BUILD is a four-year entrepreneurship-focused college preparation program that leverages the power of entrepreneurship to help under-performing, under-resourced, disengaged high-school students not only graduate from high school, but ultimately attend college. After nine years of success in California, BUILD opened its first East Coast office in Washington, DC, in Fall 2007. BUILD’s expansion to the Metro DC area was born of our three-tiered vision for BUILD to: 1) address the devastating education disparity in the US; 2) change the face of higher education and 3) ultimately, to radically transform impoverished communities nationwide from the inside out.

Since opening in Washington, D.C., BUILD has successfully brought the same programs to the East Coast that have been so successful on the West Coast. Beginning in the first year through a partnership with the Shaw and Evans campuses of the Maya Angelou Public Charter School (MAPCS), BUILD Metro DC brought the"Introduction to Entrepreneurship" course to 9th graders on both campuses. In the 2009-2010 school year, BUILD Metro DC began partnering with the DC Public School Dunbar High School to similarly serve a group of 9th graders. In August 2009 BUILD Metro DC launched the Academic and Youth Business Incubator on K St. NW with a cohort of matriculating MAPCS 10th-graders. Students from Dunbar High School are soon to follow in the 2010-2011 school year. BUILD Metro DC currently serves close to 100 students, 6 youth business teams and over 80 9th grade students.

In 9th grade, BUILD students come up with business ideas, write business plans, and present these plans to judges for funding. BUILD is a high-touch program with students meeting in the 9th grade, on average, 5-8 hours a week. In BUILD’s after-school Youth Business Incubators, our young entrepreneurs receive seed capital from BUILD to launch and run the companies they created. BUILD currently runs the largest youth business incubators in the nation; however, the creation of small businesses is but the vehicle to help students cultivate the academic competencies and engagement they need to improve their school performance. BUILD makes school relevant for students who would otherwise be left behind academically. In the process, students learn incredible life skills, like how to work in teams, resolve conflicts, negotiate, make positive choices and ask for help. They learn poise and public-speaking skills from actually presenting in front of audiences multiple times a year. In addition, BUILD participants receive many academic supports, from tutoring to free SAT preparation to annual college tours. BUILD ensures that every student can apply to at least four colleges and to date, 100% of BUILD seniors have graduated high school and been accepted to college.


Metro DC E1 Mentors provide guidance and facilitate teams of 3-5 students in their efforts to define a business idea and write a business plan. They meet with students at our partner schools once a week from 6:00pm to 7:30pm. Incubator Mentors work with a team of 1-5 students who have funding to implement business plans developed during the first year of the program, and meet with teams once a week at the BUILD Metro DC Youth Business Incubator. Mentors serve as active advisors in their company’s initiation and growth, and work in conjunction with BUILD Metro DC staff and teachers to round out our students’ business plan projects.

Connect with us on YouTube to see BUILD Metro DC students and their stories:




About Our Staff

Christopher Brown: Regional Executive Director
Before BUILD, Chris served as Project Manager for College Summit’s Research and Development team, where he managed several pilot programs in College Summit’s regional offices. Previously, Chris was a Reynolds Graduate Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship at NYU, during which time he also taught entrepreneurship in partnership with the YMCA of Greater New York. Before graduate school, Chris served as Program Director for the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s (NFTE) New York Metro Office. In 2001, he launched the organization Youth Action in Johannesburg South Africa. Chris was a founding staff member for City Year Washington DC and service leader for City Year Boston. A graduate of Valparaiso University, Chris was awarded the Distinguished Young Alumni Award, is a member of Coro’s Leadership NY, a Comcast National Leadership Award Winner, and recipient of the Bill & Hillary Clinton Social Innovation Award through the Social Entrepreneurship Incubator designed in partnership with City Year New York.

Maria Meredith: Entrepreneurs 1 Program Manager

As BUILD Metro DC’s 9th-Grade Program Manager, Maria is responsible for ensuring that first-year Metro DC students, teachers, and mentors have a positive and successful experience with BUILD. Maria has a Bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Indiana University and a Master’s degree in educational leadership from Georgia State University. She taught elementary and middle school for five years in the Atlanta area and developed curriculum and taught English to elementary, middle, and high school students at Raul Pavon Bilingue School in Otavalo, Ecuador. For the last five years, Maria has enjoyed living and working in DC. Prior to working with BUILD, Maria was Parent Involvement Coordinator at the National PTA and has also served as a summer and after-school program manager in the Anacostia area of DC. Her volunteer activities include co-founding Supporting Our Sisters, a young women’s empowerment program and serving on the steering committee for an annual arts festival at Howard University.

