Karen Borchert is the founder and CEO of Alpaca. As a public school parent and entrepreneur, Karen wanted a solution to support and invest in teachers that was simple and high impact. Her idea was a simple platform to help parents subscribe to their school. Her background as COO of Flywheel, ROKA, and other technology companies helped her build a platform and a pilot at a few local schools, and Alpaca began. Alpaca now supports 3,000+ teachers each month with packs of supplies and appreciation supported by parents, companies, and nonprofit orgs. The unique model is expanding to school districts across the country in the coming year.

Dan Harbeke serves as the Government Affairs and Public Policy Manager for Google in the midwest.

Active in the community, he has served on the Young Professionals Council board of directors through the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, is a past chairman of the Utah Foundation board of trustees and a past president of the board of directors for Keep Texas Beautiful, and has served on the board of directors for Junior Achievement of Utah and the Natural History Museum of Utah. Mr. Harbeke holds a degree in Marketing and Political Science from Creighton University, where he presently serves on the National Alumni Board, and is the proud dad of two beautiful girls, Elle and Emme.

Allie Hopkins, is excited to be joining us, as well. With over 15 years of successful self-driven initiatives within the technical infrastructure leading teams with up to 30 staff members, Allie is a the Global Server Operations Area Lead at Google.

In her day-to-day, Allie oversees the application development and project management in a wide variety of network based applications. Lived in the layer between the physical network and the end user applications long enough to know that everything from the mouse to the data center is pertinent.

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Linda Fleming creates places that are as much air as material: places of shadows and light where the viewer can sometimes become a participant by entering the sculpture. The intangibility of flowing gaseous materials, the shape that a sound might take, or a diagram of the wind are starting points made manifest in these constructions. They are molecular and galactic and attempt to coax the intangible into sturdy structures and durable materials that will not easily disintegrate as much of the work of women has throughout history. Physical sensation and perception are interdependent… the thing that is seen and the thing that is seeing conjure our world.

Experimenta de Vacuo Spatio brings together sculptures, drawings, and wall sculptures that embody 56 years of Fleming’s thinking. Beginning with her first wall sculpture built in 1967 and exhibited at Park Place Gallery in New York, she incorporates multiple parts that create a whole. These discrete components evoke the particles comprising all matter and have been a constant thread in her work whether they are dense as they were in the 1990’s or openwork as they are now. Fleming constantly questions a monolithic reading of reality and strives to evoke the presence of the many and the one.

Fleming’s current work can simultaneously be seen from the outside as an object, from the inside as an interior architecture, and seen through to the world surrounding it. Some have two layers of color that also transform as your position changes, allowing the colors to mix in the mind’s eye and become a hue that is not physically there. Glimpses of the environment seen through the openwork forms also become a part of the transforming whole. Her works are devices for seeing.

Fleming’s practice draws from the desert and mountain environments surrounding her Colorado, Nevada, and California studios. She has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Art Matters, the Peter S. Reed Foundation, and the Athena Foundation. Her work has also been reviewed in numerous periodicals, including Art in America, Sculpture magazine, and The New York Times. Fleming’s works are exhibited in major art museums and in public and private collections throughout the world.

See the opening of Linda Fleming's Experimenta De Vacuo Spatio exhibition at KANEKO Soirée on Friday, September 29. Fleming is one of five artists displaying their pieces at the Gene Leahy Mall Sculpture Garden. Her KANEKO exhibition will showcase her early and new works, exploring the themes of place, structures, and matter. It's an exciting opportunity to witness the juxtaposition of her creative journey.

KANEKO Exhibition Fall —Winter 2023-24

Linda Fleming: Experimenta De Vacuo Spatio

September 29, 2023, to February 2, 2024

Special Programming & Event announcements to follow.

Exhibition at KANEKO: Experimenta de Vacuo Spatio, KANEKO

Rick Knudtson is an Omaha-based serial tech entrepreneur. Currently, he is co-founder and CEO of Workshop, an internal email and communications platform. Previously, he co-founded and helped grow Flywheel (acquired by WP Engine in 2019) to a $100M+ exit. As a UX designer, Rick has a passion for building beautifully simple experiences that customers fall in love with. Outside of work, he spends his time exploring Omaha with his wife, Heather and his daughter, Ella. 

Shonna Dorsey, PMP is the Executive Director of the Nebraska Tech Collaborative, an Aksarben Workforce Initiative. Shonna is a Nebraska native who holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Management Information Systems from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In her 20+ year career in information technology, Shonna has served in a variety of roles including startup co-founder, nonprofit vice president, business analyst, and project manager.

Shonna is an active community member who serves on boards dedicated to supporting workforce and community development initiatives. She is a Board Member for the Omaha North High School Foundation and a Trustee for the Business Ethics Alliance.

