Who We Are

Alex Ezat Parnia, Ph.D., began his career in academia as a faculty member at the University of Hartford's Barney School of Business before moving on to Cambridge College, where he focused on branding and driving the school from a $2 million operating budget to $50 million. Later, he served as the provost and executive vice president at Nichols College. Most recently Dr. Parnia served as the president of Pacific Oaks College and Children's School in Pasadena, Ca where he focused on financial stability and academic excellence, bringing the institution from a $2 million deficit into the black during his tenure. Under his leadership, the institution saw an enrollment increase from 300 to over 1200 within three years. Recognizing a need for result-oriented consulting services in the Pre-k to College space, accessible to institutions with varied budgets, he formed Hopkinton Consulting Group. 

​Dr. Kenneth Boatner is an experienced educator and psychologist with more than four decades of frontline experience in working with teachers, students, and parents in preschools to the university. Currently, he is President and CEO of a boutique consulting firm, Focus On Successful Solutions where the goal is the creation of student-centered learning communities with the focus on maximizing student achievement through skill-building, knowledge and application. Much of the work Dr. Boatner has accomplished in academic settings centered on the importance of matching curriculum and instructions with needs of special populations and working jointly with teachers, in particular, to move those students forward who found education to be a daunting social and academic experience. His professional practice is framed by a philosophy which undergirds a belief that given the right learning environment, matched with stimulating and appropriate curricular, a well trained, emotionally supportive and content-driven teacher with the commitment to embed in daily learning activities varied pedagogy, all children’s cognitive and social academic experience can be enhanced. 

Over the years Dr. Boatner worked with a variety of regular and special education teachers and constructing and deconstructing curriculum to meet the needs of students who were not achieving in schools because of a mismatch in course content, objectives and assessments. In working with the special education teachers in the Boston Public School his tasks were to collaboratively address the aforementioned issues and in the process develop curricular and aligned them with Massachusetts standards without compromising the quality and integrity of academic programs. Dr. Boatner in his myriad other professional capacities oversaw the development of socioemotional curriculum and instructions essential to improving the emotional and psychological well-being of students in public and private schools. From his professional vantage point, the absence of a clear-cut, creative and narrowly focused curricula in language arts, mathematics, science and technology yielding poor student outcomes is a public health issue.  Coming from training in public health (MPH from Boston University Medical School) and a doctorate (Ed.D. from University of Massachusetts at Amherst) followed by a fellowship at the Harvard Medical School Dr. Boatner was imminently prepared to introduce different models of effective curriculum and instruction designs and mindsets into the Pre – K through higher education arenas: evidenced by many student successes.