Age – 36
Company Name – Komo
Position In The Company – Founder
Bio: Kelsey Komorowski is the founder of Komo, an EdTech initiative pioneering high-impact, scalable solutions that build students’ learning and life skills. A passionate educator who specializes in helping kids learn how to learn, Kelsey has over 20 years of experience spanning public and private sectors. As a data-driven entrepreneur, Kelsey is dedicated to helping innovate educational systems that prepare students to succeed not just on the next test or essay, but in life. Kelsey envisions a world in which all graduates are well-versed in essential skills including but not limited to time management, executive functioning, self-motivation, metacognition and intellectual humility. Having worked with thousands of students, she has seen firsthand how understanding and practicing these skills not only supports academic achievement but mental health, self-esteem, positive family dynamics and a genuine love of learning.
Kelsey began her career with Ontario’s Ministry of Education where, as a member of the Research, Evaluation and Data Management team, she was exposed to the rigors of policy evaluation and the mechanisms behind large-scale educational reform. Amidst the massive data sets from 72 school boards in which she was immersed, she was struck by the information that was not available: objective measurements of students’ learning and life skills.
This sparked her curiosity – why aren’t we systematically teaching core skills like executive functioning and metacognition? Where are the success metrics that track individual, school-wide and systems-level improvements in these areas, similar to how we measure competencies in reading, writing and mathematics? Motivated to pursue these questions full-time and explore the impact of skill-building on student success, Kelsey left her government role.
Initially a “solopreneur” committed to creating an evidence-based practice, a rapidly growing waitlist of students led her to hire additional educators and grow into an international educational consultancy serving families and collaborating with educators across North America. In all, Kelsey led her team through multi-year research comprising literature reviews, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, surveys, and statistical analyses within the provision of skills-based academic support to 2,000+ to students in assorted secondary and post-secondary curricula across North America. Their primary finding was that students can have incredible teachers, tutors and technology but that if they do not know how to learn – if they lack the skills to effectively manage and engage in their work – school will feel harder than it should and they will not achieve to their potential. Their findings shaped the Komo pedagogy, which integrates explicit, systematic and continuous skill-building into students’ curricular content.
Shortly after the pandemic, Kelsey shifted focus from her flagship consulting business to creating skill-building technology in order to serve students at scale. Beyond unlocking the confidence and capacity of individuals to thrive in school, Kelsey believes that skills are key to unlocking the development of human potential on a global scale and creating a healthier, happier and more equitable society.
Komo is a member of the Registry of Autism Service Providers, recognized and subsidized by the Government of British Columbia. In addition to consulting with fellow educators and school administrators, Kelsey works personally with a limited number of families around the world each year. She has been featured in diverse media including The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, and Global News as a leading voice in education innovation.
Website URL: www.komoconsulting.com
Social Media URL
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/
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