FoodFun LIS has been founded and will be led by Sue Altamirankow. Sue received her Bachelors in Education from Northwestern University. After graduation she entered Northwestern's Masters Program in Special Education with her emphasis on Autism. Recognizing that she wanted to teach at some point, Sue finished her Masters and entered the rigorous Ph.D. program. Her thesis, entitled "Implications in Lifeskills Training for Individuals with Autism" won widespread accolade and was published in the prestigious Harvard Special Education Journal. Having gotten to know most of the special education department at Northwestern, she was asked to become a faculty member on completion of her Ph.D.
Sue spent eight years teaching at Northwestern. While she taught a number of general special education classes, her passion was lifeskills for individuals with developmental disabilities, focusing on life transitions. In addition to teaching, Sue served as a member of the board of several different nonprofit agencies. Her time spent on the different boards was quite pleasing since it provided her with a bit more direct experience with the individuals in need. In the school setting most of her interactions was specifically with graduate and undergraduate students.
Sue began to realize as much as she enjoyed teaching, she felt isolated from the students that she was trying to help. She recognized that her work as an educator would in effect benefit the students, but she was looking for a different connection. Because she had an amazing amount of knowledge about the subject of special education, Sue began to brainstorm some ideas of starting a business that would serve individuals with developmental disabilities. While this intrigued Sue, she did not feel she had the requisite business experience, so she took several business courses to help develop this new skill set.
While taking these course (and teaching at the same time) Sue began to realize that while there were many different study aids on the market, they were all strictly educational. Sue believed (and studies would indicate) that if a fun component was added to the aid, students would use it more often and learn more. With this information in hand, Sue began to create an idea for some software that was both educational and entertaining at the same time. This was the beginning of FoodFun Lifeskills Instructional Software.
7.1 Personnel Plan
FoodFun LIS will require the following employees:
- Sue- she will be doing a little of everything from HR to business development to product development to finance.
- Accounting- an accounting clerk will be hired.
- Software development- two employees will be in charge writing manuals, instructions, and product bug updates, and version upgrades.
- Marketing Sales- two employees will be hired to generate sales.
- Customer Service- two employees will be used to field any questions from customers or address any concerns/problems regarding orders as well technical difficulties.
