Meet Our Amazing Board Members
Jeff McCauslin
Board Chair
Jeff is a retired Civil Engineer who spent most of his career as a Facilities and Operations Director at a Defense Installation in PA. While raising a family, he was always involved with his children’s activities from being a softball coach to a Scoutmaster. Since moving to Raleigh in 2011, he has worked as a handyman, been an HOA board member and Architectural Committee Chair, participated in hurricane repair trips and Habitat for Humanity projects, and learned to refinish antique furniture. Having grown up in a home that was built by his father and grandfather, construction and working with wood has always been of interest. The opportunity to pursue both teaching kids and learning new skills at the BCW was too good of an opportunity to pass up. The young people and shop volunteers are amazing, and it is a joy learning from and working with them.
Dan Altieri
Secretary
Dan has spent most of his work life deeply engaged with computer systems and helping customers get the most out of the software they use to run their businesses. He started volunteering in soup kitchens with his family as a teenager and has tried to keep engaged with giving back into each community he lives in. He has been an active volunteer in Durham since moving here from New York City in 2015 with his wife and two sons. A lifelong passion for learning and creation has led to building some amateur skills as a woodworker, yet his passion is helping youth learn in different and innovative ways which led to his recent completion of a Doctoral degree in Education from Vanderbilt University. Dan also holds a Master's of Science in Management from NYU and Bachelor's degrees in Economics and Computer Information Systems from Western Connecticut State University. He has studied traditional hand tool woodworking with Roy Underhill and Bill Anderson at the Woodwright's School in Pittsboro and hopes to continue to find new places to refine his maker skills.
Will Leskin
Member at Large
Will Leskin has lived in Durham for over 30 years. He moved here with his wife Shannon and son Edwin from Los Angeles where Will was an actor, having appeared in TV shows and commercials. Will spent several decades as an Insights and Brand Strategy professional for the Life Sciences Industry, and he recently founded a B2B consulting practice (The Leskin Collective) that focuses on Creative Problem Solving for individuals and organizations. Will took up woodworking only a few years ago and built a woodshop (“CowHead Joinery”) in his basement where he enjoys making projects for family and friends that he designs with SketchUp on his iPad. He discovered The BCW when he was looking to donate a sander and immediately wanted to be a part of the organization. He volunteers at the BCW primarily with the high school students and loves helping them find their confidence and build their skills and unique aesthetic to make beautiful objects from rough lumber.
Scott Brummel
Member at Large
Scott “Esko” Brummel is the Assistant Director for Food and Nutrition Security within Duke’s Office of Community Health. In this role, Scott collaborates with educators, growers, farmers and community partners to work towards sustainable food and nutrition solutions for patients, students, staff, and the community.
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Alongside this role, Scott is the program manager for the Fresh Produce Program (FPP), part of a Duke Med student organization, Root Causes, addressing food security through a fully volunteer-driven food as medicine delivery model, now serving over 400 families. Scott is also Co-Chair of the Partnership for a Healthy Durham Committee on Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Food Access. There, he helps build relationships across the Durham community to help achieve Durham’s health goals.
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Scott is deeply passionate about supporting the mission of BCW to help build woodworkers that can apply problem-solving skills and creativity in the woodshop and in their communities. Scott grew up with a workshop in his child home and has loved continuing to learn how to use new tools and skills in his projects.
Megan Murphy
Treasurer
Meg is a recent transplant to Durham from Philadelphia. She lived in Philadelphia for 17 years, during which she, at various times, served as a foster parent (to human teens and tweens), as Treasurer for an animal rescue and also a foster parent (to canine adults and pups), as Majority Inspector on her Board of Elections, and as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for a "cross over" delinquency and dependency case, in which she regularly met with her assigned child, coordinated parties, and drafted case reports. She, her husband Mike, and their fur children moved to Durham for Mike's professorship at Duke Law. Professionally, Meg has worked in various roles as a tax attorney/advisor and continues to do so in Durham.
Meg's interest in woodworking was spurred by handy family members, whose attention to detail ran from her grandfather believing most everything could (and should) be fixed using pop rivets and a leather strap, to her uncle who is as detailed in his woodworking as he was as a NASA engineer. Owning a 100+ year-old house in Philly created no shortage of projects, and inheriting tools from her father-in-law created no shortage of belief that she could (and should) take a shot at them. Meg was largely self-taught in woodworking until coming to BCW. Meg volunteers with the teen and adult classes at BCW and can still be found tinkering - a bit more learnedly now - at her 1950s Durham house.