ThinkWorkers
Derek Cabrera, PhD
Founder & President
Dr. Derek Cabrera is an internationally recognized expert in thinking skills. As a scientist, researcher, and educator, he is senior faculty of the Research Institute for Thinking in Education and a research fellow at the Santa Fe Institute for the study of complex systems. He holds a PhD from Cornell University and has served as faculty at Cornell, where he taught the graduate-level course on systems thinking.
A dynamic and engaging speaker, Derek has presented nationally and internationally on educational topics, thinking skills, and learning. He has worked extensively with teachers and senior staff in districts throughout the United States. His research focuses on systems thinking and thinking universals and is grounded in interdisciplinary work in nonlinear and systems sciences, evolutionary biology, cognition, human development, and education.
Derek was awarded the Association of American Colleges and Universities' K. Patricia Cross Future Educational Leaders Award. He was National Science Foundation Post Doctoral Fellow in the College of Human Ecology and a National Science Foundation IGERT Fellow in Nonlinear Systems at Cornell.
Derek holds a U.S. Patent for the Patterns of Thinking Method that underlies the design of ThinkBlocks and ThinkTiles, an educational tool he invented that teaches advanced thinking skills to children and adults. He is the author of numerous books, book chapters, peer-reviewed journals articles, and white papers. His research has been profiled in refereed journals, trade magazines, and popular publications.
Prior to his current appointments, Derek worked for more than a decade both nationally and internationally as an educator and mountain-climbing guide with Outward Bound and other organizations. An avid adventure traveler and arm-chair anthropologist, he has led high-altitude climbing expeditions to the world's most remote mountain regions and visited tribal communities around the world. As a social entrepreneur, Derek led fundraising efforts to establish the Aceh Relief Fund for victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and cofounded Children of Rural Africa to develop schools in Nigeria. Derek lives with his wife and son in Ithaca, New York.
Laura Colosi, PhD
Vice President
Laura Colosi is a well-known educator, evaluator, and expert in research methods, with a particular focus on assessing educational outreach programs. She has more than fifteen years of research and teaching experience at Cornell University in the area of parenting as it relates to developing children who are better thinkers and learners. Laura taught coursework on Families and Social Policy in Cornell's Department of Human Development before she focused her research on issues relating to parent and child well-being—for example, increasing parent-child interaction as a means to improve children's academic and social outcomes.
Since 2007, Laura has served as Vice President of ThinkWorks. This company crystallizes her vision of how schools can equip children with the thinking skills they need in order to thrive in any situation they will face in life. In addition to overseeing all aspects of the business, Laura welcomes the opportunity to educate any audience on the imperative of teaching thinking skills and on how the teaching method and products offered by ThinkWorks help parents, teachers, and other professionals to reach their goals for their children, students, or employees.
Laura's work has been published in Cornell's resources for parents, academic journals, and most recently, the children's book Journey to Planet Knowledge, coauthored with Derek Cabrera. She is currently writing a five-part series for younger children to introduce them to the four simple rules that underlie all thinking.
Prior to her work at Cornell and ThinkWorks, Laura conducted research at the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and The U.S. Department of Justice. Laura holds a PhD in Policy Analysis and Management and a Master’s in Public Administration, both from Cornell University. She currently serves on the board for her children's after-school program and volunteers time in their elementary-school classrooms. Laura lives in Ithaca with her two daughters.
Susan Fleming Cabrera, PhD
Chief Financial Officer
Susan Fleming Cabrera is an educator, researcher, businesswoman, wife, and mother with deep experience and expertise in the areas of finance, investing, business strategy, organizational behavior, and issues of gender diversity. Susan began her career on Wall Street, where over a period of twelve years she held various positions in the investment community, including that of Analyst at Morgan Stanley & Co., Vice President of Insurance Partners, L.P., a $540 million private equity fund, and Partner at Capital Z Financial Services Partners, a $1.85B private equity fund.
After retiring from Wall Street in 2003, Susan began work as an educator, teaching executives, investment professionals, MBAs, and undergraduates in the areas of corporate finance, insurance, valuation, and gender bias. She also enrolled at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management to pursue a PhD in Management, where her research focused on better understanding the factors contributing to a dearth of women in leadership positions in U.S. society. In addition to Susan’s work as an educator, researcher, and business consultant, Susan also has previously served on the board of directors of four publicly traded companies, one private company, and a nonprofit organization and currently serves on the board of Hanover Investors, L.P., a UK-based hedge fund, and Virtus Investment Partners, Inc., a publicly traded asset management firm.
Susan holds a B.A. in Economics and Asian Studies (Highest Distinction) from the University of Virginia and an MS and PhD in Management from Cornell University. She lives with her husband, Derek, her two-year old son, Carter, and their Bernese Mountain dog in Ithaca, New York.
Greg Wheeler
Director of Support
607-330-4814 email
Greg is available to make sure that every teacher can successfully use the Patterns of Thinking with their students. As a former high-school Language Arts teacher in the Washington DC public schools, he appreciates the joys and challenges of the classroom: the place where theory meets practice. Besides assisting educators, Greg records what they do as the videographer of ThinkWorks events and ThinkBlocks lessons and promotes their networking as our official blogger.
Julia Pfeiffer
Director of Operations
607-330-4814 email
Julia came to Ithaca to join the ThinkWorks team in February of 2009 from New York City, where she worked as an academic advisor at the Parsons School of Design. She has a B.A. in music education and an M.S. in nonprofit management. Julia loves "working with a team that's committed to creating positive change in education."
Jieming Fang
Tech Wiz
Jieming has a BS in Information Science from Cornell. He's been developing a software for us that's equivalent to ThinkBlocks and working on a website that will eventually host Thinkipedia and the ThinkWorks blog, among other things. Jieming was born in China and has lived in the United States since age two.
Jared Palmer
Director of Proactive Health & Fitness
Changing the world one desk at a time not only takes revolutionary ideas and great people, it also requires physical stamina. At ThinkWorks, we've invested in proactive health and fitness for all of our employees. Jared is a mixed martial artist and strength and conditioning coach who ensures that all ThinkWorkers have what they need to reach their potential. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Education with a certification in teaching and a Master's degree in Health Education. Jared is also certified as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA.
Leighton Arnold
Cornell University Intern
A physics student at Cornell University, Leighton assists in any number of projects at ThinkWorks. He juggles mundane administrative tasks with jobs that require deep thinking and technical know-how.
George Angevine
Ithaca College Intern
George is a senior at Ithaca College. He will graduate in May of 2009 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Integrated Marketing Communications. As an intern for ThinkWorks, George is responsible for a marketing research project intended to improve the company website. George is from Tarrytown, New York, in Westchester County, where he lives with his parents and two sisters.
