COMET Informatics LLC is pleased to announce the appointment of John Chapman, MS as their new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective Monday, April 19, 2021, following a planned CEO succession plan and unanimous approval from the board.  

With nearly 40 years of experience in the technology industry that include start-ups and fortune 500 companies alike, Chapman is excited about joining the COMET team and continuing to work and serve the Rochester community. “I am thrilled and humbled about the opportunity to join the outstanding team at COMET to help to continue their growth to the next level," says Chapman, “I am excited about their product offerings as well as assisting their clients to achieve their goals while further enhancing the customer experience.”

For the past several years, Chapman has been President of the JMC Advisory Group where he consulted with companies to execute GTM and sales programs, create and deliver product innovation, scaling operations/systems/process, and technology, enhancing customer experience, and assisting various organizations by filling interim CMO and COO roles. This work allowed Chapman to achieve results through collaboration and teamwork where accountability, customer-centric value and service were top priorities.

COMET’s current CEO, Leonard Gingello, MBA will officially retire Friday, April 16th, 2021 after being a part of COMET since its inception eleven years ago, four of those years as CEO and five as Board Chair. "I have deeply enjoyed the privilege of working with COMET's dedicated team and all the child care professionals, partners, and customers alike, who are so focused and passionately working to improve the lives of our precious children," says Gingello, “John is a great addition to the COMET team, and will serve our partners and clients well. I can retire with the knowledge that they are being left in the best of hands."

Original Posting 07.03.18

This blog post is a long time coming; we did this exercise as a team around Thanksgiving (yeah, I know, that was a while ago). But, I’m excited to finally have some time to put this together and share it. We asked everyone to finish the sentences ‘We are…’ and ‘We are not…’ from the perspective of Team COMET (COMET’s brand). Here are some of the highlights:

• We are informed; We are not judgmental or critical
• We are clever; We are not reckless or cliché
• We are a company who wants your children to succeed; We are not test crazy for test's sake - assessments should have a purpose
• We are enabling our customers to support children; We are not providing direct service to children
• We are passionate about our system; We are not overly nerdy about it (well, some of us are nerdy about it but not everyone)
• We focus on the child's journey; We are not just a moment in time
• We are the software; We are not the solution - you are
• We are supportive; We are not invasive
• We have experience and seek to inform; We don't tell you what to do
• We are technically savvy; We are not hard to understand (at least, we try not to be)
• We are the narrator; We are not the author
• We support evidence-based approaches; We are not limited to evidence-based approaches
• We are a close-knit team; We are not invasive with our co-workers
• We are #MakingDataCool; We are not #DataForDatasSake
• We are making up a COMET theme song; Or, maybe we are not.

Thanks for taking the time to learn a little more about us and how we think about the work we do and the service we provide. To learn more about our story and how COMET got started, click here.

Original Posting 15.03.18

We thought it might help to provide an overview on data available in COMET because who doesn't love to talk about data?! [wink, wink] But seriously, COMET is fundamentally "child centric", meaning that the system is designed to record data that serve or relate to the child. (e.g.: Mother of Birth, Father of Birth, Household Environment, Primary Care Provider). However, the breadth of data we can store related to a child is wide and comes in many forms.

"Operational" Data Elements: These elements support the overall operation of an organization or program. Examples of these elements include when an email was sent to a parent, the date of the next visit, membership or service dues collected. They are often relevant for only a short time and of value primarily for operational purposes.

Only One Value per Child; No Change Tracking: These are data elements - such as Last Name, First Name or Date of Birth - that are unique for the child and for which change-tracking is not required. For example, First Name may have been entered with a spelling mistake an then fixed. We do not track the change nor store the incorrect prior entry. COMET has about a dozen of these fields.

