EDUCATOR · BUILDER · WRITER · MUSICIAN

JEFF RITTER

Thirty years in higher education. Now building AI tools for learning, civic transparency platforms, and a screenplay about a man who fixes everything except himself. Pittsburgh.

Building things that help people know where they stand — whether that's a student before an exam, a college facing closure, or a citizen watching their city council vote.
MUSIC
The Analog Dogs
Classic rock & oldies
The Beagle Brothers
Pittsburgh country
Kate Borger
WZUM Jazz
Bruce Springsteen NRBQ New Lost City Ramblers
Folk roots
Chandler Travis
Cape Cod
Martin Guitars Fender Guitars KDHX
St. Louis community radio
WBAI
NYC community radio
EDUCATION
Princeton Day School
Princeton, NJ
Trailside Country School
Audubon Expedition Institute
Hampshire College
Amherst, MA
Saint Louis University
American Studies
Bowling Green State
Popular Culture
La Roche University
Pittsburgh
Michael J. Cohen
Ecopsychology / Nature Connect
PEOPLE
Larry Kuser
Fernbrook Farms, NJ
Benjamin Twagira
Williams College, History
Abantu N'Umuco
Documentary — La Roche / Rwanda
Jordan Sand
Georgetown, Guggenheim Fellow
Morgan Hite
Cartographer, Victoria BC
Jon Spiegel
Musician
Gordon Grinberg
Film editor / director
Norman Ross
Ross Publishing / Microfiche
Andy Franz
Artist / Legacy Exhibition
Madeline Ritter
UIUC Math Ph.D.
Levon Ritter
Renaissance & heavy metal
PLACES & CRAFT
Pittsburgh
Home from away
St. Louis
SLU, KDHX, Gateway City
Trenton, NJ
Where it started
DeLorenzo's
Tomato pies
BMW Motorcycles
WRITING
Lenny's Vintage
Screenplay — 91 pages, Dialogue 9/10
Campus Transformation
Blog
Transform Learning
Blog

I'm a retired educator with a Ph.D. and thirty years in higher education. I've watched institutions promise students they'd help them succeed and then lose them to a gateway course nobody diagnosed. I've watched colleges close when the community around them had the will but not the framework. I decided to stop watching and start building.

I play guitar every day and in a band called The Analog Dogs — playing music that makes people happy is a big thing for me. I ride motorcycles out of Pittsburgh in any direction. I wrote a screenplay that took eleven years and earned a 9/10 on dialogue from professional coverage. I enjoy movies, music, and I built seven websites because I don't wait for permission.

Pittsburgh has become home from away — originally from New Jersey, and I love NJ, but this is different. I live here with my wife, Kate Borger, our dog, and a kitchen we both use. I cook for us. We walk outside. Short adventures and occasional travel — Chile, Brazil, Spain, Costa Rica, Cape Cod. Always looking for great food.

I keep up with the New York Times brain twisters and the news and opinion. Everything I build is informed by the belief that people deserve to know where they stand — whether that's a student in College Algebra, a community facing a college closure, or a citizen trying to understand what their city council just voted on.