Two Join Kurzweil Education Systems

Kurzweil Educational Systems, Inc. announced the appointment of two additions to its U.S. sales staff. Rick Plescia joins the company as regional manager covering California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and Nevada, and Ed Smith joins as regional manager for Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Each will be responsible for regional sales of both Kurzweil 3000, reading, writing and learning software for struggling students and Kurzweil 1000, reading software for individuals who are blind.

Plescia brings with him over 20 years of experience in the disability field, most recently as director of educational programs for Pulse Data HumanWare (PDH). For the past eight years there, Plescia specialized in Learning Disabilities (LD) and sold Kurzweil 3000 software. Prior to working at PDH, Plescia worked for Maryland Computer Services and Telesensory Systems in the disability field, as well as with IBM and Hewlett Packard in the technology field. Plescia will be located in California.

Smith has spent nearly 40 years in the fields of special education and rehabilitation. For the past 20 years, Smith was Eastern regional manager with Pulse Data-HumanWare; for the past eight years there, he sold both Kurzweil 1000 and Kurzweil 3000 products. Smith began his career as a classroom teacher in public schools. Twelve years later, he joined the full-time faculty at Kutztown University as associate professor in special education and spent six years preparing teachers in special education. Smith holds two masters degrees in general and special education. He will be located in Pennsylvania.