What is

Vertical Take-Off (VTO)?

VTO assists teachers, therapists, and tutors in accelerating the pace of literacy acquisition by individualizing assessment and practice.

This tool will provide individualized instruction with automated feedback using AI’s large language models. The result is a more literate and capable population regardless of past difficulties with education.

Meet Our Visionary Founder:

Leta Palmiter, Ed.S., CALT, C-SLDS

Leta C. Palmiter is an accomplished and highly qualified educator with extensive experience in reading interventions for students with reading disabilities, dyslexia, and intensive intervention.  Palmiter has a Master's degree in Dyslexia Therapy and an Education Specialist degree in Instructional Leadership. She is a Certified Academic Language Therapist and National Board Certified Teacher. Palmiter has personally taught over 500 students how to read, write, and spell with confidence. Leta was National LETRS Professional Learning Facilitator for Lexia Learning, Inc.. She has also presented papers and conducted workshops, supervised practicum students, and served as a student teacher supervisor. 

She is also the Founder of Illuminations Center for Dyslexia, where she developed in-school, after-school, and summer programs in reading, math, and art, and partnered with local private schools to provide therapy services at their locations. "Mississippi Rising: The Story of How the Last Became First in Literacy Growth"  is her first book and was published in 2022. 

Meet Our Team

  • Leta Palmiter, Ed.S., CALT, C-SLDS

    "My mission is to impact the lives of children, adolescents, and adults with explicit, structured literacy instruction. I was privileged to study in the doctoral program at Vanderbilt University for a year before returning to the helm of Illuminations." 

    I love teaching, and now am blessed to teach teachers with LETRS as well as students at Illuminations.  My students range in age from 5 to 75 and many of my former students are now graduates of college with careers of their own!

  • Ben Stasa

    Ben Stasa is a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cylotron, a registered patent attorney, and in a Ph.D. program in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Mississippi State University. Ben also has 7 years' experience in managing the design and development of engineered systems involving million-dollar plus budgets, several partner organizations, and their personnel, and 3 years' experience fundraising and handling investor relations for a private investment fund he successfully co-launched. He currently co-leads this project with Leta Palmiter of Illuminations.

  • Chris Esler

    Chris Esler is the UI/UX engineer. His experience as a seasoned hybrid designer and software engineer specializing in front-end development will enable the vision to become a reality. Esler has 20 years of experience designing and creating design systems and web applications. He is well-versed in html/css/sass, angular/typescript, and nodes, and is committed to the VTO project.

  • Hollis Phillips

    Hollis Phillips is lead software engineer. He possesses a robust blend of technical skills and leadership experience. His prior role as an Analyst Intelligence and Sr. Backend Engineer directly aligns with the grant requirement for expertise in the design and development of education technology products. He is committed to learning and applying the latest methodologies, which is vital for the evolving field of education technology.

  • Kelley M. Davis

    Kelley M. Davis has extensive experience with school protocols for intervention, FERPA compliance, and data management systems. She will complete the security vetting for the team and function in the administrative role for implementation at Pilot sites. Kelley will also support initial marketing efforts with her extensive school contact list.

  • Shannon Ivey

    Shannon Ivey MFA PCC is the Director of Marketing. She has extensive experience in sales, marketing, higher education, and non-profit leadership. Shannon has certification and expertise in coaching innovative endeavors and their visionary founders with a public good focus.