Current Officer Team

Co-President: Lex Gomberg is a third year microbio grad student in a Biology lab. She started gymnastics at MIT in Spring 2022, and has been having the best time! She is a former cheerleader, so please excuse her tendencies to have cheer hands and need to do 8-counts. Say hi if you see her around the gym, and always remember to say goodbye before leaving (or she’ll be sad).

Co-President: Molly Carney is a Biology PhD student studying cancer immunology. She's been doing gymnastics for as long as she can remember, and she's so happy that she gets to continue here at MIT! Please come say hi and let her know if you have any questions about the team!

Co-Treasurer: Ivan Marshall is a first-year PhD student in Nuclear Science and Engineering working on nuclear fusion. He started with the beginners’ class back in 2019 and has been with the team ever since. He really enjoys teaching, so don’t be afraid to come over and ask for help!

Co-Treasurer: Hannah Gross is a second year PhD student in computer science, having done her undergrad at Brown (ask her for recs if you’re going to Providence!). She did gymnastics growing up in Germany, and is very glad to have found her way back - and in such an amazing place and community!

Co-Meet Coordinator: Julia Sharpe graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2009 and an MS in 2011. Currently, she works as a mechanical engineer at a design and engineering consulting firm in Boston. She was a member of the MIT gymnastics team in undergrad when it was still varsity, and she's been doing gymnastics for about 30 years. She switched to competing men's gymnastics in 2012 to have a change of pace and to help rebuild the MIT Men's program.

Co-Meet Coordinator: Thomas Rüd is a mathematician, doing research in number theory/representation theory. He had never done gymnastics prior to this postdoc, but instead fenced for about 15 years and did track and field for 7 years (hammer/discus throw + high jumping were his favorite events), so he had very little transferable skills. He is really passionate about teaching math (well). Besides teaching at MIT he is involved in outreach programs to mentor highschoolers as well as prison teaching. Aside from that, his favorite hobby is picking up hobbies (cooking, piano, drawing, knitting, anything that doesn’t require going outside...) until he has no more time to eat/sleep, then burnout and reset with new hobbies. He is also known for his inability to make choices or write concisely (e.g. this blurb).

Social Chair: Thomas Felt is a lab technician doing research in the MIT neuroscience department. He started gymnastics in the summer of 2023 and is already incredible! It's very impressive. He comes from a background in dance, so he'll give you good advice about stretching, but that's about it. He loves movies and he loves music and he loves movie-music and he loves music-movies. If you have any thoughts on any of the above, please find him and share them, he'd love to talk!

Training Coordinator: Matthew Sobiesk is a data scientist working at a pharmaceutical company in Kendall Square. He took the beginner's class in Fall 2018 during his third year of grad school and enjoyed it so much that he joined the team despite lacking anything resembling an athletic background. He is very excited to still be learning and growing with such a cool set of people.

Publicity Chair: Amy Shen graduated with a BS in Environmental Engineering from Cornell, where she also competed for the varsity gymnastics team. She thought she was done with this sport after college, but here she is, still being delighted by new and old skills and by coaching others. Outside the gym, her interests include urban planning, housing, energy, and cultivating community. Her other hobbies include rock climbing, cycling, and finding those perfect Type 1.5 Fun activities.

MIT Gymnastics Alumni Relations and Publicity Chair: Nate Sharpe (BS ’09) started gymnastics in 2012 when Julia convinced him to just try rings a couple days a week. Now, he competes all the MAG and WAG events! Nate recently retired early and has been enjoying doing more gymnastics, spending more time with his wife and twin nine year-olds, and helping to run the NAIGC.

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Coaches:

Shixin Mao: I’m Shixin, and I’ve coached JO gymnastics for more than 30 years and sent many gymnasts to collegiate program, including my kids. In my free time, I enjoy cooking, gardening and traveling. 

Amy Shen: Amy started gymnastics as a kid in the JO program and finished her competitive career in the NCAA as a captain of the Cornell Women’s Gymnastics team. These days, she likes to spend her spare time rock climbing, dabbling here at the MIT gym, and exploring the wonders of Camberville.

Eric Petersen: Eric first started gymnastics in New Hampshire when he was 5, and continued through to competing, briefly, for the Air Force Academy’s NCAA team. The real world took him away from gymnastics for more than a decade, but he was able to find his way back to the sport through coaching and competing for his adult team.

Cassie Potter: Cassie has been doing gymnastics since before they could walk. They recently made a return to the sport after a 4 year break thanks to the MIT club team, and started competing all 10 events. They are super excited to be coaching all the wonderful humans at MIT!