Our Team
The Power Thread is a diverse community of powerful, curious women who are learning and raising questions.
Founder & Creative Director
Maria Gilfoyle
Maria is a creative-changemaker and leader who is driven to build community by leveraging creativity and connection to positively change the world. After 3 years competing internationally on TEAM USA in figure skating in high school, she attended Washington University in St. Louis, triple majoring in Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Design. Between classes she was the president of multiple student organizations on campus. Today, Maria is an Assistant Merchant at Gap Inc. where she holds multiple hats from pricing strategy to trend forecasting. She started her career in the Rotational Management Program with the Gap Brand. In college, Maria founded of #ThePowerThread, a media company she created to publicize the power women hold and humanize social media through authentic storytelling and conversations. She continues to actively work on growing The Power Thread community to humanize social media by highlighting unique stories.
Editor
Hannah Bishop
Hannah, a Chicago native, is currently residing in New York City and works in book publishing. Previously, Hannah has worked at PR and marketing firms, and also spent three years at a writing center, collaborating on pieces of writing ranging from creative stories to scholarly essays. Helping others to articulate and share their stories has been at the heart of much of Hannah’s previous work, and she continues to aid in the dissemination of stories at The Power Thread, where experiences of strong women are consistently highlighted.
Art Director
YUWEI PAN
Proud of her quirky sense of humor and her contact improvisation (look it up) moves, Yuwei is a graphic designer and artist based in New York City. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor of Fine Art and minored in Psychology and Design. Yuwei’s personality is just as colorful as her purple hair, and when she is not working, she loves to experiment with fashion and explore new parts of the city. As a queer woman of color and an activist at heart, she is passionate about expanding the definition of female empowerment and what it means to be a woman at the Power Thread.
Editorial and Content Director
CLARA PITT
Clara was born and raised in Los Angeles but moved to New York to attend Vassar College. Currently, she is a sophomore at Vassar College as a perspective Environmental Studies and Cognitive Science double major with a minor in Hispanic Studies. Clara is a photographer for the Vassar fashion magazine, Contrast, and a proud member of the Vassar Greens, an organization focused on sustainability.
An explorer at heart, Clara is always on the go. She fell in love with travel, culture, and photojournalism when she went to live with a family in Lithuania in 2015. Since then her travel bug has taken her to see many wonderful places including Panama, Peru, Costa Rica, Hungary, and Israel. She enjoys learning about new people and places and sharing with the world through the incredible storytelling powers of photography. If she’s not on the go, you will often find Clara embroidering on old clothing or photographing her friends and surroundings.
Community Director
Willa Green
5’4’’ on a good day but the shortest triplet in the family every day, Willa hails from Chicago and is now living it up in New York City with friends. She graduated from Barnard College with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a minor in Spanish and Latin American Studies and is now pursuing a career in Marketing and Sales. After Barnard, Willa continues to look for ways to cultivate similar spaces for women to feel empowered and to thrive. Willa is passionate about storytelling and meeting new people – hit her up if you want to grab a cup coffee or hot chocolate! Outside of work, you can find Willa eating, water coloring, or boogieing to fun and funky playlists.
Community Director
STELLA STEPHANOPOULOS
Stella is a junior at Washington University in St. Louis majoring in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology, and minoring in Creative Writing and Organization & Strategic Management. As a New York City native, Stella is passionate about traveling, healthy food, writing, and yoga. At WashU, Stella is a member of a professional business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, and works as a Career Peer at the WashU Career Center. In addition to her studies and other activities at school, Stella is a contributing author for Thrive Global, a platform dedicated to reducing burnout culture and promoting well-being and mental health.
Graphic Designer
Noor Bekhiet
Born and raised in Milwaukee, WI to Muslim Egyptian immigrant parents, Noor is a graphic designer for the power thread, but she is also a current student studying Architecture and Economics and Strategy at Washington University in St Louis.
Noor’s most commonly said phrase is “if the planets say it, it must be true.” As a Virgo sun, Aries moon, and Leo Mercury and Venus, she is a medley of details, chaos, confidence, and glamour, all coming together to create a girl who is addicted to laying in the sun, loves cheese in all its forms, and dabbles in the arts. If she’s not doing one of the 10 things mentioned above, you’ll find Noor going through cycles of watching the latest Egyptian soap opera and napping, her favorite hobby of all.
Graphic Designer
Sahra Denner
Sahra Denner is an illustrator and graphic designer from South Salem, NY, who is currently majoring in English Literature and Film & Media Studies at Columbia University. She is interested in representation in the media, Internet culture, and visual storytelling, which in her free time translates to watching TV, scrolling through Twitter, and drawing. In her work, she attempts to explore identity, atmosphere, dream worlds, and hidden layers of meaning and reference by way of detail, all in bright, playful colors.
Graphic Designer
Julia Grippo
Julia Grippo is a graphic designer from Long Island, New York. Currently, she is majoring in Communications Design (with an Emphasis in Graphic Design) at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. She is interested in art direction, photography, the fine arts, and color theory. Julia’s fascination with music, fashion, and saturated color informs her vibrant designs. Her goal is to explore the intersection of fine arts, media, identity, and digital design. When she is not working, you can find her painting, embroidering, taking care of her fish, and posting her art on Instagram: @julia.grippo.design
Ambassadors and Contributors
- Abigail Murphy
- Ashley Zhu
- Eliana Hood
- Dominique Moreno
- Catherine LeClair
- Avery Gehring
- Elizabeth Franclemont
- Elizabeth Perkins
- Emily Yu
- Emma Tapscott
- Isabella Abdullah
- Jada DeLuca
- Jaclyn Skrela
- Jalya Butler
- Keira DiGaetano
- Lindsey Aronson
- Marina Dekkers
- Milani Cruz
- Morgan Swartz
- Mercedes Wallace
- Rosie Kopman
- Sam Kass
- Sandra Yu
- Seoyoung Hong
Our Background
We attract ambassadors from colleges and universities across the U.S.
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