Our Leadership Team
Kendra Paolitto
OWNER
After starting out as a teacher in South Central Los Angeles, Kendra never suspected that her career would eventually blend her two grandfather’s professions – one the head of Biopharma Recruiting and the other a celebrated Ph.D. Chemist with dozens of patents.
Kendra has led talent acquisition and strategy teams in New York City and Silicon Valley. Her expertise is in analyzing data sets to understand her clients, and in making the right match between candidate and company. She started her Executive Search career as an associate at the esteemed global search firm Heidrick & Struggles, utilizing her multi-lingual skills to recruit talent internationally.
She later developed a passion first for AI and then medical advancement working for Butterfly Network in medical device and imaging recruiting, and later at Foundation Medicine -- where she leaned at both how her skills could be utilized for making a difference for good in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and other health issues. Other experiences include talent acquisition for hardware & software companies, tech consulting for state and federal government, and retained search.
Kendra has a B.A. from Pomona College (where she honed her competitive nature and winning mindset as a 7-time All-American athlete in Track & Field), an M.A. from Claremont University, and an Advanced Professional Diploma from Cornell University. She also holds the PHR (Professional in Human Resources) and SHRM-CP licensing designations. Kendra@realsmartpeople.ai
Anthony Paolitto, Ph.D.
COO & FOUNDER
Dr. Paolitto founded Cognitive Recruiting after a notable academic career as a psychology professor. His prior research and teaching interests focused on cognitive and personality assessment, as well as assessing human information processing. This relationship to neuropsychological processes and how we learn, directed him to avenues of relating this knowledge to neural networks and concepts of machine learning and natural language processing.
While on the faculties of Tufts University, James Madison University, and George Mason University, Tony presented and published extensively in the areas of Intelligence, Psychological Assessment, neuropsychology, learning disorders and measurement & statistics. He was the principal investigator on a number of validity and standardization studies of major psychological assessment instruments measuring cognitive/intellectual and neuropsychological functioning. Tony was also recognized nationally with awards for outstanding teaching and training of graduate students. A licensed psychologist, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. Despite a fulfilling career as a faculty member, as a life-long fan of Star Trek (especially the original series), he is delighted to be contributing in a field to where the tricorder of Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy’s sick-bay and scanner are just about a reality! DrP@realsmartpeople.ai
Deborah Faucette, R.Ph.
SENIOR ADVISOR
Deb received her BS in Pharmacy from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy. Her career has involved various corporate positions in retail pharmacy, heading up endeavors in operations, recruitment, training, technology, professional affairs and clinical services. In addition, she has served chain pharmacy interests nationally in association management, working for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. Deborah has also held management positions in marketing, patient education, and specialty pharmacy.
A practicing healthcare provider, she is a pharmacy preceptor for several Schools of Pharmacy and is certified in Medication Therapy Management and as a community immunizer. Deborah has been a School of Pharmacy Advisory Board member since its inception and was awarded UCONN's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2008. She advises us on our recruiting endeavors and partnering with the pharma and biopharma industries and trends.
John D. Wasserman, Ph.D.
SENIOR ADVISOR
Dr. Wasserman provides services in clinical neuropsychology and assessment, has taught psychology at major universities, and directs research and development on psychological assessment instruments. He completed his fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at the L.S.U. and Tulane Medical Centers, and he earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Miami.
A major figure in the psychological test publishing industry, John oversaw development of leading norm-referenced measures of ability and behavior, including serving as project director for the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales (SB5), the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS), and the NEPSY: A Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment among others. He has taught hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students, as well as practicing psychologists, and he considers himself a lifelong student of human nature. While a faculty member at George Mason University he developed the Cognitive Assessment Program there that continues to serve Fairfax County gifted and talented students. He is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He works with Cognitive Recruiting as a content expert in talent identification, neuropsychological applications and giftedness.
Doug Fuchs
RECRUITING ADVISOR
Doug is a senior talent acquisition professional with extensive experience sourcing and recruiting Executive, Management, Technical, Professional, and Sales talent. He has been engaged in retained executive search as well as recruitment on internal corporate teams.
Doug has successfully recruited for Google, Microsoft, GE, ESPN, Northrop Grumman, and United Technologies. He is known for the ability to recruit Engineering talent where other recruiters have failed. He excels at building relationships with both candidates and clients by taking the time to listen and tailor an individualized recruitment strategy. Because of this, Doug has an incredible success rate of making hires that stay engaged with their company for a longer than average tenure.
Doug has recruited professionals and management in the following Disciplines: Information Technology, Software and Hardware Engineering, Medical Services, Defense, R&D, Regulatory, Scientists, Chemists, Sales, and Marketing. Doug obtained his B.A. in Economics from the University of Connecticut.