Advisor on Manufacturing at NextCorps. In this position, she helps fund projects for Climate Tech startup companies to advance from the prototype stage toward manufacturing hardware devices in volume.
Prior to NextCorps, Kathleen worked as a Mechanical and System Engineer in Product Development at Xerox and as a Sr. Energy Analyst for an Energy Analysis Saas Start-up. Kathleen has an SB and SM in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM).
Peter is the Scale For ClimateTech Program Coordinator at NextCorps. In this position, he helps ClimateTech companies scale their products from validating prototypes to market implementation and production.
He comes from a background working in and with startups. Originally starting his own nonprofit, MassVaxx, a mass vaccination distribution software system, alongside teammates and mentors from RIT and Marquette University. He then moved on to working at MAGIC Spell Studios supporting early game development teams and Open@RIT supporting technology transfer in open science. On the side, he leads Fly Team, a cleantech composing venture utilizing black soldier flies. He is also a recent RIT grad with a BS in Computer Science.
Chris handles all marketing, community outreach, and editorial content for the Venture For ClimateTech and Scale For ClimateTech programs, including lead generation, videos, podcasts, social media, and content for events and newsletters.
Before joining NextCorps, Chris managed reporters and videographers in multiple roles, including acting as the liaison between Congress and broadcast media at the House of Representatives Radio and Television Gallery and as an assignment editor for Spectrum News Rochester. In addition, he supported the NBC Olympic Broadcast for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic games in various roles. Chris is a seasoned videographer, and has produced and animated programs for HealthCentral.Com, TheBody.com, WXXI, Grid Alternatives, and The Climate Mobilization. Chris has a B.S. in Television–Radio Media Production from Ithaca College.
Managing Director
Mike is the Managing Director of Scale For ClimateTech and the Executive Director of Technology Commercialization at NextCorps. He has created programs including NextCorps’ LaunchPad for web and mobile startups by drawing on his experiences from founding and co-founding eight startups (including one that became publicly-traded) as well as training through the National Science Foundation iCorps Program at Stanford University.
Invention and creativity are key areas of interest for Mike, who holds a B.F.A. from Rochester Institute of Technology and a M.B.A. from the University of Rochester, where he is currently a Lecturer in Technical Entrepreneurship Management. He also is a teaching team member for the NSF National I-Corps program and instructor for the I-Corps Regional Node led by Cornell, University of Rochester, and RIT.
Mike revels in the rich history of regional innovations in agriculture, computing, medical devices, optics, and telecommunications. He serves on the Industrial Advisory Board at the Cornell Center for Materials Research and supports educational outreach programs including Cornell’s Lending Library of Experiments and the Rochester chapter of Engineering World Health.