Quality Instruction:  Our founders, school director and senior instructors as well as many of our current instructors have advanced degrees (masters level or higher) in education or a professional designation and average at least 20 years of teaching experience. Possessing years of industry experience is a minimum requirement in becoming a BrightPath Instructor. Our Instructors must be subject-matter experts, with the ability to understand and explaining every nuance of each topic taught in the course. Our instructors must also be up to speed on the latest industry trends and regulations so that we are able to help our students improve their competency with each class taken.

Every student is asked to evaluate their instructor at the end of the course. These evaluations are personally scrutinized by BrightPath Executives to ensure customer satisfaction. Simply put, instructors must excel in their evaluations in order to continue teaching BrightPath Courses. That’s why students give our instructors an average approval score of 4.9 on a 5.0 scale—only the best instructors are good enough for BrightPath.

Mel Black, B.S., M.Ed, Ed.S., J.D.

BrightPath's lead instructor, Mel consistently earns rave reviews from students. He "knows his stuff" and has the unique ability to deliver it in an engaging, easy-to-understand manner. Mel's background (two graduate degrees in education) and experience (15 years teaching in high school and college) add to his teaching ability to the real estate classroom.

Mel's other job is as an attorney at Mel Black Law with a focus on representing professional before their state licensing Boards. Having 11 years of combined experience as Director of the NC Appraisal board and as an Officers with the NC Real Estate Commission, Mel regularly handles matters before those agencies. He is also retained by companies, individuals and users of appraisal and brokerage services to advise on compliance matters and to answer questions on daily practice.

Mel has co-authored a book on teaching real estate topics and most recently was acknowledged as a contributor to the Real Estate Commission's "North Carolina Real Estate Manual 2011-2012 Edition" for revising the chapter on Real Estate Valuation. He also regularly publishes timely information through his blog.

Joyce Pusey, SRA

Joyce Pusey holds the SRA designation from the Appraisal Institute, and has been a real estate appraiser since 1984. She has also been a licensed real estate broker in North Carolina, since 1980.

Since 1990, she has also taught appraisal pre-licensing courses and continuing education. She is the author of several appraisal continuing education courses, and holds the prestigious AQB Certified USPAP Instructor designation.

Joyce has owned her own real estate appraisal firm (Pusey & Associates, Inc) since 1992.

Charles "Chuck" Cosgrove

Chuck brings more than 20 years of experience in the real estate industry to his courses.  He was licensed in NC in 1991, and he is currently licensed as a B-I-C in NC, and as a Broker-of-Record in NJ and PA.  His background includes selling, managing and training, and he is licensed as a continuing education instructor in four states.  He ran for City Council in Raleigh in 1995.  In PA, he has volunteered on state-level forms committees, served on task forces to update the agreement of sale and other forms, and currently serves on the Professional Standards Committee of his local association and the Grievance Committee at the state level.  He resides in Doylestown, PA and Pinehurst, NC.

Bud Black PhD, SRA

Bud teaches and writes courses for the real estate professional. A retired university mathematics and business professor, he is the epitome of a teacher.   A licensed real estate broker who has been a partner in a real estate and appraising business since 1961.

Bud began to teach the qualifying appraisal courses early in 1991. With his unique style of teaching he was in demand to teach not only the qualifying education but the continuing education courses. His knowledge and experience in Real Property Appraisal enriches each of the classes. As the need arose, Bud began to write and edit continuing education courses.  He is approved to teach in 30 states and Washington, D.C. and is an AQB Certified USPAP Instructor. Bud is certified as a general appraiser in NC.

Pat Kelly

Pat Kelly is a certified residential appraiser with 13 years appraisal experience, has been a NCAB certified instructor for approximately 10 years, with expanse experience in teaching prelicensing education and most recently FHA continuing education courses. Pat is an active appraiser that understands the day to day issues of appraising and uses work experience as a common sense approach to teaching courses. 

Chuck Crider

Chuck Crider is a 1980 graduate of The Citadel and holds a Masters Degree in Real Estate and Urban Analysis from the University of Florida. Chuck’s primary focus is commercial valuations for loan processing and litigation valuations. He has been qualified as an expert in state and local courts and is certified in SC, NC, GA,and VA.

Paul Collins

Paul Collins is an active appraiser with years of experience in the field. His methodology in teaching is geared to practical application based on live and imperfect data. Paul is the author of multiple continuing education courses and specializes in the analysis of data using MLS downloads & spreadsheets. He also has experience in mortgage leading, secondary market transaction structuring, home building, and Real Estate sales.

.Vic Knight

Vic Knight is has been a NC licensed real estate Broker since 1983, a NC Certified General Appraiser,Past-President of the NC Association of REALTORS®, a Past-Chair of the National Association of REALTORS® Appraisal Committee, and currently is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Appraisal Foundation. Vic’s nearly 30 years in the real estate business includes, owning and managing a Century 21 residential brokerage firm, extensive residential and commercial development, residential property management and currently is owner of Appraizr.com, a real estate consulting and full service residential and commercial appraisal firm.

Vic is a graduate of the Instructor Training Institute and has authored and taught numerous real estate brokerage CE courses since 1998. Vic holds a BS in Civil Engineering from NC State University and was a practicing professional engineer with the Bechtel Corporation, an international construction company headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Vic serves as a Governors appointee on the NC Real Estate Commission.

Stacey Anfindsen

Stacey Peter Anfindsen is a 1983 graduate of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.

He is a state certified residential real estate appraiser and licensed residential broker and has been practicing in the RTP market since 1988. He is currently the President for the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors and a Director for TMLS.

Donna Parker

Donna has been training and coaching real estate licensees since the early 1980’s. As the broker-in-charge of a 50-person office, it was her privilege assist in developing an agent’s business career. Shebrings this enthusiasm to the classroom in her CE classes. Donna has been an active participant in the REALTOR organization, serving on both the local and state levels. Her professional designations includeGRI, CRB, e-Pro and SFR.

She attended North Carolina State University and graduated with a BA in Speech Communications.