Welcome our 2023 Maintainers Movement Fellows!

Join us in welcoming our new cohort of Maintainers Movement Fellows for 2023!

The Maintainers Movement Fellowship advances the movement for maintenance thinking and action by bringing together individuals who are interested in identifying where this work is already happening. The Fellows will partner with The Maintainers to advance our vision for a more caring and well-maintained world.  We have recruited four fellows this year, each of which will focus on one of the following pathways:

• Jennah Jones – “Maintaining Localities” fellow

• Himani Kulkarni – “Maintaining Public Health” fellow

• Mathew Lubari – “Maintenance Cultures” fellow

• Terra Graziani – “Maintainers in the Workforce” fellow (in partnership with United for ALICE)

Please learn more about our 2023 Maintainers Movement Fellows:

Jennah Jones – “Maintaining Localities”

Jennah Jones (she/her) is a New York-based designer pursuing a Masters in Architecture at Columbia GSAPP (‘24). Her approach to architecture is deeply informed by her background in product design, where her curriculum stressed human-centered design and community partnerships rooted in reciprocity. In her academic and professional work, Jennah investigates how we can change our relationship with waste and waste management through prioritizing environmental justice and the circular economy. She currently works as a waste consultant at the Center for Zero Waste Design. Previously, she has held design research positions at Julia Watson LLC, the Natural Materials Lab at Columbia GSAPP, BlocPower, and Tesla.

Himani Kulkarni – “Maintaining Public Health”

Himani Kulkarni is a Delhi-based mental health professional with experience in training, content creation, and psychotherapy. Her areas of interest are gender and sexuality, emotional regulation, self-care, and body image concerns. She holds an MA in Applied Psychology and is trained in community mental health, trauma-focused therapy, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Himani recognizes the importance of repair and maintenance in public mental health, more so since the global crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. She understands that mental health is not only about individual well-being but also about the collective health of communities. Himani believes in a bio-psycho-social understanding of mental health and is dedicated to promoting a rights-based perspective of mental health and well-being. 

Mathew Lubari – “Maintenance Cultures”

Mathew Lubari is a Co-Founder & Executive Director of Community Creativity for Development(CC4D), He is a South Sudanese, self-driven and thought repairer and activist, maker, mentor and advocate for Open-Technology. At the age of 12, he watched his Dad (Alison) repair his radios and wristwatch and got inspired and pursued a career in ICT to help teach people how to repair, care and maintain their electronic items . 

In 2016, Mathew fled his country with a zip lock of repair tools(screwdriver, cutter and a toothbrush) and co-founded CC4D in 2019, providing repair services to the Refugees in Rhino Camp, Uganda but never knew repair protects the planet from global warming until 2021 when he joined the Restarters, #ASKnet and the Global Innovation Gathering(GIG).

Terra Graziani – “Maintainers in the Workforce”

Terra Graziani is a researcher, educator, and tenant organizer. For the past ten years, Terra has worked in the tenant movement in California in various roles, building tenant power through public education, community-based research, and organizing. She helps run The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project (AEMP), a digital storytelling documenting dispossession and resistance in gentrifying landscapes, and she founded the Los Angeles chapter. Terra is now a PhD student in Geography at the CUNY Graduate Center and a researcher at UCLA’s Institute on Inequality and Democracy (IID). She for the past three years has been part of the team that built The Tenant Power Toolkit, a collaboration between The Debt Collective, The Los Angeles Tenants Union, AEMP, and IID that helps tenants fight for their homes. Terra’s work for the Maintainers Fellowship will look at how rental debt affects tenants’ ability to maintain their lives and communities.

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