Laura Benack
Interim Executive Director
Laura serves as Grassroots.org's Interim Executive Director. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a BA in International Relations and French. Her prior experience working with the African Cultural Exchange, a 501c3 nonprofit, inspired Laura to continue on the path towards a career in the field. She joined the Grassroots.org team in 2008 as an Americorps VISTA and next transitioned to the position of Development and Outreach Manager. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, she is very excited to be working for the Grassroots.org team in New York City!
Laura plays the piano and comes from a family of musicians. She enjoys living vicariously through Anthony Bourdain's adventures on the Travel channel.
Alice Luu
Director of Operations and Strategy
Convinced by a professor to consider creative writing as an academic path, Alice's liberal arts studies gave her the freedom to indulge in African-American literature and Photo-Literary theory. She experimented with new media during a web publishing opportunity as a news intern for Dulcinea Media. After helping a few other start-ups and production projects, Alice was excited to find that she could combine her experience in new media with her ongoing curiosity for nonprofits!
Mickey Panayiotakis
IT Lead
Mickey stays awake at night dreaming of a community where nonprofits, donors, and volunteers connect. He leads the GR development team with the ultimate goal of realizing this vision. For about a decade erstwhile, Mickey led NTT/Verio in building, operating, and managing their East Coast Network.
When not making the world a better place, he and his dog sail the Chesapeake bay and beyond, or trudge along the Appalachian mountains, or find some other Suitable Adventure.
Scott D'Antuono
Web Projects Coordinator
Scott recently finished up his degree in May 2008 at SUNY University at Albany, where he studied Communication and Business. During his college years, he became inspired by non-profit organizations and decided to take the Communications Internship to pursue his goal of one day working for one full-time. Scott previously interned as a Marketing Assistant at a local news station, Capital News 9 in Albany. He is super excited to work with Grassroots.org and is thrilled to be onboard!
In his free time, Scott is probably on the internet searching for new music or taking care of his pets. He enjoys watching Animal Planet and plucking away at his guitar.
Find Us On