A Note on Our Team

Alex Bryant
Jun 24
3 min read

We have some news to share about the FIRST Chesapeake staff. Heading into the season, we want to honor the people who have shaped this organization and introduce the ones now helping us carry it forward.

Thank You, Amber Driesman

After years of dedicated service to FIRST in Maryland, and FIRST Chesapeake Amber Driesman is retiring, and that deserves to be marked properly.

Amber has been a cornerstone of FIRST in Maryland for a long time. She founded the Multinational Tech Invitational and continues to lead it, served as FIRST Senior Mentor for Maryland supporting programs across the board, and for the past two years has been the state's FLL Explore Partner. Her work has touched thousands of students and coaches, and the infrastructure she built will carry this community forward long after her retirement. We are grateful for everything she has given, and we wish her well in this next chapter.

Farewell to Anne Shade

Anne Shade's time with FIRST Chesapeake has come to an end. During her time with us, Anne brought real professionalism to our operations and events, and the work she did to build and strengthen our organizational infrastructure will have a lasting impact. We are grateful for her contributions and wish her well in what comes next.

Welcome to the Team

We are glad to introduce two new members of the FIRST Chesapeake staff.

Welcome Ryan Rich and Alicia Haun to FIRST Chesapeake

Ryan Rich, Events and Volunteer Manager

Ryan is not a new face who needs the tour. He is already part of this community. His FIRST story goes back to his own days as a student competitor, and since then he has worn just about every hat there is: coach, mentor, judge, referee, and event manager. He most recently mentored teams at the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy in Maryland and came up through our Geared Up emerging mentor program, after which he did the thing we love most around here - he turned around and taught what he learned, standing up at our Mentor Conference to help other coaches strengthen their teams.

Now he runs the show. Ryan owns event planning and logistics across our FTC, FRC, and FLL Explore seasons, and leads how we recruit, support, and celebrate the volunteers who make every competition happen. Off the clock, he builds wearable armor by hand. So if your team is ever short on mithril rings, we now officially know a guy.

Alicia Haun, Program Coordinator

Alicia joins us with a background that is suspiciously well-suited to this work: program operations, educational initiatives, and relationship building, most recently supporting national workforce development and coach training programs with the United States Tennis Association.

She earned her B.A. in Cognitive Science from the University of Michigan and studied Positive Organizational Psychology at the Ross School of Business, which is a formal way of saying she studied what makes teams and cultures thrive. Now she gets to help build one.

Off the clock, she volunteers with the Blue Ribbon Project, a nonprofit serving youth in foster care, and spends time with her corgi, Peppermint.

How This Works

Here is something people outside the org do not always realize: we do not run a program. We run all of them. FLL, FTC, FRC. One team, three programs, an entire district to cover. That is why we cross-train across every program on purpose, so you are never stuck hunting for the one person who knows the answer. If you need help, reach out to any of us and we will get you where you need to go.

Here is how the team is organized:

Programs: Bonnie Crites, Matt Sanders, and Alicia Haun
Events and Volunteers: Ryan Rich, Jen Kerns, Jim Anderson, Matt Glennon, and Farish Perlman
Organization-Wide Support: Alex Bryant and Shelly Stoddard
Our Partners: Kaitlin Ilnitzki, FLL VA+DC; Kyle Wolfe, FIRST Senior Mentor; Seelig Sinton, Chesapeake Senior Mentor; Isriah Keila, FIRST Inspires