Meet Our Team!
Ye Yao, Co-Director aka Chief Jedi
Ye was born in China, grew up in Florida (USA), and trained at the Jedi Temple headquarters of MIT. She is now working hard to nurture this PN2K Boston-based nonprofit to long-term sustainability. Originally a pre-med whose summers consisted of biological engineering projects, cognitive neuroscience research, and volunteering at Children's Hospital Boston, she found her calling after a few core classes at the MIT Sloan School of Management. This experience ignited the fire that sent her halfway around the world on multiple trips. She realizes that not everyone is this lucky and hopes to establish Peace and Order in the galaxy by building meaningful businesses. Ye is beyond excited to be working alongside our Directing Samurai and "using the Force" to lead their fearless team. One line she takes to heart from the Jedi Order: "The choice is yours alone. Do what you think you cannot do. It will be a hard life, but you will find out who you are."
Carmel Mercado, Co-Director
Doctor of Medicine by day, PN2K Co-Director by night, Carmel works tirelessly around-the-clock as DIrecting Samurai. She first began sharpening her mind, body, and spirit as a warrior-in-training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Class of 2009), where she served in various teaching and mentorship roles, including as a Teaching Assistant for multiple courses and a Freshman Associate Advisor. She was also involved as a teacher and mentor for Breakthrough Collaborative in Fort Lauderdale, FL and Cambridge, MA and for different educational and international exchange programs in Japan. As one of her most respected senseis once told her, "Knowledge makes you knowledgeable, but it is experience that makes you wise." Through PN2K's educational initiatives, she hopes to inspire young minds to have the curiosity to learn and experience life. And she wants everyone who rides a bicycle to wear a helmet too.
Will, Bike Safety Officer
Michelle Lu, Webmaster/IT/Tech
Michelle is a Wellesley College student. She was born in Indiana but now her family lives in New Jersey. She works on updating this website and solving IT/Tech problems. In her free time, Michelle is involved in Robogals, an organization that aims to get more girls into tech and robotics, and the Cambridge Robo-Soccer Team, which is a robotics team that builds and programs autonomous robots that play soccer against each other competitively against other schools. She also loves to bake and make short films.
Yaoming Duan, Historian
Yaoming Duan was a 5-year Multimedia designer and Interactive programmer in China. Now he is studying in Northeastern University. He has double majors in both digital media and business. He enjoys running, biking, boating, doing Media projects and photo/video shooting.
Dingfang Zhou, Historian
Dingfang Zhou is a graduate student majoring journalism in Boston University. As a former fashion magazine contributor, she believes every one has their stories to tell and she would always like to be their listener. She flied from Beijing to Boston in order to explore more possibilities as a reporter. She falls in love with visual journalism now. And she is also a runner and cyclist.