Roz Klann: E1 Program Associate
Originally from Denver, Colorado, Roz Klann is a recent graduate of Washington and Lee University in Virginia where she studied Spanish. She was on the soccer team all four years of college, and continues to play here in DC in addition to being an avid runner. She is actively involved with all aspects of the BUILD E1 program.

Ajuah Helton: Chief Program Officer

Ajuah Helton began her career with BUILD in 2001 as entrepreneurship instructor. Though she relocated to Philadelphia in 2002 to pursue graduate studies in education, Ajuah stayed connected with BUILD as an advisor, mentor educator and facilitator and served as interim Director of Education in 2004. Ajuah has since rejoined the organization to spearhead BUILD’s expansion to the East Coast, beginning in Washington, DC. Prior to joining BUILD, Ajuah managed youth entrepreneurship programs at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and at The Enterprise Center in Philadelphia, where she was later promoted to Chief of Staff. Ajuah is a Certified Entrepreneurship Instructor through the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). She is also an alumna of Teach For America and taught two years in the Greater New Orleans area. Ajuah holds a BA in Psychology from Clark Atlanta University and did her graduate work in Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

About the Metro DC Advisory Board

Dr. Ramona Edelin, Executive Director, DC Charter School Association
Dr. Ramona Hoage Edelin is a scholar, activist and executive consultant with 30 years of experience in leadership to uplift and advance African Americans and low-income people. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Fisk University in 1967, Dr. Edelin earned the master of arts degree in philosophy from the University of East Anglia in England in 1969 and the doctorate from Boston University in 1981. She has earned the Certificate in Fund Raising Management from The Fund Raising School at The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Under her leadership, cutting-edge programs in education, community empowerment, and young adult leadership development have been established and sustained. Urban policy, the definition and cultivation of African American cultural leadership, and the building of policy collaborations have been her primary priorities.

Dr. Edelin served as Vice President, Policy and Outreach of the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) from September of 2003 through August of 2004. She was elected a member of the Board of Directors of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. in 1991, was elected its Executive Director in February of 1998 and served in that capacity until June of 2002. Before assuming this position, she had been President and CEO of the National Urban Coalition (NUC) from 1988 until 1998.

Dr. Edelin is currently Executive Director of the DC Public Charter School Association, which provides quality improvement programming, policy development, advocacy, and membership services to the 59 chartered public schools on 95 campuses serving nearly 26,000 children in the District of Columbia. In partnership with the National Center on Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching (NCREST) of Teacher’s College, Columbia University, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a distinguished panel of national and local Quality Expert Advisers she has convened, and School Leaders, DCACPS operates a School Quality Initiative. In partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals, under her leadership, DCACPS operates DC’s only Principal Assessment Center.

Timothy R. Garnett, Partner, The Avascent Group
Tim Garnett directs engagements to provide adjacent market penetration strategies for defense technology leaders, Fortune 500 firms, and high-tech startups. During his tenure, Tim has utilized his international market experience, as well as a technological understanding of diverse industries, as a foundation for developing actionable expansion roadmaps for companies within the technology, aerospace and defense industries. Most recently, Tim has worked closely with non-traditional government suppliers in understanding the federal market space (DoD, DHS, and Civil) in order to craft appropriate and realistic market pursuit strategies.

Prior to joining The Avascent Group, Tim worked in the international institutional finance industry as Equity Research Editor for Regent European Securities in Moscow, Russia. While with Regent, he provided analysis and editing for daily market updates, company reports and sector overviews covering Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. Tim graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the College of William and Mary with a B.A. in Political Science.

Margie Johnson, Director of Corporate Care, Acumen Solutions
Margie Johnson leads the Corporate Care division at Acumen Solutions. Her responsibilities include the development and execution of all employee-care related programs across 4 corporate geographic locations. Some of the services include: employee awards and milestones; corporate All Hands Meetings, employee retreats, team building, and employee engagement events. Ms. Johnson developed Acumen Solutions’ Project Wellness program, which has been the most successful, annual voluntary program since the company’s inception. She is also responsible for the corporate Community Service initiatives, which are documented on the company website at: http://www.acumensolutions.com/social-responsibility.asp. The corporate culture enhanced by her department’s efforts contributes to the high employee retention rates the company boasts.

