Staff & Board

Maiya LeGardye is Executive Director of Factory Two, a nonprofit community makerspace and creative hub in Flint, Michigan. Born and raised in Flint, she began her journey with the organization as an intern at Flint Local 432 in 2018 and went on to manage the venue starting around 2022, building it into a cornerstone of Flint's live music and performance scene. In July 2026, Maiya stepped into the role of Executive Director, now overseeing both Flint Local 432 and the Factory Two makerspace. Maiya's own path, from music and media into nonprofit leadership, mirrors the spirit of Factory Two itself. She is the host of Uptown Sounds Radio, runs her own media businesses, and produces music in her spare time, and that same love of creative community drives her vision for the organization's future.

Doc Shank has been at Factory Two since 2016, when he offered to work ten hours a week for a hundred dollars and then, through a combination of poor boundaries and genuine affection for the place, worked considerably more than that. He became the first person Factory Two ever put on salary, a fact he found out about while on a camping trip. He is now Operations Manager and Technical Coordinator, which in practice means he owns every problem in the building that has a power cord attached to it, and several that do not. He built the website you are currently reading. It replaced four paid platforms, which sounds impressive right up until you learn he spent the launch weekend sleeping in the building on a cot. He teaches the 3D printing class, runs the bench where donated computers are taken apart with more enthusiasm than ceremony, and once taught himself to make his own dentures rather than pay somebody else to do it, which tells you most of what you need to know. Thirty years in IT. Army before that. The best thing he has ever photographed on the premises is a raccoon sitting on the railing at three in the morning, directly beneath the sign reading "Smile, you're on camera."

Barb Johnson first came through the door because her kid worked here and did a great deal for this organization. The kid eventually moved on. Barb fell for the place and never left. She has volunteered since June 2017 and joined the staff in January 2026. In her words: "I love that Factory Two offers people, not only the opportunity to create, but the opportunity to collaborate with other creators. I am also proud of the fact that we remind people that, just because things are broken doesn't mean they are garbage. In a world where so much is considered disposable, we teach about building things that will last. Lastly, I am honored to be a part of a safe space, which Factory Two strives to be at all times, for all people."

Gary Mueller is a significant part of the reason Factory Two opens in the morning. He handles the building, the bookings, the school groups, and the phone calls from members who cannot log in, and he is reliably the first person to notice when somebody has not turned up for a shift. He plays in two bands. Political Silence was never meant to be the name: Gary studied political science, a bandmate said it wrong out loud one day, and it stuck, which is how most of the good ones happen. They have a reunion tour planned for sometime next year. His other band is Guilty Bystanders. Both outfits are at the stage where any tour is contingent on the members first locating their walkers. He recently took an afternoon off to see Rush in Detroit with his brothers, which was obviously the correct decision. He did not send us a bio.

Jimmy Schramm runs screen printing at Factory Two, which means a good share of the band posters, event flyers and local merch you have seen around this town came off a press he was standing at. He also plays in Domestic Disturbance, which raises the live possibility that somewhere in Flint there is a poster Jimmy printed advertising a show Jimmy is playing, and we find that deeply satisfying. He did not send us a bio. We had to be told the name of his own band by somebody else. Jimmy: two sentences. That is the entire ask.

Mike Wright founded Factory Two and has been Board Chair ever since, which means every problem in this building is ultimately his fault and he knows it. By day he is Chief Technology Officer at the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, a post he has held since 1999 and arrived at by way of an internship, a mop, and a bagel oven, in roughly that order. He is currently the only human being checked out on our metal shop, a situation he has declined to remedy for the better part of a decade. In his spare time he restores industrial machines older than most of our members, out of a basement shop better equipped than several of our departments. He did not send us a bio by the deadline. This is what happens.

Whitney Lakes is Board Treasurer at Factory Two and a Wealth Management Production Manager at Huntington National Bank. She holds an undergraduate degree in business management and finance from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and an MBA from Webster University. In her words: "Very honored to be a part of this organization. Using my skills in the financial field to help provide structure and procedures for reconciliation of funds. Looking forward to Factory Two growing as an organization and being an important part of the surrounding community."

