Brian is a proven executive and respected leader. He has founded three companies based on product ideas he felt he could bring to market. Brian has been involved in education technology for the past 10 years.

Before joining SchoolSims, Brian was the CEO of Magnus Health, which was acquired in April 2019. As a 4-time CEO and former Chief Strategy Officer and Vice President of Product, Brian has significant experience in business core competencies.

When not working, Brian likes to play soccer and coach his two children. He also enjoys mentoring other entrepreneurs.

Ken is an avid believer in the adage that Experience is the Best Teacher and for over 30 years has been utilizing computer-based simulations to allow professionals to safely learn from decision-making mistakes around some of the most challenging Problems of Practice. For the past six years, Ken has been focused on the challenge of the “Silent Crisis of Leadership in K-12” working to enhance leadership capacity and improve critical thinking amongst school administrators.

Ken is originally from Cleveland, OH but has spent his sims career in the Philadelphia area, specifically in Bala Cynwyd. He earned his MBA from Columbia Business School.

James has been designing and implementing simulations as part of a blended learning solution for over 20 years. James works with a very creative group that partners with educational practitioners to create high-impact, leadership simulations.

Originally from Allentown PA, James now lives downstream in the Philadelphia area where he earned a BA at Temple University prior to an MS in Instructional Technology upstate at Bloomsburg University. A proud dad of two teenagers, he enjoys spending time with his kids engaging in Philadelphia’s rich cultural offerings, as well as hiking and biking on local trails.

A former high school teacher/administrator, non-profit leader, and start-up executive, Dr. Johanek is a Scholar in Residence in the Center on History and Education, Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Advanced Study, where he is writing a book on the last five decades of school reform efforts through the lens of a Chicago community organization, exploring the varied means local leaders have taken to affect change in this central public institution. He is also a Distinguished Senior Fellow, National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST), and currently teaches as Adjunct Professor in the Education Policy & Social Analysis Division EPSA), both at Teachers College. He is a Research Professor, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, and Research Advisor/Affiliated Scholar, Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, both of Boston College. He currently directs the Red Interamericana de Liderazgo Educacional (RILE) and The Judgment Project. He teaches as Profesor Invitado Internacional at La Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and as Profesor Invitado of the educational leadership programs at La Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia.  He currently leads a major emerging national school leadership project in Chile, called the LIDERA Initiative, a multi-institutional research-practice partnership in its Foundations Phase.

Prior to 2025, Dr. Johanek directed the Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership and the Penn Educational Leadership Simulations Program for 17 years at the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania.  He co-founded SchoolSims, LLC, and currently serves on its board.  Before Penn, he served as VP of Professional Services for the start-up Teachscape, as Executive Director, K-12 Professional Development for The College Board, and as a secondary social studies teacher in Cleveland, New York, and Peru.  

David De Jong, Ed.D., is the Dean of the College of Education at Dakota State University. Previously, he was an Associate Professor and Chair of the Division of Educational Leadership in the School of Education at the University of South Dakota. He taught graduate online and hybrid courses and chairs doctoral dissertation committees. In the past few years, he was awarded the University of South Dakota School of Education Teaching in Excellence Award and the Research in Excellence Award. His research agenda includes 25 published peer-reviewed journal articles about educational leadership, innovations in PreK-12 education, mentoring, and innovations in technology for teaching in PreK-20 education. He is currently the President of the International Council of Professors of Educational Leadership (ICPEL). His previous experience includes serving as a teacher, coach, principal, and superintendent.

Known to her educational clients as the Superintendents’ Chief Consultant^TM, Dr. Mason went from aging out of foster care and being homeless to being a successful principal and consulting superintendents.

With twenty years of proven experience in public education, she was selected as an administrator for elementary, middle, high schools within rural, suburban and urban settings. Today, as an international speaker, educational consultant, coach and full time CEO of the Dr. Patrese A. Mason, LLC, she supports departments of education, and districts in preparing principals and educators for equity and excellence. She utilizes a five-prong proprietary model known for results in decreasing staff turn-over, increasing student achievement, and building leaders’ endurance.

Dr. Mason packs a phenomenological and inquiry-based approach when building the capacity of educational leaders. She develops others starting with her personal lived experiences as a child and practitioner through the lens of an equity-based model. She knows that experience is the best teacher and has found that SchoolSims allows for leaders to gain rich experience risk-free. Her services and those of SchoolSims can work in alignment to provide districts and universities the full-solution to create a powerhouse preparation program – the result: Qualified, equity-based, student-focused, excellent educational leaders ready to serve.

Now more than ever, schools need capable, visionary leaders and teachers to manage increasingly diverse schools in our ever-changing, ever-challenging world. School and school district leaders have extraordinary responsibilities to satisfy multiple and distinct stakeholders while they constantly face new challenges.

The most effective Educational Leadership Development Programs provide students with the conceptual tools and professional preparation to become accomplished school leaders. Successful, capable leaders must develop the critical problem-solving skills necessary to positively influence their classrooms’ educational practice and manage the diverse demands of the overall communities in which they serve.

Current and aspiring leaders require leadership experience, and SchoolSims helps to manufacture relevant experiences that help current and future school leaders appreciate the complexities of these responsibilities. Our simulations can be used during synchronous sessions, including mentorship programs, in-person or virtual, and asynchronously.