About

Eric Peterson, Ph.D. graduated from Brandon High School and attended Vanderbilt University earning his BS in Chemistry with a minor in Math. He continued at The Scripps Research Institute where he earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry. Upon graduation, Dr. Peterson obtained a research position at The University of Florida; however, after his first child was born, Dr. Peterson decided to leave the fast track of academic research to focus on his family and teach in his local community. He spent 17 years in Hillsborough County Schools teaching all levels of Chemistry including dual enrollment in the Collegiate Academy at Armwood High school and Math for College Readiness, Algebra I and Algebra II. He also served as the technology resource teacher while at Jefferson High School. As part of the charter staff at Newsome High School, Dr. Peterson spent ten years as Science department head and was nominated as the Teacher of the Year.  He was also a founding partner for Alafia Logic, a software company for tracking data within schools used by over half the high schools in Hillsborough County. Since retiring from the school system, Dr. Peterson has tutored with Varsity Tutors online, scored for Pearson assessments, and volunteered with FIRST Robotics. Now he is ready to bring his wealth of instructional strategies and subject area knowledge directly to his community through The Peterson Academic Center. 

“…binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. “

Carl Sagan [Cosmos, Part 11: The Persistence of Memory (1980)]”

Amanda Peterson, M.Ed. attended the University of Florida earning her BA in English with a minor in Education after graduation from Brandon High School. Then, she earned a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction with a Literacy Emphasis from the University of San Diego. In San Diego, Mrs. Peterson team taught with the first AVID teacher in the country and then wrote curriculum for the first GAP camp program in the country for 8th graders transitioning to high school. She was also the cheer adviser and ran two marathons during her time there.  After four years of teaching English in the San Diego Unified School District, Mrs. Peterson returned to Brandon, FL and taught 8th grade Language arts at Burns Middle School where she earned her gifted endorsement. While her three children were young, Mrs. Peterson worked part time with Catapult Learning teaching reading to elementary students in small groups. She then worked for several years with the Brandon Reading Clinic providing one on one Orton-Gillingham based reading therapy to students of all ages. While at the BRC, Mrs. Peterson homeschooled her oldest son who is severely dyslexic and took several post-graduate classes in reading at the University of South Florida. When she returned to full time teaching, Mrs. Peterson taught 6th and 7th grade reading for five years at Turkey Creek Middle School where she completed her ESOL and Reading endorsements. Mrs. Peterson currently teaches 10th grade intensive reading at Brandon High School. She is active on the Instructional Leadership team and teaches in the ELP program for struggling readers. During the summer, Mrs. Peterson is the director of TechPlayzone, a hands on STEM camp for kids. In her spare time, Mrs. Peterson volunteers as an assistant to Guardian ad Litem volunteers and with FIRST Robotics. Mrs. Peterson is certified in English 6-12 along with endorsements in Reading K-12, ESOL and Gifted Education.

“One child, one teacher, one pen, and one book can change the world.” Malala Yousafzai