ESP Team

ESP has a unique team.  We have experience from the classroom to the federal government level and in the corporate world.  Most significantly, our team members share experiences with our clients.  Please take a moment to get acquainted with us from the very brief blurbs below and follow the links on individual names for more details.

 

Glynn D. Ligon, Ph.D.

Glynn sees solutions from local, state, national, and personal perspectives in every project.  He has visited every state education agency, most extra-governmental territories, and an abundance of local school districts.  His insights are reflected in ESP’s products that can govern an organization’s metadata, collect and report quality data from the schools to the state, and send any state’s data to the feds flawlessly.  Glynn knows that no system or national standard is static, so working in partnership with clients is always an opportunity to learn and create even better solutions to support decision making.

Barbara S. Clements, Ph.D.

Barbara’s name was once misprinted as Dr. Elements; thus, creating a most righteous and accurate moniker.  She has contributed to so many national data standards efforts that her resume teems with acronyms.  Many education agencies are governing their data systems with policies, management processes, and procedures she helped them develop.  Dr. Clements’ phone rings frequently with calls from all over seeking her advice.  She is in active retirement now as a member of ESP’s Board of Directors.

James M. Rife

Jim is incredible at managing development resources to achieve what the client really needs.  Technical project management is Jim’s forte, bailiwick, bag of tricks.  Somehow he manages to understand the client’s requirements through their handy documentation, ask the right questions, and keep our resources on schedule. BTW, those are not typical traits in our market.

Joshua Goodman, PMP

Josh has shown other PMI certified project managers that in education agencies, the standard practices and processes tread their way among the nuances of unique policies and practices of our own industry.  Josh has developed for ESP the Quality Project Management process especially for large-scale technology implementations in education environments.  He’s quite a show to watch—sign up for a tour.

Jessica Swafford

As our Project Support Manager, Jessica will be your advocate. She’s really your support manager because she’s responsible for our products working for you for a variety of projects. She literally has vultures land on the ledge outside her office window; so you won’t phase her one bit with your problem or request. Jessica is the nation’s best CEDS cartographer.

Kimiko Rife

Kimiko is the quintessential support resource for school, district, and state users of our software.  Somehow, she understands how to get responses out of our partner companies when it’s their software’s issue, too.  Oops, was that OK to say?  Kimiko listens enough to really solve issues without starting with, “Is your computer plugged in?”

Alex Katz

Alex supports our Vertical Reporting Framework (VRF) product by being the lead developer, but also stepping out to communicate directly with clients about their needs and roadmap desires.  If you have an opportunity to talk to Alex about VRF and vertical reporting, you will be impressed with the depth of his understanding of the LEA’s perspective linked to the SEA’s perspective and how the two merge in his world.

Darrell Prather

Darrell has been with ESP for many years and with many of our projects; thus, he holds a wealth of our institutional knowledge about LEA, SEA, and federal data.  Darrell is an extreme expert on EDFacts.  He has personally worked with nine states in their reporting.  Darrell can quote EDFacts submission specifications at the family dinner table.  Oh, maybe that’s not the best thing for him to do.  You should use his time better.

Rajesh Dhanwada

Raj is a master designer and developer with deep understanding of standards. A couple of his latest apps are MAP2™ and EdTechTerms™ that link and navigate us across those pesky terms that someone else named and defined for us.

Mary Dever

Mary Dever has worked for a state education agency and a private company, but who she really works for now is users depending upon apps running on Ed-Fi. Mary creates new functionality with Ed-Fi models. That’s not claymation or animation, but more like motivation through dashboardmation.

Stan Jordan, Ph.D.

Stan Jordan knows so many business rules for our SRM clients that he could enroll your 2 year-old child in high school.  He wouldn’t because that’s one of his famous fatal errors.  When we travel to an SEA, one of the first things we’re told is, “We love Stan.” I think that’s a business rule for greeting us.

Tuan Nguyen

Tuan Nguyen is our secret QA team leader.  He blocks the door (really locks the server) until the software release is perfect.  ESP is known for software products that require minimal support and maintenance.  Tuan’s QA is the reason.

Chandana Chelamkuri

Chandana actually understands what it takes for the data in a SIS to show up in an Ed-Fi dashboard properly.  By the time the lights go on in Wyoming schools, her office light has been burning hours ensuring their dashboards will have timely and accurate data.

Jeremy Thigpen

Jeremy is our Marketing & Customer Relations Manager.  The word “Marketing” in his job title is there because we expect him to understand ESP’s market—and our customers.  “Customer Relations” is in there for you.  He does both by providing exceptional training and ensuring that ESP’s presence in the market is clear and accessible.  BTW, his office is right next to the CEO.  So, tell him how we’re doing.  He doesn’t have to put it in an email.

Steven King

Steve ran a lighthouse state education agency information system office in Wyoming before ESP managed to hire him to be our chief architect.  The U.S. Department of Education and individual state education agencies look to him for guidance on practical issues like, “How in the world do we make this work now that we’ve decided to go this way?”  Try calling Steve and challenging him with your problem.

Evangelina Mangino, Ph.D.

Evangelina can tease out of an organization the little details that describe every one of their data collections, repositories, and reports—and how they all share data.  You should see how she can visualize data to represent the meaning and usefulness in them.  Most clients never imagined getting so much value out of working with her.  Life still has some wonderful surprises.