About

Since the age of 14, when she helped construct her first theatre set, Steph has been building things. Majoring in set design and working in the scene shop at Macalester College led her to an internship at Berkeley Repertory Theatre's scene shop in 2004. There, she worked for 10 years as a staff carpenter, building often elaborate scenery, including the Tony Award winning set for American Idiot. In 2009, Steph joined Five Ton Crane, an Oakland-based arts collective that boasts large-scale interactive art installations. Collaborative works include: The Raygun Gothic Rocketship, The Nautilus Submarine and The Capitol Theatre, which recently made its debut at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery in the exhibition, No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man. She has also worked for the Burning Man organization, building the Man and Man Pavilion from 2014-2016.

In 2014, she joined the staff at UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design, and around that time, various women started asking Steph to lead all-female building classes. While at CED, her duties included instructing architecture students on the safe use of machines and tools, as well as teaching construction techniques for their various assignments. This teaching experience, combined with her background in building, has led her to start ...And I Built it with my Vagina!!!, a women-only workshop series.

In between building big art and teaching, Steph builds custom creations for her clients. Please contact her to get in touch with her regarding classes or your next design idea.