Our Founders

Matt Isola, Leslie Getty, and Meryl Balusek

It all started when…

A University of Colorado graduate student began putting on free technology workshops for adults 50+ in March of 2018. These workshops paired CU student volunteers with curious adults seeking out help about their technological devices, such as phones and laptops. These adults were able to ask any list of questions about any technological device to these young adults. That passionate graduate student was named Matt Isola. He was testing out these workshops as part of his Master’s degree in Strategic Communication Design at CU.

In 2017, Leslie Getty (a filmmaker for 25 years) noticed the common issue that using today’s “simple technology” does not come as easily or naturally to members of older generations. This problem especially bothered him as he watched his mom struggle to understand her iPad. In the beginning of 2018, Leslie heard of a graduate student who was running workshops to help with this problem… and he was running them all by himself.

Meryl Balusek graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder with a Bachelor’s in Anthropology and a minor in Business Innovation in August of 2017. She joined the Generation Exchange team in August of 2018 following her work on a women’s empowerment project in Kochi, India and instantly fell in love with the mission of the organization. Meryl believes that soon not only the US, but the world as a whole will be more integrated and inclusive for people of all ages.

On December 13th, 2019 Generation Exchange became a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

In 2020, Meryl left her role as Operations Director to pursue a Masters Degree in International Human Rights at the University of Denver.