Nana Naisbitt is the first executive director of the Telluride Science Research Center, a position she assumed in January 2007, after managing the organization for four years as the executive director of Pinhead Institute. Nana was the founder of Pinhead Institute, a Smithsonian Affiliate and science education non-profit and served as its executive director from April 2001 until December 2006.

In 2003, Nana brought TSRC’s “Public Science Lectures” out of a cloistered classroom into the Telluride limelight. Since then, she has helped guide scientists to present their talks at an appropriate level for an educated lay audience. She renamed the science lecture series the “Pinhead Town Talks,” and held them first at the public Library, then later at the Conference Center. She created a cohesive marketing strategy; brought attendance up from 1-5 laypersons weekly per lecture to an average of 125 locals and visitors per lecture, creating the first high-level, academic science lecture series in the region. She has hosted more that 85 public science talks, attracting audiences up to 400 attendees.

Nana has been named a "Smithsonian Research Collaborator" for her writings on natural history and was a member of the Encyclopedia of Life Steering Committee formed by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in 2004. As Pinhead’s director, she was instrumental in catalyzing the Encyclopedia of Life Symposium in Telluride in February 2004, which brought together 40 of the world’s leading taxonomists, conservationists, and information technologists. The White Paper and Strategic Plan, which emerged from that meeting under the direction of Pinhead Institute, served as the basis for the $25 million dollar MacArthur Foundation grant awarded to the Smithsonian in 2007 to launch the Encyclopedia of Life project.

She partnered with the California Academy of Sciences to produce a public forum, in February 2002, to help frame the scientific, ethical, and philosophical debates surrounding emerging genetic technologies. Nana designed the program and moderated it. Panelists included Dr. Rodney Brooks, Dr. Nina Jablonski, Dr. Robert Lanza, and Dr. Thomas Okarma. In May 2000, she designed and moderated a forum, entitled "Human Genome Human Being," in Beijing, China, in cooperation with Peking University and the Link Foundation.

With her father John Naisbitt and Douglas Philips, she wrote High Tech High Touch (Broadway Books, 1999), which was translated into twelve languages. She has appeared on the Leher News Hour, the BBC World Service, and NPR among other broadcasters, and has spoken at venues throughout the world including the Smithsonian Institution, California Academy of Sciences, Peking University, 92nd Street Y, the National University in Taiwan, and the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

In June of 2000, Nana wrote "Will low tech replace high tech?" for TIME magazine's five part series, "Visions 21," which included articles by Stephen J. Gould, Raymond Kurzweil, Bill Gates, and Freeman Dyson. In 1999, Fast Company selected her as one of 21 "thought leaders offering compelling ideas for the 21st century" along with Bob Pittman, Craig Venter, and others.

Naisbitt is active in the Telluride community, along with her three children. She served on the Telluride Ecology Commission for two years from 2005 – 2007, as the President of Telluride Friends of the Library from 2003 - 2006, was a member of the Robin Magee Memorial Committee in 2005 - 2006. She received her BA from University of Chicago in 1984.

Rory Sullivan, TSRC's longest serving employee now in his eighth year (pictured left in photo and below in Nepal collecting beetles), graduated with honors from Lewis & Clark College in American History in May 2009. Rory was the first Lewis and Clark recipient of the SHEAR Mellon (Society for Historians of the Early American Republic) Fellowship Award in 2008, including a $2,000 research stipend and all-expenses-paid participation in a three-week long seminar at University of Pennsylvania, giving him the opportunity to begin research on his senior honors thesis. He also received a 2008 Mary Stuart Rogers Scholarship Award for “personal qualities of dedication, integrity, compassion, sensitivity, self-discipline, and leadership.” Rory travelled for a year in Pakistan, India, Bangledesh, and Nepal between his sophomore and junior year of college, and six months in Spain, Morroco, and Turkey after graduating from Telluride High School. Rory, fluent in Spanish, has studied French and Latin. He spent the year after graduation in Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru furthering his Spanish language studies and getting a much needed break. He is an invaluable TSRC employee, knowing as much as his mother Nana about running day-to-day summer operations, and no one carries as much stuff at one time as he does while maintaining his charm and wit.

