About Us
Peak Academic Solutions (PAS)™ provides Expert Online Tutoring, Test Prep, and Academic & Executive Function Coaching. PAS™ empowers students through personalized support, Active Assessment™, and close collaboration among students, parents, and educators.
Uninterrupted Academic Support - from Anywhere:
Our online model allows students to tutor from anywhere in the world, providing uninterrupted academic support to busy students.
Subject-Matter Experts (SME):
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PAS™ tutors are Subject-Matter Experts (SME), carefully selected for their depth of teaching and tutoring experience, ensuring every student receives exceptional academic support and measurable results. Our SME's specialize in Math, Science, Orton-Gillingham Reading, Writing, SAT/ACT/AP Test Prep, and Academic & Executive Function Coaching, helping students plan, organize, and achieve their academic goals.
Academic & Executive Function Coaches:
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Our Academic & Executive Function Coaches help students plan, organize, and complete assignments across multiple subjects, while building essential executive function skills, including time management, task management, organization, and follow-through.
Michael and Jen Birdsell are college professors who built a successful online tutoring method that now supports students worldwide. By combining expert tutoring and personalized, holistic academic coaching, PAS™ equips students with the tools, strategies, and confidence to achieve lasting academic success.
Our Founders
Jennifer Birdsell
Director of Student &
Academic Services
Jennifer is a full-time mathematics faculty member at Anne Arundel Community College (AACC), where she has taught since 2012. At Peak Academic Solutions (PAS), she is highly focused on creating, refining, and managing the personalized support systems that define the company’s approach to student success. She is the primary architect of PAS’s Active Assessment™ process, which drives the organization’s individualized tutoring model. At AACC, Jennifer teaches developmental and college-level mathematics courses, including College Algebra, Statistics, and Calculus. Prior to her full-time appointment, she served as an adjunct faculty member at multiple Maryland community colleges and taught high school mathematics in both private and public schools in the United States and abroad.
She graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Pure Mathematics from Eastern University and later earned her Maryland Secondary Teaching Certification and completed an M.S. in Applied Industrial Mathematics from Towson University. Over the course of her accomplished teaching career, Jennifer has devoted extensive time to working individually with students who need additional support, helping them build both confidence and mastery in mathematics.
Jennifer is especially passionate about one-on-one instruction and meeting students’ individualized learning needs. She has extensive experience supporting students with executive function challenges, including ADHD and ADD, and is committed to helping each student build both mathematical confidence and durable learning strategies.
Below, our expert, Jen Birdsell, shares tips for finding the perfect tutor.
Michael Birdsell
Director of Operations &
Community Outreach
Michael Birdsell is a humanities pedagogy and course developer, philosophy professor, and co-founder of Peak Academic Solutions (PAS)™. His work brings together more than three decades of experience in higher education, research, technology, and innovation with a commitment to personalized, student-centered learning. At PAS™, Michael oversees company operations and community outreach while helping shape the educational practices and standards that define the PAS™ experience.
His professional experience includes service on federally funded grant teams supporting research and educational initiatives through the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and National Science Foundation (NSF), as well as privately funded projects. He has also developed and implemented online courses using Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Quality Matters (QM) principles, and Open Educational Resources (OERs), with longitudinal Learning Outcomes Assessment (LOA) informing course and curriculum development.
As a philosophy professor, Michael teaches Introduction to Philosophy, Ethics, and Contemporary Moral Problems at several Maryland community colleges. His teaching emphasizes critical thinking, structured dialogue, and inquiry-driven learning. He holds a B.S. from Arizona State University, completed post-baccalaureate studies in Education, and earned an M.A.L.A. in Classical Studies from the Graduate Institute at St. John’s College in Annapolis, where he cultivated a strong commitment to discussion-based learning grounded in the Great Books tradition.
In 2026, Michael developed SIMPL Inquiry™, a student-driven inquiry framework designed to help educators ethically integrate AI in ways that deepen rather than replace student thinking, reflection, and intellectual ownership. He and his wife founded Peak Academic Solutions on the belief that education should embrace technology while remaining deeply personal, human-centered, and responsive to the world students inhabit.
Michael has been invited to present his SIMPL Inquiry™ method at the Community College Humanities Association (CCHA) National Conference in October 2026, “Being Human in a World on Fire,” in the Culture, Education, Technology track.