About Our Company

Chelsy Gentry

Customer Engagement Specialist

Chelsy is a former middle and high school English teacher. She loved to incorporate experiential education into her teachings. She would sing to her students, have them dress up as they acted out scenes from Shakespeare plays, and often incorporated clips from contemporary films and television shows into her classroom. However, she found that no matter how engaging she tried to make her classes, without her parents knowing more about what was going on in her classroom, her students were not retaining information as well as she had hoped. She is thankful to have found a program such as SchoolCNXT where it is easy to keep her parents informed about what their children are up to. Having parents be actively engaged with the classroom encourages reinforcement of the material at home. She is proud to be part of a team that shares her passion for positive community building in schools. When she is not chasing down her toddlers, Chelsy is attempting to learn how to play the ukulele.

Paul Caliandro

CEO and Founder

Paul spent decades getting ready to make his mark on education. A graduate of Skidmore College, Paul built enterprise applications for State Street Bank and made a career of building strategic relationships for information security startups. Growing up as a second-generation Italian, Paul was taught the importance of education, family and community. Spending time working with kids in Boston and in the public schools, it became clear to Paul that building the kind of community that helped his parents educate him could make a difference.  When he is not busy with SchoolCNXT or his family, you are likely to find him in the woods with his dogs, aka “the girls”.

Ben James

Chief Financial Officer

Ben has two children, each with learning differences. His interest in education stems from the rewarding experiences he and his family have had while engaging with other parents and educators in both public and private schools to educate their children. Prior to joining SchoolCNXT, he a was founding partner in three private equity firms and a family office, where he enjoyed working with his co-founders to build each firm from its inception. Once each was built, he focused his passion primarily on identifying entrepreneurial management teams of small companies and working with them to help build their businesses. He spends his free time divided between non-profit work and on bikes, skis or outdoors with family and friends.

Lisa Kehoe

Senior Director of Engagement

Lisa began her career as a special educator, teaching students with a variety of disabilities. She realized quickly how much her relationships with parents contributed to the academic, behavioral and emotional success of her students. Broadening her impact, Lisa transitioned to a career outside of the classroom by working for an educational technology company that created products to support children with disabilities, both in the classroom and at home. After 20 years in the world of special education, Lisa wanted to turn her focus to the need for a strong school community and is happy to be helping schools and districts achieve this with SchoolCNXT. Being a former teacher and a mom to three school-age children, Lisa has a unique appreciation for the importance of building relationships and a strong school community from both the teacher and parent perspectives.

Emily Williams

Customer Engagement Specialist

Emily is a former teacher who has taught first grade general education in public schools and Deaf Education in grades PreK-6. While working in a variety of schools, she saw the impact that a strong school community and positive relationships with parents can have on student achievement. Emily is thrilled to be working with schools to improve those factors in their own environments. When an opportunity presents itself, Emily enjoys learning about new communities and cultures by traveling.

Dennis Cardiff

Senior Vice President

Dennis joined the SchoolCNXT team in January of 2014 as both an investor and as a hands-on employee since coming on board with the management team. Having built his career serving the education sector in different capacities, Dennis has seen and understands the great need for community and parent engagement our public schools.  Firmly believing that community and parent connections are the catalysts for student academic and social success, Dennis joined the SchoolCNXT team to ensure the advancement of the app’s philosophy and mission.

Matt Hausmann

Chief Marketing Officer

Matt's lifelong love of education was nurtured by his mom and his understanding of the importance of home and school relationships has been shaped by his experience raising his sons.  SchoolCNXT represents the marriage of Matt's experiences with his desire to provide better education outcomes for all students, regardless of background and abilities.  Matt's other passion is masters swimming.  He has been on a masters swim team for the last 24 years to keep in shape though his team mates would say it is because he wants his coffee with friends.

Brian Ciccolo

Senior Director of Development

Brian has been working in the education technology space for 20 years from both a corporate and school perspective. On the corporate side, Brian has worked at multiple student information system companies where he has lead development and customer service teams. On the school side, Brian has lead the IT department for a Massachusetts school district and town. When he's not in front of his laptop, Brian prefers to be outdoors hiking, whether it's bagging the 4000 footers in New Hampshire or walking the local trails of his hometown with the Hanover Trailwalkers.

Derek Leadbetter

Senior Software Developer

Derek brings over 8 years of experience building custom software solutions for the education space. Starting out in a development/technical support role, Derek has spent a lot of time working directly with customers both troubleshooting technical problems and creating everything from custom report cards to student registration systems. Understanding the needs of the customer base, he is able to create comprehensive solutions for a better user experience. As an avid musician, Derek always enjoys getting together with friends for a jam session.

Jonathan Hopewell

Software QA Contractor

Jonathan has spent the last 25 years as a software QA engineer and software engineer in various aspects of the software industry.  His work ranges from speech recognition to working for NASA to developing web browsers and video mpeg decoders for devices. This range of experience and mentoring in a local school gives him a wide and unique range of skills to add to the SchoolCNXT development team. On the side, Jonathan splits his time working between Boston and New Hampshire where he owns a Christmas tree farm. He is an avid woodworker, likes hiking and enjoys traveling the world.

Jon Kelley

Senior Software Developer

Jon has spent the last several years developing applications to improve student outcomes in addition to fostering deeper interactions promoting family engagement. Prior to SchoolCNXT, he has developed educational software solutions in areas of scheduling, analytics for progress towards graduation, and custom data exchanges. With his own children entering school, he has a deep interest in building networks within school communities to raise the level of family investment in student outcomes. In his time away from his computer he enjoys coaching youth soccer for his two sons.

Henry Thach

Senior Software Developer

Growing up in an immigrant family, Henry knows first-hand the challenges non-English speaking parents have in their child's education, which is why he works hard to make SchoolCNXT accessible in all languages.  Henry brings over 5 years of experience building custom software solutions for the education space, ranging from educational games to real-time assessment tools for teachers in the classroom.  Having an eye for UI design, he makes sure every pixel count to improve user experience so the app is simple and easy to use.  A fitness enthusiast, Henry enjoys getting a good workout at the gym and listening to other people’s goals.

John Allen

Sales and Marketing Associate

John grew up interning and working with education policy and education non-profits in and around Capitol Hill. In college, John continued learning more about education through student teaching both on campus and abroad in Bologna, Italy. Shortly after college, after advocating for children outside of the classroom, John was determined to make a difference inside the classroom. After applying to Teach for America, he was accepted to teach in the Greater Boston area. John saw first-hand how families, when connected to their school community, were better able to support their child’s learning. John has also witnessed the difficult barriers that prevent parents and children from being connected and engaged. John joined SchoolCNXT because their solution directly addresses the many barriers that so many families, schools, teachers, and students experience daily.