Announcing the New Maintainers Steering Committee

We’re thrilled to introduce the newly established Maintainers Steering Committee, a vital step in our vision to redistribute leadership and enhance shared decision-making within The Maintainers. From now to July 2025, this committee will play a crucial role in guiding our direction.

The Steering Committee is designed to leverage the diverse expertise of our community, ensuring the sustainability of our programs and enriching our decision-making processes. Members will include Movement Builders, alumni from our Maintainers network, and leaders from maintenance, repair, and care groups who have actively engaged with our community through various events and initiatives.

Key Responsibilities:

Shape decisions regarding The Maintainers awards and fellowships.
Provide input on program development, fundraising strategies, and organizational policies.
Collaborate on planning public events and promoting The Maintainers at conferences and in-person gatherings.
Engage in discussions to foster a vibrant Maintainers Alumnae network.

We’re excited about the collective impact this committee will have and grateful for the ongoing support of our community, and their involvement will be instrumental in shaping the future of The Maintainers.

Stay tuned for more updates, and join us in welcoming the members of the Steering Committee!

Camille E. Acey

Camille is a mom, a community organizer, a former tech support leader, and founder of the conscious nonprofit closures consultancy The Wind Down. As part of this work, she currently facilitates the Practices of Composting and Hospicing community under the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Emerging Futures initiative.

She was a co-founder of the Collective for Liberation, Ecology, and Technology (CoLET), a radical feminist tech collective. She also served as an advisor to The Ada Initiative, an advocacy group for women in open tech/culture, and was board chair for Whose Knowledge?, a global feminist NGO focused on elevating marginalized voices.

Himani Kulkarni

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

Mathew Lubari is a dynamic advocate for digital literacy, repair activism, critical making and sustainability, thoughtful leader in the repair movement, and Co-founder and Executive Director of Community Creativity for Development(CC4D) – Ugandan and South Sudanese based #ASKnet hubs offer a unique perspective on technology, environmental impact, and community empowerment.

He is a Fellow at the Migration and Technology Monitor 2024/2025 Cohort, Steering Committee Member and 2023 movement fellow at the Maintainers Movement, LEAD Expert at #ASKnet and part of the Restarters, and the Movement Builder network, an international group of practitioners focused on repair, maintenance, and/or care practices. He’s conducting very impactful work in Uganda and South Sudan as an ICT and repair café educator and organizer, while deeply involved and connected in the larger international repair movement. Mathew does amazing work advocating for the culture of repair while integrating ICT and repair. His work focuses on educating refugee youth, women and girls in Rhino Camp Uganda and youth in Yei River County in South Sudan on digital competence and repair and maintenance of electronic devices while raising awareness on safe use of digital technologies.

Nathan Proctor

Nathan Proctor is the Senior Right to Repair Campaign Director with U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). He has 19 years of experience running public interest advocacy campaigns, and also is the associate director of U.S. PIRG’s New Economy Program, seeking to craft an economy that works for people and the planet. His work has been cited by the FTC and Congress, been featured in the New York Times, CNN and many other outlets. He is a member of the 2020 Grist 50 Fixers, emerging leaders championing a sustainable future.

Purna Sarkar

As a founding member of the sustainability initiative at Repair Café Bengaluru Foundation, she brings extensive training and experience as an HR professional in engineering, consulting, and social projects. Purna is a passionate advocate for gender equity, personal safety, and sexuality education. Additionally, she is a theatre artist dedicated to education and a skilled fabric mender, conducting practical repair and upcycle workshops for both children and adults. At heart, she is a committed social worker and a member of Swaraj Abhiyan. Purna advocates for citizen rights and responsibilities.

Sam Bennett

Sam Bennett is a PhD candidate at Technology University of Eindhoven exploring the connection between the act of repair and the care for our objects and spaces to how we maintain our own bodies and care for others, specifically with the aging population. She co-runs Repair Shop, a research and learning studio investigating maintenance, craft, and design and previously was a senior researcher at Healthy Materials Lab and taught textile design, interior design, and ethnography courses at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, and New Jersey Institute of Technology.