A Detroit native, Vivian Williams serves as the Alumni and Annual Giving Officer at Lawrence Technological University. She earned a B.A. in Communication and an M.A. in Social Science and has dedicated her career to the nonprofit sector since 2014. Her professional experience includes roles with Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan and Flint-based nonprofit, 100K Ideas, where she helped advance missions centered on entrepreneurship, innovation, and community impact. Vivian also serves as Board Secretary for Factory Two, a nonprofit makerspace. She is passionate about fostering connections, supporting lifelong learning, and helping individuals invest in the communities and institutions they care about.

Erin A. Archuleta is a senior ESG and corporate affairs executive with more than 15 years of experience advancing sustainability, financial inclusion, and stakeholder strategy across the fintech, nonprofit, and small business sectors. As Global Head of External Affairs & Social Responsibility at Block, Inc., she leads enterprise ESG governance, climate strategy, corporate responsibility, community investment, and financial inclusion initiatives. Her career spans corporate leadership, nonprofit growth, public policy, and entrepreneurship, bringing a distinctive cross-sector perspective to responsible business and economic opportunity. She also serves on corporate advisory councils and nonprofit boards focused on entrepreneurship, community development, and inclusive economic growth.

Cassie came to Factory Two through music. She played in bands in high school, college, and still occasionally dabbles on the stage every now and then. It has been 20 years (literally, 2005 or 6?!) since her first show at the Flint Local 432 which was and forever will be her home stage. Cassie joined the Factory Two Board (at the time, Red Ink, Flint) in 2015, and has served as Vice Chair and Board Chair during her tenure. Over the last decade she has been here to see musicians, artists, makers and creative people of Flint come together to build an amazing community, and is excited to see that grow and thrive in the decades to come at the Local and F2. A two-time Alumna of the University of Michigan-Flint, Cassie earned her Bachelor's in Business Administration in 2012 and an MBA in Marketing and Innovation Management in 2021. For her day job, she is the Accounting and Technology Associate at the Ruth Mott Foundation in Flint, which is a different Mott foundation from the one our Board Chair works at, a distinction that has personally cost this organization several hours of confusion. In her spare time you'll find her playing trumpet in the New Horizons Band at the FIM or playing Trivia at Soggy Bottom Bar!

Dan Neu is a Data Analytics manager for GM's Customer Care and Aftersales and an organizer of GM volunteer events in the City of Flint. He is a graduate of UofM-Flint with an MBA from Baker College. He is also a self-described nerd and Flint-enthusiast. Favorites include Factory Two (of course), Tenacity Brewing, Blackstones, Soggy Bottom, Churchill's, and the great vibes of the Carriage Town neighborhood. He strives to some day be as cool as Joel Rash.

JT Tiner sits on the board of Factory Two. Beyond that, the record goes quiet. We searched. We turned up a Tiner who regulated British banks and a Tiner who preached in nineteenth-century California, and we are reasonably confident he is neither. No employer. No affiliation. No photograph. Nothing. Either JT is an unusually private man, or Factory Two has quietly seated an operative of some description, and we would point out that the second explanation requires fewer assumptions. He did not send us a bio, which is precisely what someone in that line of work would not do. Two sentences, JT. Prove us wrong.

Ana Vargas is, by the account of Factory Two staff, a nonprofit bouncer, in the sense that she keeps turning up at a different Flint nonprofit doing the work. Her Factory Two contact address sits at St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center, a north-end organization that since 2002 has run workforce training, a commercial sewing operation, a lawn crew, a horticulture program and a food pantry that feeds more than a thousand people a month, which is precisely the sort of place that pattern would predict. She did not send us a bio. We did look. Their own team page describes what their team is doing rather than who their team is, which we respect enormously and which was of absolutely no help to us.

Joel Rash started booking concerts on a dare in 1985, and just never really figured out how to quit. Flint Local 432’s do-it-yourself ethic ended up informing the rest of his life. From picking up commercial properties (originally to host the Local), to economic development work, to his own social media marketing company. Along the way the decades ticked past at the venue, and while the music, the fashion, and the hairstyles changed, teenagers kept being teenagers. Young people need a place that isn’t home and isn’t school and isn’t work, where they can get involved, make decisions, take responsibility. For generations of Flint youth, the Local has been that place.

The answer to "who started this." Mike built the institutional side of Factory Two and has kept its oldest equipment alive personally, by hand, for years, largely because nobody else can. See his board listing for the rest of the charges.