Steven J. Pearlman, Ph.D.
​Co-Founder

With 30+ years in higher education at state and elite colleges, Steve most recently served as the Director of Interdisciplinary Writing & Reasoning at a northeast university.  He is the author of America's Critical Thinking Crisis: The Failure and Promise of Education (coming soon) and Reconciling Writing Assessment, as well as numerous articles and chapters.  Steve's other ventures included work for the U.S. military and higher education organizations in programming fostering cultural change around sexual assault, relationship violence, and substance use. 
David Carillo, M.A.
​Co-Founder

Dave Carillo has an MA in Rhetoric and Composition from Virginia Commonwealth University.  He has taught first-year and advanced writing, as well as journalism, creative nonfiction, and business writing at the college level since 1997, and has also worked as a Technical writer, Communications Specialist, and Marketing Manager.  Most recently, he administered the Critical Writing and Reasoning Portfolio Program at the University of St. Joseph, in West Hartford, CT where he also lives with his wife and two children.  
Combined, Dave and Steve created what might be the only system for critical thinking education that seamlessly merges an operational definition of critical thinking with application, pedagogy, and assessment.  Their method, which they have presented internationally at conferences and for educational institutions, functions across disciplines, and empowers its users equally as readers, writers, presenters, and problem solvers.  

They spent the better part of the last ten years mentoring faculty from all ranges of disciplines in best practices for teaching critical thinking, as well as related pedagogies, such as active learning, Problem-Based Learning, situated learning, student engagement, improved literacy, writing assessment, and many other related fields.

Dave and Steve co-host the Smarterer and The Critical Thinking Initiative podcasts.