Only One Value per Child; Track Changes: These are data elements - such as Address or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) eligibility - that have a static value for a given child at a given date but may change often. We want to be able to view the history of changes for that field, but primarily access the current value. COMET has over 150 of these fields

Multiple Values per Child: These are data elements that may have multiple entries for a child - such as Family Relationships, Contacts, Consents, Vaccination Records. Depending upon each client configuration, COMET manages multiple active/inactive and current/history records associated with each. 

Multiple Values per Child with History of Changes / Instruments: These represent entities that have multiple occurrences for a given child for which we are interested in viewing the change over a period of time (pre/post analysis, longitudinal, etc.). In addition to the data elements collected when completing a response, these instruments are often associated with an assessment. Some assessments are "normalized" (they follow a norm, often authoritative) or "standardized" (statistically position the child against their peers). Assessments are key for monitoring individual progress, informing the practice and measuring individual impact in a continuous improvement model. They are also the base for program evaluations for example, assessing a group of children that has received a service in comparison to a group that has not.

Let us know if this was helpful or contact us if you have more questions.

Looking for more tips on data management? Check out this blog post about Chronic Spreadsheet Fatigue.

Original Posting 24.05.18

Being part of a team is one of the best things about working at COMET. Our common mission to support the success of children is one that resonates with each and every employee. Being part of a team - for example a sports team - is a particularly human experience that in its best light brings out the best in humanity.

This year, COMET decided to field a team for the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge! At my previous company, I had been Team Captain for our JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge team for over 20 years. I had basically grown as an employee, an event coordinator and a runner through these efforts. When I brought up the idea at COMET I was delighted to see that several of my co-workers were up for the challenge! We fielded a team of seven. We had a few runners, a few joggers and a few walkers - all approached the event with excitement.

The 28th running of the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge was Tuesday, May 22, in downtown Rochester, NY at the Frontier Field baseball park.  Proceeds benefited the local Veterans Outreach Center with 8,771 people registered, an 18% increase from last year, and more than 300 organizations involved. The Corporate Challenge is held at a variety of global locations, but Rochester has one of the largest groups of participants (more than Sydney, Australia or Shanghai, China). I am happy to say that all our COMET participants were strong finishers, enjoyed the event and look forward to it next year. And they like the free T-shirts, too.

I love that running is something to do alone at my own pace. As much as I like to run alone I really appreciate fellow runners' comraderie and encouragement to complete a distance or speed goal. A Corporate Challenge team balances a little competitiveness with support for personal bests. Rookie runners are so great to have on the team - the experience is always positive and often motivates them to continue to include walking/jogging/running as a part of their everyday fitness routine. Many Corporate Challenge participants start out as walkers and end up as runners. The social part of the Corporate Challenge - having fun with co-workers and seeing colleagues from all across the surrounding area - is foundational to the value of the event. It's one of the main reasons people come back year after year.

At the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge, every person feels like an athlete and part of a supportive team no matter how fast they run. For me, that is the point!

- Diane Trentini, VP Marketing & Sales

Original Posting 06.08.18

Name Brandon Wright - unlike others I've never had the luxury of being the only Brandon in any given scenario, at least not until I came to COMET. That's right... it only took about 30 years to become the only Brandon in the building!

Title SENIOR Account Manager (that's right... I'm fancy).

Background I was born and raised in Lyons, New York and attended college at Hobart in Geneva, New York. I've always been intrigued with technology and have been building, repairing and troubleshooting computers since I was about 12 years old. When a lot of my friends, or even our clients say things like, "How'd you know that" or "How'd you figure that out so quickly" my only response is that I've experienced pretty much every issue that you can imagine and with the issues, came the knowledge of how to fix and address it the next time it comes up!

Why COMET? The real question is 'Why Not COMET?' After college I worked in sales for a couple of years and while the job was lucrative, it was not fulfilling. In my eyes, it was nothing more than a job and never something that I saw as a career. It took about two days at COMET before I realized that I wanted to build my career with this company. COMET is a place where your opinion always matters; from the smallest of things, such as wanting a new keyboard, to the big things like making suggestions for enhancements to the product. Your voice is always heard and everyone is always willing to listen.

