Irvine, Calif., July 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The education nonprofit MIND Research Institute’s Board of Directors has named Brett Woudenberg as its new chief executive officer. Co-founder Matthew Peterson, Ph.D., will focus his efforts on innovation as the organization's new chief research & development officer.
Woudenberg most recently served as chief operating officer at MIND, successfully leading cross-functional teams to increase student and teacher access to MIND’s award-winning programs and services. MIND’s visual math program, ST (Spatial-Temporal) Math® currently helps over 1.2 million students and 44,000 teachers dive into deeper learning, increasing conceptual understanding and math proficiency scores across the nation.
“As we expected, Brett’s extensive industry knowledge and business experience have helped him lead the organization through rapid internal process improvements designed to accelerate the growth and impact of ST Math® across the country," said MIND Board of Directors chairman John Phelan.
"Confidence in Brett's leadership greatly influenced the Board's decision and my desire to refocus on my true passion of developing innovative and powerful learning solutions based on neuroscience," added Peterson. "Despite the impact we have already made in math education in this country, I feel we have barely scratched the surface. There are many remaining challenges and barriers to overcome in ensuring that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world's most challenging problems."
During Peterson's three-year tenure as CEO, MIND doubled the number of students it impacts in the classroom. Peterson also piloted successful programs outside the classroom such as family math nights, math fairs, math camps and game-a-thons, showing thousands of children, their families and the community that math is not only all around us, but exciting and fun as well.
"These and other research and development efforts will continue to solidify our leadership role in the education sector today and into the future," stated Woudenberg. "Matthew and the entire MIND team's passion and uncompromising dedication to transform education continue to inspire me, our board, and our philanthropic and education partners. I am extremely honored to be a part of this mission."
Prior to MIND, Woudenberg served as COO of Sapling Learning and later the STEM Group at Macmillan Learning, a top publisher with products serving secondary and post-secondary education markets. He was also COO at national online learning platform provider Gaggle, and President and CEO at Trailblazer Learning, an online professional development solution for K-12 schools. Woudenberg holds a bachelor's of business administration in finance from Grand Valley State University’s Seidman School of Business, and an MBA from University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management.
About MIND Research Institute
MIND Research Institute is a neuroscience and education social impact organization, dedicated to ensuring that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world’s most challenging problems. MIND is the creator of ST Math®, a visual instructional program that builds a deep conceptual understanding of math through rigorous learning and creative problem solving to deeply engage, motivate, and challenge Pre-K-8 students toward higher achievement. ST Math incorporates the latest in learning and the brain, promoting mastery-based learning and mathematical understanding. Longitudinal and broad-based studies across diverse population groups continue to demonstrate ST Math’s efficacy in building life-long learners prepared for success in STEM fields. ST Math currently reaches more than one million students and 44,000 teachers at 3,200 schools in 45 states. For more information, visit www.mindresearch.org.
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