Cecilia Lenk, PhD
CEO

Cecilia has joined her long-time colleagues, Paul and Peter H. Reynolds, founders of the award-winning education media firm FableVision, to launch BrainCogs. Cecilia brings rich experience in K-12 education, biopharma, and technology. She has more than 20 years of senior management experience in the development of commercially successful technology products, focusing on the integration of technology and science. Recognized as an innovative and strategic thinker who combines creativity with practicality, Cecilia was Vice President of Information Technology and Digital Design at Decision Resources, a global company serving biopharma. She was a key member of the senior leadership team responsible for the tremendous growth of the company.

Throughout her career, Cecilia has been committed to bringing together research in science, education and technology to help learners. “One of the most important things we can do is to provide people, whether children or adults, with the tools and strategies to help them learn throughout their lives. Research in the cognitive sciences is helping us to better understand the process of learning. We need to leverage that research and create easy-to-use, easy-to-access, engaging tools for schools and homes.”

Prior to Decision Resources, Cecilia was founder and president of Webivore Knowledge Systems, a developer and publisher of award-winning web-based products for K-12 schools, libraries, and researchers. Cecilia has also held senior positions at Tom Snyder Productions, the Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Technology, and TERC. Cecilia directed several multi-million dollar federally-funded projects, including a $10M MCET Star Schools Project, that brought fresh approaches to science teaching and learning in this country and abroad. She has worked closely with elected officials and government agencies, including testimony before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Education on the use of the Internet in K-12 education. She has led projects in collaboration with such leading institutions as the National Geographic Society, National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Institutes of Health, Harvard University, and Princeton University.Cecilia has a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University and a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University. She is a Town Councilor in Watertown MA and an officer of the Johns Hopkins Society of Engineering Alumni and JHU Executive Council.




Peter H. Reynolds
Founder

Peter H. Reynolds is a NY Times best-selling author and illustrator, a renowned public speaker, and the founder of FableVision, Inc., an award-winning educational multimedia company.

Best known as the author and illustrator of dozens of children’s books published in over 20 languages, Peter inspires kids and “grown up kids” with his messages about authentic learning, creativity, and self-expression. His books The Dot, Ish, and The North Star are popular in classrooms around the world. The Dot, Peter‘s signature book, encourages readers to be brave and “make their mark!” Peter also lends his charming illustrations to Alison McGhee’s Someday and Megan McDonalds’ Judy Moody series.

Peter’s newest book, Rose’s Garden, is dedicated to the late Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. It serves as a heart-warming celebration of community, nature, and faith. Senator Edward M. Kennedy writes, “Peter H. Reynolds poignantly captures my mother’s enduring spirit in Rose’s Garden. May this powerful story and my mother’s beautiful greenway plant fresh seeds of hope and service for generations to come.”

In 1996, Peter founded FableVision, Inc., a company dedicated to helping all learners reach their true potential. Now encompassing two divisions, FableVision Creative Studios and FableVision Learning, Peter’s company provides educational websites, games, software, and services.

Peter’s film and television work have garnered him an Emmy, the Carnegie Medal, and the Christopher Medal. Peter also travels the world as an inspirational public speaker, sharing his Five Challenges: Be Brave, Be Original, Be Inspired, Be Inspirational, and Be ACTIVE.

Peter states, “I am optimistic about a future where all children are encouraged to navigate their true potential. We have to be creative in the ways we reach all learners — to help them find their voice, be brave about expressing it, and be inspired to use their gifts to ‘make their mark.’“

Peter lives in Dedham, MA, where he founded The Dedham Square Circle, a downtown revitalization group. He is co-owner of the Heart of the Square Gallery and The Blue Bunny, his family-run children’s book and toy store.

For more information, visit www.peterhreynolds.com and www.fablevision.com.




Paul A. Reynolds
Founder

An internationally recognized leader in educational media, Paul is a co-founder of BrainCogs and CEO of FableVision. With his brother, Peter H. Reynolds, Paul has built FableVision into a multimillion-dollar, internationally recognized multimedia developer and publisher, with partnerships, strategic alliances and clients across many industries – broadcast, museum, institutional, K12, educational publishing, technology and research (PBS, Sesame Street, National Academy of Sciences, Pearson, Scott Foresman, Jim Henson Productions, KCET, Cisco Systems, MIT, Maryland Public TV, etc.).

Paul is committed to a learner-centric approach to education that requires we identify the unique spark in every individual, nurture that spark, protect that spark and reignite it if it goes out. “I think our most important mission is to make sure learners don’t give up on their own potential – and that demands some fundamental changes our current educational system – otherwise, it shouldn’t surprise us that we DO leave so many children behind.”

His avid interest in research led him to collaborate with Research Institute for Learning and Development to create the award-winning BrainCogs and Essay Express to bring evidence-based learning strategies into the classrooms nationwide. He also co-founded the Research Centre for Media Psychology, which looks at ways that media, storytelling and technology foster human potential and well-being across the age span. RCMP is a collaboration between FableVision and Fielding Graduate University, as well as faculty from Harvard, Oxford and UCLA.

Paul also continues to teach digital media production at Boston College, where he has been inspiring students for nearly two decades. A life-long learner as well as educator, Paul also completed his graduate degree studies at Pepperdine University in educational technology, with a focus on virtual communities of practice and storytelling for transformational and systemic change.




Michele Norman
VP Education Strategy & Advocacy

Michele Norman is Vice President of Education Strategy & Advocacy for FableVision, the award-winning Boston-based multimedia design and development firm committed to education reform and social change through positive media, storytelling and technology.

With more than twenty years of experience in education and technology policy and planning in D.C. as well as at the state and local level, Michele serves as a liaison between FableVision's media and technology development studio and its Learning Group, which provides technology tools and professional development services to K-12 schools worldwide. In addition to helping advance FableVisions's strategic ventures, Michele works to secure grant, philanthropic, corporate and government funding to expand the scope and scale of the company's tools and resources that promote academic achievement through creativity in teaching and learning. Michele also aims to increase FableVision's visibility and profile in state and national education policy circles.

Most recently, Michele served in the Deval Patrick Administration as the Director of Strategic Planning and Collaboration for state Education Secretary Paul Reville where she led the Office's collaborations with other state Executive Offices and helped launch, develop and drive the agenda of the Readiness Cabinet, the Governor's Child and Youth Development Cabinet. Michele also served as the Acting CIO for the Executive Office of Education. Before serving in the Executive Office, Michele was Policy Director in the Office of the Governor's Special Advisor for Education where she directed the Readiness Project and co-authored the Governor's Education Action Agenda, Ready for 21st Century Success (June 2008).

Prior to working for Governor Patrick, Michele was sole proprietor of her own strategic communications firm and worked for nearly a decade with the D.C. law firm Preston, Gates, Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds. She was a features writer for Converge Magazine and throughout her career has worked for leading companies and organizations including PBS, Microsoft, Smarthinking, CEO Forum on Education and Technology, National School Boards Association, Computer Systems Policy Project, the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, and others.