People

Co-founders and Directors

Delle Maxwell and Pat Hanrahan

Delle Maxwell is an award-winning computer animator and designer who has worked at the intersection of technology and design for more than 30 years.

In Japan, working for NHK television, she animated the computer-generated newscaster "Dr Holon" for the year-long special program series "Warnings from the 21st Century." Following that, she joined the animation company PDI (which later became a part of Dreamworks) and worked in television graphics animation. At the Geometry Center at the University of Minnesota, she was Art Director on three mathematical visualization videos, "The Shape of Space," 1995, "Outside In," 1994 and "Not Knot," 1992. All three videos have won numerous awards in animation festivals and conferences throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan. 

As a freelance designer for more than 15 years, she helped design the original graphical user interface for Silicon Graphics computers, worked on multiple software user interface design projects in a number of Silicon Valley companies, and received numerous awards and recognition for her work. 

Delle is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Textile Design and received her Master of Science degree in Visual Studies at MIT in what is now known as the Media Lab. 

She is now serving as President of the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, and is Immediate Past Board Chair at Gardens of Golden Gate Park. She also volunteers for the Master Gardener program of San Mateo and San Francisco Counties and serves on the Sustainability and Environmental Resources Committee in Portola Valley.

Patrick Hanrahan is the CANON Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Emeritus at Stanford University where he teaches computer graphics. His current research involves visualization, image synthesis, virtual worlds and graphics systems and architectures. Pat received a Ph.D. In Biophysics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Pat was one of the three co-founders of Tableau Software. He has also worked at Pixar where he developed volume rendering software and was the chief architect of the RenderMan(TM) Interface - a protocol that allows modeling programs to describe scenes to high-quality rendering programs. He helped to found PeakStream, and has served on the technical advisory boards of NVIDIA, Exluna, Neoptica, VSee, Procedural and SkyTree.

Pat has received three university teaching awards. He has received three Academy Awards for Science and Technology, the Spirit of America Creativity Award, the SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award, the SIGGRAPH Stephen A. Coons Award, the IEEE Visualization Career Award and the A. M. Turing Award. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Staff

Parwana Ayub, Program Associate

Parwana supports the work of programs at the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation. As a Program Associate, she conducts research to inform program strategy and development, supports grantmaking and program implementation and provides communications support to the foundation staff. 

Parwana graduated from Colby College with a B.A. in Environmental Policy in 2016. After graduation, she completed a Watson Fellowship studying midwifery traditions and models of care in Guatemala, Uganda and Chile. More recently, Parwana completed fellowships at GRID Alternatives and the Greenlining Institute, where she worked on programs and policies that support pollution reduction and create opportunities for low income communities and communities of color. Her experience in the non-profit space sparked her curiosity about philanthropy and the role it plays in helping to create healthier communities and sustainable institutions by identifying promising solutions and leaders and supporting their growth. 

Outside of work, you can usually find Parwana running and hiking her local trails on Mt. Tamalpais or taking road trips to one of the many state or national parks. California’s Eastern Sierras is one her favorite places in the world. If she’s not outdoors, she’s probably in her kitchen tinkering with a new project. Currently, she is stuck on bagels. 

Miriam Billinger, Operations Director

Miriam’s experience and professional passion live in the operational world of mission-driven organizations. Miriam has worked with nonprofits and foundations for over twenty years as a leader in finance, grant management, organization culture and team development. Miriam lights up when she talks about the intersection of mission and money in nonprofits. She has served as consultant and mentor to organizations with budgets ranging from $30K to $300M and whose areas of focus span conservation, environmental education and sustainable agriculture. Miriam’s work is rooted in strengthening operating systems that enable nonprofits and foundations to be efficient, effective, resilient and impactful. 

Previous roles include serving as Program Finance Officer for the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, Assistant Finance Director at Humboldt State University’s Sponsored Programs Foundation and consultant to nonprofits and land trusts across Northern California. Miriam studied business economics and financial accounting, and she is trained in Facilitative Leadership, project management and meeting facilitation. 

