Managing Director

Carol Atwood
Carol Atwood’s multi-faceted background and experience has provided her with a unique capacity to develop and implement scaling strategies for paradigm-changing education. Ms. Atwood’s original experience along this pathway started at the age of 15 when she found herself struggling with the traditional school approach to student learning. Determined to help herself and others like her succeed in their educational paths, she presented a strategic plan to her public high school’s committee which was approved and received a meaningful portion of the town’s educational budget. The school was based on the student centered on pedagogy of project- based learning and is still active today.

At the age of 25, Ms. Atwood continued with this path when she became President and then majority owner of a 400-employee strong Professional Learning Course development and PL training company. This experience which included growing the firm to 75 major US-wide clients helped her to grow the team to 4,000 employees. This experience helped Ms. Atwood to learn successful tactics to developing and delivering PL at a national scale, as well as the skills to build awareness and secure clients throughout the US and Canada.

After selling her firm, Ms. Atwood went on to co-develop and facilitate innovative strategies utilizing new standards, assessments and communities of practice to bring social change to society through such sectors as education, not-for-profits, foundations, investing and business. The outcomes of these efforts have been highly successful such as with the adoption of 75% of for-profit public companies now providing socially responsible reports annually to their stakeholders.

She holds a Bachelor’s in International relations from Boston University. She more recently joined Babson College as their socially-responsible Entrepreneur-in-residence.

Ms. Atwood is now utilizing all of her rich experience to guide the Center’s scaling of their unique frameworks and pedagogy for K-20 education throughout the world.

Research & Development

Claude Cruz
Claude Cruz brings a systems perspective to CCR’s work on learning analytics and its wide-ranging potential applications in learning. In the course of his 35-year career as a systems architect at IBM, Intel, and other leading firms in the computing industry, Claude has mastered the art and science of moving from perceived needs and opportunities to ground-breaking products and services. His creative “big-picture” perspective is reflected in a dozen patents, as well as over 40 published papers on neural networks and digital interconnect technologies. Claude has done, and continues to do, innovative research into the biological foundations of intelligent behavior and how that can be emulated in computing systems. Claude holds a double B.S. in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a joint M.S. in those same subjects from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. His diverse personal interests include personality theory, cognitive psychology, and interpersonal relationships.

Katie Dunn
Katie Dunn is a researcher at CCR and a high school STEM educator. She is interested in thinking about how people learn (and learn to learn). A researcher by training, Katie is a generalist at heart. After receiving a B.S. in physics from MIT, she decided to dedicate her time to helping learners both achieve their goals & become their best selves, pursuing an M.Ed. based in user-centered design thinking at the WW Graduate School of Teaching and Learning. Katie is regularly involved in summer programs for high-achieving students such as the Summer Program on Applied Rationality and Cognition (SPARC) and the Summer Science Program in astrophysics (SSP). She volunteers at the Educational Studies Program in Cambridge on weekends, teaching classes such as linguistics, puzzle-hunting, and metacognition.

Rob Taylor
Robbie Taylor is CCR researcher passionate about school reform and equipping students with creative thinking skills. Previously, Rob served in a half-administrator, half-teaching role at Austin Preparatory School. As curriculum coordinator, Rob implemented an elective-based humanities curriculum, redesigned the faculty evaluation system, and led a Design Sprint to craft a new master schedule, advisory schedule, and disciplinary model. As a filmmaking teacher, Rob piloted mastery learning and founded a student media organization. Rob received the school’s award for outstanding teaching in 2017. Rob is a member of Harvard Graduate School of Education’s School Leadership Program. Rob is the director and host of a candlepin bowling show for kids, called Candlepin New Generation, and recently crowdfunded the board game One Hit Wonder.

