Gemm Learning was founded by Geoff Nixon.   Geoff had a successful twenty year career on Wall Street, running his own hedge fund for the last fourteen. In early 2005 his seven year old son, Matthew, did Fast ForWord. About half-way through the program, Matthew's vocabulary exploded. He was more able to follow directions, he became more talkative and finally started to make progress in his reading, a wonderful development for a child who had made minimal progress in the prior two years.

Geoff was inspired by this personal experience. He shut down his hedge fund at the end of 2005 and started Gemm Learning. His idea was to be the first New York and Connecticut learning center  to offer Fast ForWord software to the public, so that it could do for other children, and families, what it was able to do for his.  In 2007 Mark Smith, a personal friend of Geoff Nixon, made an investment in Gemm and has become an important partner.

The center started out as Westchester Learning, but in early 2008, as success in Pelham meant we were likely to soon expand beyond Westchester's borders, the name was changed to Gemm Learning. Gemm is the initials of Geoff's family -- Geoff, then his children Emma and Matthew, and his wife, Anne McCool -- a personal name reflecting the family story behind Gemm. 

Gemm's first Westchester reading help center employee, there from day one, was Kathy Shea. Geoff was aware of Kathy's interest in education through their work together on the Pelham Education Foundation board. Kathy's background is in advertising and law, and she has been a critical part of the team ever since, in a strategic planning and center development role. 

To ensure a high level of service from the outset, Geoff and Kathy developed a collaboration with Karen Slotnick, an integral member of their team. Karen is a speech pathologist, and Director, Speech-Language and Learning Center at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. She is a leading practitioner of the Fast ForWord program (which is a good resource for NY and CT SAT prep as well), and often presents to professional groups on language processing and reading disorders and treatment.

Karen has a private practice where she can provide an in-depth evaluation of your child, either in your home or at our Westchester or Stamford and Greenwich learning center/CT learning center. She is also available for phone consultations on learning issues large and small.

Our Mission

Inspired by the changes Geoff Nixon saw in his son, and understanding that the new possibilities of brain plasticity were "game changing," Gemm was founded with this mission:

• Provide passionate service and cutting-edge science that consistently delivers great outcomes for kids.
• Build brain plasticity awareness.  Help parents understand that it is indeed possible to impact how children learn.
• Find ways to make our service available in all demographics.
• Provide a fulfilling and enjoyable work environment for our employees.
• Core values:  exceed service expectations, be trustworthy to customers and vendors, and embrace new advances.

Community Involvement

We take pride in our scholarship program that helps children from lower income families take advantage of our service.

We are also proud to have made contributions to or be active members of the following organizations:

Boy Scouts of America

Pelham Arts Center

Pelham Little League

Pelham Children's Theater

Pelham Chamber of Commerce

Nurse's Network