About ParentPowered
ParentPowered is a community of learners who are passionate about supporting families to ensure that all children have the opportunity to thrive in life.
Exciting News! Terri Soutor joins as ParentPowered CEO.
Our Team
Our team members bring together expertise in child development, family engagement, content and curriculum, product, technology, research, and leadership, with decades of experience serving millions of students across the country and beyond.
In addition to our core team, we are honored to work with a large set of nationally-recognized advisors to ensure our continuous improvement.
Felix Caballero
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Felix Caballero
Ray Garcia
Marketing Manager
Ray Garcia
Rebecca Honig
Chief Content and Curriculum Officer
Rebecca Honig
Rebecca is the Chief Content and Curriculum Officer at ParentPowered. She has authored numerous curricula, parent guides, and children’s storybooks for Sesame Workshop, Scholastic, Disney, Compass Learning, PBS, WGBH, HITN, Nickelodeon, Mo Willems, and The Norman Rockwell Museum. She has also served as a Curriculum and Content Specialist for Sesame Street and spent ten years teaching in public, private, and after school programs. Rebecca has a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street.
Weezie Hough
Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships
Weezie Hough
Weezie is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at ParentPowered. She has spent over a decade of her career cultivating and managing relationships that support financial sustainability and bolster social impact. Weezie has worked for businesses, public benefit corporations and nonprofits, including Giving Assistant, GreatSchools, and Sesame Workshop. She holds a B.A. in political science from Louisiana State University.
Natalie Johnsen
Partner Development Representative
Natalie Johnsen
Natalie has worked in Public Education for 15 years, first as a High School Registrar and later in the District Central Office of Data and Assessment. More recently, Natalie transitioned into sales and business development for Illuminate Education and later with Renaissance Learning. In this role, she consistently excelled by establishing genuine rapport, remaining curious and staying committed to the power of positive interaction. Natalie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from California State University, Northridge.
Francoise Lartigue
Director of Content
Francoise Lartigue
Francoise is the Director of Content at ParentPowered. She began her career teaching kindergarten in the South Bronx through Teach for America, and has ten years of experience working in both the public and private sector. Most recently, she worked with the Flying Cloud Institute to design and implement STEM and STEAM based units for elementary classrooms. Francoise has a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College.
Susanna Loeb
Academic Advisor
Susanna Loeb
Susanna is an Academic Advisor of ParentPowered, and a Professor of Education and International and Public Affairs at Brown University. She is also the Director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown, and was previously the Director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis at Stanford University. Susanna holds a doctorate in economics and a master of public policy from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor’s in political science and civil engineering from Stanford.
Shira Meadows
Partnership Development Representative
Shira Meadows
Shira holds a Bachelor of Arts from College of the Atlantic and a Masters of Education from Boston University.
Steve Midgley
Technical Advisor
Steve Midgley
Steve is a Technical Advisor of ParentPowered and a founder and managing director of Learning Tapestry, an educational innovation company. He has served in government as Deputy Director of Educational Technology at the US Department of Education, and as the Director of Education at the FCC. Steve also ran the technology consulting firm Mixrun, providing CTO services to organizations including the CA Department of Education, Pearson, Amplify, and the Gates Foundation. He holds a BA in Anthropology from UC Berkeley.
Matthew Nelson
Chief Operating Officer
Matthew Nelson
Matthew is Chief Operating Officer for ParentPowered. Before joining ParentPowered, Matthew served as president of GreatSchools. He began his career in education and social impact work in various operations leadership roles at Aspire Public Schools and Tides. Previously, Matthew spent several years in digital media as a co-founder of Organic and founding management team member of Wired magazine’s online venture, HotWired. Matthew has a B.A. from Earlham College and an MBA from The Wharton School.
Alex Nizamov
Senior Software Engineer
Alex Nizamov
Alex is the Senior Software Engineer at ParentPowered, responsible for the design, development, and maintenance of the technical side of the ParentPowered program. He is an IT specialist with a focus on web development, and has helped build numerous web apps and services. Alex holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI in Moscow, Russia.
Melissa Palmer
Chief Revenue Officer
Melissa Palmer
Palmer holds a Bachelor of Arts in Child Development from San Jose State University and a Master of Education in Applied Linguistics from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in Australia.
Adam Palmese
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Adam Palmese, Ed.S.
Adam is a Director of Strategic Partnerships at ParentPowered, who has been an advocate for underserved families and children through academic, MTSS and SEL evidence-based programs for over 30 years. Before joining ParentPowered, Adam served as a Title I elementary and high school teacher, a school administrator, and as a district administrator over Professional Development for school and district administrators throughout Florida. Over the last nine years, Adam supported school districts around the country as an educational consultant for different organizations, including McGraw Hill Education and Illuminate Education.
Adam holds a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood and Elementary Education from Barry University and both a Master of Science in Elementary Education and an Education Specialist degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University.
Kris Roberts
Partnership Development Representative
Kris Roberts
Kris holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Missouri Kansas City.
Heer Shaikh
Program Success Manager for Distance Learning
Heer Shaikh
Heer is the Program Success Manager for Distance Learning at ParentPowered. She began her career designing a mobile public education program for the government in Pakistan and teaching in underserved areas in Karachi. More recently, she worked as the Tech & Data Lead responsible for Pre-K for All Outreach in New York City. Heer has a Masters in Education Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Terri Lynn Soutor
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Terri Lynn Soutor
Prior to joining ParentPowered, Soutor served as CEO at FastBridge Learning where she scaled the company 45% year-over-year, reaching over 1.6M students and delivering over 25M assessments, earning the Company the rank of second fastest-growing private company in the Twin Cities (MN). Prior to FastBridge, Terri launched and led BrainHive, an ebook distribution platform for school libraries. She has also served in senior marketing leadership positions at Lerner Publishing Group and Edmentum.
