Our Team

David K. Brake
Co-Founder & CEO
With over 25 years of experience in educational, professional, and technology-based publishing, David is part of an AI-driven transformation in information publishing. He started his career with a renowned medical publishing company that is now part of Elsevier Health. He is the founder and current CEO of The Grandview Group, a consulting company whose client list includes Wolters Kluwer Health, Crisis Prevention Institute, McGraw Hill, Wiley, Pearson, and EBSCO. He was the consulting publisher for the Workplace Violence Prevention Handbook for Healthcare.

Kimberly A. Urbanek
Co-founder, Chief of Innovation & Practice
A leading Workplace Violence Prevention expert with over 25 years of healthcare, security, and first responder experience, Kim is a nationally sought-after speaker, a #1 best-selling author, and a recognized healthcare consultant. She is a pioneer and thought-leader in the Security industry, and an award-winning recipient for “Excellence in Security Operations.” Kim offers unique expertise, as she combines her years of clinical, bed-side experience with her years of security leadership expertise to eradicate violence. Kim authored the Workplace Violence Prevention Handbook for Healthcare, a first-of-its-kind publication, and has been featured in numerous other articles and podcasts by prestigious healthcare agencies.

Erin K. Parker
Director of Operations
Erin oversees and manages the company's day-to-day operations, ensuring that OPTICS’ technology and product support resources facilitate an exceptional customer experience. With 25 years of experience managing digital publishing products, online education and training programs, she brings a strong customer-centric approach to this role. Prior to joining OPTICS, Erin worked in various capacities including operations, production, user experience research, and product development for The Grandview Group, The American Psychological Association, and Reed-Elsevier.

Sakthi Veerapathiran
Director of Technology Development
Sakthi brings almost 20 years of publishing technology experience to this crucial role. He oversees the Agile product development process, managing the work of OPTICS’ team of software engineers, AI engineers, data scientists, and quality assurance testers. Working closely with the Director of Operations, one of Sakthi’s key role is to ensure that the OPTICS platform serves the needs and meets the high performance standards of its healthcare clients.
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