
Co-Founder & Chief Operations Officer

Founder & Chief Engagement Officer

Chief Creative Collaborator
Craig Williams, Founder and Chief Engagement Officer | Williams identifies, most notably, as the father of three to 24-year-old Evan, 11-year-old Tivoli, and 9-year-old Bronx. Husband to Shawna, he is a full-time self-described 'treehouse dad,' an advocate for kids, and an unrepentant storyteller. Williams came to his advocacy for rural public education, and a love for the children it serves, through an unlikely, circuitous route. Williams had an epiphany that solid, story-based communication—and the buy-in it creates—between schools and the communities they serve, was an important X-factor toward driving stronger student outcomes. That epiphany, piled atop more than four decades of scaling entrepreneurial startups, serving on various non-profit, community, and school boards, and wanting the best for his own children, was the genesis of Journey12. Williams holds an MBA from Washington University in Saint Louis, though he'd be the first to tell you he prefers bootstrapping an idea out of nothing to performing regression analyses or spending his days in corporate boardrooms—something which he has staunchly avoided in his career. Today, Craig is the author of Brand Your School With [its own] Stories (2024), a guide dedicated to helping schools forge deeper connections with every community stakeholder. His professional focus centers on empowering schools to strengthen these ties and supporting students in achieving their best post-secondary outcomes.
George Prudhomme, Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer | George is father to 17-year-old Alexander, and is a man who knows how to keep the trains on their tracks. Born and raised in rural Western Washington State amidst timber stands and paper mills, George took the military route straight out of high school, before graduating with his Bachelor's degree from Southeast Missouri State University. Professionally, a 20-plus-year career in community publishing followed while, personally, father and son found themselves inextricably engaged in school-based robotics competitions, and discussions of following Alex's 'aptitudinal fissures.' Mirroring his own son's interest in learning, George pivoted his efforts to Alex's full-time advocacy and soon found himself helping other students make the most of their academic pursuits at both the middle and secondary school stages, all with the post-secondary trajectory in-mind. Today, George taps into his sense of order and advocacy as he manages the busy train-yard that is Journey12's operations.
Steve Dallape, Chief Designer, Contributing Writer, and Editor | Steve has three decades of experience telling stories with words and visuals. As a high school student, his life-long love of art and design ran up against an interest in journalism piqued by seeing his work published in the student newspaper. In the end, design won out, and Steve graduated from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale with a degree in Visual Communication. However, he has endeavored to make writing an equally important part of his creative world, believing that writing informs his design, just as design informs his writing. Having spent his formative years growing up in rural southern Illinois, Steve is attuned to the unique qualities that make small towns the extraordinary places they are. Married to a teacher, and with a child in high school, Steve also has an informed perspective into the triumphs won and challenges faced each day in our public schools.
The Journey12 Mission
Journey12 is an education equity initiative with a 3-pronged mission: 1.) building deeper engagement between families, schools, and communities through professional storytelling, branding, and media leverage. 2.) providing unparalleled post-secondary transition support through college admissions strategies, skilled-trades insights, and expert consultative guidance. 3.) Helping inspire young learners to explore post-secondary possibilities and passions by facilitating interaction between them and a broad range of practitioners in today's highest growth career clusters.