About

TEAM Alliance

Mission

Work with a community of volunteers engaging students with fun, affordable robotics programs that build confidence in the future workforce.

Vision

A global community where students have a lifelong
sense of confidence and excitement in technology.

Core Values

Accessible: Make it simple with low entry and high mastery
Student-Powered: Students are trusted and the adults are coordinators, not coaches
Turnkey: Events are fun and easily run by a small number of volunteers
Community: Recognize the meaningful contribution and roles of volunteers
Confidence: Build confidence through participation, which fuel workforce development skills and beyond.

Pillars

Accessibility
Easy entry, limitless possibilities.

Our programs make the first steps simple, but the potential for growth is exponential.
By removing technical, financial, and geographic hurdles, we ensure that students can transition from curiosity to mastery at their own pace.

Excitement
Confidence over Inspiration.

Our success is measured by a student’s enjoyment.
We prioritize a fun robotics competition experience to foster a genuine excitement for STEM and Robotics that prepares students for the future.

Student-Powered
Guided, not governed.

We trust students to be the primary architects of their success.
In our programs, adults serve as logistical coordinators, ensuring a safe environment where students make all the technical and creative decisions.

Community Engagement
Designed for Volunteers.

Our events are engineered for simplicity.
We prioritize the volunteer experience by creating intuitive systems that allow community members to focus on supporting students rather than navigating complex logistics.

Leadership

Andy Schaafs
Executive Director

Andy loves robotics. He started at BP as a chemical engineer and after 8 years in the oil and gas industry pursued his passion for teaching. For the last 20 years he taught engineering and robotics, served as the District Administrator across a district of 60+ schools, and ran Programs, Marketing, and Development departments at a competitive robotics nonprofit organization. Robot on!

Kelly Gray
Board Director

Kelly Gray has a passion for education and student-led discovery. She has been at Sphero since 2016, which is an education robotics company. Prior to Sphero, Kelly was in the CPG space and worked for brands such as Pepsi and Crocs in addition to serving in leadership roles at creative agencies. She also served on the Board of the American Council on Exercise.