Margie has over 15 years of experience in organizational development, across various industries spanning the nonprofit and private sector environments. Prior to joining Acumen Solutions in 1999, she worked in the health care benefits and private food/beverage industries. Her longest tenured work was in the alcohol/drug addiction field, both outpatient and inpatient capacity. Her expertise in program development and management has proven effective in all of these areas, as well as working with employee and volunteer populations. Margie is a graduate of Marshall University.

Nancy Poon Lue, Associate Principal, The Advisory Board Company

Nancy Poon Lue leads The Advisory Board Company’s strategic planning, new product development, and partnerships for its emerging education practice, The Education Advisory Board, which is already serving 300 higher education institutions.

Ms. Lue is an education strategy consultant with over a decade of experience working in and with high performing organizations. Previously, Ms. Lue served as Vice President of Strategic Planning for EdisonLearning Inc. where she oversaw the management and operations of the company’s R&D division and long-term strategic growth projects. Ms. Lue also worked as a strategy consultant with Mercer Management Consulting and Capgemini Inc., where she advised global corporations in the technology sector as well as a variety of education organizations, non-profits, and foundations. Ms. Lue graduated with honors from Harvard College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Peter Mellen, Co-Founder & CEO, Edison|Wright
Peter Mellen is a seasoned entrepreneur with experience spanning three decades leading new business initiatives in organizations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations. His background includes roles as Co-Founder/CEO of a venture-backed start-up, along with Director and VP positions within multi-billion-dollar media companies.

Mr. Mellen most recently served as Director Premium Education Services at AOL, where he was responsible for a portfolio of five online services that generated over $3 million in revenue during its first year of operations. Prior to AOL, Mr. Mellen served as Vice President of Business Development for Safari Books Online (http://www.safaribooksonline.com), an online reference provider. Safari was a joint venture between Pearson PLC ($4 billion/year) and O’Reilly Media, one of the world’s leading information technology publishers. Mr. Mellen earned his MBA (Honors) and a B.A. in Psychology from Georgetown University, where he serves as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Governors.

Scott Plumridge, Principal, The Halifax Group
Mr. Plumridge is responsible for assisting in the sourcing, evaluation, execution and monitoring of investments. Before joining Halifax in 2005, Mr. Plumridge earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and founded an education publishing business. Prior to that, Mr. Plumridge worked for Chartwell Investments where he identified, evaluated and managed leveraged buyout and growth equity investments in a variety of industry sectors. Mr. Plumridge also worked for J.P.Morgan & Co.'s mergers and acquisitions department. His duties included both buy-side and sell-side advisory work, as well as equity and debt underwriting assignments.

Mr. Plumridge attended Wake Forest University where he earned a B.S. in Business, magna cum laude, and currently serves as a member of the Wake Forest University Alumni Council. Mr. Plumridge is also a co-Founder of TeachOut!, a non-profit organization providing personal finance instruction to high school students and served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Education. Mr. Plumridge currently serves on the Board of Directors of PJ United, Inc. and CR, Inc. (Trio) as well as the Board of Advisors of North American Video. He recently served on the Board of Directors of Maverick Healthcare, Inc.

Amy Wright, Macro Solutions
Amy is owner and president of Macro Solutions, an SBA 8(a) and SDB full-service IT and management consulting firm focused on assisting established corporations, government agencies and start-up companies with the selection, implementation and maintenance of core business solutions. Macro Solutions was responsible for the development of the Smithsonian Institution’s Development and Membership Information System (DMIS) database. DMIS replaced two existing systems at the Smithsonian, DonorWise and SCAN. The majority of the work performed encompassed Database Administration and Analysis. Other recent clients include the US Department of Defense, USDA, FDIC, Arlington County, VA, and Oracle.

Before her most recent endeavor, Amy served as Director of Business Development for TASC and as a marketing and financial systems consultant. Amy is an active member of Inner Circle Mid-Atlantic, which cultivates peer groups specifically for business owners. Amy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Virginia and earned a Master’s of Business Administration from Georgetown University.