What’s Taking Shape at Adaptive Design

Dear Friends and Community Partners,

Each day at Adaptive Design begins the same way: stepping out of a very busy New York City and into a workshop that feels like its own ecosystem. The pace inside is both urgent and deliberately slow. Urgent because the needs are real and often time-sensitive. Slow because listening, truly listening, to a frustrated, hopeful, and deeply optimistic community requires care.

The space itself tells the story. You walk in, and you are surrounded by projects in motion, adaptations built with one person’s goals in mind, shaped by a team of professionals thinking together. There are deliveries heading out and prototypes coming together, projects for people of all ages, preferences, and identities. Some are designed to gently modify existing environments; others are crafted entirely from scratch. Cardboard, wood, hardware, symbols, sketches, conversations, everything working together. It is a place where people want to be, and it shows.

At the heart of this work is Antoinette LaSorsa, our Fabrication Director of 25+ years. Antoinette brings an unmatched combination of technical excellence, urgency, and humanity to the workshop. She holds the center, ensuring that every build reflects not just skill, but dignity, intention, and care. Alongside her, Eric Gottshall has stepped into the role of Fabrication Manager, guiding a growing team and helping ensure our work remains coordinated, responsive, and grounded. Supporting Adapt for Access and bringing the freshest eyes, empathy, and humility to every project is Phill Pezo, our Adaptive Designer & Fabricator, whose perspective enriches every build and strengthens the collaborative energy of the workshop.

We hold a strong strategic interest in reaching more clients in Early Intervention, recognizing how foundational access can be in the earliest years. You may have seen this reflected in our current year-end campaign, Strong Starts, Standing Futures, which runs through the end of March and underscores our commitment to long-term impact beginning at the very start.

We are deepening our commitment to communication access through our tactile education program, strengthened by Danielle Pepin, Tactile Education Consultant, who guides practitioners in designing and using tangible symbols with intention. Working alongside Adam El-Sawaf, our Senior Fabricator, whose expertise and advanced 3D printing capabilities expand what is possible in custom symbol production, the team is refining symbols and systems to make them more accessible. Fabrication Assistants Charles Cohen and Cori Brothers apply critical fabrication details to the tangible symbols, ensuring timely delivery while effectively engaging volunteers. Beyond creating and distributing tangible symbols, we provide full wraparound educational support, ensuring each tool comes with training, confidence, and sustained use.

Our interest from the community around us is growing. To support this momentum, we’ve welcomed Jules Csillag in the position of Education Program Manager. Jules is working closely with the NYU Metro Center for Transforming Schools to refine the curriculum for our school-based programming, ensuring we deliver extraordinary professional development to special education teachers.

This place truly hums because of the unique role played by Tamara Morgan. Tamara’s dedication to volunteer and intern engagement, community storytelling, and partnership-building has shaped ADA in immeasurable ways. I am proud to announce that Tamara has stepped into the role of Associate Director, where her leadership will continue to strengthen how we connect, grow, and share the extraordinary stories unfolding here every day.

Central to our funding and partnership efforts, Michelle D'Mello has thoughtfully transitioned from Grant Writer to Grants Manager, reflecting both her deep institutional knowledge and the growing complexity of our funding partnerships. She ensures that our foundation and government supporters clearly understand that our impact is both measurable and presentable. Michelle is a critical link between the work happening on the workshop floor and the reporting that sustains and expands it, translating ingenuity and care into data, narrative, and accountability so we can continue partnering with grantmakers to shift possibility and opportunity for the communities we serve.

I fell in love with adaptive design ten years ago because of the way this work lives at a rare intersection of design and humanity. That intersection is something I experience daily from where I sit, a small room on the top floor with one window into the workshop, another overlooking the 3D printers and sewing area, and a door left ajar to the sounds of the first floor, where volunteers share their time and energy. From this vantage point, I get a glimpse of everything: ideas becoming objects, conversations becoming commitments, urgency balanced with care. It is a unique privilege to steward this organization from that seat, working in close collaboration with a deeply committed board that not only governs with integrity but brings complementary expertise that expands and fortifies our work, challenging our thinking and rising with us to meet each new chapter of growth. I remain in love with adaptive design because of the constant calls to action, the people this place attracts, and the honor of leading alongside individuals of all skills and backgrounds to keep this work moving forward.

If you are on the receiving end of this letter, please know you have much to be proud of. It is your care, commitment, and belief in this work that energize us every day. And if you find yourself nearby or simply want a dose of this particular kind of heart-happiness, don’t be shy about dropping a note or stopping in. Our door is always open.

With big hopes,

Jenn Hercman

Executive Director

Photo Caption: Adaptive Design staff, interns, and volunteers gathered in the workshop. While this photo captures many of the hands and hearts behind our mission, it represents an even larger community of contributors who show up week after week but weren’t present for this moment.