Staff Type: Advisory Committee

Neema Komba is a writer and entrepreneur from Dar-es- Salaam, Tanzania. She is the founder of Amimeita Ventures Limited, a startup specializing in manufacturing of natural and ecofriendly soap products for better skin care and cleaning. She also co-founded and coordinated La Poetista, a platform for poets and other performing artists to showcase their art and create a positive impact in the community through the arts. From 2013 to 2015, she coordinated the Woman Scream Festival in Tanzania, which is a part of a worldwide movement to fight against gender-based violence using poetry. She is the 2014 Etisalat Prize for Literature flash fiction winner and the author of See Through the Complicated, a poetry book. She received her B.S in Accounting from Franklin University in 2012. She currently works as a graduate assistant while pursuing her Master’s in Business Administration at the University of Tampa.

Chris Paetsch is a research engineer at Bose Corporation and currently serves as a Development Associate with TETEA. He has been involved in math and science education as a National Science Fellow working in the Malden, MA school district, as well as a tutor at St. Clara School (CA) and presently at the Cambridge Learning Center (MA) and Brophy Elementary School (MA). Chris holds a PhD in engineering from Tufts University, as well as a BS from Santa Clara University and an MS from Tufts University.