Who We Are

Jeff Patterson has been starting businesses since he was five. Some were failures while others were marginal survivors, and those prior businesses set the groundwork for the success of Gaggle. Seeking a solution to manage student safety issues, Jeff founded Gaggle as a secure student email provider in 1998. As trends in risky student behavior like self-harm, violence toward others, cyberbullying, and explicit content grew, he expanded Gaggle’s offering to include products that help schools create safe learning environments. Unable to find investors when he first launched the company, Jeff has enjoyed not having a boss for the past two decades and uses this freedom to express his creativity and sense of fun—all while helping save kids.



Heather Durkac’s current role is serving as the Chief Innovation Officer and is responsible for connecting the innovation strategy to the business strategy at Gaggle. Heather has a diverse background in customer service, account management, and leadership roles within corporate settings. She has over 16 years of experience driving transformation at Gaggle and in the edtech industry in general. She brings a blend of strategic vision and operational expertise to the CINO role. Passionate about pushing boundaries, Heather thrives on identifying opportunities for growth, fostering creativity, building scalable processes, and leading cross-functional teams toward achieving innovative solutions that redefine educational experiences. Heather continues to be passionate about keeping students safe in an online environment and is excited to continue to grow Gaggle to support districts in being proactive with their efforts around student mental health needs.

Justin DeWind is Chief Technology Officer at Gaggle and brings 20 years of experience in software engineering, software consulting, and leading product development teams. Justin has worked professionally in Ed-Tech, Health Tech, Mental Health, and a range of other B2B and B2C technology industries. Prior to joining Gaggle, Justin served as a technology executive at LINQ, LifeWorks, and MorningStar Health. Justin also spent 10 years at Atomic Object, one of the top software consultancies in the country, as an engineer and consultant. Justin strongly believes you can have a start-up mindset without sacrificing client experience and scale. Justin’s experience successfully launching new products to market with start-ups and working successfully in large enterprise environments has enabled Justin to walk the line between “Start Up” and “Enterprise”.

Ron Zoibi brings to Gaggle more than 30 years of experience in public accounting, consulting, human resources, technology, and tax strategies for closely held businesses. Prior to joining Gaggle, Ron served as CFO of ghSMART, the gold standard in management advisory services to private equity and Fortune 500 companies, as well as CFO of Pro Financial Services Inc, the largest specialty disability insurance agency in North America. Along with the responsibility of leading strategy, finance, recruiting, and HR for Gaggle, Ron is an active member of the American Institute of Public Accountants, the Illinois CPA Society, and the National Society of Tax Professionals. Ron holds a CPA, an MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management, and a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Illinois.



Kevin Eckert is the Vice President of Customer Experience at Gaggle. In this role, he serves as leader of the Customer Success, Implementation and Technical Support Teams who are responsible for supporting the student safety initiatives at districts and schools across the country. He is passionate about working in mission-driven organizations that use technology to enhance the lives of others. Prior to joining Gaggle, Kevin worked as a Customer Success executive at two start-up organizations and built several teams from the ground-up, positioning both companies for successful private equity exits. He has spent the majority of his career working in education technology, which has equipped him with the knowledge and insight needed to advance Gaggle's mission.



Todd Schmid brings more than 25 years of K-12 education experience to his role as Vice President of Sales for Gaggle. Todd has successfully led sales and customer success teams for K-12 edtech providers such as Blackboard, Achieve3000, BrightBytes, and most recently as part of the Google for Education team. Todd has negotiated statewide partnerships to help scale the impact of educational technology, while keeping student success at the core of every engagement. At Gaggle, Todd leads a team of strategic sales advisors that engage with districts to leverage purpose-built technology in support of their student safety initiatives. Supporting Gaggle’s mission to ensure student safety and well-being is a natural progression of Todd’s career focus on helping districts leverage technology to ensure all students have the opportunity to reach their full potential.



Dr. Shelby McIntosh Goldman is Gaggle's Vice President of Marketing and Research and brings to the role more than 20 years of experience in K-12 education. She started her career as a classroom teacher and has since held roles in school leadership, education policy and research, consulting, customer success, and sales. At each stop along the way, Shelby has been focused on improving opportunities and outcomes for our most marginalized and vulnerable students. During her time in education policy, she studied school improvement strategies and the impact of accountability and assessment policies. As a consultant, she has helped school systems develop high impact strategies, implement new programs, and built community trust. She has led customer success and sales teams at mission-driven companies such as K12 Insight, Education Elements, and Scholarus Learning. Shelby leverages this combined experience to tell the Gaggle story in support of its mission to ensure the safety and well-being of all students.