Implementation Team

Joseph B. Kent, Pathtrek, LLC. Owner / Project Implementation Lead and Facilitator. Joseph B. Kent is a consulting facilitator in the education and workforce development space where he has 18 years of experience. Joseph holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in Finance, a Master of Science in Curriculum, Instruction and Technology and a Global Career Development Certification. Joseph is a member of the National Career Development Association (NCDA) and American Public Data Users (APDU).

As a Global Career Development Facilitator, Joseph provides technical assistance and career development facilitation services using the PathTrek Process. Joseph’s blend of business, education, technology and career development skills uniquely qualify Joseph for the facilitation work associated with regional career and economic development initiatives.

His work spans multiple states and leverages his background in market development and facilitation to help bring diverse stakeholders together to address regional career and economic development challenges. These efforts typically result in consultative engagements involving data compilation and analysis to help provide stakeholders with a view of the regional career and economic development landscape.

This work gets everyone in the community on the same page. Upon completion of the above, consultations around curriculum development, professional development planning and technology selection are typically needed to help shape the regional career and economic development implementation using the PathTrek Process. Joseph started his career in education and workforce training in 1998 at Executrain. Executrain trained workers and technology professionals in the proper use of computer software for desktop use, application development, network, security and infrastructure support.

Following Executrain, Joseph worked for PLATO Learning, Carnegie Learning and at WIN Learning where he was the recipient of multiple performance awards related to sales, marketing and instructional leadership and innovation involving intervention, credit recovery, mathematics instructional transformation and career driven education.

Danny Cox, PathTrek, LLC., Project Director. Danny Cox brings 25 years of technology sales, marketing, education and implementation experience to the Pathrek team.  His leadership skills managing large financial transactions and technology implementations working for organizations like Hewlett Packard and Salesforce.com will complement the Memphis initiative.  Danny’s past and present customer list includes many Memphis area city, county and state governmental agencies and educational institutions as well as some of the United States’ largest public and private companies.  In addition to having a deep understanding of the positive business impact that the latest technologies like mobile and cloud can have on an organization, Danny has first hand experience working with existing legacy technology like mainframe and data center platforms.

A native Memphian, Danny has a deep love for the city and is past Chairman of The Memphis Leadership Foundation where he remains as an Executive Committee member. A graduate of The University of Memphis, Danny is now completing his graduate work at Christian Brothers University with a concentration on Project Management and will receive his Masters Of Business (MBA) degree in 2018.Danny is married to his wife Pat and they have two sons that attend Briarcrest Christian School and are active members at Christ United Methodist Church.

Dave Whitaker, Headed2 LLC. CEO and Co-Founder. With more than 20 years’ experience in creating custom software solutions for communities and corporations. Dave is constantly evolving the ‘internet of things’ by engineering technology platforms to elevate performance and increase effectiveness of client products and services.

Since 2002, Dave has served as the direct application architect for Headed2’s total career engagement system, tying together the multiple databases that provide the user-friendly tools for students and jobseekers to “explore, decide and grow.” Passionate about people, and the ability to extend their vision into performance, Dave develops results-based logic models to guide software development and implementation. Dave assures client delight on all Headed2 deployments.

Jason Cernansky, Headed2 President and Co-Founder. Jason began working in IT during his teenage years and since then has invented several advanced algorithms for calculating the supply/demand for talent and matching individuals with careers.In 1998, the New York Department of Labor approached Jason, then a high-level systems designer, to develop a user friendly career exploration system that could take advantage of O*NET’s common language across occupations. The result was New York CareerZone, a simple-to-use system designed to allow jobseekers to quickly explore careers, take basic assessments, view occupational profiles, and see job prospects and their average wages.

Following release of the NY CareerZone platform, Jason was asked to do some work directly for O*NET to complete development of the computerized versions of their Interest Profiler and Work Importance Profilers—which formed the basis for the online versions currently in the Headed2 technology platform.

While Jason was working with NY and USDOL, he connected with Dr. Arthur O’Shea, developer of the Harrington-O’Shea Career Decision Making-Revised interest assessment. Jason has helped Dr. O’Shea over the years with numerous technical aspects of their assessment, including developing and hosting the CDM-R Internet version, which is currently sold by Pearson and hosted by Headed2. Over the last 20 years, Jason has transformed the way in which individuals and communities grow, attract and retain talent by providing innovative technology to connect learning with learning.

Katherine DeRosear, Headed2 Vice President of Partner Engagement. Katherine is brings to the position 20 years of experience in applied social science. Specializing in workforce development, government relations, and community development, Katherine is considered an “educonomy” pioneer in developing innovative workforce solutions that link work based learning programs with economic opportunities. At Headed2, Katherine helps to develop passion-driven career exploration tools that are technologically advanced, yet brilliantly simple. She works to revolutionize the way individuals and communities choose where they are Headed2.

Before joining Headed2, Katherine served as the Executive Director of the non-profit Manufacturing Skills Institute (MSI). She worked with academic partners throughout the US to increase the manufacturing capacity of communities by closing the career planning and skills gaps faced by advanced technology industries. Previously, Katherine was a private sector consultant, where she advised industry, policymakers, educators and workforce leaders on improving regional career readiness ecosystems. She also served in key positions within Virginia State government: Deputy Senior Advisor for Workforce Development in the Governor’s Office, Deputy Director for the Council on Virginia’s Future, and Director of Workforce Policy for the Virginia Community College System.

Prior to state leadership positions, Katherine was Director of Research and Communications for the Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia and served as Vice President of the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce. Katherine has been extensively involved in the development of public policy aligning education with economic opportunities and has contributed to several articles on the educonomy.