Favorites As cliche as it may sound, I absolutely love spending time with my wife and daughter, who is now 8 months old. When I'm not spending time with my family, my number one hobby is fly fishing! There's just something about being on a creek in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone reception and the calming noise of the water in the background. I also enjoy hiking, camping, kayaking... pretty much everything to do with the outdoors. 

What’s Next? I think that there's a lot in store with the growth and evolution of COMET. If you look at where the company started to where it's at now, it just goes to show how malleable the tool is. We've got some big things in store for the future and I'm excited to be a part of the team that is going to push COMET to the next level!

Original Posting 10.12.18

With 2019 approaching, we wanted to take some time and share with you our thoughts for what next year will bring. This past year was filled with change for us as both of our founders, Dr. Serge Lossa and Dr. Dirk Hightower, are retiring and we moved to our office. Along with all this change, we're excited to bring our customers some new features that have long been requested and some more exciting updates to our product.

So, what can you expect in 2019? The short answer is, A LOT! Our team has been experimenting with new development technology which is more flexible and mobile-friendly. We're looking at our approach to reporting and thinking about opportunities for improvement. We rolled out a beta Parent Portal and are anxious to launch that to additional customers... and so much more!

While we view 2018 as a great year, we're also looking forward to what's coming next. The COMET Team appreciates all of our customers, the new ones - as well as those who have been with us since the beginning. This coming year we have plans to bring you more value in support of your mission.

Original Posting 19.04.19

Name Brett Maddock - I'm the youngest of 3 "Br" boys - Brad, Bryan and Brett (I think it's important to note that I went from the smallest to the tallest!)

Title Account Manager - I'm the newest on the team, just joining COMET on April 15.

Background I'm from a family where nobody sits still and I am no exception. My parents idea of retirement is to open up a restaurant. It's called Bone Appetit Smokehouse BBQ & Bakery, and it specializes in dry rubs and smoked meats, as well as baked goods. One important lesson I learned from my parents is that family time fun should be a focus of life. My upbringing was about being involved in family activities: sports, coaching, Elks Lodge, ... not much time for TV! Being from a small town, I was involved in about everything including saxophone, musicals such as the Wizard of Oz and My Fair Lady (dancing and singing), football and coaching. I also began working at a grocery store at age 15.

Why COMET? I'm excited for the opportunity to join in our increasingly successful efforts to use technology in support of those who work with kids. I'm a part of something that matters for children and our future.

Favorites I'm an avid golfer and online gamer - I like to think of it as a balance of outdoor and indoor activities. I also love traveling with my brother. We are on a mission to visit the top 100 private golf courses in America. We've been to Pebble Beach, TPC, Sawgrass, Beth Page and of course, Oak Hill in Rochester, NY.

What’s Next? A new house! Time to get organized and make it a home. I plan to build a pergola and update some rooms. And at COMET, I would love to be involved in the customer engagement process; I'm always about continuous improvement!

Original Posting 16.10.19

Name It's a pleasure to work with our team of dedicated talent that works so well together in our humble mission to serve communities and precious children. 

Title CEO

Background After decades of experience in Senior Management, Program and Project Management at Harris, Mobil and IBM, and currently, co-owner, real estate investment companies LenMar and M2L2 Inc., I “retired” from corporate America in the fall of 2016.

Why COMET? I was looking for a transitional job, in addition to co-ownership, of my real estate investment companies, that focused on serving others. COMET 4 Children was the perfect fit.

What’s Next? I really enjoy seeing my 20s-year-old Daughter and Son setting out on their career paths, ensuring they know Mom and Dad will do as we always have, supporting their dreams and aspirations. As for COMET, we will continue to innovate and do everything we can to improve the lives of as many children and families as possible with tools for data driven decision making.