Steve Amos, Founder and President. Steve has over 25 years of international and US marketing and advertising experience, Steve founded 4empowerment with a vision to make a positive difference in the lives of individuals, the community, and the environment. He conceived and developed Cyberways & Waterways®, an online education program integrating classroom studies, hands on field activities and the Internet. Steve developed partnerships with school districts to obtain $5.0 million in grants by the Texas Department of Education. He was included as a "Shapers of the Future" in the August/September 2002 edition of "Converge", an educational technology publication.
Prior to starting 4empowerment, Steve was the vice president of interactive marketing and an account director for GSD&M (Omnicon) advertising agency responsible for clients including Lennox Industries, Pennzoil, CellularOne (Chicago & Washington DC), Southwestern Bell Cellular (Dallas) and Texas Tourism. He has managed annual budgets exceeding $20 million and consistently developed effective advertising and marketing programs for clients resulting in increased sales and market share, and his work has been recognized with over 70 advertising and marketing awards. Steve's background includes advertising account management with Lintas:New York and international marketing positions with Textron.
He has an M.B.A. from Wake Forest University and a BA from Florida State University. Steve is involved with the LBJ Library Future Forum, active in local community organizations and is an avid scuba diver.
Quenton Russell Dokken, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes wise utilization and conservation of the Gulf of Mexico and its wealth of resources. He is also the Associate Director of the Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi Center for Coastal Studies and the former Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Gulf of Mexico Regional Marine Research Program. Prior to these positions, Dr. Dokken was the Executive Director of the Texas State Aquarium.
As a marine scientist, Dr. Dokken has an extensive publication record relating to the study of the ecosystems and fauna of the Gulf of Mexico. As Executive Director of the Gulf of Mexico Regional Marine Research Program, he lead his professional peers in the development of marine research priorities for the Gulf of Mexico in the face of declining research dollars. He is the founder and coordinator of the Flower Garden Ocean Research Program, which integrates the efforts of institutional science and the offshore oil and gas industry to expand opportunities for marine research in the most cost effective manner.
Since 1999, Dr. Dokken has been involved with 4empowerment, and the Cyberways and Waterways® program, providing guidance and expertise in education, scientific issues and assisting in teacher professional development programs. He played a unique role in helping organize the "Rivers to Ocean" webcast with BP and Texas Parks and Wildlife. Quenton served as the guest scientist interacting with students in real-time, through satellite and Internet technology, at a depth of 77 feet, under and oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
Dr. Dokken earned his B.S degree from Texas A&I University, his M.S. in Biology at Corpus Christi State University and his Doctorate in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from Texas A&M University.
Martha Gimbut is the principle of Gimbut and Associates, a business strategy and management- consulting firm. She has been a senior executive with over 24 years of diverse experience in sales, marketing, development, strategic planning, and services for information technology and high-tech start up companies. She spent 22 years with IBM Corporation holding positions in sales, product development and support, marketing, strategic planning, finance and services. During her tenure at IBM, she launched IBM's entry into the OEM business for SW resulting in first year revenues of 300% of plan. In addition, she created and launched the customer support model for PC software and launched IBM's entry into the fee product support business, including establishing the appropriate market price and working with IBM developers, IBM sales, business partners and customers to ensure high customer satisfaction during and after the transition to fee support. Ms. Gimbut was the Vice President, Sales Technical Support, IBM Software Group for Europe, Middle East and Africa where she designed and launched the geographic technical support model for Europe, which included IBM and business partner channels. In the positions, she dramatically improved productivity, CRM results and customer and business partner satisfaction with IBM technical support.
In 2000, Ms. Gimbut established Gimbut and Associates and has worked with start-ups on their business strategy, management system, product, pricing and funding plans. In addition, she has conducted the Cyberways and Waterways® Technology Integration in Education grant evaluation and assessment in 2000 for the Texas Education Agency.
Martha has a B.S., Systems Analysis with honors from Miami University. She attended the University of Chicago M.B.A. program while she lived in Chicago.
Anita Kopec is the founder and president of Educational Consulting Services, Inc., an educational consulting firm that focuses on the convergence of education and technology. Prior to Educational Consultants, Ms. Kopec served as CEO of Steck-Vaughn, the world's second-largest publisher of supplementary educational materials serving the elementary through high school, adult education, public and school library, bookstore and home education markets. She has also worked at Computer Curriculum Corporation as Vice President of Product Planning and Strategic Alliances, as well as Vice President of Curriculum Development. In addition, Ms. Kopec spent 12 years at Macmillan/McGraw-Hill School Division where she held the positions of Vice President, Director of Product Marketing along with Managing and Senior Editor. Ms. Kopec is currently a frequent speaker at Education and Software Conferences across the United States and is also on the Board of Directors for Giggles, Inc. and part of the Education Foundation Advisory Council at the University of Texas.
Anita works with 4empowerment in strategic educational issues and program development.
Mark Melliar-Smith, Ph.D. joined Austin Ventures in 2002 as a venture partner supporting the semiconductor investment segment. Prior to joining Austin Ventures, Mark was the CEO of International Sematech, and before that, the chief technology officer of Lucent Microelectronics. He also worked with Bell LaB.S. as the executive director of the Photonics and Electronic Devices division, and was the founding vice president and general manager of the AT&T Technology Systems Lightwave business unit.
