Our Staff

Gemm Learning provides Fast ForWord software to children who come to our centers and to children at home all over the US and Canada.

Geoff Nixon is the founder of Gemm Learning. After a long career running his own hedge fund, Geoff's experience with his son, a struggling learner from an early age, lead him to the idea of treating the causes of learning issues rather than just tutoring around them. As he looked at the choices for his son, he saw information was hard to get, that up-front evaluations were traumatic and cost a fortune, and that most recommendations did not address the underlying issues. This was the spark for Gemm Learning, started in Westchester, NY in late 2005.

The Greenwich Program Director is Michelle Reynard. Michelle was an elementary school teacher for nine years, before working at a learning center in Darien. She also spent almost two years at the Red Cross, as the Director of Health and Safety Services, before joining Gemm.

Michelle Petillo handles center operations, community relations and tech support for our CT and West Coast clients. Elle is a Speech Pathology Major from Iona College.


Tina Liberatore runs the Scarsdale, NY center. She been with us almost from the beginning as a Center Director. She came to us from Sylvan Learning tutoring centers in New York, before that a variety of educational roles including teaching in public schools in NY. Not only is she a ray of sunshine to have in the organization, she is a fountain of knowledge on all things child related. Tina also handles many incoming inquiries.
Learn more about Tina here.

Melanie Toth is the Program Director for Scarsdale. Melanie has held various positions in the education field, ranging from classroom teacher to author. Her collaborative research and writing resulted in the 2006 publication of Inspiring Active Learning: A Complete Handbook for Today's Teachers.

Rosemarie Feichtl is the third NY center staff member. Rosemarie is a graduate student from Columbia University, a Clinical Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Major. She has been part of Gemm in one form or another for about three years.


Sharlene Kelly handles inquiries on Mountain and Pacific time zones. Her first exposure to Gemm was as a client, whose twin boys completed our program over the summer of 2007. Based on their success Sharlene inquired about the opportunities to work at Gemm and we are happy she asked.

Accounting and other finance related functions are handled by Anne McCool CPA. After earning her CPA at Price Waterhouse Anne worked for various finance firms in New York before landing at Gemm. She is married to Geoff Nixon.

Our Certified In Center Coaches

Our coaches provide CT and NY reading help at our two centers after school during the school year and for our Summer Intensives. They are mainly Speech Pathology or Education majors who share one interest -- they love helping children! Our students love them because the coaches are young and cool to be with. And our parents love them because they are a motivating and nurturing influence in their child's life. We are a compelling alternative to standard Fairfield County & Westchester tutoring, and our coaches make this happen.