Our Story

My brother, Austin, and I started CanDueTm to make an impact to students with executive function issues. Austin has learning disabilities of auditory processing, ADD and executive function. Despite his desire to do well in school and hard work, I witnessed his frustrations and inordinate amount of time planning his homework with my parents rather than spending time studying the academic content itself. He had challenges with setting priorities, determining steps to start and complete the assignment plus making a schedule. There were periods of frustration between my supportive parents and him. I believed there must be a better way…



With input from educators, technology professionals, students and parents, Austin and I developed CanDueTm to help students to prioritize, plan, schedule and remind students of homework tasks and assignments. As always, parents, teachers, educational specialists and tutors will need to be involved in assisting students with executive function issues but technology can help!

Executive function is a challenge – Let’s change that together.
Co Founders
  • Austin Chan
  • Kyle Chan
Advisory Board

Sandy Ayala

Sandy is Associate Professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Special Education at California State University (CSU) - Sonoma. She spent four years as Editorial Assistant for the Journal of Learning Disabilities and has been a teacher for 20 years including working as a speech pathologist in New York and Southern California. She earned her PhD in Education at the University of California Riverside, MS Special Education – Credential CSU San Bernardino, MA University of Northern Colorado and BS Speech Pathology State University of New York Geneseo.
 

Nicole Ofiesh

Nicole Ofiesh, Ph.D. is the Director, Schwab Learning Center and Universal Design for Learning Innovation Studio at Stanford University. Dr. Ofiesh studies the intersection of learner variance and performance at school and work. With expertise in learning disorders and attentional issues, she employs this knowledge to implement innovative approaches with a variety of learners and professionals from high school through adulthood. She has been in hundreds of classrooms over the past thirty years implementing, observing and studying various types of education for all learners. She often teaches courses for faculty and educators in Special Education instruction and assessment, as well the neuroscience of learning.

Edward S. Stern

Edward Stern, MS, is Learning Strategist and involved with the Universal Design for Learning - Schwab Learning Center at Stanford University. He has previously served as an Education Consultant for Johns Hopkins University where he trained staff and students in NYC schools to improve educational success. Since arriving in California in 2010, he has been a Learning Specialist responsible for student accommodations, coordinating peer tutoring and test preparation, and developing workshops and individual study plans at the university level.

Jack Hacking

When we created our advisory board, Jack Hacking was one of our first choices.  Jack was Austin's middle school Special Education teacher and mentor.   He has taught high school and middle school in Special Education.   He retired after a successful teaching career with the San Ramon Valley School District.  Prior to being a teacher, Jack was in business focusing on operations and project management.   He has a Masters in Science in Psychology, Bachelors of Arts in Economics and teaching credentials.

Aji Singh

Aji is currently in U.C. Berkeley’s PhD program in Computer Science studying Artificial Intelligence and Algorithm Analysis. He is currently a Graduate Student Instructor and was also a Teaching Assistant. He has previously also been a tutor at U.C. Berkeley’s Student Learning Center that assists Cal Berkeley students with academic support. Some of his students had ADD, ADHD, dyslexia and other learning differences. He has earned Bachelor degrees in Math, Computer Science, and Business Administration from U.C. Berkeley. Aji also has a learning difference of ADD.

Edmond Sullivan

Edmond Sullivan is currently a high school teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District.  His experiences included being in Special Education for eighteen (18) years working with students as a Resource and Special Day Class (SDC) teacher.  He has worked extensively with students with executive function challenges and other learning differences.   He has a Bachelors of Arts from Loyola Marymount University and teaching credential from San Francisco State University with certification of Special Education Level I and II.

Esther Go

Esther Go is a concerned and supportive parent in the areas of executive function.  As a parent with first hand knowledge of challenges with children with executive function challenges and a technology executive, she has provided us valuable input on the development of our website and apps.    Esther is President of Medilink Network which provides IT solutions to the healthcare industry.  She earned her MBA from Harvard University and Bachelors from Smith College.

Paul Alpern

Paul is a supportive parent with first hand and extensive knowledge of the daily challenges facing students with executive function issues. Paul has over 15+ years of legal experience in the technology field and is currently Vice President and General Counsel of Wave Computing, Inc., a Silicon Valley artificial intelligence technology company. Paul's legal experience includes domestic and international business development, intellectual property and technology transactions. Paul earned his Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School and his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from U.C. Berkeley

Brice Wu

Brice has spent 15+ years working in Silicon Valley in a wide variety of engineering, operations, and management roles, most recently at Google, Inc. Brice is currently the Head of Engineering for Komodo Health, a leading data platform within the healthcare space. Brice holds a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University, a MS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from UC Berkeley, and a MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Valerie Sharpe

Valerie Sharpe is an educator who has been dedicated to working on the behalf of children for over 40 years. She earned her Ed.S. in Special Education from The George Washington University in 2011. After 18 years as a Special Education teacher in Baltimore County, Val transitioned to teaching Higher Education. Retired from her position as the Program Coordinator for the Towson University B.S. in Elementary Education/Special Education program at The Universities at Shady Grove, Val serves as Adjunct Faculty at Frostburg State University. Val served as an officer for Maryland Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and the national CEC Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities. Val served as Local Arrangements Chairperson for two CEC Conventions. In 2012, Governor Martin O'Malley appointed Val to serve on the Maryland Professional Standards and Teacher Education Board (PSTEB). She has co-authored the book, The Executive Function Guidebook (2019) available from Corwin Press.

Roberta Strosnider

Throughout her career, Roberta has advocated for students with disabilities. She has served on the Board of Trustees of several organizations including the Council for Learning Disabilities (CLD) and Teacher Education Division (TED) of Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). She served as president of the Maryland Chapters of both CLD and CEC. She currently represents CLD on the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities. Roberta, Professor Emerita from Towson University, taught students K-12 in both general and special education prior to entering teacher education. Roberta and a colleague are co-founders of Project Boost. Project Boost provides executive function skill training for students K-12. Currently, Roberta teaches online courses on executive functioning at Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD. Most recently, she and Valerie Sharpe co-wrote The Executive Function Guidebook; Strategies to Help All Students Achieve Success published by Corwin.