Meet a Marble
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Pam Garner
Director of Mathematics
Pam oversees Six Red Marbles’ Mathematics projects, ensuring that they meet and even exceed client standards—and always get delivered right on time. She also hires, trains and mentors the editors and project managers who work with her every day. Pam brings 30 years of experience in education. For 15 years, she worked at major textbook publishers. And she taught secondary math for 15 years—giving her a frontline perspective on what kids need in education today.
Pam has kissed Danny DeVito, wrapped toilet paper around Dale Evans’ house, babysat for Matthew McConaughey, and gotten email from Billy Idol.
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Steve Berger
Chief Financial Officer
Steve oversees Six Red Marbles’ global financial strategy—as well as the day-to-day realities of tax compliance, information services, Human Resources and facilities functions. With over 20 years of financial experience, he brings a strong POV. Lots of CFOs choose to work behind the scenes and just focus on the numbers. But Steve interacts daily with investors, partners and clients—keeping everyone up to speed on what those numbers mean for education and kids.
In his free time, Steve enjoys competitive tennis and is an avid DIY-er. He also has a serious sweet tooth for a Baltimore delicacy: Berger cookies.
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Marie L. Brown
President, Chief Academic Officer
Marie is the editorial face of Six Red Marbles. And over her 30 years in the industry, she’s developed a spotless reputation. Marie is the proud founder of Brown Publishing Network. This full-service educational program development company was named one of the top 100 Women-Led Businesses in MA from 2003-2008 by Babson College and the Commonwealth Institute. When it comes to learning, Marie’s passion, love of kids and leadership are unsurpassed.
While teaching at a Department of Defense school in Germany, Marie joined a singing group that performed at military venues…and fulfilled her fantasy of living like her alter ego, Joan Baez.
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Joanne Markow
Chief Operating Officer
Joanne is responsible for “Making it Happen,” ensuring the success of every project by bringing together the right mix of marbles, processes, and tools. Joanne has spent 17 years in K-college educational technology spearheading change—to bring next-generation learning to America’s schools and universities. An advocate for cross-cultural exchanges, Joanne received her Master's from Harvard, where she studied anthropological perspectives on cognition.
When she's not burning the midnight oil on Six Red Marbles projects, Joanne figure skates competitively, sky dives and enjoys bizarre travel expeditions.
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Julio Ricardo Varela
Editorial Director, Reading/Language Arts
Julio is a fearless editorial leader for Reading/Language arts, with 20 years of development and publishing experience. At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (where he took on multiple leadership roles), he led the first fully electronic workflow in the School Division. With his own companies, v5 LLC and Publish, he helped clients from Pearson to Encyclopedia Britannica embrace new media and technology. This marble is reimagining the learning industry—and public education.
j.varela@sixredmarbles.comJulio freely admits to a maniacal passion for sports, especially the Red Sox, Knicks, Arsenal, Barcelona and Patriots. For the record, he shed his allegiance to the Yankees in the 90s.
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Sarah White
President
The “Rabble Rouser,” Sarah has steered Six Red Marbles through dramatic changes. In 1996, she founded the company with an ambitious goal: to collaborate with educational publishers and bring bold, creative technology products to life. She assembled a multi-disciplinary team whose experience spanned education, publishing and software development (the aforementioned “rabble”). And today, she and her passionate team create products that inspire learners everywhere.
Sarah's “body clock” runs from 4:30AM to about 9:30PM. She doesn't rise with the birds...she wakes them up.
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Todd Mahler
Director of Product Development
Over the past 12 years, Todd's experiences at Six Red Marbles have ranged from business development to managing projects to developing superior applications. He brings an extraordinarily broad view of the K-12 industry. And he works closely with clients to analyze their needs and oversee the complete architecture, design and engineering of their technology products. He has a BA in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Villanova and an EdM from Harvard.
Todd is also an all-star player in multiple sports—softball, basketball and tennis. But his two Jack Russell terriers can easily outrun him.
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Bonnie Dobkin
Executive Director of Humanities
Bonnie is an undisputed expert in words, writing and education. And every day, she helps conceptualize and develop print/digital programs for Six Red Marbles clients. Bonnie started out as a teacher. Then, in 1979, she stormed the world of educational publishing. As VP and Editorial Director for Language Arts at McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin, she led development of several flagship programs (leading to big increases in market share). She’s also a well-published author.
Bonnie has written, directed and performed in musicals since age seven. Her love of all things theatrical led to 15 minutes of fame in 2004, when she appeared on the reality show Mad Mad House.
