Human Creative Awarded $12,000 at Bridging Innovation Week

May 18, 2026

Human Creative was awarded $12,000 during Bridging Innovation Week through IgniteWV, a West Virginia based pitch-competition.

The award was announced April 29th at Hotel Morgantown. The $12,000 funding will support Human Creative’s mission to preserve trust and human originality in written and artistic content during the rise of artificial intelligence.

 

Human Creative is a startup dedicated to certifying original human content in the age of AI through live-monitoring certification systems. Their current system for written works, Certified Human Content(TM), is available for individuals, organizations, and academics. Certified Human Content(TM) is a word processor that monitors every keystroke, live tracks written content for generative-AI, audits pasted content for AI in real time, blocks generative AI sources, monitors tabs for generative AI, provides a phone-lock feature to prevent cheating, and offers an optional human auditor feature, where an expert human auditor can review the entire crafting process for signs of generative-AI. Certified works receive a shareable certificate, QR code, and link, so that verifiers can have assurance what they are reading was not AI generated.

The above is Certified Human Content.™ Verify here.

Conor Quinlan

Software Developer Intern
Conor is a Senior at West Virginia University, majoring in Computer Science with a focus in Cybersecurity.
conor@humancreative.org

Derek Burger

Chief Financial Officer
Derek Burger, plant controller with Keter, has spent over a decade in operational accounting and finance. Currently managing the finances for a plant with $55-$65 million annual revenue, his recent work has focused on developing metric based reporting to drive cost reductions and operational efficiency improvements. Derek's experience involves educating and guiding plant leadership through a pivotal leadership change and major operational turn around.
derek@humancreative.org

Patrick Trester

Chief Software Engineer
Tech. Sgt. Patrick Trester is an experienced software developer and has served in NCOIC Command & Control (C2), Cyber Security, and Emergency Management for the US Airforce for over eleven years. Commended with an endorsement from the U.S. Air Force, he was also the recipient of the Air Force Global Strike Command Innovative Professional of the Year award.
patrick@humancreative.org

Ben Ward

Chief Marketing Officer

Benjamin Ward, Account Operations Manager for Inner Action Media – the marketing agency of record for the West Virginia Lottery – co-founded Human Creative. He received an M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 2018 and is an avid reader and writer on the topic of AI and culture.

ben@humancreative.org

Dr. James Brooks

Chief Technology Officer
Dr. James Brooks, professor at Grove City College, is a co-founder of Human Creative. Brooks received his PhD in Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2014. James has been involved in technology development of autonomous systems for over two decades resulting in the development of large margin business segments with several hundred million dollar annual revenues and over 50 issued US patents.
james@humancreative.org

Tiffany Ward

Chief Executive Officer
Tiffany Ward, author and editor, received her M.A.B.S. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 2018. Prior to co-founding Human Creative, she ran a sales organization which serviced over 2300 regular customers, with gross annual sales over $1,000,000. From 2018-2019, she authored a successful fictional trilogy under a pen name.
tiffany@humancreative.org

AI Detectors are inconsistent and can be easily bypassed...I'm becoming more and more convinced that this will be one of the only ways to verify authentic student work.

- Vince Anastasi, Writing Instructor
Grove City College