Bruce Richey, Ph.D.(c), M.Div.

Founder & Owner

As a conscientious traffic safety program for teenagers, we endeavor to serve as a storehouse of expert consultation on all issues affecting youth today. But most assuredly, we research, on our own time, and participate in all-faculty workshops to grapple with and address driver behaviors and habit-formation, which prove most effective in helping to curb the violence against youthful drivers, as well as, indeed, against all cultures, ages, and professions of drivers today. 

NorthStar Driving Academy, LLC team, and its founder have decades of experience working with the teenage population, as public school teachers, family counselors, church youth leaders, traffic safety instructors, and of course, as parents of children--like your teen, that are now driving.  

NorthStar was born out of a passionate desire by its founder to help curtail and eventually eliminate the outrageous roadway death toll we hear about in headline news. 

The fatality rate is nowhere strikingly prominent than among our teen population. Impaired driving, excessive speed, over-confidence, and lack of experience combine to place first-time drivers at the top of the list of roadway casualties. Moreover, this same population is responsible for more fatalities among other drivers of other ages, experiences, genders, and backgrounds. No one is immune from experiencing a serious crash anytime, anywhere, any place, when one is on the road. 

As parents and educators, the staff at NorthStar Driving Academy wish to partner with community members, fellow parents, and the youthful driving population itself to make our roadways safer for everyone. 

Since our inception, we have received countless wonderful referrals and support from a diverse group of agencies: Treehouse, United Way, Muckelshoot, and Snoqualmie Tribal Councils, and independent Youth Workers and Peer Counselors. We feel this support network emboldens that this mission for Driver's ED 101 was not simply properly conceived; it is validated by the consistent efficacy of work we do.

At NorthStar, we pride ourselves on having educators on board who have written engaging driver training curriculum which draws on decades of research and practical experience. 

Think of Driver's ED 101 as a unique three-phase experience for teenagers, starting them out in an attractive modern classroom with a dynamic instructor, but progressing them swiftly toward necessary "lab" experiences interspersed throughout the course. Only NorthStar does something pedagogically different than any other driving school. We "workshop" all the driving lessons prior to performing them. 

Our exclusive Simulator Theatre combines the expertise of an instructor with state-of-the-art technology using simulator systems to demonstrate, practice, drill, and evaluate--in a word, to "workshop," each and every maneuver or potential hazard drivers anywhere may experience. Our workshop experience thereby helps to reduce pre-performance anxiety on the road and during your skills exam.   

Care to take a spin on ice? How about going head-on with a wrong-way driver?  Or just simply drive a sedan in heavy, congested commuter freeway traffic? 

By introducing the driving lessons on a large screen projector, teenagers are better prepared to tackle the third phase of the program--the Behind-The-Wheel (BTW) phase. The only other critical phase of education they need is their practice with an experienced driver, where the great majority of their experience will be had.  

We encourage teens and parents to take full advantage of our expertise and of the details of our lessons by accumulating as many practice hours as possible prior to the BTW-phase as well as in between drive lessons. No one can perform on the gridiron or in a dance hall except that one creates a discipline of repetition and focuses on developing the right attitude for performance. Nowhere is this more critical for life-skills development than behind the wheel of a 2-ton automobile.  

Please come to Parent's Night to learn more.