Meet the Reading Horizons
Leadership Team
Reading Horizons is full of passionate people that are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of striving readers and assisting educators in their efforts.
Team Officers

Tyson J. Smith
Chief Executive Officer
CEO of Reading Horizons, Tyson, has guided the Kaysville-based company into becoming a national and international education publishing enterprise. Since its inception nearly 40 years ago, Reading Horizons has had a firm focus on its goal to publish and market industry-leading education products centered on Reading Horizons' reading strategies. Tyson received his Undergraduate Degree in Business Management from the University of Utah and his MBA from Brigham Young University. He first joined Reading Horizons in 1998 as Executive Vice President with an emphasis in Marketing and Sales. He assumed the role of CEO in October 2001 and, since that time, has overseen steady sales growth and myriad improvements to the Reading Horizons line of products. Tyson has worked with thousands of educators worldwide to help make dramatic improvements in literacy rates for their students. He has also presented at education and technology conferences throughout North America and internationally.
Why are you passionate about working for Reading Horizons?
My motives for working here are entirely selfish. I love the feeling that I get when I talk to a teacher who says, 'I can't believe I didn't know this; I'm so excited to put it to use!' I enjoy hearing about students who have a newfound love of literature and whose grades have gone from C's and D's to A's and B's. I love the feeling I get working here with committed individuals who make me want to stretch myself to meet their standards. I love coming to work and feeling like we are doing something great and that we're doing it the right way. So as you can see, it's all about me. (Wow! That even rhymes.).

Trisha Thomas
President
Trisha Thomas joined the Reading Horizons C-Team to foster her passion for education and to help improve the teaching and learning experience for educators and students in classrooms. In her new role at Reading Horizons, Trisha brings over 20 years of experience in developing and executing revenue models that lead to an impact in K–12 education. Combined with her proven success in marketing strategies and customer experience at Discovery Education, Evan-Moor Educational Publishers, and Illustrative Mathematics, Trisha is looking forward to making quality reading instruction accessible to everyone. Trisha received her Business Management degree from University of Maryland and her MBA from Johns Hopkins University.
Why are you passionate about working for Reading Horizons?
I am passionate about my work at Reading Horizons because of the culture, people, and the focus on impact. I am inspired by the positive culture, the willingness and abilities of the people that we work with, and the impact we are making to teaching and learning. Reading Horizons offers a unique and effective instructional model that builds teachers confidence and helps all learners become capable lifelong readers.

Shelby Danks
Chief Strategy Officer
Dr. Shelby Danks is an impact leader and evaluator with 20 years of experience in various roles as an educator, managing researcher, and continuous improvement leader. As Reading Horizons' Chief Strategy Officer, she leads the design and deployment of a multi-pronged impact, product, and market research agenda aligned with the organization's strategic initiatives, informing the product roadmap. She has ten years of combined experience on the Board of Examiners for the National Baldrige Excellence Program, the Panel of Judges for the Quality Texas Foundation, and the Board of Examiners for the Missouri Quality Award. Shelby has also been a peer reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission and an accreditation reviewer for AdvancED. She holds a Ph.D. in learning technologies with an emphasis in research, measurement, and statistics from the University of North Texas.
Why are you passionate about working for Reading Horizons?
In a world where ‘impact’ has become such a buzzword, I am so proud that Reading Horizons embodies impact by breathing it into everything we do. In addition to designing products for maximum impact and effectiveness, we are dedicated to building a robust evidence base for our work and contributing to the science of reading corpus at large. Our continuous reflection upon the impact we are having in our work relationships and our service to educators keeps us tuned in to the needs of teachers and students. I love working with others who won’t stop until every educator feels like a master teacher in the science of reading.

Brent Egan
Chief Operating Officer
Brent Egan joined Reading Horizons as a Project Manager over Internal Assets and is now the Chief Operating Officer. He brings over 15 years of professional executive leadership in operations with experience throughout various industries. Brent received his Finance and Business Administration degree from Weber State University and his MBA from Utah State University. Brent loves to spend time with his wife and four children, traveling, watching and playing sports, and being active and outdoors with friends and family.
Why are you passionate about working for Reading Horizons?
No matter where I've worked, I believe that enriching people's lives means something. No where else, has this rang more true for me. Our company core values of Purpose, Faith, Relationships, Integrity, Improvement, Recognition, and Fun resonate so strongly with me on a personal level and help provide the motivation I need each day to support all our amazing team players! Each day our culture is growing as each one of us endeavors to empower individuals with the gift of literacy to better prepare themselves to discover their personal worth and value as they take on the world and accomplish the challenges and tasks that we all face each and every day. Our mission is real, and the impact and confidence that we continue to share will change the world!

