Daniel Berdichevsky (a.k.a. DemiDec Dan) founded DemiDec in 1994. He obtained his undergraduate and first master's degrees from Stanford University, and his second master's degree, in Public Policy, from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. In his varied career, Daniel has been a columnist, a venture capitalist, an editor, a teacher, a frequent flier, a camera designer, a Clippers fan and a jaywalker. Daniel is often spotted at Academic Decathlon and Scholar's Cup competitions with alpaca finger puppets. When asked, he describes himself as a professional geek.

Josephine Richstad is the Director of Curriculum at DemiDec. She holds a Ph.D. in English from UCLA and a BA, also in English, from Columbia University. She first joined our team as a writer in 2008, beginning her alpaca-centric collaboration with Daniel over breakfast at a Malibu diner shortly before going underground at a Charles Dickens festival. She is pictured here at her desk in Idaho, where she divides her time between tending her family, teaching herself economics, masterminding the production of curriculum and testing materials, and not taking international flights.

Tom Brazee works the backend magic that makes much of DemiDec possible, from web sites that write tests (well, almost) to software that administers them. A computer science instructor and Quiz Bowl coach for many years in the great state of Nebraska, Tom has been dropping into developer mode with DemiDec since 1999 (when Daniel briefly mistook him for a flashcard writer). He is a self-described basement troll with a passion for biking, problem-solving and ASP.

Rosie Berdichevsky is the program’s alpaca-mom; based in Los Angeles in a suburb full of coyotes and Hollywood film production crews, she processes all our order forms, fields phone calls from coaches, and takes care of the program’s two puppies, Mimi and Molly.