The Foundation is supported by a Leadership Team, Team Members & Volunteers and Ambassadors. 

Leadership Team

Tjerk Feitsma - Neurodiversity Foundation

Tjerk FEitsma

Director / Founder / Drs

Tjerk Feitsma is a neurodivergent impact entrepreneur who wants to make the world a better place. Convinced of the statement that ‘Diversity is Strength’, he has been prototyping and building solutions to create equality, interpersonal connection and selfmanagement for neurodivergents in a neurotypical society.

profiel foto Neurodiversity Foundation

Lana Jelenjev

Chair Board / Co-founder NEA / Educator / Community Alchemist

Lana Jelenjev is an Educational consultant for International organizations and schools. She provides training and support on various areas related to curriculum design, project planning and personal development.
Her background in Family Life and Child Development along with her certifications on Gifted and Talented Education, Reading Instruction and Making Thinking Visible has shaped her passion on creating a culture of learning and engagement.
She is a mom to two children and a loving partner to her husband. In her spare time she writes poetries and creates guided meditations.
Lana brings to her own company Co.LAB her knack in looking at the big picture and making it visible into actionable steps, plus her love for building strong, supportive communities. Lana is een board-member for the Neurodiversity Foundation.

Ana Maldonado

Board Member / Drs

Over the last 10+ years Ana has been working in international environments along multidisciplinary teams, translating clients needs and business questions into (R&D) solutions with an innovative twist.
Her scientific passion is in research, innovation and Data Science, to bring meaning to data, and assist discovery and optimisation projects of industrial interest.
Her human passion is into building connections, long-lasting relationships and partnerships, to help solve complex problems and assist companies and individuals to achieve their goals.

Saskia Wenniger - neurodiversity foundation

Saskia Wenniger

Co-founder NEA / Educator / Leadership

Saskia is a creative team member that contributes in projects that furthers neurodiverse understanding in schools, like the My Amazing Brain Project. Her focus in her works are on addressing the core of the issue, the levels of attractiveness and fun and the ability to support decision making and reflection.

Ambassador Team

Saskia Buma

Saskia Buma

Ambassador / Advisor

Saskia Buma is autism expert and is a trainer in autism awareness and neurodiverse behaviour. She has a wide network and experience to offer. She lobbies on the behalf on young autists, as a mother of one, and as a political activist. She is also the co-founder of the Prikkelprofiel initiative.

Suzanne Agterberg

Ambassador / Education

Suzanne Agterberg has 25 years of experience as teacher, counselor and autism-expert in schools and special education institutions. She traint teachers and wrote 2 books about Autism.  She is also chair of the expert group Autism & Education for the dutch association for Autism.

‘Making a difference for autistic kids’ is what drives Suzanne. The stems from her youth, where she was a ‘different’ child that most others. Autism also plays am important role in her own family. The combination of experience and expertise and educational knowledge enables Suzanne to share lots of wisdom, perspectives and reflection on ‘different’ behavior.  As she say: ‘Its not about the label, we should focus on what the child really needs’.

 

Diantha Voskuijl

Ambassador / Social Media 

Diantha Voskuijl is an excellent ambassador for Neurodivergents in the Netherlands, and runs the social media channels and hashtags of the foundation. One of her key interests is showing the great value female autistics have to offer the world. We hope to support her voice, and wish her message on neurodiversity and autism is heard and understood by many.

Roos Moesbergen

Ambassador / Talent Scout

Roos Moesbergen is a kind and creative volunteer, giving support to the Neurodiversity Pride Day project. She looks into the lives of neurodivergents and enables them to show a part of their inner world with the rest of society, for example in audio-interviews or in a top 10 list of the best art&poetry done by our neurodivergents.

Team Members & Volunteers Team

Kees Heil

App developer / Together Team

Kees is a great programmer who is very analytical, enthusiastic about tech and open to non-conventional solution-oriented routines. He is very persistent in endeavouring technological goals and getting results. He is a keen abstract thinker and shaper of adequate proces & productmodels. A spectrum professional working diligently on the Signs project, building tools for a neurodiverse society.

Wybe Zeyl

Webapp Developer / Together Team

Wybe is a web programmer coding the coaching-app project. He is a problem solver that learn new things every day. His most recent work concerns the activity-matching software of ‘Together’, both for use in closed groups as for use directed to the wider public.

Wouter Grond

Developer / Together Team

Wouter was a programmer that works to support the artificial intelligence project. He has skills in PHP and is excellent in finding patterns.

Bob van Richemont

Position / Stride Team

Bob is a creator that supports the foundation with video and visual works, for Stride and the Neurodiversity Pride Day.

Rosalie Ekstein

Neurodiversity Pride Day Team member / Pride Team

Rosalie is the founder of the activist network in the Netherlands and is a active and valued teammember in the Neurodiversity Pride Day team.

