Leigh Estabrooks

Leigh Estabrooks, InvenTeams Grants Officer

As InvenTeams Grants Officer of the Lemelson-MIT Program, a non-profit organization funded by the Lemelson Foundation and administered at MIT’s School of Engineering, Leigh Estabrooks focuses on inspiring a new generation of inventors. In this position, she propels the Lemelson-MIT Program’s national initiative by awarding grants of up to $10,000 each to teams of high school students, teachers and mentors to develop an invention that solves a real-world problem. During her tenure, Estabrooks has broadened the impact of the InvenTeams initiative by doubling the number of teachers to receive professional development on inventiveness, the invention process, and technical skills. She has also insured that the teachers’ training includes peer-to-peer learning in basic electronics and instruction in CAD. Estabrooks' goal is to expand the InvenTeams initiative both nationally and internationally.

Prior to joining the Lemelson-MIT Program, Estabrooks was an Information Technology instructor at Pathfinder Regional Vocational High School in Massachusetts, where she developed and updated technical content for the Information Technology Shop. Preceding this occupation, she was a teaching and research assistant in Marketing and Product Management for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at the Hartford, Connecticut, campus. Estabrooks worked in product development and consumer research with Tambrands Inc.; Chesebrough-Ponds, Inc.; and The Coca-Cola Company earlier in her career.

Estabrooks received her B.S. in agriculture from the University of Tennessee in 1979 and her M.S. in business at the Renesselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1993. Estabrooks served as a coach for FIRST LEGO® League in her local community, which addressed issues such as global warming and nanotechnology, as well as robotics. She currently resides in Lexington, Massachusetts, with her husband and two sons, whom she teaches: "It’s never too early to start inventing."

The InvenTeams initiative aims to excite high school students about science, math, engineering, entrepreneurship and invention; empower students through problem solving; and encourage a sustainable culture of invention in schools and communities.