Mark assists 4empowerment in strategic business issues.
He holds B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from Southampton University in England, and an M.B.A. from Rockhurst College in Kansas City. Mark is involved in numerous organizations including Capital IDEA, an education initiative for unemployed/underemployed adults.
Mary Schenck-Ross is an early pioneer and visionary from the educational technology field. She produced the first educational consumer "learning through play" software in the late 70's along with helping Texas Instruments create the first "home computer". After leading product development for The Learning Company and founding several software companies, Mary founded Adaptive Learning Technology, Inc., a University of Texas Austin Technology Incubator company, which was acquired by the software company, Ignite!, in July 2000. As Chief Design Officer at Ignite!, she led product development, creating a platform of project-based frameworks and media-rich custom content for individualized learning for the Middle School market as well as inventing the patented Adaptive Learning methodology.
With more than 25 years of business experience having founded a successful advertising agency, two educational software publishers and a software development firm, she is uniquely equipped to strategize and champion technology, art, cognitive psychology and business-integrated solutions. Mary's other three companies she founded or co-founded have produced numerous award-winning products for Disney, Sesame Street, The Learning Company, Microsoft, Mister Rogers, Bantam Books and McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Mary assists 4empowerment in education strategy and development issues.
Betty Stapp, Ph.D. is the Director of the Liberal Arts and Science Academy of Austin and past-president of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology. Before joining the Austin Independent School District, Dr. Stapp was the principal of the Arkansas School for Mathematics and Science where she was the academic administrator for the residential school for talented and gifted high school students. She has developed curricula, planned facilities, served as grant specialist for the Dallas Independent School district and excelled in both school and administrative roles in both academic and specialized (health care) schools in small and large school districts across Texas
Dr. Stapp directed the first year of the Cyberways and Waterways® program for the Austin Independent School District and continues to provide professional expertise for the program.
Dr. Stapp has her B.S. in Medical Technology for North Texas State University, a Masters in Vocational Education from East Texas State University and earned her Doctorate in Adult and Continuing Education from Texas Women's University.
Barbara ten Brink, Ph.D. is the Science Instructional Specialist in the Department of Curriculum with Austin Independent School District. She is also the Director of the Austin Area Science Fair & Festival and past President of the Texas Science Education Leadership Association. Previously, she served as a program specialist for the Texas Education Agency specializing in science and math. She has also consulted with Harcourt School Publishers and served as adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
Dr. ten Brink directed the second year of the Cyberways and Waterways® program as the Science Director for the Round Rock Independent School District (considered to be one of the most progressive districts in Texas) and oversaw the expansion of the program across the state of Texas, providing expertise in program development initiatives.
Claire Ellen Weinstein, Ph.D. is the professor and chair of the doctoral concentration in learning, cognition and instruction and director of the cognitive learning strategies project at the Department of Educational Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin. She is an internationally renowned author and speaker on the subject of strategic learner, with over 125 professional publications and 200 presentations. Co-developer of the LASSI learning tests used in over 80% of US colleges and universities and translated into 30 languages. Dr. Weinstein is on the editorial board of four major professional journals and was recently honored as a visiting professor at the University of Haifa in Israel and the Chinese National Academy of Science in Beijing. She received the outstanding contributions award from the International Association of Applied Psychology, division of educational, instructional and school psychology and was appointed to the Advisory Council for Education, Grammy Foundation (formerly the National Academy of Recoding Arts and Sciences Foundation). In 2001, Dr. Weinstein was elected as a Fellow of the American Council of Development Education Associations.
Dr. Weinstein lends her expertise in development of 4empowerment's education products and services and assisting in ongoing program evaluation and improvement support.
Yee-Ping Wu is CEO, President, and co-founder of knoa Corp in New York City. Ms. Wu raised investment money, and established M-Pen, Inc. (now knoa Corp.) in 1987 to bring creative, innovative technology to the market. Ms. Wu is noted for having grown M-Pen into a dynamic and profitable company and recognized as a pioneer in the Multimedia industry. M-Pen successfully launched numerous products including Time Warner's broadband Road Runner Incrediville, the top-selling "evergreen" Scholastic's The Magic School Bus™ CD-ROM series in conjunction with Microsoft Corporation and Scholastic Inc., producer of a 35-disk enhanced-CD music series, and developed fifteen-plus CD-ROM titles available in multiple languages and delivery platforms.
Ms. Wu built strategic alliances with many global partners including Fujitsu, Microsoft, Paramount, Sony and Time Warner. With knoa Corp, Ms. Wu repositioned the Company for success in the enterprise market. knoa's software helps enterprises accurately establish application and user performance metrics as well as deliver productivity solutions, on the live application and in real time, to target users.
Ms. Wu was 4empowerment's initial advisor and continues to lend her business, technology and education expertise in guiding the company's development.
Ms. Wu is a graduate of Juilliard and has been a concert pianist since childhood. Yee-Ping's many achievements and awards include the AWIB Entrepreneurial Achievement Award, Crain's Top 40 under 40, NYWA Star 2000 and Award for Excellence in Science and Technology from NY's Mayor Giuliani. Accomplishments have also been recognized in many publications, including Business Week, Wired and The New York Times.
