About Us

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Jennifer Breslin  is the Founder and ED of Futuristas; she brings over 20 years experience working on the founding teams or leading the technology and innovation for global development portfolios in three different organizations within the United Nations system (UN Development Program, UN Dept for Economic and Social Affairs, UN Women). In this visionary and and leading-edge work, she has worked on policy, programming and campaigns around the world with stakeholders in civil society, ministries and government, international organizations and private sector companies. She brings an understanding of the relationship between technology and issues of governance, economic development, education, and equity. 

Futuristas, a non-profit dedicated to the creation of responsive and responsible science, technology and innovation (STI), is primarily focused on youth programming and building inclusive policy and practices in STI fields. This work includes projects dedicated to the use of new technology and innovative pedagogies to advance youth participation in community development (e.g. Minecraft and AR/VR challenges;  Youth Community Planning workshop) and the flagship social collaboration project Model Mars in which young people from around the world form teams and simulate living in a future society on Mars,  solving  multi-disciplinary challenges through speculative design  and translating new understandings and approaches to problem-solving for Earth.  Through the advisory arm of Futuristas, Jennifer has worked on issues of AI, biomimicry, and equity in STEM.

Jennifer has also served on the Board of the Rhinebeck Science Foundation, the Champions Board of the National Girls Collaborative Project, the Community Advisory Board of the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum and on her town’s Climate Smart Community Task Force and Comprehensive Plan Committee. She is graduate of UC Berkeley and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Norm Magnusson has an art and teaching career spanning over 35 years. He’s received numerous awards and grants – two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants, a NYFA Fellowship, two NYSCA grants, a LMCC grant and the Ulster County Award for Art in Public Places amongst others. 

He is in the permanent collection of NY’s MoMA, The Museum of the City of New York, The Dorsky Museum, The New-York Historical Society, The Woodside Heights Art Museum , The Anchorage Museum of History and Art and numerous corporate and private collections.

He’s shown in galleries and museums in New York, New Zealand, London, Paris and all over the U.S. and been reviewed everywhere from the NY Times to the Washington Post to the Utne Reader, Sculpture Magazine, TrendHunter.com and many others. 

As an educator, he’s taught art to all grades and created a 12-class curriculum entitled “Art that’s Changed the Way I See the World Around Me” in which artists and gallerists and rock stars and filmmakers and authors and academics spoke on that topic with visual and audio aids. Most recently, he launched a new curriculum of appreciating and creating land-based art for 5th grade students. He’s on the board of CultureConnect, where he leads their arts programming for middle school students. 

Magnusson's most recent art can be seen here.