Miriam is currently serving as a board member for Multiplier, a nonprofit fiscal sponsor and impact accelerator. Miriam lives in the redwoods and can be found quilting, camping, and volunteering in the public schools. She is the proud mother of two awesome children who inspire her to work for a brighter future and a healthier planet.

Rebekah Frank, Program Officer

Rebekah took her first welding course just out of high school. More than twenty-five years later, she's fully invested in material-based making, with steel as her chosen material. She's worked for artists, architects and engineers as a skilled maker, as well as maintained her own studio practice. She exhibits and lectures regularly, enjoys mentoring students and teaching workshops, and loves thinking and writing about all things related to art and craft. Her education includes an AA in Mathematics, an AS in Welding Technology and a BFA and MFA in Metalsmithing. An avid traveler, she's taken specialized courses in coppersmithing in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacan, Mexico, blacksmithing in En Shemer, Israel and welding in Koblenz, Germany. After attending Cranbrook Academy of Art, Rebekah worked her way up from volunteer to executive director of Art Jewelry Forum, an international arts advocacy nonprofit focused on the unique creative space of art jewelry.

From her San Francisco studio, her creative practice explores themes of protection, vulnerability and boundaries. Her work can take the form of a piece of jewelry, a sculpture, a drawing, a monoprint or a container, with steel being a constant presence and influence. In addition, Rebekah writes about artists with a strong material focus. Her articles have been published in outlets like Metalsmith Magazine and American Craft. In 2022, she partnered with a UK arts organization to feature international queer metalsmiths in a digital project exploring how identity shows up in material-based practices. In 2023, she'll be the guest editor of a Surface Design Journal special issue featuring LGBTQIA+ writers and textile-based makers. 

Rebekah is deeply invested in the value of deep material knowledge and the joyous discovery that hands-on making brings to people. While she's happiest in the studio with grimy hands and a smudged face, she also finds pleasure in long motorcycle rides along the California coast on a vintage bike she's had almost as long as she's known how to weld.

Ada Glucksman, Operations Associate

Ada brings more than 25 years of experience in grant management, research project management and operations administration to the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation. Her exposure to the academic research environment help her appreciate the importance of scientific inquiry and effective stewardship of resources used for teaching and learning.  

As Operations Associate, she supports the administrative functions of the Foundation, supporting staff, coordinating operational processes and providing technical support related to grantmaking.

At Stanford University, Ada held key program manager positions with the Computer Graphics Lab in the Computer Science Department, the Army High Performance Computing Research Center in the Mechanical Engineering Department and several research groups in the School of Medicine’s Department of Radiology.  

Ada holds a BA from Ateneo de Manila University. Since her retirement from Stanford in 2015, she has enjoyed traveling to Europe and the Philippines. She has recently worked as a member of the Pastoral Council for her parish community. Currently, she is developing her skills in photography and editing, and she enjoys Pilates and winemaking activities in the Livermore Valley. 

Rachel Strader Chen, Executive Director

Rachel Strader joined the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation as its first employee and Executive Director in October 2020. Her career has spanned ocean conservation, art and philanthropy.  

With more than 15 years of experience in ocean conservation, Rachel helped design and launch the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation’s Marine Conservation Initiative. As a Program Officer, she worked to improve fisheries and ocean management in the U.S., with a focus on New England and the West Coast. She also supported program development for Moore Inventor Fellows. She then worked as an independent consultant, supporting clients such as The Nature Conservancy and 5 Gyres on habitat protection and ocean plastics strategy. Rachel served over 6 years on the board of Save the Waves Coalition, whose mission is to protect global surf ecosystems. 

Rachel is also an artist and science illustrator, creating fine art paintings as well as graphics that explain important concepts in nature. Her favorite recent projects were illustrating a poster of the Marianas Trench National Marine Sanctuary for NOAA Fisheries, and assisting InkDwell on an eleven story mural of native butterflies in San Francisco. She uses these skills to help inspire understanding, appreciation and protection of important natural places.

She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Union College, a Masters of Environmental Management from Duke University and a certificate in Natural Science Illustration from CSU Monterey Bay. She is a graduate of the THNK Creative Leadership Program.