Dr. Theodore Chao, Ph.D, is Sokikom’s mathematics education and teacher education expert. Dr. Chao was a postdoctoral research scholar at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. He currently works as assistant professor of Mathematics Education at Ohio State University. Dr. Chao's research focuses on supporting elementary mathematics teachers through technology interventions, developing technology for mathematics teachers to use student-generated video as a tool for honing their noticing skills. Dr. Chao's secondary research involves the use of photographs as an elicitation tool for helping mathematics teachers personalize their practice and develop robust mathematics teacher identities based on their cultural, ethnic, and gender identities. He has worked on multiple large-scale teacher education research projects, such as the Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M). He has also written for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM). Dr. Chao formerly taught middle-school mathematics in Brooklyn, NY and holds degrees in computer science engineeringand film and media studies.

As an independent consultant for Sokikom, Pete’s role is to establish and maintain relationships with schools and districts in Central and Northern CA. Pete works with the Sokikom team because he is a firm believer in the value of social learning and sees great potential for the multi-player game interface used in Sokikom because of the internal passion that it ignites. Pete began his career in education more than 20 years ago when he was asked to offer tutoring services in trigonometry and calculus and fell in love with helping students to succeed. Today he brings that same passion for mutual success to Ed-Tech sales where he takes a decidedly customer-centric approach to his interactions and strives to always find a mutually beneficial outcome. Pete co-founded an Ed-Tech startup where he built and led the sales team before moving on to his next venture. In his personal life, Pete is married and has two young sons, ages 3 and 5 that keep him and his wife very busy. For fun, Pete likes to ski, snowboard, surf, race road bikes, and go on extended backpacking trips (although these activities are now for the most part just distant memories). Pete lived in Kitzbuhel, Austria for two of his high school years where he worked as a ski instructor and private guide. During that time, he took several independent study courses and studied at public school in German, both of which further honed his understanding of the challenges that students in the United States face. Pete studied both social science and engineering in college and finally decided to get a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UC Berkeley because he was fascinated by the theories of social interaction that have been posited throughout history. Today Pete is super excited about the direction of education and all of the opportunities that schools can offer to their students.

Bhavin Shah is a serial entrepreneur, advisor, and board member with over 15 years of experience building companies, assembling high performing teams, creating quality brands, and shipping product. Most recently he was CEO and co-founder of Refresh.io, a company that gives people the insights they need to make the most out of every meeting and conversation. LinkedIn Corp acquired Refresh.io in April 2015. Through his work as COO and Co-founder at Gazillion Entertainment and in product and business development at LeapFrog, he’s taken companies from inception to scale and from private to public in internet, education, toy, and video game industries. Bhavin has a B.S. from the University of California San Diego and an M.A. from Stanford University.