Soutor holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from University of Hawaii and a Master of Science in Management from Troy University.
Mallary Swartz
Senior Director, Learning and Impact
Mallary Swartz
Mary Westervelt
Director of Marketing & Communications
Mary Westervelt
Mary is the Director of Marketing & Communications for ParentPowered PBC. She is passionate about helping great ideas take flight. A life-long member of the mission-driven entrepreneurial world, she has worked across industries and sectors, with the last 7 years in edtech. She holds an MBA in Managing for Sustainability from Marlboro College and a B.A. summa cum laude from the College of William & Mary in Anthropology.
Jon Witort
Chief Technology Officer
Jon Witort
Jon is the Chief Technology Officer of ParentPowered. A lifelong lover of technology, Jon spent his early career helping to build the mobile Internet, and most recently worked at Jawbone as a Software Architect helping people to take control of their fitness and health through award-winning wearable technology. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
Ben York
Founder and Board Member
Ben York
Ben is the founder of ParentPowered and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors. Prior to founding ParentPowered, he was the Executive Director of CEPA Labs at Stanford University. It was at Stanford where Ben and colleagues first studied the ParentPowered approach. His career spans education technology, education research, public education as an after school program manager, philanthropy, and finance. Ben has a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Colorado, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, as well as a Master of Arts in political science and a Ph.D. in education from Stanford. He enjoys spending his free time with his wife Shelly and daughters Ellie and Emma.
ParentPowered Family Workshop Crew
Meet the ParentPowered Crew, who help bring your ParentPowered tips to life! Want to learn more about ParentPowered Workshops? Start here.
Françoise Lartigue
Professor Eureka!
Francoise Lartigue
Françoise is the Content and Curriculum Specialist at ParentPowered. She has a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College and began her career teaching kindergarten in the South Bronx through Teach for America. Francoise has spent over a decade working in the public and private sector of education including designing and implementing STEM and STEAM based curricula in elementary classrooms.
The character Professor Eureka! combines her love of Science & Math with her passion for creating and inventing.
Julianna Luna
Señorita Luna
Julianna Luna
Julianna Luna is an Afro-Dominican actor, singer, and performer hailing from New York City and CT. Julianna studied vocal performance and dance at Hunter College in New York City. During her time in NYC she hosted and curated open mic shows called Wildfire Open Mic in the Lower East Side and Brooklyn, while having an acting career and singing lead in a funk band called the Simple Lovers. Julianna has been featured in productions shown on Netflix, HBO, and live theater productions. She is now finishing her degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and Arts Management at MCLA and will graduate in 2022.
Señoria Luna loves to learn through moving her body.
Kiya Mirmozaffari
Mr. Busypants
Kiya Mirmozaffari
Kiya is an educator, musician, writer, poet, little brother, big brother, son, husband, part-time-nuisance, AND Mr. Busypants, too. There are many more things he loves to do, and the driving force behind all of them is also the reason working in education matters: We live in a world full of wonder, and every child should have a real opportunity to explore and discover it.
Kiya studied at the University of Maryland to receive his BA in political science and M.Ed. He has worked with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, ParentPowered (Ready4K), and is am currently an ESOL teacher for Baltimore City Public Schools.
Kiya is honored to serve families as Mr. Busy Pants and sees every educator, parent, caregiver, and child as a valued member of this community.
Melissa Ferrer
The Big Fancy Word Lady
Melissa Ferrer
Melissa is a writer, poet, performer, musician and educator living in Kansas City, MO. She loves to read and uncover all the things that can help us remember how to be happy. She LOVES to find words for the things that are hard to say. So, she studies poetry in Randolph College’s MFA program and never runs away from tension! Most importantly, she loves to have fun, and smile as often as possible, and she loves to do that with you!!!
Rebecca Honig
Ms. Rebecca
Rebecca Honig
Rebecca is the Chief Content and Curriculum Officer for ParentPowered. She has numerous curricula, parent guides, and children’s storybooks for Sesame Workshop, Scholastic, Disney, Compass Learning, PBS, WGBH, HITN, Nickelodeon, Mo Willems, and The Norman Rockwell Museum. Her background also includes performing in New York and Boston theaters, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. She has voiced characters on dozens of nationally broadcast cartoons. Rebecca has a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street.
As Ms. Rebecca, she is always ready with her banjo and friends Popcorn, DJ Sound, (and more) to lead the ParentPowered Workshop Crew through an hour of learning fun.
Sunhwa Reiner
ParentPowered Workshop Producer
Sunhwa Reiner
Sunhwa is an educator, designer, musician, freelancer, and all around jack-of-all-trades. She started her educator’s journey with a degree in Music Education from Ithaca College and continued on to be a successful elementary and middle school teacher for several years. Currently, she is learning and growing through creative opportunities from freelancing and contracting with amazing companies such as ParentPowered. Sunhwa plans to continue helping the world become a better place, whether it’s through writing songs, teaching kids, creating effective graphics or resources for people, or baking warm and delicious cookies.
Want to join us?
We’re Hiring
ParentPowered PBC is hiring! If you’re interested in helping to build a rapidly-growing organization that is supporting families in new and innovative ways, check out our open positions.
(Joining the hikes is optional).
