Brain Explained provides personalized strategies that help learners exercise agency over their learning, work and life trajectories.
We imagine a world where more adults realize their full potential in learning, work, and life.
We will increase the number of people with learning differences and other nontraditional learners that complete college degrees, workforce training programs, and find a successful career and life trajectory.
We will contribute to reducing stigma and create a world where learning differences and neurodiversity are understood and strengths celebrated. We will impact postsecondary teaching and learning so that it is more universally designed and accessible to students.
Leadership Team
Nicole Ofiesh
Nicole Ofiesh, Ph.D. is a cognitive behavioral scientist with a focus on learning differences and "the missing middle," the time between high school and retirement.
She is an expert on how cognition is associated with learning and performance and critical to preparing people for skills of the future. She is the former executive director of the Schwab Learning Center at CHC and Stanford University.
Dr. Ofiesh is the author of Teaching for the Lifespan (Corwin, 2016).
Lisa Poller
Lisa Poller, MA is an entrepreneurial and strategic education innovation leader with more than 30 years of experience transforming organizational impact.
She is also a nonprofit fundraising and strategy consultant, focusing primarily on education innovation. She was with CAST, a not-for-profit education innovation organization for two decades where she was the former co-president/chief strategy officer and prior to that director of strategic advancement.
During her tenure, she worked with the founding team that transformed CAST into a national leader of a dynamic new field of Universal Design for Learning.
The leadership team initially formed a nonprofit research organization, Potentia Institute 21, in 2020 to develop learning interventions for adults in postsecondary education and in the workforce.
In 2021, we developed a minimum viable prototype (MVP) with Dali Lab, a Dartmouth University student-run design and programming experience.
The MVP covers the “How I Do My Work” module on planning, organization, time management, and study skills. We piloted this prototype in 2022 with college and community college students and employees in various fields.
Brain Explained was formed by the leadership team in 2023 and the IP was transferred to the new entity. We received an angel investment in 2024 to develop the product and go to market.
Currently, we are seeking colleges and workforce development organizations to serve as institutional design partners, collaborating on the development of the full product and becoming our first institutional clients.
We also intend to launch a professional development program in 2025 resulting in certification for advisory, educational coaching, and other professionals in the Brain Explained learning solutions. Vetted learning specialists will be able to highlight their services on the Brain Explained marketplace.
