How TEAMology Started

As a graduate student at Penn State University in The College of Education in the early 2000s, founder Linsey Covert became curious and passionate about how school systems were supporting and educating students on the importance of relationship building, teaching social & emotional skills and overall how being part of something bigger than yourself, a team, could have a positive impact on their futures. She discovered that will so much focus being on academics there was little room in most schools for focus on anything related to social, emotional and mental health. Her graduate research and work motivated her to want to learn more and inspired her to begin the development of what is now the critical work behind TEAMology. 

She continued this research and development alongside her professional work as an educator, school counselor, private therapist and higher education career counselor. The ideas were soft piloted with some of her own students and more formally piloted by then school counselor and now TEAMology’s Director of Education, Lisa Dibernardo. 

It was clear that the work was impactful and meaningful and this was validated when a donor through the College of Education at Penn State University gave an endowment that allowed Linsey to bring the IP into the University and began working formally alongside PSU research team led by Dr. Richard Hazler and Dr. JoLynn Carney. The program and curriculum included 6 foundations (Helping Others, Positive Change, Anti-Bullying/Acceptance, Problem Solving, Resilience and Leadership) that were promoted to students through relatable characters Harper, Paco, Amelia, Philo, Ruby and Lamar and was originally known as Project TEAM. Research through this project proved the early efforts were worth the time and energy as the world of education started showing growing need and interest in SEL (social emotional learning). Linsey began forming early relationships with school districts, foundations and other partners to expand the work but was coming to a realization that in order for this work to grow and scale to impact on a broader scale, she had to think more innovatively and look for a way to take the work outside of the university.

Some might call it serendipitous that as the need for the work to expand grew, Linsey found herself in front of a Pennsylvania Economic Development group called Ben Franklin Technology Partners. On top of support and funding through Ben Franklin, her timing was perfect related to the vision PSU had around building an entrepreneurial ecosystem known as Invent Penn State TEAMology became the first company funded through this innovation vision. 

TEAMology formed in 2016 and entered the market delivering research based programming, content and curriculum through a cloud-based teacher platform that allowed for easy access to lesson plans and training materials. It wasn’t long after the launch of this first platform that the team knew there was more work to be done to better support growing needs of student social, emotional and mental health needs directly. In 2018, efforts were in place to better understand what could be done to do just that. 

The TEAMology characters were growing in popular with students who were exposed to them and early focus groups inspired Linsey and her team to better understand how they could use innovation and artificial intelligence to bring the characters to life to provide a personalized, non threatening, and safe space for students to share their thoughts, concerns and feelings and receive real time tips, strategies and feedback based on the research based content built by TEAMology. 

The pandemic ultimately accelerated the plan for what is now known as TEAMtalk. This product is the result of incredible vision, partnership, talent and the ability to believe we could do more for students, schools and communities as well as become an extension of a team of advocates that are beyond their limits. 

We want to thank every child, teacher, counselor, administrator, parent and partner who believed in the important work we continue to do every day. Without our TEAM of incredible people and organizations, the work we are doing for students today wouldn’t be possible. 

It has always and will always take a TEAM.