Dr. Phil Esbrandt

President & CEO

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Rutgers University, Montclair State University, and Temple University

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Dr. Phil Esbrandt has dedicated his career to improving the performance of organizations and people within them. He has performed as a teacher, high school principal, and district superintendent of two school districts in NJ and PA. He has served as Executive Director for School Services at Foundations, Inc. where he was responsible for the creation of over 100 charter schools in twenty states, and the delivery of performance improvement services to over 200 district and charter schools from 1998 to 2005, on average 40 schools/year. 

 

While serving as superintendent, Esbrandt became Chairperson of the Education Focus Group of Quality New Jersey (QNJ) for almost two decades, QNJ developed and delivered quality improvement programs and training to representatives of manufacturing, service, healthcare, government, education, environment, and military sectors of the economy improving employee performance and the products and services of organizations. 

 

Dr. Esbrandt taught over 25 years in graduate level programs, preparing teachers, principals, and superintendents to be innovative leaders. He was selected by the New Jersey Association of School Administrators (NJASA) to mentor and coach candidates for their superintendent certifications in New Jersey during the 2008-2016 time period.

 

In 1998 and 1999, Dr. Esbrandt led a team of consultants engaged in a year-long comparative study of school performance quality in four suburban Philadelphia school districts. The study included benchmarking exercises across multiple performance quality indicators in 35 common district and school departments, compared to the state’s best performing districts and schools.

 

Dr. Esbrandt tied together his formal academic preparation, particularly his doctoral dissertation from Temple University, "The Effects of Congressional Appropriations Committees upon Educational Research Policy," with his principal and superintendent experiences; his graduate teaching and coaching knowledge; his leadership in the quality and charter school movements; and his research and writings on leadership, organizational behavior, and performance improvement to guide the development of the Clinical Practice Model in Education and VitalInsight™ technology.

 

Esbrandt and Hayes, partners in the development of VitalInsight, pursue collaborative relationships with districts, schools, and healthcare organizations to generate data for effective decision-making, implement well-organized strategic plans, provide faculty and staff training, and monitor practices and outcomes to make performance improvement a normal and daily successful experience.  

Dr. Bruce Hayes

VP & Project Director

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Union College, Colgate University, University of Pennsylvania

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Bruce has been involved in the study and application of educational reform and organizational development strategies on five continents. He began his international experience as an AFS student in Japan where he attended OKAKO High School. He earned his B.A. at Union College, his M.A.T. at Colgate University, and his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. As an undergraduate, he studied at the University of Bogota in Colombia. He has participated in post-graduate activities at several universities, including Oxford, Kyoto, Saitama, and Tokyo,

 

He began his career as a teacher, coach, and administrator in public schools.  He served for twenty years as the Superintendent of Schools for two public school districts. During that same twenty years he served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, Lehigh University, and at Arcadia University where he received the prestigious award as the student selected outstanding professor. 

 

Hayes is co-author, with Phil Esbrandt, of Curing Student Underachievement: Clinical Practice for School Leaders. Hayes and Esbrandt wrote a four-year case study of the success of the clinical practice model, published as “Beyond Compliance to Performance Improvement,” School Administrator magazine, AASA, August 2014. He also co-authored a summary of studies related to the data generated by VitalInsight™ technology, “Best Practices Emerging from COVID-19” for School Administrator in 2020.

 

Hayes has done extensive research, writing, and consultation for organizations in education, business, law enforcement, government, Tribal Affairs, international education reform, school desegregation, and leadership.

 

He is co-developer of VitalInsight technology.

Dr. Julie Carter

Director of Technology

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Hamline University

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Dr. Julie Carter has worked in the education and technology space for over two decades, the first 15 of which were spent in public education. During her tenure, she earned recognition from the Apple Distinguished Educator Program, was named as Tech & Learning’s Leader of the Year for her innovative use of technology and as one of 20 to Watch by the National School Board Association (NSBA). She received her Masters and Doctorate from Hamline University, focusing on education leadership and technology. Dr. Carter co-founded GreyED Solutions in 2014 to support districts and educational technology providers on their journeys towards using technology to favorably impact educators and students. She has successfully worked with school districts and educational technology providers around the country on product design and software development with a focus on learner impact. She leads the project team for product design and development of newly created applications, overseeing the technical architecture and software development for all products.
 

Gregory Kowalski

Advisory Board

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Manager-Advisory Services

Ernst & Young

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Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, and McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University

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​Greg Kowalski is an executive with Ernst & Young specializing in large, complex business transformation with over 20 years of experience supporting public and private sector clients across the United States, Europe, Middle East, and China. He supports leaders as they drive needed change, innovation, and outcomes across their organizations from defining strategy and decision-making processes, to technology enabled execution, and outcome realization. Greg emphasizes people-centered change while helping organizations identify emerging technologies that will deliver outcomes and measured value over ordinary outputs. His public sector clients include the City of Baltimore, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, US Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Labor, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Education Office of Federal Student Aid, Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, State of California, State of Oklahoma, Transportation Security Administration, USAID, and other commercial organizations across the technology, aerospace, life sciences and power and utilities industries. He holds a BS in Engineering from Cornell University, a MA in History and Politics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a MBA from Georgetown University.

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Geoffrey Kowalski

Advisory Board

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Chief Revenue Officer, On The Spot Media | Head of Growth, TVIQ

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Cornell University, Smeal School of Business of Pennsylvania State University

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Geoff Kowalski is a veteran media executive with over two decades of experience leading revenue strategy, distribution, and monetization across broadcast, digital, and streaming platforms. He currently serves as Chief Revenue Officer at On The Spot Media (OTSM), a premier provider of creative delivery, content syndication, and IP transport solutions for top-tier media clients.

In parallel, Geoff is the Head of Growth at TVIQ, the global leader in CTV Ad Operations, managing over 15 billion daily CTV impressions. He plays a pivotal role in scaling TVIQ’s digital advertising marketplace, empowering publishers with transparent monetization, compliant integrations, and performance-driven demand. Under his leadership, TVIQ has become the trusted back-end for leading FAST channels, app publishers, and smart TV platforms.

Geoff is known for bridging the legacy broadcast world with emerging digital ecosystems, bringing together technology, data, and premium content to drive measurable revenue growth for publishers and advertisers. 

A graduate of Cornell University with an MBA from the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University, Geoff brings a thoughtful, partnership-driven approach to leadership. His expertise in revenue transformation, media distribution, and marketplace innovation positions him as a valuable strategic advisor and board contributor for companies navigating media convergence, ad tech disruption, and scaled monetization.

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Jessica Ker

Advisory Board

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Houzz

Sales Operations Systems Manager

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University of Southern California

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Agnieska Osinska

Advisory Board

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Teacher of English as a Second Language, Fairfax Public Schools, Virginia

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Arcadia University, Pennsylvania State University

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Teri Olsen Spina

Advisory Board

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Sienna College