Nice to meet you.
Our Focus
Crafting a personalized & proven approach to learning
- Matching every student to an appropriate certified teacher
- Fostering trust with a focus on relationships
- Creating customized, research-based learning plans
Focusing on empowerment & confidence
- Nurturing the Whole Child: academic and emotional
- Helping students, parents, and teachers to embrace challenge
- Celebrating shared values about education
Creating the tools for an ever-improving experience
- Designing reports for schools that increase transparency
- Developing resources for teachers that make their jobs easier
Our Team
Founders
Braintrust’s founders bring a combination of educational bonafides, demonstrated business acumen, and the laser-focused parental insights that come from raising 5 kids between them. Mara and Jen empathize with parents and teachers alike, and have the expertise to cleverly solve the most pressing problems facing educators and the families they support.
Jen Mendelsohn
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Jen loves nothing more than quarterbacking a business opportunity and spent 15+ years selling enterprise tech before Braintrust. Her professional development comes from cultivating relationships and bringing opportunities to fruition. Jen’s competitive spirit borders on the unhealthy, fortunately there is a charm to her relentlessness.
Mara Koffmann
Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer
Mara is a problem solver. She’s spent her entire professional career helping students and families understand and overcome their most difficult learning obstacles. No matter how seemingly intractable the problem, Mara relishes rolling up her sleeves and finding effective – and fun! – solutions that will help students achieve their full potential.
Sales Leadership
Our dynamic sales team members are seasoned professionals who are dedicated to shaping the future of education. We’re passionate about delivering innovative, high impact tutoring solutions that empower learning and growth. With a deep understanding of educational needs and a commitment to excellence, our team is here to make the best quality tutoring accessible to everyone, driving positive change in the world of learning.
Amy Ambatielos
Director of Educational Partnerships
Amy is an educator at heart. Before booking HGTV shows or producing CNN packages, she was a classroom teacher. Teaching through the pandemic, Amy became acutely aware of the overall gaps in students’ learning. She joined Braintrust to help close those gaps in schools and districts where the loss is most prevalent and the need for support is greatest.
Operations Leadership
Our operations team members are deeply experienced, customer-focused business operators. But, more important than our expertise is our empathy — our team members are parents, educators, and dedicated individuals who wake up each day thinking about how to improve the tutoring experience and build a better way.
Ivy Rasmusen
Director of Operations
Ivy is a veteran educator, entrepreneur, and businesswoman. After starting out her career as a teacher, she ran a successful business for 13 years until returning back to education after discovering first-hand how learning loss and reading deficiencies were affecting her son. She has deep experience in educational technology and has a knack for processes, organization and customer success.
Amy Agneta
Director of People
Amy proudly identifies as a “recruiting nerd,” with 19 years of experience in the field. With a background spanning from start-ups to large-scale corporations, Amy has led recruiting teams across diverse landscapes. When she’s not keeping up with industry trends, she enjoys unwinding through reading, exploring new culinary experiences, and embarking on travels.
Taren Latta
Tutor Recruitment and Success Lead
Jessica Lippman
Customer Success Manager
Jessica has navigated diverse roles within the education field, ranging from classroom teacher to senior leadership positions, hiring and training quality instructors for a multibillion-dollar company. She excels in maintaining seamless operations, optimizing educational experiences and nurturing top educators, and strongly believes in Braintrust’s mission to create exceptional learning environments.
Tranisha Maracalin-Burks
Customer Success Manager
Tranisha has over 15 years of professional experience in customer success and account management. She is a passionate advocate for enablement and training. Her background includes leading customer-centric initiatives, managing enterprise accounts, and developing scalable educational strategies. She thrives on empowering others through knowledge-sharing, process optimization, and impactful customer experiences.
Ashley Kulcsar
Tutor Support Lead
Ashley takes pride in helping others succeed. She has experience as a classroom teacher, and in the corporate world at an eBook company supporting schools to build their digital libraries and promote student reading. Ashley has a master’s degree in literacy, a background in the Science of Reading, and deeply appreciates how Braintrust’s values in helping students align with her own.
Development Leadership
Our exceptional development team is at the forefront of innovation. Our developers bring together cutting-edge technology and a deep understanding of the learning landscape to create a platform that’s tailored to the unique needs of our students, schools, and parents. Their commitment to excellence and a passion for making education accessible drive every line of code they write.
Rowan Gillson
Chief Technology Officer
Alex Heflin
Technical Team Lead
Alex is a deeply experienced senior software developer with a demonstrated history of working in technology-focused consulting and project leadership roles. Skilled in front end technologies, back end technologies, project management and web design, Alex brings 10+ years of experience and a passion for making a difference in the lives of the students we serve.
Annie Schultz
Senior UX/UI Designer
Board of Advisors
Our advisors are seasoned experts who provide us critical insights and advice to help us improve our programs, explore new opportunities and accelerate our growth by stimulating robust, high-quality conversation.
Jay Russell
Advisor
Dr. Russell is Executive Director of The Windward Institute, whose mission is to increase childhood literacy, and a Yale faculty member at the Yale Child Study Center. Previously, Jay served for 13 years as head of The Windward School and for 11 years as superintendent of schools in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. In 2019, he was named Distinguished Leader in Education by Education Update.
Dr. Brock Eide
Advisor
Dr. Eide is a leading expert in the fields of dyslexia and brain-based learning. He and his wife authored the internationally best-selling book The Dyslexic Advantage (2011) as well as The Mislabeled Child (2006); and founded the 501(c)3 non-profit Dyslexic Advantage, one of the world’s largest online dyslexia communities.
Peter Bencivenga
Advisor
Peter is an industry titan with deep edTech experience. Peter is CEO of PrepScholar, which provides personalized and effective online test preparation programs. Prior to PrepScholar, he taught high school for over a decade in New York City public schools and worked on technical integration initiatives for the NYCDOE before co-founding DataCation. He’s also held roles as Chief Academic Officer of IO Education and President of Operoo.
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