Kimberly Berens, Ph.D. is the Founder of Fit Learning and Regional Director of Fit Learning Tri-State. In 1998 as a doctoral student in learning and behavioral science, Dr. Berens founded Fit Learning in a broom closet on campus at the University of Nevada, Reno. Since her humble beginnings, Dr. Berens has driven the expansion of her organization by establishing a formal certification and licensure in her powerful method of instruction. As a result, Fit Learning now has 31 locations worldwide, with 3 to 5 new locations opening each year. In 2010, Dr. Berens relocated to New York to open locations throughout the Tri-State area and beyond. For 20 years, Dr. Berens and her team have been developing and refining a powerful system of instruction based on the learning, behavioral and cognitive sciences. This system consistently produces over one year’s growth in 40 hours of instruction. Her learning programs target areas such as basic classroom readiness, phonemic awareness, reading fluency, comprehension, inferential language, basic and advanced mathematics, grammar, and expressive writing. Dr. Berens is also an experienced educational researcher who has published and presented extensively on science-based approaches in education.
She has been an invited speaker at over 30 regional, national, and international conferences and has given over 100 presentations throughout her career on a variety of topics such as 1) the need for learning science in education, 2) the learning disability epidemic and its relation to current educational practices, 3) component skill fluency as a true measure of mastery, 4) the importance of cognitive fitness and how it is produced, 5) essential teaching skills and how to train masterful teachers, 6) the need for deliberate, purposeful practice for the production of expert performers, and 7) how to design learning environments to optimize academic outcomes for all learners. Following an appointment by Governor Jim Gibbons, she served on the State of Nevada Board of Psychological Examiners from 2009 - 2010 where she assisted in the development of best practice guidelines for practitioners. She has also provided clinical and research supervision to undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students in learning and behavioral science. Dr. Berens is currently writing her first book on accelerating academic outcomes through instruction guided by learning and behavioral science.
