The people making kids' TV worth watching

Isabel is a strategic operator and relationship builder with deep expertise in growth, fundraising, and organizational leadership. At NABU, she raised over $15M, built global teams, and led partnerships with public and private sector actors across three continents. Isabel holds an MBA from NYU Stern–which she attended on full scholarship as a woman in leadership–and leads Maka's business strategy, fundraising, and external relations. Her superpower is community building—and she is using it to turn early adopters into passionate brand ambassadors.

Tanyella is a repeat founder and visionary product leader with over a decade of experience scaling global tech platforms in education. As CEO of NABU, she built one of the world’s largest mother tongue publishing platforms, partnering with HP, WhatsApp, and Colgate to reach millions of children. At Maka, she leads product strategy, research, and development of the Maka Imprint in partnership with Yale. Tanyella is a Saul Zaentz Fellow and holds a Masters in Education in Human Development from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Federico is an engineer, applied AI specialist, and founder who bridges technical and non-technical worlds. Before joining Maka, he built and launched an AI platform that let children create stories with their voices — adopted by thousands of families and dozens of educational partners. He has led engineering teams, shaped national policy at senior levels of UK government, and won public funding to build data tools from scratch. Fed thrives at the intersection of vision and execution, aligning cross-functional teams around ambitious goals.

Julia is a strategic marketing leader with deep expertise in brand building, customer acquisition, and go-to-market execution. She has spent her career scaling mission-driven organizations across education and media—most recently leading growth marketing at K-12 education nonprofit Success Academies and Series C early childhood education provider Vivvi. At Maka, she brings sharp instincts for narrative, performance, and cross-functional GTM execution—helping shape the company’s marketing strategy, activation plans, and brand presence. Her superpower is translating complex customer journeys into simple, scalable systems that accelerate growth.

Kristyn holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Wayne State University and a certificate in Infant Mental Health from the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute. Her research interests include parenting, child development, and parent-child relationships. She completed two postdoctoral fellowships at Brown University and Michigan State University, and has held research positions at the University of Michigan, and the Administration for Children and Families within the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Kristyn has over a decade of research experience working in both academic and government settings. She is passionate about conducting research to improve the lives of children and families everywhere. Kristyn leads Research & Development at Maka.

Scoot is a soil ecologist and lifelong explorer of small things. Educated at M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Tubers) and Worm-Universität Berlin, Scoot's research in nematode philosophy and decomposition dynamics has shaped a deep understanding of growth, resilience, and how the smallest creatures navigate complex underground systems. His postgraduate thesis, "A Treatise on the Basic Duality of Wormkind," remains a cornerstone of the field. But Scoot's real passion is translating that sense of wonder into experiences for young learners. He believes that curiosity isn't something kids develop later—it's something they're born with. By starring in scenes and stories that honor how children naturally explore, ask questions, and make sense of the world around them, Scoot helps shape media that grows with kids rather than talks down to them. He is deeply committed to keeping discovery at the heart of everything Maka creates.

Dave is a Creative Director with deep experience in creating for young people. His background as an illustrator, animator, and UX designer focusing on preschool users helps him target the intersection of storytelling, usability and delight. Prior to joining Maka, he was Director of Teacher and Learner Experience Design at HMH, Creative Director at Curriculum Associates, and Creative Director at 360KID. His past clients have included Sesame Workshop, Hasbro, American Public Media, LeapFrog, Noggin and more. Dave is a graduate of Wesleyan University.

Fashina Aladé is a children’s media researcher and Associate Professor at Michigan State University, where her work focuses on how young children learn from media and technology. Trained at the intersection of developmental psychology, media effects, and early childhood education, she brings a research‑driven perspective to understanding what makes kids’ content supportive of healthy learning and development. Her work has informed the evaluation and design of children’s television programs, digital games, and family media experiences, often in collaboration with public media and children’s media organizations. She is deeply committed to translating research into practical insights that help creators, educators, and families make more informed decisions about children’s media.

Teresa is a strategic operations leader with deep expertise in building scalable systems, cross-functional processes, and high-impact operational foundations. She has spent her career building and scaling core operations functions at fast-moving, hyper-growth organizations, including Upwork and Brex. Teresa also launched a successful entrepreneurial practice as a fractional operations leader, embedding with early-stage teams to design and implement operations across product, people, legal and compliance, security, and engineering.
 At Maka, she is building a best-in-class BizOps function, driving clarity and momentum across processes, knowledge management, financial operations, and technical program execution. Her superpower is translating ambiguity into actionable systems across people, process, and tech that enable teams to work faster and smarter.

Anastasia's interest in children's media comes from her early work as a mental health advocate, when she hosted a documentary and led multimedia projects around youth wellbeing and technology. She has worked alongside Isabel and Tanyella for over three years, starting as a strategy intern at NABU and growing into her role as Maka's Chief of Staff, where she supports executive leadership across departments and leads creative operations for Maka Studios. A graduate of NYU and the author of a recently published illustrated poetry book, she brings a builder's discipline and an artist's eye to her work. Her superpower is fluency across both worlds: she can build a pitch deck in the morning and sit in a creative review in the afternoon, approaching both with the same rigor and imagination.

Dimitri is an internationally award-winning designer with over six years of experience shaping global brand identities and digital products. As Creative Lead, he owns the visual quality, day-to-day design execution, and scalable component systems across all Maka surfaces. His background spans leading flagship UI/UX initiatives, where he spearheaded comprehensive visual rebrands for a major tech client ahead of its IPO. A holder of an MA in Strategic Design at Furman University in collaboration with Miami Ad School and multiple Graphis New Talent International Awards, Dimitri specializes in bridging the gap between product strategy and engineering handoffs.

Maria Casas holds a Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education and Teaching, and a Master’s in Human Development and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Through nearly a decade of experience teaching preschoolers, she had a front-row seat to the incredible ways kids grow, learn, and connect with the people around them. She witnessed how shows, stories, and songs shape children's understanding of the world.

At Maka, Maria is part of the team researching and developing the Maka framework, helping ensure screen time is an enriching experience. She aims to support families by illustrating how media can nourish a child’s brain, body, and heart.

Maisha Hossain is a child development researcher with expertise in early childhood, parental wellbeing, and the effects of media and social environments on young children. Her work focuses on translating developmental science into practical, parent-centered insights. Previously, Maisha was a Postgraduate Researcher at the Yale Child Study Center, where she contributed to longitudinal studies on parental mental health and infant development from pregnancy through postpartum. At Maka, Maisha serves as a Research Consultant, developing research-backed frameworks for evaluating children’s media, conducting literature reviews, and creating parent-facing content on media use, play, sleep, and parent-child interaction for families with children ages 2-8.

Nancy Close, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Yale Child Study Center and the Clinical Director of the Yale Parent and Family Development Program. For many years she was the Director of Clinical Services for Minding the Baby, a home visiting program that has been designated as evidenced based by the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Close is a clinician and an educator. She specializes in infant mental health, parent mental health and development, and the assessment and treatment of children under age five. She teaches Yale College students and fellows in psychiatry, psychology, and social work in training at the Child Study Center. Dr. Close has twice received the Samual Ritvo Teacher of the Year award at the Child Study Center and has been honored by the Connecticut Infant Mental Health Association. The topics of her courses include child development, child psychopathology, developmental assessment and clinical evaluation, mental health consultation, and early childhood education. She conducts developmental assessments of young children, dynamically oriented psychotherapy with children, and Child Parent Psychotherapy. She provides mental health consultation to early childhood education programs in the community. She is the author of the book, "Listening to Children: Talking With Children About Difficult Issues."