Kyle Helfrich
Chief Revenue Officer
Kyle Helfrich is a lifelong educator who began his career as a high school English teacher and coach. His 25 years of experience in K12 have allowed him to work with school systems across the United States in the areas of Professional Learning, Core Instructional Resources, School Improvement, and Interventions and Enrichment. Kyle has served in leadership roles for organizations such as Discovery Education, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and the College Board.
Kyle’s role as Chief Revenue Officer is to ensure that the combined efforts of the Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success teams result in maximum impact on student learning outcomes. Our goal is that all students become proficient readers by the end of third grade. Kyle holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Education and a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Arizona State University.
Why are you passionate about working for Reading Horizons?
In a world where the status quo is too often “good enough,” Reading Horizons is an organization that challenges its team players to become better every day, at every level of the organization. With a solid foundation in its core values, an emphasis on continuous improvement, and a clear focus on its mission, Reading Horizons offers an environment that inspires. We are a team inspired to serve students and teachers in the pursuit of literacy for all.

Stacy Hurst
Chief Academic Advisor
Stacy Hurst has degrees in Sociology and Elementary Education and Reading, and she has Advanced Reading and ESL Endorsements. During her twenty years as an educator, she has been a first grade teacher, ELL teacher, literacy coach, and reading specialist. Her extensive experience also includes coordinating interventions for struggling readers, implementing blended learning, and training thousands of teachers on effective literacy instruction. Stacy is the Chief Academic Advisor at Reading Horizons and is the co-author of Reading Horizons Discovery®.
Why are you passionate about working for Reading Horizons?
The reason that I love working for Reading Horizons can be summed up in as few as four little words that each have big meaning: purpose, passion, potential, and people. I love that our purpose is to make a difference in the lives of people who are learning to read. The passion that we have towards this purpose is evident in every corner of the company. I get most excited about the fact that we can increase the potential of many people. We can increase the potential of teachers by providing them with knowledge and quality materials to enhance their teaching; of beginning readers who are put on a heightened trajectory when they receive quality instruction in the nascent stages of learning to read; and of struggling readers who are infused with a renewed hope for life because they are able to read better than they ever have. Finally, I love the people at Reading Horizons. It has been said that we only hire nice people, and I believe it! It is energizing to work with capable, dedicated, and talented people who have such vision for making a difference in the world.

Brandon Kasteler
Chief Technology Officer
Brandon Kasteler is a culture-driven technology leader with more than a decade of experience building teams to become operational and process leaders. He holds an Information Systems and Technologies degree from Weber State University and has focused his career on building Agile technology teams that deliver impact.
Brandon is also passionate about spending time with his wife and two children outdoors, exploring the world in search of good food, and continuing to build his library of books.
Why are you passionate about working for Reading Horizons?
‘Building awesome things with awesome people’ has always been my career motto, and I get to do that here. Beyond that, we get to build awesome things that make an awesome impact on the lives of children, adults, and families everywhere. For me, that’s huge and is something I’m thankful for every single day.

Kedrick Ridges
Chief Product Officer
Kedrick Ridges is a craftsman, passionate team builder, motivator, creative thinker, designer, illustrator, and avid do-it-yourselfer. With a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Communication from Weber State University, he leverages nearly 20 years of design and product experience ranging from branding and identity design to interaction and user interface design. He thrives on creative problem solving and loves creating simple, intuitive products and experiences that help people accomplish their goals—big and small.
Kedrick loves building things—bridges mostly 😉 —but also just about anything out of wood. He lives in Kaysville, Utah, where he raises backyard chickens and goats—in addition to eight remarkable children.
Why are you passionate about working for Reading Horizons?
Throughout my career, I have had the unique privilege of working almost exclusively with cause-oriented companies and clients, from higher education to faith and family. Reading Horizons is no exception. Our mission of cracking open the powerful potential inside each one of us through literacy is as noble a cause as any on Earth. We have the opportunity to truly change lives. That is exciting. That is motivating. And that is worth fighting for.
VICE PRESIDENTS

Shantell Berrett-Blake
Vice President,
Content Development

Ryan Burwell
Vice President,
User Experience

Dustin Bush
Vice President,
Sales

Jonathan Diaz
Vice President,
Product Management

Stephanie Myers
Vice President,
Research and Impact

Kiana Porter-Isom
Vice President,
Revenue Enablement
DIRECTORS
Zachary Allred
Design Director
Angie Barnett
Market Research and Portfolio Director
Jeanette Beninati
Marketing Director
Joe Billman
Software Development Director
Dave Clark
Director, Analytics and Insights
Doug Cleghorn
IT Director
Brittiney Gardner
Professional Learning Content Director
Jacqueline Gonzalez
Product Research Director
Randy Hagg
Regional Sales Director, Central
Jenny Kier
Education Specialist Director
Katie Moore
Curriculum Director
Pam Moore
Certified Facilitators Director
Layne Laytham
Revenue Operations Director
Charlotte Naylor
Director of Customer Implementation and Analytics
Dave Prisbrey
Sales Director, Corrections
Katie Smith
People and Culture Director