Jeff Heil, CEO

Jeff leads our team, overseeing all sales, operations, development and customer success. He has a real knack for helping customers from various industries customize the use of our products to address the unique challenges they each face.

Jeff has degrees in product design and psychology from the University of Oregon and brings years of product innovation and user experience design to the company. He was responsible for the 2014 redesign of our flagship product, Friday Night at the ER, working closely with founder Bette Gardner to modernize the game and enhance both its visual elements and functionality. The new version received the 2017 Small Business Innovation Award from the Portland Business Journal.

Jeff is active in his community in Portland. He currently serves as board president for Friends of Columbia Park, a nonprofit that manages a historic community center located in one of North Portland’s largest parks.

Bette Gardner, Founder & Senior Educator

Bette founded Breakthrough Learning in 1994 to provide leadership coaching, management consulting and business development services to our earliest customers.

It was Bette’s special interest in systems thinking that led her to create a number of innovative tools and methods for managing within complex systems, including our flagship product, Friday Night at the ER. Bette first developed the tool following a consulting engagement at an urban hospital and trauma center that led to a breakthrough performance there.

Throughout her career, Bette also created computer-based tools for learning and decision support, including ‘management flight simulators’ for private clients and the public. She collaborated with Peter Senge and Arthur Andersen to create The Fifth Discipline-Interactive, and with High Performance Systems (now isee systems) to build simulations for population health management and healthy communities development.

Bette continues to support our customers and projects as a senior educator and frequently partners with others in academic and business leadership organizations to advance the integration of systems thinking in routine work and communities. She has a degree in psychology from Boston University.

Laura Baughman, Marketing & Communication Director

Laura is the first point of contact for our customers and works to optimize every step of the customer experience, from inquiry to training and integration. She also coordinates many of our marketing efforts, taking the lead on media relations and external communications via print, web and email platforms.

Laura has a degree in journalism from the University of Oregon, and held several editorial positions before cutting her teeth at one of Portland’s largest public relations firms focused on technology startups in the Silicon Forest. She calls upon her experience as a relationship builder to make meaningful connections with our customers.

Emily Aldworth, Operations Coordinator

Emily is our very own essential worker. She sources and assembles Friday Night at the ER game kits, manages our growing inventory of Metalog Training Tools, and personally packs and ships each order. She helps customers access our online training courses and support sites, handles accounts receivable and payable, and manages our office.

Prior to joining Breakthrough Learning, Emily was a postal carrier for the US Post Office, and held similar do-it-all positions at small businesses in Portland, including the Sam A. Mesher Tool Company, Caravan Pacific and Zero One Ten. She has a degree in environmental studies from the University of Oregon.