Our Team

Sapling's team members possess tremendous experience as educators, business leaders, technology visionaries, scientists, and technology experts. They include a talented team of Ph.D. and Masters-level subject matter experts, instructional designers, animators, graphic artists, multimedia programmers, filmmakers, and project managers.

James Caras, PhD

President

Dr. Caras holds a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. While at UT, he was awarded grants for scientific instructional multimedia. His graduate and postdoctoral research was in the area of HIV vaccine and immunotherapy design, as well as the investigation of potential therapeutic targets for the hepatitis C virus. Dr. Caras taught Biochemistry as a faculty instructor at UT, where he was honored for his exceptional teaching and integration of media and technology within the classroom.

Dr. Caras is an educator who has produced innovative instructional media and educational tools and assessment systems for the last 15 years, and who has managed the growth of a successful media company over the last nine years. Dr. Caras is an innovator in instructional technology, combining his expertise as an educator with insight into the promise of technology and media. He establishes long-range company technology development plans according to his vision for the potential of instructional technologies, and he leverages his experience to direct the company in the eLearning and education space. He has presented the progress of his ideas and results of his company's efforts at national education conferences, and has won several awards in the area of educational technology development.

Paige Caras

VP of Operations

Ms. Caras brings over a decade of experience in business management, marketing, and education. She draws upon her unique educational and business leadership background to help clients realize their respective learning goals. Ms. Caras is a certified elementary school teacher committed to providing students with the critical tools, hands-on experiences, guided support, and individual accountability to be successful lifelong learners. Previous to Sapling, Ms. Caras was the Branch Manager of Capricorn Systems, an Inc. 500 software company where she led a diverse range of projects and software developers for clients including BMC Software, Compaq, CSC, and MIP. Ms. Caras was also a 5th grade elementary school teacher at T.A. Brown in Austin, Texas. Ms. Caras graduated with Honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a B.A. in English. She received her teaching credential from the University of Texas at Austin where she was nominated for Outstanding Student Teacher.

Paulo Vieira

VP of Product Development

Mr. Vieira brings over 15 years of software development experience. He has successfully managed development teams in Fortune 500 companies as well as startup organizations. Mr. Vieira specializes in high-availability, highly scalable applications, and is credited with successful launches of financial applications for General Motors, energy trading systems for DTE Energy (with thousands of trades per second), and traffic management solutions for Siemens, just to name a few. Mr. Vieira is also a founding partner of Integritas Solutions, a software services provider in Brazil with clients in South, Central, and North America, and brings with him a pool of development experts in a variety of subjects.

Brian Arneson, PhD

Director of Content Services

Mary Jane Boyd

Sales Team Lead

Ms. Boyd is an experienced marketing and sales professional with an M.B.A. in Global Management from the University of Phoenix and a B.A. in Communications from Texas A & M University. She brings over 10 years experience in sales and marketing roles within a variety of business types including Replicon, Chatsworth Products, Sheshunoff Information Services, and others. Prior to joining Sapling, Ms. Boyd acted as Marketing Specialist/Webinar Specialist at Replicon Inc, a leading provider of project administration and payroll administration software.

Brian Eisenhauer, PhD

Content Team

Brian is a student of life. He has more than 20 years of experience mixing chemicals, more than 20 years repairing motorcycles, and more than 3 years writing content at Sapling Learning. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Michigan Technological University in 1997, a M.S. from the University of Virginia in 2000, and enjoyed research so much that he stayed for a Ph.D. in Chemistry (2006). His specialty is in the production of "challenge questions" and anything having to do with the study of enzymes.

Jon Harmon

Product Strategist

Jon designed his first website in 1994 while he was a student at Michigan Technological University, from which he graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Molecular Biology. Jon then traveled to Austin to pursue a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Texas, but left to work at several education startups before landing at Sapling Learning in 2002. Since then, Jon has designed several animation and software products, including the innovative Ibis homework platform.

Lisa Kennedy, MA

Content Team

Jeff Sims

Art Team Lead

Jeff is a Flash Designer and Developer with a lifelong interest in media production, including drawing, animation, film, video, and graphic design. A former junior high school science teacher, Jeff has contributed interactive development and served as lead designer and animator on numerous educational products at Sapling Learning, both for major publishers and for our own Ibis homework platform. Jeff has been developing educational multimedia in Flash since 1999.

Cindy Stowell, PhD

Engineering Team Lead

Cindy holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech. Upon graduation, she worked for Lockheed Martin as a photolithography engineer. After a year and a half in industry, Cindy returned to academia, to the University of Texas in Austin. In 2005, Cindy received a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering for her research on colloidally-synthesized nanocrystals. While at UT, she was a teaching assistant for the unit operations lab and a material science course. After a post doc, Cindy Started working at Sapling Learning in 2006. Since then, she has been authoring physics, chemistry, statics, dynamics, and chemical engineering content.

John Turman

Development Team

Phil Volkers, PhD

Organic Chemistry Team Lead

Dr. Volkers holds a B.A. in Chemistry with a Concentration in Molecular Biology from St. Olaf College, and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His graduate research involved synthesis and characterization of iron thiolate complexes for structural and catalytically functional models of the hydrogenase active site, and he has published his results in several major peer-reviewed journals. His research experience includes air-sensitive synthesis, organic ligand synthesis, experimental design, and extensive characterization techniques. His experience as a teaching assistant includes organic and analytical lab sections, as well as general, organic, bioinorganic, environmental, and inorganic chemistry courses. Altogether, his research, teaching, and writing experiences have primed him for authoring and serving as a team leader at Sapling Learning.

Cathy Wheeler, PhD

GOB Team Lead

Jessica White, MA

General Chemistry Team Lead

Ms. White is an experienced educator and e-learning specialist with an M.A. in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University. She was formerly a professor of chemistry at Austin Community college, and now brings nearly a decade of experience in educational media for science.

Kevin Williams