Jake Sullivan, will finish his sophomore year at Union College in Schenedtady, NY in June of 2010 where he is majoring in Classics -- just in time to start work at TSRC in the summer (pictured above in the hat and below with a snake in Panama). Jake has become the TSRC Tech Director, making everyone's life a little easier. It's a position he earned when scientists noticed he had innate talent and began seeking him out to solve their AV and computer problems. In January of 2008, he was selected by the THS principal as one of nine high school students  to attend a Colorado Supreme Court Case in Denver to witness the final hours of a once intractable local land issue, the condemnation of the Valley Floor. In 2007, Jake was accepted as a Pinhead Intern into a multidisciplinary work-study program for two-months in Panama. Jake has received numerous grants to further his studies, including merit scholarships from Pinhead Institute, Telluride Rotary Club, Just For Kids Foundation, and the American National Bank. Jake has worked for TSRC part-time since grade school, but now works full-time in the summer months. Jake has appeared in numerous theater and improv productions in Telluride. He is Nana's youngest son, and wickedly funny.

Lily Sullivan, (not to leave her out because she has worked part-time for TSRC since 2003) is reluctant to join the "family business" full-time for the sake of everyone's sanity. Lily is a senior at Bates College in Maine, and will graduate in May with a major in Antrhopology. She spent the second semester of her junior year in Sicily preparing for her anthropology thesis on the "commodification of culture." She arrived knowing Italian, having lived near Turino for five months during her junior year of high school. Lily is the president of Stange Bedfellows, the Bates College improv club. She has performed with the Telluride Reperatory Company, The New Sheridan Young People's Theater, and in The Love Play, The Manuscript, Vagina Monologues, The Underpants, and much much more. She too has won numerous scholarships to study aboard and go to college. Lily is Nana's daughter, but is more talented, and funnier by far. 

Katie Lewandowski, is pursuing her Masters Degree (M.P.H.) at the University Of Michigan School Of Public Health in the Environmental Health Sciences department. Focusing her studies in Risk Science, Katie evaluates risk, exposure and societal implications of hazardous  chemicals through her knowledge of biology, chemistry, and toxicology. She is involved in research in occupational exposure to mercury, a dioxin exposure study, and has worked for the Michigan Public Health Institute, which promotes the health and welfare of our communities. In 2007, Katie received her undergraduate degree in Science, Technology Studies from Lyman Briggs School of Science at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. She also earned a minor in Bioethics, Humanities and Society where she evaluated the ethical and social implication that science has on society. During her time at Michigan State University, Katie completed study abroad programs to Québec City, Canada and to London, England and played one year for the Michigan State University Women?s Club Ice Hockey team. Katie first came to Telluride, Colorado when she was visiting her uncle who has been a long time local. She immediately fell in love with the mountains and the sense of community and moved out to Telluride in the fall of 2007 after her graduation from Michigan State University. Katie has worked for Telluride Ski and Golf Company and Telluride Outside where she has learned service excellence. Katie Lewandowski has remained dedicated to the science throughout her education and is honored to be working with the Telluride Science Research Center.

Lisa Christadore is a third year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry at Boston University working in the laboratory of Professor Scott Schaus. She investigates the molecular targets of bioactive compounds in yeast and human cell systems and is currently developing a microarray expression profiling model that accurately measures drug-induced gene perturbations and metabolic pathway disruptions. A segment of her research is also dedicated to deciphering the molecular mechanism behind dendrimer fluorescence. Lisa has served as Treasurer of Boston University Women in Chemistry for the past two years and recently joined the staff of the WhizKids Foundation where she guest teaches science lessons to third and fifth graders. Lisa graduated from Loyola College Maryland in 2006 with a B.S. in Chemistry and a minor in Spanish. She was enrolled in Loyola’s Honors Program for four years and inducted into the Alpha Sigma Nu National Honors Society. Alongside studying science, Lisa studied a semester abroad in Alcalá, Spain and traveled to El Salvador as a member of Loyola’s International Immersion Program. With a passion for the Spanish language and an awareness of solidarity, she volunteered as a Spanish translator for the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and a tutor for the East Baltimore Latino Organization’s after-school program. She swam for two years on the Loyola College Varsity Swim Team and has worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor since she was fifteen. Lisa has always enjoyed reading and writing and developed an enthusiasm for scientific journalism while conducting research at BU. She has published two articles this year: BU Today, “BU Scientists Give Local Students a Boost” 3/11/09 and The Nucleus, “Massachusetts Best Science Athletes Compete for Regional Gold” May 2009, and has two pending scientific manuscripts for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and the Journal of Organic Chemistry (second author). Lisa joins the Telluride Science Research Center this summer to manage and write press releases for the Town Talks,  and to assist with communication projects in general. She is eager to increase public awareness of the TSRC’s science seminars and educational events and is dedicated to working with the TSRC to convey emerging and relevant scientific issues to a wider public audience.