Our dedicated Board of Advisors provides critical oversight, reviews and substantive recommendations for improvement. We are thankful for their expertise and their care for our students and families.
Learning Experience Advisor: S. Todd Stubbs
Todd Stubbs is a Learning Experience Designer with over 30 years of experience teaching and creating instructional and educational media of all sorts—print, visual, video, and interactive—including whole college courses.
He has taught in urban and rural schools, and at virtually every level: elementary, middle, and high school, as well as undergraduate- and graduate-level university courses. He has trained K-12 teachers, university faculty, and K-12 and university administrators, on ways to apply technology in instruction, Todd has presented at state, regional, and national conferences and seminars, and has authored several successful grants. He is a former president of the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology (UCET) (he once coaxed Apple’s Steve Wozniak to be the keynote speaker for UCET’s annual conference).
His interest in instructional design began in the rural town of Tropic, Utah, where he pioneered a telecommunication display system for use in teaching long-distance classes—long before the Internet. Later, he trained, consulted, and assisted faculty and administrators in a regional service center that served nine rural school districts in northeastern Utah. He taught information literacy to K–6 students at an urban elementary school as a certified library-media teacher/specialist; then, soon after, took over as project director of a large, struggling technology grant project involving high school math and science. Between and around all of these he has done many varied instructional design and development tasks for dozens of projects and assisted with hundreds of courses.
Todd holds a doctorate degree (PhD) from Brigham Young University in Instructional Psychology and Technology, and a masters degree (MEd) from Utah State University in Instructional Technology. (For a copy of Todd’s curriculum vitae, please go to https://www.toddstubbs.com/cv/.)
Todd and his wife Joy have been married over 40 years and have five children and 17 grandchildren.
Business Advisor: Kimberly Pearson
She earned her bachelor degree in elementary education with a mathematics minor from Sam Houston University and earned her MBA from the University of Utah. She has experience teaching from elementary to adults, and particularly enjoys teaching the middle school and high school age students. Kimberly has a great passion for organizing and planning. She has planned and managed many events from corporate conferences to community and charitable function, from church camps to family reunions. She enjoys challenges and has a talent for seeing the big picture as well as the detailed steps to achieve the end results.
Education Advisor: Jill Simonson
Mrs. Simonson has been teaching junior high, high school and college for many years. She has always been passionate about distance education and how accessible it makes education to all people, no matter where they are or what their circumstance. This passion led her to pursue a Distance Education emphasis when earning her MEd from Utah State University. In addition to her position at Ensign Peak Academy Mrs. Simonson also teaches for an online charter school, BYU Idaho, and homeschools two of her children.
Instructional Design Advisor: Tara Allred-Niekamp
Tara Allred-Niekamp is an author, educator, and instructional designer with a passion for learning. She has designed online courses for K12, Inc. eCornell, Junior Achievement, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and IBM, as well as other education-based companies. Prior to her instructional design days, Tara was involved with outreach education and program development for several Utah museums and informal educational organizations.
Finance Advisor: Fred Hunzeker
Fred W. Hunzeker has an MBA and assists taxpayers and small businesses with taxes. He has years of valuable experience as an IRS registered tax preparer. He assists small businesses with financial planning and strategic development. He has extensive experience serving as treasurer for multiple educational organizations.