ATC’s management, consultative board, and development team have a direct, vested interest in improving the world of augmentative and alternative communication. We are parents of children with special needs, career educators, or practitioners in the AAC field—and we want to leverage modern technology and clinical research to build bridges within families and between people.
Founders
Brenda Jensen
Albert Fernandez
Genevieve Jensen
Brenda, her daughter Genevieve, and Albert are cousins who grew up within a close family, originally from Tampa, Florida.
Experienced educators, Brenda and Albert share a deep commitment to helping others through the power of education, especially to those most in need.
OiGO© App arose out of a conversation in 2014 during a family vacation. Frustrated with the Assistive/Augmentative Communications (AAC) market’s inability to help Brenda’s daughter Genevieve communicate her emotions, they began to work with speech and language experts to break through the limitations of that stable-but-static market and create a device to help the millions of speech-challenged people like her to produce complex, age-appropriate statements—or in Genevieve’s words, to help the world “Just Hear Me.”
OiGO© App is the ongoing result of that conversation. Brenda, Genevieve, and Albert thank you for visiting our site and for being a part of our journey. We look forward to your comments, thoughts, and support in our shared vision for assisted speech formulation.
Brenda Jensen, M. Ed.
Brenda has held positions as Teacher, School Administrator, education consultant, advocate, and parent coordinator since 1974. She has overseen her daughter’s intensive therapies for over 34 years, advocating, collaborating, and co-treating. She is co-founder of Assistive Communications Technologies, developer of OiGO© SELF, a game-changing speech and language app that facilitates social-emotional speech, reduces frustration, and increases understanding.
- Fellow, National Science Foundation I-Corps, University of South Florida Tampa
- FSN Coordinator, Montgomery County Infants and Toddlers Program, Rockville, MD
- coordinated programs for children with special needs by matching each child with appropriate school, community, and private resources.
- Former Director of ESOL Lemon Grove/San Diego CA School District
- Educational Consultant
- Programming for children with special needs by matching school, community, and private resources
- Individual Education Plans (IEP)
- ADHD and Sensory Integration issues
- Elementary School Principal, teacher
- M.Ed. in Educational Administration and Supervision, UC Boulder, Colorado, 1978
- BA Spanish USF, Tampa FL 1972
“I have always used a whole family approach to find programs and personnel best suited to address the special needs of each child.“
— Brenda Jensen
Albert Fernandez
Albert Fernandez, MA., NSF/I-Corps Fellow, has taught in a variety of secondary positions in the Tampa, FL area since 1992. Certified in English Language Arts, Social Studies, and English for Speakers of Other Languages. As a Director of Student Activities, he designed and implemented programs to encourage high school students to refine their leadership potential. He served as an officer in the US Coast Guard. As co-founder of Assistive Communications Technologies, he has used his organization skills to co-develop OiGO© SELF Social Emotional Language Facilitation app.
- Fellow, National Science Foundation I-Corps, University of South Florida Tampa
- Teaching Certificate, State of Florida, Secondary Social Studies and Secondary English Language Arts, Florida Endorsement for English Education for Speakers of Other Languages
- Over 25 years’ experience in secondary and post-secondary education, with a specialty in language acquisition for non-English speakers
- US Coast Guard veteran, Navigation and Maritime Law Enforcement, 1981-1987
- MA Secondary Social Studies Education, 1995, USF Tampa, FL
- BA in US and South American History, Washington and Lee Univ., Lexington, VA 1980
“I envision a world where all people are celebrated for their unique gifts, where all share their hopes and dreams with confidence and pride.“
— Albert Fernandez
Development Team
David Pritchard
Project Manager. David did his Master’s work on the emotional impediments to language formulation. He is a professional English Language Arts Educator with almost 20 years’ experience at the high school level. MS in English Language Arts, USF Tampa FL.
Jane Lutken
Linguistics Consultant. Johns Hopkins University: PhD of Cognitive Science. MA Linguistics and Language Acquisition, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, 2013. BA in English Literature, Whitman College, 2010. Jane has extensive experience with student and adult at-risk populations, tutoring students with Autism and as a Girl Scout Program Director. In the past, she has been an English Teaching Assistant in Dunkirk, France, and a Whitman College “Writing Fellow” where she worked with college students there. She taught elementary school English in Nantes, France as an intern through a study abroad program during college. Jane is a Fulbright Recommended Scholar to the English Teaching Assistantship Program in France (one of 55 students nation-wide).
Logan Roberts
Mr. Roberts brings vast experience in multiple software development paradigms, including being a Scaled Agile certified Scrum Master and Program Consultant. This enables him to lead both small and large efforts with precise deliverables in a timely managed fashion. Along with his business partner Max Thompson he founded Loxo-solutions in an effort to further leverage his expertise in deploying Mobile, Web and Cloud technologies.
Max Thompson
Max Thompson is one of the engineers and founders of LOXO Solutions. He has been working with OiGO since 2017 as a student at The Citadel looking to enhance his coding abilities. After college, Max decided to keep working on OiGO because of his belief in OiGOS ability to help people all over the world.