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Susan Freeman
VP of Business Development
Susan works one-on-one with Six Red Marbles clients to identify students’ needs and create inventive, natural-learning solutions—for early childhood through higher ed. It’s no small feat. But Susan brings 20 years’ experience developing and delivering award-winning products with companies like MacMillan/McGraw-Hill, GGS Creative Resources/PreMedia Global and Bill Smith Group. Savvy and creative, this is one marble that can roll with the big boys (and girls).
Susan speaks fluent Spanish, French and Italian. She’s not only a sought-after development partner, but a really fun dinner date.
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Mark Grayson
Executive Director of STEM
Mark heads up Six Red Marbles’ efforts in STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (or, as he likes to joke, “Everything But Reading”). Educators recognize STEM as critical for ensuring America’s competitive edge. So every day, Mark provides his management, vision, and perspective to help America’s kids rise to the challenge. He brings 20 years of experience in creating innovative curriculum materials. And he shows no signs of slowing down.
Mark is very proud of his science-based tie collection. He enjoys closely observing the politics of the Texas State Board of Education, and he wishes he could juggle.
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Roy O’Neill
Director of Information Technology
Roy is Six Red Marbles’ systems integration and infrastructure specialist, responsible for “All Things IT.” With 15 years of experience in the industry as everything from a Desktop Technician to his current leadership role, Roy is an IT lifer. He’s particularly proud of his experience and talent in web application design and development. He taught a class on web design applications for four years, and his course material was submitted through the State of Florida.
Roy enjoys taking his family on geocaching outings—outdoor treasure hunts powered by GPS devices. He will, however, go acoustic…when his baby girl wants him at her tea party.
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Robin Brandenburg
Director of Momentum and Innovation
Robin unearths important research and shares it with Six Red Marbles teams to support product development. She also lends her creative direction to many processes and projects. Like so many marbles, Robin is a former teacher with insights aplenty from education’s front lines. And with extensive experience in publishing to boot, she’s perfectly positioned to keep Six Red Marbles at the forefront of learning innovation.
r.brandenburg@sixredmarbles.com
Robin is an education lifer. She earned her BA in Early Childhood and Elementary Education and her Master’s in Educational Leadership/Education and Educational Training Management.
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Stephanie Muller
Managing Director of Reading/Language Arts
Stephanie directs the development of Reading/Language Arts projects, and also hires, trains and mentors editors and project managers. With over 20 years of experience in educational publishing, she’s a force to be reckoned with—and an invaluable resource. She began her career at Steck-Vaughn. She went on to create a new instructional division for Peoples Education. And then she became a star player for Brown Publishing Network, which became Six Red Marbles.
Stephanie was awarded the Association of Educational Publisher’s prestigious Golden Lamp award in June, 2003. And she’s still proud.
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John Kenney
Senior VP of Business Development
John is in charge of expanding Six Red Marbles’ business and building strong, substantial relationships with clients. He bolsters the company’s presence in the market—letting educators, school systems and publishers know just what Six Red Marbles can do to help them succeed. John has been with the company for seven successful years. Previously, he worked in financial services. But like so many other marbles, he started out in education as a teacher.
When he’s not rolling around the office, John has his hands full raising three young boys. He coaches both soccer and lacrosse—and loves his family time.
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Nancy Garrity
Director of Learning Design
Nancy steers conceptual/content design and development of technology-based projects—bringing broad educational, editorial and technical experience. She’s worked in elementary ed. She was part of the Scholastic editorial team that developed WiggleWorks. She explored production at Media Circus, Time Warner (ParentTime) and Tumble Interactive. Then she became part of Brown Publishing Network. She has a Master’s in instructional technology from Columbia.
Nancy has circumnavigated Manhattan by kayak (twice), once became poker champion in a group of sequestered jurors, and plays water polo.
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Dave Reinhold
Director of Production Technologies
Dave spearheads an integrated production technology team with vast responsibilities. He communicates across departments—ensuring that every step of a project moves along efficiently. Dave has been with Six Red Marbles for 18 years. His experience spans all the departments he now coordinates: production, editorial, technology and project management. So Dave is not afraid to propose a new, innovative approach—or roll up his sleeves.
Dave grew up on a farm and learned to fly his Dad’s private plane in high school. He also has an Apple logo tattooed on his arm. (The man loves his Macs.)
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Audra Bailey
Director of Project Operations
Audra is in charge of “Projects and People.” She coordinates operations, using her strong background in business, project management and editorial to keep hundreds of details organized. Audra started out working at a non-profit educational development company in Washington, DC. Then she spent 13 years with Brown Publishing Network. She attended Colby College and received her MBA from Babson College's Olin Graduate School of Business.
