Griffin Education (GriffinEd) is a 501c3 non-profit team of world-class educators and performers. Our goal is to give every child access to fun(!!!) music and videos that will help them master the content and vocabulary they need for success in school, regardless of ability to pay. We work in the same tradition as the bards, skalds, and griots who have kept and shared their peoples’ knowledge since humans first sat around a campfire; but now we’re doing it online.

Meet some of the amazing people who make it happen:

Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin
executive director and lead educator/performer

Tim taught all subjects in Title-1 elementary schools in Los Angeles for 18 years before giving up his tenure to launch Griffin Education Solutions, better known as GriffinEd. He loves researching, writing, and sharing new music with kids and watching them not only get excited about the STEM and other subjects we teach through song, but actually perform better on standards-based assessments of their knowledge and vocabulary when they work with our music. Tim has performed to great hilarity and edification for the National Science Teachers’ Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, NASA, and scores of science fiction & filk conventions; plus a few hundred schools, libraries, museums, and other places of learning. Tim has won the Pegasus Award for Best Songwriter/Composer and for Best Song (Lucy On The Line), and has been nominated five times as Best Performer. He has been a chosen participant in the Annenberg Alchemy Lab for nonprofit leadership and was a finalist in the Social Venture Partners' Fast Pitch competition for nonprofits, which sometimes brings him back as a coach.

Jeff Abercrombie
producer, bassist

As a young man roaring out of Tennessee, Jeff Abercrombie toured with his starter band (Fuel) for fifteen years. After a few double-platinum records he decided he was finally ready to get serious with his music, so he now produces and plays bass for GriffinEd. When you hear anything particularly awesome in a GriffinEd song, that would be Jeff. He now lives near Boise, Idaho where he spends his time raising a family, making music, and conducting groundbreaking fieldwork in cryptozoology.

Jeff Bohnhoff
producer, musician, engineer

Music and technology wizard Jeff Bohnhoff is an award-winning songwriter, performer, engineer, and producer based in Northern California. He and his wife Maya have been performing together for four decades, published eight albums of original songs and goofy parodies, while their music videos have garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Jeff has won multiple Pegasus awards as a songwriter and performer, and GriffinEd is mighty grateful to have him taking the lead on GriffinEd’s Book Club.

Dr. Cat Faber
contributing writer, consulting professor of very tiny things

Dr. Cat Faber‘s love of language, music, and science goes back to her childhood. One of her earliest memories is writing her first song, and she had her first mathematical insight (negative numbers) in first grade.  She took up guitar in her teens, and has won several Pegasus Awards for her brilliant songwriting. She has a PhD in molecular biology, and science frequently informs or inspires her songs.  Cat has built three canoes, and paddled one of them through Quetico Provincial Park.  She once wrote a song in her sleep, but it wasn’t one of her better ones.  She currently plays mandolin and is flirting with the violin.

Dr. Ada Palmer
contributing writer, consulting professor of history and language

Dr. Ada Palmer is a historian, poet, musician, and science fiction novelist whose work is driven by her fascination with the many ways history, technology, and culture interact and shape our lives. She has published award-winning works in too many genres to describe here, speaks more dialects of Latin than you do, and has written and performed some of the craziest Norse mythology-themed dance musical numbers you are likely to see in your lifetime.

Abby Posner

Abby Posner
guitar, banjo, vocals

Abby Posner is an incredibly talented professional musician based in Los Angeles. She has composed music for commercials/TV, films, and radio shows around the globe; appeared in two episodes of GLEE, playing banjo and guitar; and scored two feature documentaries. All this while playing and touring with several bands. Abby formed her own band ‘Abby and The Myth’ in 2014, and since then they have taken LA by storm with their catchy indie folk songs. The Myth released their EP “Ghosts and Frames” in April 2015, and have toured throughout the Western United States. Abby's extraordinary skills on guitar, banjo, and drums can be heard on many GriffinEd recordings.

Links:
www.facebook.com/abbyandthemyth
www.abbyandthemyth.com

Dr. Chris Robinson

Dr. Chris Robinson
consulting professor of life science, catcher of bonehead errors

Consulting braniac Dr. Chris Robinson is a paleoanthropologist who studies evolution among humans and other primates, which is to say he knows where the bodies are buried. He is a tenured professor of biology at Bronx Community College where he has taught general biology, anatomy, physiology, and bioethics for 13 years. He has co-authored a published lab manual for general biology; several popular articles on teaching evolution in biology courses; and the evolution of altruism in humans. His own altruism includes vetting the lyrics of GriffinEd’s life science songs to find and correct Tim's bonehead mistakes. Any errors that remain in GriffinEd’s life science songs probably happened because we didn’t listen closely enough to Dr. Robinson.

Jane Robinson

Dr. Jane Robinson
contributing writer

Dr. Jane Robinson (no relation to Chris except in the paleoanthropological sense) was fascinated by living things since she could walk. As a little girl she loved to observe nature up close, and loved bones especially. She went on to earn degrees in biology, zoology, and paleontology; and became a highly esteemed museum scientist at the University of California at Berkeley. Just for fun, she wrote and performed brilliant songs about evolution, dinosaurs, and life in academia. Over the years, Dr. Jane released three albums of crazy science music upon an unsuspecting public: Wackademia, Fossil Fever, and Remains. In 2005, Dr. Jane became Dr. Jim, who no longer performs but remains a prized member of the GriffinEd team.