Not Your Typical Tech Bros

Jean Rhodes and Nancy McNamaraMentorPRO was co-founded by sisters Jean Rhodes and Nancy McNamara, whose interests and expertise are perfectly aligned for this mission. As a clinical psychologist, mentoring expert, and  award-winning college professor for more than 30 years, Jean deeply understands the strengths and struggles of young adults and how to apply best practices to advance students’ lives. And, as a computer scientist, Nancy knows how to harness technology to improve outcomes. After starting her career at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, CA, where she helped to pioneer technology platforms, Nancy worked at a Cambridge-based tech startup before launching her own successful company Academic Web Pages, more than 20 years ago.

The spark that ignited MentorPRO came as the sisters were walking along the beach at the Jersey shore, where they’ve been going their entire lives. Jean had just finished writing her book on mentoring was bemoaning the persistently small effects and lack of focus in most programs, despite clear findings showing the value of goal-focused, evidence-based practices. Nancy asked whether technology could be leveraged to help disseminate best practices and, several years later, they are continuing to advance this idea. MentorPRO’s big break came when they were awarded a generous grant through the National Institute of Mental Health’s highly competitive Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. They are delighted to be working with each other, their talented team, and an expanding array amazing partners.

Meet Our Team

Jean Rhodes

Jean Rhodes

Co-founder
Frank L. Boyden Professor of Psychology, UMass Boston

Jean Rhodes is the Frank L. Boyden Professor of psychology and Director of the Center for Evidence-Based mentoring at UMass Boston. She has devoted her career to understanding and improving mentoring relationships, publishing over 250 peer-reviewed articles on the topic over the past three decades and have worked tirelessly to disseminate this work. This includes co-authoring the National Mentoring Partnership’s Elements of Effective Practice, which has been downloaded by more than 10 million practitioners worldwide, helping to establish Centers for Evidence Based Mentoring in the U.S., Europe, and Asia and creating the popular Chronicle of Evidence-Based mentoring.

Nancy McNamara

Nancy McNamara

Co-founder
CEO & Founder, Academic Web Pages

Nancy founded Academic Web Pages in 2002. Previously, she worked for The Worx Group, as a Senior Application Developer, where she engineered internet solutions and at OffRoad Capital as a Senior Programmer. For more than a decade, she worked at Interleaf, Inc. in Cambridge, MA, as a software developer and before that at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, CA. She has a B.S. in Computer Science from UCSB.

Thomas Abraham

Thomas Abraham

Chief Technology Offficer

Thomas has a passion for using tech to make people’s lives better. He sits on the Advisory Board of City University of New York (CUNY) for the TechWorks Initiative, one of the US’s most extensive Federally Funded Software Education programs. His company HubSpire, where he is CEO, has also partnered with SproutCoding to teach coding and web development to children in Zimbabwe.

Ania Sanchez

Ania Sanchez

Director of Marketing

Ania Sanchez is passionate about marketing, developing products and consumer attraction and retention. With previous experience at renowned international companies in the Retail, Cosmetics, Tech, and Toy Industries, she is now our Director of Marketing. Born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Ani graduated with her Bachelors in Business and Marketing prior to completing her Masters in Business Administration at Vanderbilt University.

Alex Werntz

Alex Werntz

Chief Science Officer

Alex works with the MentorPRO team on research and product development. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Virginia in 2020, specializing in supportive accountability for technology-delivered interventions. Her dissertation focused on how individuals with mental health challenges and their loved ones can be motivated to seek treatments that work. She is excited to work with the MentorPRO team to improve access to mental health, wellness, and education apps that work.

Megyn Jasman

Megyn Jasman

Director of Customer Success

Megyn Jasman is the Director of Customer Success at MentorPRO, ensuring our translation of mentoring research into action. She works closely with our partners to reach the shared goal of improving outcomes for mentees. Megyn is also the Assistant Director of the Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring at the University of Massachusetts Boston with Dr. Jean Rhodes, investigating how the mentoring field can be revolutionized to best support today‘s youth. Megyn has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychological Science, and is furthering her education by working towards a Master’s degree in Community Psychology to understand how community-based programs can help prevent the development of adverse mental health conditions, as well as bridge gaps in services.