Deep expertise.
Embedded in the field.
2gnoMe operates with a focused, product-driven core team — and is deliberately embedded in a wide network of working educators, district leaders, and policy experts who shape every decision we make.
Small by design. Deep by choice.
We made a deliberate decision early: stay lean at the core, stay close to the field. That means a product and technical team with real depth — supported by educators, administrators, and policy leaders who are active in classrooms and district offices, not just advisory boards.
Product and technical depth
2gnoMe's core team handles product design, platform development, customer success, and strategic partnerships. The people building 2gnoMe are the same people talking to principals on Monday and shipping code on Friday. That proximity to the problem is what makes the platform work.
Educators, leaders, and policy experts
Our extended network includes working educators, district and school administrators, state education agency leaders, and EdTech policy veterans — people who see the problems 2gnoMe is solving from the inside. Their feedback doesn't go into a report; it goes directly into the platform.
Who we are.
Founders, operators, educators, and field experts — brought together by the same conviction that professional growth for teachers should be personal, evidence-based, and continuous.
Background
Ilya founded 2gnoMe after spending two decades in enterprise technology — including leading the global cloud program at Dell Software — and seeing how the tools organizations use to grow their people consistently fail the people themselves. He built 2gnoMe to solve a specific problem: the professional growth cycle for teachers was fragmented, inconsistent, and disconnected from evidence of actual practice.
He's a frequent speaker at education technology events, where he talks about what it actually looks like to personalize professional learning at scale — and what responsible AI in education should require. He lives with his family in New York City.
Background
Richard brings more than 30 years of senior leadership across some of the most consequential education policy organizations in the country. As Director of Education at The Wallace Foundation, he oversaw a $300 million initiative across 24 states focused on school leadership quality — one of the largest investments in educator effectiveness in U.S. history. As Division Director of Education at the National Governors Association, he worked directly with governors and state teams to implement large-scale education reforms, including work on teacher evaluation and human capital systems that directly informed what 2gnoMe was built to solve.
Richard holds an MBA and an MPP from the University of Chicago, and has published and presented widely on education leadership, standards, and the education-to-workforce pipeline. At 2gnoMe, he connects the platform to the state and district policy landscape — and ensures that what we build is grounded in what research actually says works.
Associate Superintendent, Archdiocese of Portland
Background
Amy Jefferis is Associate Superintendent and Director of Academic Excellence for the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon — an active school system leadership role that gives 2gnoMe unfiltered visibility into the realities facing Catholic school networks. She has more than twenty years of experience in education, including classroom teaching in both public and Catholic schools, and leadership as a vice-principal and principal at the elementary and middle school levels.
In her current role, Amy manages professional development, teacher growth, standardized testing, and federal funding for the Department of Catholic Schools, and leads the Curriculum Committee. Her direct connection to the day-to-day challenges of diocesan school leadership — and her deep familiarity with how 2gnoMe performs in a system-of-schools context — makes her one of the platform's most grounded and consequential voices.
Executive Director of Exceptional Student Services, Eagle County Schools
Background
Troy Lange is Executive Director of Exceptional Student Services at Eagle County Schools in Colorado, and a former Executive Director of Colorado River BOCES — the organization where he implemented one of 2gnoMe's most distinctive use cases: an alternative licensure program serving teacher candidates across dispersed rural and urban districts. Troy's work with 2gnoMe was born from a specific, practical problem: how do you deliver individualized, high-quality professional development to teachers who are spread across a large geography, entering teaching through non-traditional paths, and already in classrooms on day one?
Troy spent 13 years as a school psychologist before moving into educational administration at Mountain BOCES and then Colorado River BOCES, where he oversaw gifted and special education and built out the alternative licensure program. His grounded, practitioner-first perspective keeps 2gnoMe honest about what the platform needs to do in the field — not just on paper.
Background
Jill Abbott spent more than 20 years as a leader and visionary in education technology, most notably as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of the Education Technology Industry Network (ETIN) at SIIA — the principal trade association for the software and EdTech industries. At SIIA, she built strategic vision, championed equity and inclusion across the EdTech community, and held a seat at the table for virtually every major policy conversation in K-12 technology over two decades.
She now leads Abbott Advisor Group, a consulting firm focused on the intersection of education and technology. Jill brings 2gnoMe a perspective that is simultaneously inside the EdTech industry — its business models, its players, its policy environment — and deeply focused on what actually moves the needle for learners. Her counsel shapes how 2gnoMe positions itself in a crowded market and builds partnerships that last.
Former State Director of Educational Technology, Michigan
Background
Bruce Umpstead served as Michigan's State Director of Educational Technology and Data Coordination from 2007 to 2013 — one of the most consequential state EdTech leadership roles in the country during a period of major investment in statewide technology infrastructure. He subsequently worked in EdTech data analytics consulting, including at Brightbytes, before joining IMS Global Learning Consortium to engage State Education Agencies on data interoperability and standards adoption at scale.
Bruce brings 2gnoMe expertise that is rare at the intersection of state policy, data standards, and scalable EdTech deployment. He understands what it takes for a platform to work not just for one district, but across an entire state — and what state agencies need to see before they commit. That perspective has directly shaped how 2gnoMe thinks about statewide implementation, interoperability, and data infrastructure.
EdTech Coach & Administrator, NEW EdTech LLC
Background
Jason Schmidt is an experienced education technology instructor, coach, and administrator whose work spans K-12 districts across Nebraska and the Midwest. Through NEW EdTech LLC, he works with school and district leaders on the practical side of EdTech implementation — helping educators and instructional coaches actually use tools in ways that change classroom practice, not just add another layer of process. He is also an author, having written on MTSS implementation and data-driven decision-making for school leaders.
Jason's value to 2gnoMe is ground-level and immediate: he sees how technology lands for teachers and coaches in real classrooms, what adoption actually requires, and where well-intentioned platforms fall short. His perspective keeps 2gnoMe focused on the end user — not the administrator who buys the platform, but the educator who has to find it useful enough to open every week.
A platform co-designed with the field.
2gnoMe's most important features didn't come from a product roadmap. They came from conversations with principals, coaches, curriculum directors, and state agency leaders who told us what wasn't working — and what would. That collaboration is ongoing.
District and school leaders
Principals, instructional coaches, and curriculum directors across 18 states use 2gnoMe and shape how it evolves. Their feedback is the closest thing we have to a product spec.
State agency partners
State education agency leaders who've implemented 2gnoMe at scale — including Idaho's statewide deployment — inform how the platform handles the complexity of multi-district environments.
Framework and research partners
Our partnership with The Danielson Group keeps 2gnoMe grounded in the research on instructional quality. Their AI validation and ongoing collaboration ensures the platform reflects best practice — not just best intentions.
Want to connect?
2gnoMe serves thousands of teachers and leaders across 18 states and 5 countries — and we're actively building the next chapter. We welcome inquiries about partnerships, speaking opportunities, and thought leadership collaborations.
Get in touch →