Claim to Fame

I like to think of myself as an evangelist for the power of high-quality online and blended learning – and a non-stop advocate for making online/blended learning opportunities available to every student. On a day-to-day basis, that means doing everything I can to make sure educators, parents and students know how Connections Learning can meet their educational needs today and tomorrow.

Transcript

I first got started in educational technology more than 25 years ago as an editor at Scholastic, producing magazines for early computer-using educators and then tying technology together with the first few waves of education reform. I was then lucky enough to help launch the E-rate program to wire every American school and library to the Internet. A few ed-tech start-ups later I found myself part of the team that founded Connections Academy back in 2001. I am thrilled to help expand that effort now with the Connections Learning division, which is all about "virtual learning for the rest of us."

Extracurriculars

I am honored to serve as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of iNACOL, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, and also as Private Sector Chair of the ALEC Education Task Force. For fun I help my husband run his art school for kids on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and dig in the dirt in my backyard garden in Brooklyn, NY.

Awards

A million years ago I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Yale University, and then got an MBA from New York University earlier in this century.

Lessons Learned

Back in 2003 at an information session in a small rural town in Florida, a mom ran in waving our Connections Academy postcard and bear-hugged me for giving her disabled yet gifted son a reason to be hopeful about school for the very first time. I knew then that I was on the right path.

Most likely to…