When she's not working, you will find Audra trying to tame her flower garden or playing Wiffle Ball with her English bulldog.
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Kathy Reynolds
Director of Art and Design
Kathy is in charge of managing Six Red Marbles’ design teams to create strong visuals. She works closely with clients, and even visits classrooms to talk to kids, to harness the instructional power of illustrations and design. She brings over 40 years of experience working with publishers like Houghton Mifflin, D.C. Heath and Silver Burdett Ginn. She’s taken on ambitious projects—like the Saxon Early Learning program and Navigator books for Benchmark Education.
Kathy’s a bit of a design marathoner. She managed 100 Phonics Practice Readers for MacMillan, and 355 books for Fountas and Pinnell’s Leveled Literacy Intervention program for Heinemann.
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Alice R. Dickstein
Managing Director of Reading/Language Arts
Alice works closely with clients to conceptualize and coordinate Reading/Language Arts projects, and she’s responsible for hiring and supervising marbles of all stripes. She brings over 30 years experience in managing people, resources and sales, and communicating with educational leaders. At Scholastic, she helped create the K–6 program Literacy Place. In 2001, she joined Brown Publishing Network—and now, she’s one invaluable marble.
Alice runs a few degrees cooler than the rest of us. If it’s 99 degrees out, she’s comfortably warm. When the heat wave breaks and everyone else rejoices—yep, she’s cold.
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Amy Losi
Director of Assessment
Amy admits to being “testy” after spending the last sixteen years developing assessments for publishing companies including Steck-Vaughn, Macmillan, and The Princeton Review. She created the assessments for Macmillan’s Treasures reading program and wrote 140 reading and math test blueprints for New York City. Amy ran training sessions for item reviewers and administrators, and kept audiences awake with test jokes, such as: “I didn’t know anything before I started going to school. I still don’t know anything, but now they test me on it.” As a teacher she created Family Math nights, an after-school Drama Club, and wrote and directed classroom plays. She has a B.A. in English/creative writing and master’s degrees in English and Elementary Education. And she loves to bake!
On weekends, Amy runs to auditions or indulges her passion for acting at one of New York’s off-off-Broadway theatres. In less than two years she has appeared in a dozen plays, a commercial, a TV show, and a comedy/improv show that ran for over a year.
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Katie Turcot
Director of Finance and Administration
Katie is an experienced Human Resources professional with over 10 years in the field. Her main goal is to keep the “human” in Human Resources, so her door is always open. Have any questions about the 401(k), HRA, FSA or FMLA? Katie’s your go-to. But she also has a strong background in finance. This made it possible for her to work closely with her CFO—and assume responsibility for all Six Red Marbles invoicing and payroll. Happy, busy Katie.
Over the summer, Katie loves to beach and boat at her home on Cape Cod. But come winter, she’s a certified Hockey Mom. Both her son and her daughter play for the Natick Comets.
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Emily Levitt
Director of Instructional Design, Humanities
Emily is responsible for directing development of programs in Reading, Writing and other Humanities. She brings a blend of teaching, instructional design, and educational technology. Prior to joining Six Red Marbles, Emily worked at Sylvan, Plato Learning, and other education companies producing computer-adaptive curricula. Emily uses this experience to infuse her programs with fun and engaging concepts, solid processes, and sound educational philosophies.
Emily was once the only grown-up in a horseback riding class for children and is trying to teach herself to speak Welsh.
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Jacques Driscoll
Chief Executive Officer
Since 2009, Jacques has led Six Red Marbles' rapid transformation into one of the most innovative and respected companies in the learning space. Previously, he helped West Publishing transition from a print-centric model to a fully-integrated print/digital platform. And as founder of Spyglass Creative, he helped more than 35 companies build strong brands and achieve record sales. Jacques received his BA from Harvard and his JD from William Mitchell College of Law.
Jacques grew up on a farm in rural Minnesota, but he remains an uncertain cow milker and believes horses are best appreciated from the ground.
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Danny Franklin
Executive Director of Curriculum and Learning
Danny is “the neuroscience guy,” responsible for designing, developing and delivering Six Red Marbles’ most innovative, interdisciplinary, multi-media learning systems. He’s the primary force behind the company’s Natural Learning Approach—which was largely informed by his advanced training, MBA and PMP in the neuroscience of learning. He holds these degrees in addition to a BA, MTS, PMI and PhD! Simply put, Danny exemplifies what it means to be a marble.
On the rare occasion he’s not studying mathematics or neuroscience, Dan enjoys playing (and winning) squash. But he’s most grateful for his health and cherished family.