Team

Nick Tietz

Co-Founder, CEO

Nick Tietz has spent the last 15 years working as a serial entrepreneur, innovator, technologist, user experience designer, business and technology consultant. Nick has designed more than 100 apps, crafted the strategy to help redefine the public education experience at Minneapolis Public Schools, and led multiple innovation efforts at Life Time Fitness to improve the employee experience and define the health club of the future as the Director of Innovation. Most recently Nick was the Co-Founder of Vitals Aware Services and launched a new technology service to help people with visible and invisible disabilities communicate with First Responders (Law Enforcement, Fire and EMT).

Additionally, He has spent the past decade donating his time and creative services at multiple non-profits including The Nairobi Leadership Foundation, The Uganda Leadership Foundation, PACER Center.  Nick has also served on the board for Playworks Minnesota, Alternatives-A program for inner city youth, and currently helps StudiOne Eighty at Urban Ventures and both Totino-Grace High School and St. Vincent DePaul School advisory boards.

David Nguyen, Ph.D

Co-Founder, Director of Experiential Learning, Technology and other stuff too

David is a human-centered innovator, researcher and tech entrepreneur. His training and experience is in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp), Wearable Computing, Mobile Computing, and Cognitive Science in the research, corporate, and startup worlds. David coaches and leads teams to explore and understand a population’s stakeholders — then design for those stakeholders’ functional, social, and emotional needs/challenges. He has bachelor’s degrees from the University of California San Diego, a master’s degree from the University of Michigan, and a PhD from the University of California Irvine. David’s last startup built in-class tools at community colleges to connect students to each other and to their instructors.

Shelby Chollett, Ed.D

Co-Founder, Director of Education Development

Shelby Chollett is an experienced K-12 educator with a background in pedagogy, educational consulting, research, data analytics and visualization, graphic design, technology innovation, and entrepreneurship. Her work can be found on platforms such as The Pedagogical Refinery, The Complete Athlete, and The Literary Sleuth. Shelby’s current research involves mindfulness practices and the impact it can have on the human psychology and physiology in order to promote efficiency, motivation, and well-being.

As a philanthropist, all of the projects Shelby develops focus on a transformative approach, identifying what is beyond simple transference of knowledge in order to better the lives of others. Much of her time has been found teaching, mentoring, and coaching youth and educators in building problem-solution processes to maximize efficiencies and growth. Shelby believes in the importance of providing equitable opportunities for all individuals with sustainable outcomes and bridging of the equity gap, aiming to help individuals thrive in their best abilities and inspire the lives of others.