OUR TEAM
Get to Know Our Experts
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FOUNDING PARTNER
Amy Baron
Amy Baron is an education technology executive with extensive experience bringing education products to market. She has helped shape the product and market strategy for dozens of successful K12 programs, with a laser focus on effective, learner-centered design, a commitment to iterative product design and user testing, and a unique talent for product positioning.
Amy is the host of Upskilled, a podcast focused on education innovation. She has written on personalized learning, service design, and data privacy, and is a long-time business mentor for LearnLaunch, Boston's premier ed tech accelerator. As a thought leader, Amy helped establish the EdTech practice at Cantina Consulting, driving strategy, design and development through the expert application of design thinking and agile methodologies.
Amy is fluent in Spanish and has completed the coursework toward a Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from Duke University.
FOUNDING PARTNER
Dan Schwartz, Ed.M.
Dan has extensive experience designing and developing video and interactive media for education, marketing, and organizational communications. Dan built and ran one of the web’s early online video operations (iCast), and has produced interactive learning applications for Pearson, Houghton Mifflin, Oxford University Press, and Bedford St. Martin’s. He has also consulted on online learning products for Harvard University Medical School, Brown University Medical School, and MIT (edX).
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Dan is particularly interested in the intersection of entertainment and learning media and believes each can inform the other. To that end, he developed a system for analyzing and categorizing media for TVMentor, a discovery, and personalization system for families.
Dan has a Master’s degree in Educational Technology from Harvard University.
Our Partners
DESIGN DIRECTOR
Pavithra Counsell
Pavithra Counsell has over ten years of experience leading creative teams, both at agencies and in corporate settings. With a proven track record in UX, UI and Visual Design, Pavithra creates digital experiences that balance business and customer goals. She is equally comfortable being a hands-on team player and guiding teams to success.
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Pavithra believes in a well-rounded, human-centered approach to design, incorporating user research and validation into the design process. She is an expert omni-channel Content Strategist (web, email marketing, social, etc.), and with a B.S. in Computer Science, Pavithra understands the needs of her development partners.
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In her spare time, Pavithra enjoys watercolor painting, playing guitar and spending time with her husband, toddler, 2 cats and puppy.
LEARNING DESIGNER
Jiani Wu, Ed.D.
Jiani's work in learning design is currently focused on game-based micro adaptive learning (GMAL), where she is designing a system to transform any curriculum into a personalized learning experience. Her curiosity has led to many adventures: hosting a TV show, building mentor-based e-learning products for startups, conducting learning design consultations for organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston University, MIT Open Learning, MassChallenge, and LearnLaunch.
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Dr. Jiani loves to facilitate learning and enhance social connections, and she believes deeply that everyone comes to this earth with a mission - to harness natural and learned talents, and those of others, to benefit our planet and beyond. Her mission is to make such learning and transformation personal, engaging, and inspiring. Jiani obtained her doctoral degree in instructional design from Boston University.
STRATEGIST, TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPER
Stephan Fopeano
Stephan is an Emmy award-winning technology developer who has been working at the intersection of video, media, and technology for over 15 years. He is the president of Meliorist Technologies, a company that provides consulting and development services around data-driven applications.
His clients have included Disney Online, Veho Networks, and PeoleLink, a social media progenitor. Stephan has developed several media discovery and personalization solutions, including TVMentor for families and, currently, Strawz—a platform that facilitates the generation, management, and distribution of metadata for educational media.