Our passion is to expand education opportunities for all. A registered 501(c)(3) corporation, we create and support programs that increase access to affordable lifelong learning for everyone. Join us as we work to ensure that everyone has access to quality, affordable, education.
COT Education is run by volunteers dedicated to expanding educational opportunities for all learners. There are many ways, small and large, that you can help us achieve our goals.
Martin Hoffmann is a former private equity professional turned founder and mentor.
Having graduated in law, Martin spent most of his career working for mid cap private equity funds that invested funds on behalf of Tier One investment banks as well as Ivy League university endowments. In this function, he also co-led the acquisition of a leading German educational publishing company, where he was a board observer until the company was successfully sold to one of the leading international educational publishing companies five years later.
By having analysed many businesses and industries, Martin was able to build a sound business judgment and a deep understanding of drivers of business performance. His work with management of portfolio companies and seasoned industry veterans enabled him to combine the ability to see the big picture while also to narrowing in on the operations of a business and its customers.
Martin holds a law degree from the University of Munich (B.A. equivalent) and he obtained the Munich bar exam (J.D. equivalent).
Building on his experience as a private equity investor and his passion for educational publishing he is now building Business & Investor Labs, a publishing company that offers education and analysis for investors and decision makers.
Dr. Kent Gustavson is an award-winning author, TEDx speaker, founder and CEO of Blooming Twig Books, founder of an indie record label, and serial entrepreneur. This grants him the rare distinction of having a 360-degree perspective of the digital publishing landscape in the 21st century. He has ghostwritten over 50 books, and is an award-winning author, trainer, educator, & speaker. He is also one of today’s top experts in social media and content publishing, and his profiles are proof of what he preaches; he has had more than 100 million views across his profiles. He earned his Bachelors degree from Middlebury College, and his MA and PhD from Stony Brook University, where he taught leadership, service learning, language, writing, and music for nearly a decade. He now serves on the Board of Directors for the Stony Brook University Alumni Association. Kent is driven by the desire to do well by doing good, and he enjoys coaching and mentoring thought leaders and startups, as well as non-profits.
Psychotherapist, writer and thought leader in the emerging field of arts therapy, Cynthia Gustavson is the author of In-Versing Your Life ( 2nd addition: Blooming Twig Books. NY. 2006,) an acclaimed series of writing-directed guidebooks. She authored three other award winning publications, Bully! The Big Book for Bullies and the Bullied (Blooming Twig Books. NY. 2011,) children’s book, Ballad of the Rag Man (2009,) and poetry collection, Please Use This for Children and Not for War and Guns (2010). Gustavson contributed the chapter, “The Use of Poetry Therapy for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse Trauma,” to the textbook Expressive Therapies for Sexual Issues: A Social Work Perspective, (ed. Sana Loue, Springer, NY and Berlin, 2012). Her latest book, Between Tahlequah and Tulsa came out in 2014. Gustavson’s journal articles have been published in The Christian Century, Sojourners, The Journal of Poetry Therapy, and Families in Society.
An international speaker on the use of writing in therapy, Gustavson has taught at Louisiana State University and Northeastern State University graduate schools, as well as addressing the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine grand rounds in psychiatry. Gustavson is on the editorial board of Nimrod International Literary Magazine. She is also on the board of directors (Church Council) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the editorial board of The Lutheran Magazine.
Gustavson is a graduate of Boston University with a Masters degree from Louisiana StateUniversity. She did further graduate work at United Seminary of the Twin Cities, and doctoral work at Oklahoma State University.
