Dia Stolnitz

Director, Strategic Projects, FIRST

Dia Stolnitz is Director of Strategic Projects for FIRST. She has served in a range of roles at FIRST since 1993, joining first as a consultant under a National Science Foundation grant, and then full-time to start FIRST Place, an R&D hands-on science and technology facility in Manchester for students, teachers, community and national groups. She has also served as Director of Development for the organization. As Director of Strategic Projects, she is responsible for FIRST’s key national events, managing FIRST’s research and evaluation efforts and initiatives, direction of FIRST Place to expansion, as well as assisting the President with the FIRST Board, and she is key liaison with the FIRST Executive Advisory Board. 

Prior to joining FIRST, Stolnitz was the Founder and Director of The Idia (Intervale, Design, Idea & Art) Center (Intervale, NH), a multidisciplinary art center offering exhibits, performances, special events (1989-1993). Previously she worked at Edwin Schlossberg Incorporated (New York, NY) as a Conceptual Designer of participatory exhibit programs for entertainment and educational sites, at the Museum of American Folk Art (New York, NY) as a Project Director of Special Events, and as a consultant for interactive collaborations with museums and public centers.

Stolnitz is an artist who works in photography, sculpture, and multimedia installation. She received her BA from Reed College and an MFA from Yale University. She has exhibited work nationally and is represented in several museum collections and teaches on faculty at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester.