How We Started

Edthena was born from real-world classroom experiences. As a science teacher in St. Louis, Mo., founder and CEO Adam Geller wanted to be great for his students but there was no one in his building with science expertise. He did know someone at the local science museum, but that person could never come to his classroom.

After leaving the classroom, while working on the national strategy team of an education nonprofit, Adam started to realize that the challenges he faced as a teacher were common among most schools, districts, and teacher education programs. We know the best way to help teachers is to analyze actual classroom teaching, and it’s hard to have the right person in the right place at the right time.

In 2011, Adam was named a Kauffman Foundation Education Ventures Fellow and took the leap and started Edthena. In 2012, he joined forces with Dave Weldon, CTO, to start building the version of Edthena people know and love today.

Company Leadership

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Adam Geller, CEO

After leaving the classroom, Adam joined the national strategy team of Teach For America where he helped design a technology platform to improve training new teachers. Adam was an Education Ventures fellow at the Kauffman Foundation and also the founder of Teach For Us.

David Weldon, CTO

A seasoned CTO who brings over 25 years of professional experience ranging from natural language processing to web development. His previous startup, Sendori, was sold to Ask.com. David has a masters degree in computer engineering and an MBA.

Edthena Education Advisory Board

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Deborah Ball

Dean Emeritus, University of Michigan School of Education

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Jeff Weltzer

Founder, Transcend Education

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Christina Brodbeck

First Designer, YouTube

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Daniel Kearns

Former Chief Architect, Dreambox Learning

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Gailene Nelson

Director of Product Management, Pearson

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Eliot Levinson

Founder, BLEgroup

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Ron Fortune

Former Chairman, Education.com

Careers With Edthena

We're working daily to transform the process of online collaboration and coaching for educators. If you're passionate about making a difference in the world, you might be a great fit for our team. We post open positions on:

We literally wrote the book on video professional learning.

This playbook draws from researcher and practitioner advice to offer 12 video-based strategies that readers can implement in their own context for facilitating professional development.

“Evidence of Practice clearly shows how video in observation and coaching can further strengthen our teaching practice. It belongs on the shelf of all administrators, coaches, and leadership teams—no matter your current level of expertise in the use of video for professional development.”Elena Aguilar
Author of Art of Coaching

Learn more

Our Insights

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The Learning Recession Started in 2013. Here Is What Recovering Districts Did Differently.

New research shows US students began losing ground around 2013, years before COVID. The districts now recovering invested in what happens after the training, not just more of it.

Why Your Professional Development Isn’t Changing Classroom Practice (and What Will)

Districts spend an average of $18,000 per teacher per year on PD, but only 3 in 10 teachers improve. The research points to one missing step: coaching during implementation.

The Classroom Walkthrough Problem: It’s Not the Visit, It’s What Comes After

Principals know walkthroughs improve teaching, but the feedback obligation keeps them out of classrooms. Here’s how to fix the walkthrough-to-feedback pipeline.