In 2022, Shonna was selected as the Education Committee Co-Chair for the Nebraska Tech Collaborative. In this role, she and her Co-Chair partner with community leaders focused on tech education to support initiatives related to PK-12 students, college/university students, and career changers to increase the number of candidates in Nebraska’s tech talent pipeline. In 2019, Shonna was nominated for and awarded the Excellence in Community Service Award through the National Daughters of the American Revolution. In 2018, she was selected by Governor Pete Ricketts to join the Nebraska Information Technology Council as a Commissioner and served a 3-year team following her appointment by a legislative panel. In 2016, she was one of five Omahans selected for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals Changemaker award. In 2015, Shonna was nominated for and accepted a Women in Technology Award from InformationWeek, was a recipient of the Omaha Jaycees Ten Outstanding Young Omahans award and was the recipient of the AIM Tech Community Builder of the Year Award. In 2014, Shonna was selected for the Midlands Business Journal 40 Under 40 Award.

As a panelist or sole speaker on opportunities in tech, women in tech, empowerment, and leadership, Shonna enjoys candidly sharing her experiences including successes, failures, and lessons learned to hopefully inspire listeners to reach beyond any self- or otherwise imposed limitations.

Manuel Cook, also known as Manne, is a visionary creative entrepreneur committed to crafting dynamic urban spaces and enhancing the quality of our built environments. With nearly ten years of expertise collaborating with federal, state, local, and grassroots organizations, his refined skill set encompasses city planning, urban design, community development, placemaking, cartography, and real estate development.

Manne specializes in strategically designing and implementing projects and initiatives that leverage a community’s assets, art, history, and culture. By doing so, he fosters the creation of vibrant, people-centric environments that prioritize health, healing and wellbeing.

I'm Jeff! I'm an individual with a diverse range of interests and a genuine thirst for knowledge. I'm driven by curiosity and have a deep love for exploring the world.

Originally born in Atlanta, GA, I've been visiting my grandparents since '92 and have been a resident of Omaha since 2001. Most of my time has been spent in North Omaha, attending Druid Hill Elementary and graduating from North High School. Coming from a large extended family that instilled a strong sense of family orientation, I cherish the connections and support that family provides. This upbringing has shown me the significance of strong community ties and drives me to actively engage with local events and initiatives, always seeking opportunities to connect with others and contribute positively to the community fabric.

In the art realm, I like to be involved in the community in any capacity, and I've been blessed with opportunities to truly be a part of it. I served as the CTO of Local Art Plug from 2021 to 2022, organizing the "Plugged In" NFT Show at Millworks in 2022. Previously, I had the pleasure of working at the Union for Contemporary Arts as an Art Club member and Teaching Artist. I've even been fortunate enough to share my artistic vision, as well as my fellow artists' visions, in two exhibitions so far: "Breathe" at Modus in 2021 and "Previously" at OuterSpaces in 2018. Currently, I sit on the Board of Amplify Arts.

Professionally, I graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2014, earning a B.A. in Religious Studies. My professional career began as an intern with HUD in 2010, eventually transitioning to a full-time position in CPD in 2014.

Aside from my professional pursuits, I have cultivated a range of hobbies and half-hobbies. Whether it's "workshopping," engaging in 3D animation and art, pursuing "urban farming" (just a large-ish garden, really), or indulging in my personal love for film photography, I find ways to express my creativity and connect with the world around me.

I place great value on genuine conversations that lead to mutual learning and growth. I genuinely enjoy attending varied community events, where I have a chance to meet new people, exchange stories, and build meaningful connections. I firmly believe that by embracing diverse perspectives and actively engaging with the community, we can create a more inclusive and thriving environments for all.

Founder, CEO/President of Saving Grace Perishable Food Rescue, Beth Ostdiek Smith is an accomplished professional with over 30 years in leadership roles in for-profit and non-profit businesses; from managing operations of four travel offices to building grassroot nonprofits.

Beth is an articulate communicator and has proven ability to leverage relationships with diverse levels of management, staff, and community leaders. After 20+ years managing four travel offices, she then demonstrated success with her entrepreneur spirit in building two non-profit business that provide valued services to our community. This was done with sound business management, marketing, fundraising, volunteer recruitment, team and relationship building within our business community.

Beth started Saving Grace in 2013, to address wasted food, hunger and the environment, Beth and Saving Grace has received:

• 2013 SCORE “Sam Epstein” Entrepreneur Award
• 2016 The Greater Omaha Chamber “Excellence Award for Innovation”
• 2018 Food Day & 2019 Earth Day, Non-Profit of the Year Awards
• 2019 The FBI’s Director Community Leadership Award by Director Wray where Beth was flown to DC to receive in person.

Saving Grace had rescued and equitably distributed over 7.5 million pounds of excess healthy food. While promoting our Nourishing People and Nurturing our Environment initiative, by Feeding Bellies Rather than our Landfills.

Beth has traveled the world and loves learning about other cultures. She has volunteered as a mentor for inner city kids, assisting those in need and visiting the homebound and elderly through her church. She is a past member of Executive Women International, a Nebraska representative with the US Global Leadership Coalition,  a North Omaha Music and Arts (NOMA) Executive Board Member and serves on many advisory boards.

Beth strives to inspire those she meets to use their unique gifts and to acknowledge that we all have a purpose to honor and live.

Social Media: Facebook: @savinggracefoodrescue; Instagram & Twitter @savinggracefood