Meet The Team

Board of directors

Robert Sorenson
Executive Director

Sorenson has been involved with educational processes for 30 years.  As a senior Pfizer, pharmaceutical consultant, Sorenson trained and educated doctors and hospital staff on complex medications and provided expert field knowledge to senior Pfizer executives.  Sorenson’s strategic and conceptual abilities are critical in identifying and overcoming road blocks and obstacles to bring projects together and make them financially feasible to insure all parties will benefit.  Sorenson left pharmaceuticals and helped form several start-up companies including SideKick ICS, to help improve education through technology innovation.   Sorenson is a former Chairman of the Board of a Utah Credit Union and a graduate of Utah State University.  He resides in Alpine, Utah.   

David Beckstrand 
Director

Beckstrand is an expert in bringing people and organizations together through partnerships and joint ventures, creating win/win strategies through proven managing change and conflict resolution principles and processes.  For many years, Beckstrand was responsible for Citibank’s Consumer Human Resources organizations in the United States and Latin America.  David retired from the corporate world as a Senior Vice President over Human Resources for Kelly Services, a fortune 400 company.  He moved west, became a real estate developer and helped form several small companies including Skilled SOS.  He has devoted the last few years of his life developing creative educational solutions to help students make smart career choices.  He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and resides in Utah. 

Mark Nelson
President

National Account Manager

Conley Equipment Company

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Mark has been in sales and marketing for over 20 years in many industries including health, construction and power.  He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing from the University of Northern Colorado and resides in Lehi, UT.   

Christopher Shirley 
Director

Shirley has spent over a decade teaching Masonry in Career and Technical Education in Pennsylvania and has been involved with Career and Technical Student Organizations to promote student achievement. He is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University with a Masters Degree in Workforce Education and Development

Brian Ballard 
Director

Ballard is an experienced software designer, developer, and systems analyst with expertise in systems planning, deployment, communication development, data design, collection strategy and application.  He helps companies identify and implement critical technology needs.  He is founder and President of Hoplite, LLC. 

Trina Brinkman is a skilled communicator with a marketing degree from BYU and a masters degree in business administration from the UoU. As an adjunct professor of communications for BYUI, she teaches subjects such as marketing, public relations, and presentation. As the Director of Speaker Development for SnappConnerPR, she specialized in fine-tuning the unique benefit each speaker brought to their audience. With a focus to give back to her community, she joined five other founders to start Renaissance Academy, a public charter school located in Lehi. When she isn’t speaking to middle schoolers about their individual worth and impact, she enjoys participating in Toastmasters and assisting clients with insurance and real estate investing needs.

Jace Crowshaw
Advisory Board 

Chase Copper
Advisory Board

Kevin Wright
Advisory Board