Fabian van Buuren

Strategist / Stride / Together Team / Pride Team

Fabian support the neurodiversity foundation as a strategist for the Together project, the Stride project and Neurodiversity Pride Day.

friends & Former contributors

 

Those who supported us in the past, and who we are still grateful for:

- Omotola Bolarin: CTO & lead developer

Omotola Bolarin is a wizard and visionary when it comes to drafting tech for the future. Reverse engeneering the thinking patterns of artificial intelligence, and thereby clarifying for humans what it feels like to be a bot, is one of his passions.
His knowledge on automation, integration and his personal perspective can produce and guide the robots of the future, to doing what the world needs them to do. Omotola is building the AI for the 2Tango.Signs project with Coordinature. 


- Eleonora Spagnuola: Creative advisor

Eleonora Spagnuolo was a multipassionate professional with more than 20 years of experience in the fields of creativity, communication, and branding.
With a MA in Philosophy, and a BA in Graphic Design, she brings together the scientific approach and her hands-on experience on being creative for a living. In 2014 she founded The Creativity Project, to explore creativity in all its aspects and guide people in expressing the fantastic worlds hidden in their minds.
She is a mom to two kids and wife to a talented filmmaker. She loves running and is addicted to coffee, acrylic paint and rock music.
Eleonora brings to her own company Co.LAB her unique point of view on being an highly creative person with a different wired mind, her experience in branding and her mission to support creatives in expressing their unique, weird self. Eleonore is a board-member of the Neurodiversity Foundation.


- Erik Post: Developer and Procesmanager erik post neurodiversity foundation

Erik was a researcher that focuses on machine learning and meta context modelling and engaged in the research preparations. He is the official Liaison of the foundation for the JADS research efforts in 's Hertogenbosch. Beside his technological work, he supports the assistive tech hub with taskings in legal issues, finance and strategy.


 - Szymon Maka: Product Managerszymon maka neurodiversity foundation

Szymon Maka was the product manager and strategist working on 2tango.work and the language components, but mainly on the outward bound communication of the organization. He is also keen to explore the many ways in how Signs & Mini.AI can be distributed in the world.


 - Wouter Grond: Developer/Researcher Wouter Grond neurodiversity foundation

Wouter was a programmer that works to support the artificial intelligence project. He has skills in PHP and is excellent in finding patterns.


 - Charell Bos: External Reseacher TU/e

Charell Bos was doing research on self-defining and self-communication of emotional states, supported by the visionairy assistant professor Jelle van Dijk from the TUe, who specializes in Diversity Computing (DivComp).


 - Natalie Glomsda: External Reseacher UvA 

Natalie Glomsda was researching into the 'voice' of 'little sister Mini.AI', and on the interventions suggested after defined-state-of-being and state-change.


 - Kevin Ho: External Researcher at HVA kevin ho neurodiversity foundation

Kevin Ho was a brightminded fellow of the cause, researching neurodiverse understanding in conversations between employer & employee in the 2Tango.Work project. He has highly developed level of integrity, and uses his analytical skills as one the core builders beneath the 'conversation strategies' mode in Mini.AI. Beside his technological research work, he supports 2tango.together in optimizing user experience.


 - Renske Pertijs: External Researcher & Speech Therapist

Renske researched Signs use cases for conversations with parents, teachers and best friends. She is an aspiring speech therapist with added knowledge on TOS (language development disorder) at Fontys Paramedische Hogeschool in Eindhoven.


 - Esti van Raak: External Reseacher & Speech Therapist

Esti researched Signs usecases for conversations with parents, teachers and best friends. She is a playfull, yet determined graduating speech therapist with a interest in child friendly communication.

 - Charlotte Albertini: External Reseacher & Speech Therapist

Charlotte was knowledgable in both autism & sign languages, and uses her talent to research Signs usecases for conversations. She is an aspiring speech therapist at Fontys Paramedische Hogeschool in Eindhoven.

- Signsgame team: External research team from Fontys

This team was developing and researching prototypes for quick comprehension and usecases of the signs language through gamified learning. They are very clever and balanced team, and we hope that their innovation will lead new users through the initial stages of using the autistic sign language called Signs.



- Dominique de Brabander

Dominique was a specialized coder, building supercomponents for the technological projects. Knowledgable in many different technical skills, he is leading some of the main choices in software & data pertaining the Mini.ai project. 


- Niels Mokkenstorm

Niels was a core member of the Athens Initiative, and is working on the more advanced level codifications and functions needed for our digital lifesupport systems. 


- Youp Mickers

Youp was a programmer with a specific interest in motion and math. For the Signs language, he supports in interpreting gestural langauge and movements from users, in order to convert in to communicative messages.


- John Scholtzprofiel foto Neurodiversity Foundation

John Scholt was an appreciated external advisor of the 2Tango organisation & Neurodiversity. John is a great entrepreneur with a broad skillset, that aids with advice an coaching.