About us

Dr. Eric Mazur, co-founder of Perusall and fellow educator, speaks at a conference.

Our story

We began Perusall following a major four-year research project at Harvard University; we created the platform to serve students in our classes, and then in 2015 built the business to bring our research to students and instructors everywhere. Since then, Perusall's efficacy as a learning technology has been tested by more than 4,000,000 students at 5,500 educational institutions in 112 countries. We have grown mostly by word of mouth when instructors shared their experiences teaching using Perusall with friends and colleagues.
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Our investors

We don’t have any! We make all research, product, and strategic decisions ourselves in the interests of students, instructors, and educators everywhere.

Our Perusall founders

In addition to being developers, teachers, education researchers, and behavioral and data scientists from Harvard University, we are an experienced entrepreneurial team: We previously built Learning Catalytics together to manage the in-classroom experience, and have also separately built five other successful businesses.

Gary King

Gary King is the Weatherhead University Professor, Harvard's most distinguished faculty position, and Director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science.

Brian Lukoff

Brian Lukoff is an educator, entrepreneur, and software engineer. An Assistant Professor of Instruction in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, he has a Ph.D. in Education from Stanford.

Eric Mazur

Eric Mazur is Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics and Dean of Applied Physics at Harvard. He is also inventor of Peer Instruction, and pioneer of the flipped classroom.

Kelly Miller

Kelly Miller is Associate Senior Lecturer at the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard. Her research is in Peer Instruction. She has a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard.

Our Perusall team

Ryan Alexander

Ryan is a Success Specialist at Perusall. He assists users as they acclimate to Perusall and aims to address questions in a supportive and efficient manner. An alum of Teach for America, Ryan holds a Master’s in Special Education and taught high school in underserved communities for over five years, as well as at the Department of Corrections in Washington, DC. Ryan is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in vocal performance at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

Gretchen Brevnov

Gretchen is the Chief Executive Officer at Perusall, supporting the team to achieve the best possible experience for Perusall clients. Gretchen has a BA from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in Virginia with her family, where she enjoys horseback riding and other outdoor activities.

Emmy Kuperschmid

Emmy Kuperschmid is an Operations and Customer Success Specialist at Perusall. She assists with bookstore and publisher relationships and helps Perusall users with support needs. Emmy has a BS from Skidmore College and studied at the Eugene O'Neill National Theater Institute. She is located in NYC, where she also works as an actor and playwright.

Leah Mathie

Leah joined the Perusall Team in 2023 as an Operations and Customer Success Specialist. She assists users with navigating the platform, and works with bookstores and publishers to provide quality material to Perusall users. Leah has a BFA and BS from Nazareth college and recently finished training at Atlantic Acting School. She is also an actor currently based in NYC.

Chloe Pangonis

Chloe is the Operations Manager at Perusall. She manages publisher and bookstore relationships, as well as assisting with consumer product feedback from instructors and students. Chloe graduated with a BA from Emmanuel College and currently resides in Boston, MA. She enjoys spending time with her rescue dog and is an avid distance runner, currently preparing for the 2024 Boston Marathon.

Nolan Quella

Nolan is the Customer Experience Manager at Perusall. Nolan fills essential roles in sales, customer support and marketing. Nolan received his BS from the University of San Francisco. Nolan is an avid surfer, snowboarder, and comic book enthusiast and lives in the Boston area with his wife and kids.

Maggie Rodgers

Maggie is the Customer Success Lead at Perusall. She assists Perusall users with getting adjusted to the platform and with any technical aspects inside courses. She has a BFA from George Mason University and also studied at the O'Neill Theatre Center. Maggie is currently an actress performing in the New York City area.

Michael Rosenberg

Michael is the Vice President of Sales at Perusall. Michael has been associated with innovation in higher education for his entire career. A highlight along the way was producing a film series adapting classic American short fiction to the screen including works from Alice Walker, John Updike, and Eudora Welty. Michael graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder and lives north of Boston.

Justin Sumblin

Justin joined the Perusall Team in 2021. As a Senior Customer Success Specialist, Justin primarily works directly with users through support requests, assisting with platform demonstrations, and Perusall academy webinars. As our Knowledge Manager, he maintains our Knowledge Base, and researches trends in educational technologies, and shares that information with the team. When he's not working for Perusall, he's performing, teaching a Zumba class, playing board games and trivia, or traveling.

Allison Villaseñor

Allison joined the Perusall Team in 2021. As the Marketing Specialist, she covers all ground from Social Media Manager to Podcast Producer. She works on promoting Perusall events, sharing new features, and connecting educators with each other. Allison is a proud Cal Bear, sketch comedian, avid runner, and a dog mama to a corgi named Bonnie.

By educators for educators

Our mission