The Funetics Story
Our Mission
Our goal is to help foster a love of learning in young children by creating fun, effective educational programs and products.
Our History
Funetics was created in 1968 by Gregory and Patricia Simms, who developed it as a way to teach their own children to read. Their program was originally called the New Approach Method, or NAM. NAM proved so effective that it was used in thousands of schools and homes throughout the East Coast.
One measure of the program's success is that all five of the Simms children went on to undergraduate and graduate degrees from universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, UCLA, Rutgers, and Georgetown. Four of the Simms' grandchildren have been taught to read with NAM, and these children are also top performers in their schools.
NAM has been evaluated on several occasions, most notably by Educational Testing Service (ETS). Click here to read detailed excerpts from the ETS study.
Gregory Simms passed away in the late 1980s. As a result, NAM was temporarily removed from the market. The program was reintroduced to the market in May, 2008 by his daughter, Claudia Lewis, under a new name: Funetics.
Our Team
Claudia Lewis - President
Claudia Lewis has worked in the service of children and families for most of her 20 years in business. She has most recently worked with Teach For America, providing career guidance to their volunteer teachers who have completed a two-year commitment to teaching in urban schools.
She has previous worked as Chief Operating Officer for a non-profit foundation dedicated to bringing online literacy programs to under-served communities. She has also served as a Research Associate on the Los Angeles Universal Preschool Planning commission.
Claudia graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and has received an MBA from UCLA. She is the proud mother of three children. The youngest is currently learning to read with Funetics. The older two are Funetics graduates now enrolled in their school's gifted and talented programs.
Melissa Cohen - Chief Product Designer
Melissa Cohen is an independent product development expert who focuses exclusively on products for children. Melissa began her 20-year career as manager/owner of an independent toy store. She later rose through the ranks at Zany Brainy, mastering every aspect of the business, from Store Management to New Store Merchandising, Training, and Buyer.
Colleen Murphy - Curriculum Consultant
Colleen Murphy is a 1st-grade teacher at McKinley Elementary School, a blue ribbon award-winning school in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. Ms. Murphy has been teaching for nine years. She has a degree in elementary and kindergarten education from Penn State and a Masters in Education from Arcadia University.
Gabrielle Greene - Advisory Board Member
Gaby Greene is General Partner of Fontis Partners, which she and Henry Crown-classmate Danny Villanueva founded in 2002. She is also a director of Austin-based Whole Foods which she joined in September 2003, and serves on the audit and compensation committees of the board.
Before founding Fontis, Gaby was the Chief Financial Officer of Crown Services, based in San Jose, CA. She has also served as a trustee of the Boston Children's Museum, the Entrepreneurial Growth and Investment Institute, and The Boston Partnership.
Ms. Greene received an MBA and Juris Doctorate degree from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.
Monica Van Horn - Advisory Board Member
Monica Van Horn is a Principal Consultant with Catalyst Communications. She has been offering strategic content and communications services to the financial and technology sectors for more than a decade. At Catalyst, Van Horn works with C-level executives and all levels of senior product, marketing and sales management to strategize and execute comprehensive marketing and PR programs. Clients include AT&T, Cisco Systems, Merrill Lynch, SunGard, Thomson Financial and Vantage Reporting.