Bernie Trilling
Bernie Trilling is Founder and CEO of 21st Century Learning Advisors and the former global director of the Oracle Education Foundation, where he directed the development of education strategies, partnerships, and services for the Foundation and its ThinkQuest programs. He has served as Board Member of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), co-chaired the committee that developed the highly regarded “rainbow” learning framework, and is currently a P21 Senior Fellow. Prior to joining the Oracle Education Foundation, Bernie was Director of the Technology In Education group at WestEd, a U.S. national educational laboratory, where he led a team of educational experts in integrating technology into both the instructional and administrative realms of education. He has also served in a variety of roles in both education and industry, including Executive Producer for Instruction at Hewlett-Packard Company, where he helped lead a state-of-the-art global interactive distance learning network. Bernie co-authored the widely acclaimed book, 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times, published by Wiley. He has also written dozens of articles for educational journals and magazines and is a featured speaker and workshop leader at numerous educational gatherings.

Projects

Eve Howard
Eve Howard brings her extensive project management skills to CCR, leading CCR initiatives at the high school and college level. Eve is a proven innovative and visionary leader with in-depth experience in education, course content and curriculum, educational technology, and learning outcomes. She is an analytical thinker who drives successful product launch, usage, market share, with efficiencies in a spirit of entrepreneurial innovation. Eve has a proven record of motivating her own team as well as cross-functional teams to solve problems and exceed goals. She has an unrelenting focus on performance and is decisive in determining, and operationalizing, practical business process in line with program strategies and desired outcomes to surpass short-term and long-term goals. Eve has worked in the social sciences, life sciences, business sciences and health sciences with a focus on the introductory courses, she holds a B.S. from Cal Poly, SLO in Business Administration. Eve lives in Napa Valley and is part of the Board of Directors (and start-up team) for Feeding It Forward, a food recovery organization, she has a decent knowledge about wine and raises chickens.

Preshika Jain
Preshika Jain is responsible for various projects from product development to strategy execution that helps take CCR’s extensive research to classrooms. She started teaching children at shelter homes in India at the age of 15, where she realized her passion for Education. While she learned a lot from this experience, she has seen through her work with CCR the power of quality education can have enhancing student and community potential, hence she wants to continue to work to improve education especially for those left behind. Before CCR, Preshika had worked in the Tech and Ed-Tech space where she introduced social and emotional skills to school districts in India. Currently, in addition to her work with CCR, Preshika is also pursuing a STEM MBA at Babson College.

Mathematics

Verónica Mariño
Verónica Mariño has teaching experience at several educational levels, at designing course, and reviewing and designing curriculum for private and public institutions. Ever since she started teaching math as an undergraduate student (at the Universidad de los Andes, in Colombia), teaching has been her passion. She got an M.S. at the University of Arizona, where she started developing an interest for teaching math in real contexts. She has taught mainly calculus at college level, but also more applied math (for mid-careers at Harvard Kennedy School) and for technical careers (at SENA, in Colombia). The freedom of designing a course and teaching it is what she enjoys the most!

Other than teaching math, she has had other jobs that allow her to think about what students need to learn today and how we should be teaching those topics. She was a consultant for the ministry of education in Colombia, participated in the translation to Spanish of the Illustrative Mathematics 6-8 materials, and is now part of the team translating K-5. She writes extra curricular math activities for children to help them learn math while understanding the world that surrounds them. She has trained teachers at teaching her own courses and also at using IM 6-8 materials; Sometimes she reviews Math evaluation questions for different institutions. In 2020 she joined CCR and helped review the math curriculum.

Tania Mlawer
Tania Mlawer is a curriculum designer with over 25 years of experience building innovative digital and print educational materials for science students at all levels. As Executive Editor at Pearson Prentice Hall, she developed market-leading middle- and high-school programs, including Science Explorer, Prentice Hall Health, and Miller & Levine Biology. As Director of Content at Pearson Higher Education, she launched MasteringBiology, which quickly became higher ed’s most widely used science learning platform for adaptive assessment and peer instruction. As Director of Content at Macmillan Learning, she oversaw all digital content development for their Life and Earth Science portfolios.

Tania holds a B.S. in Biology/Genetics from Cornell University and completed all coursework toward a Ph.D. in Biology at MIT.

Carrie Ott
Carrie Ott has over 20 years of educational experience with Chicago Public Schools. She is currently a STEAM specialist in a middle school and has been a district math coach, school-based administrator, and supported a network of schools. She finds her passion to be working with students and is loving her role supporting students in problem based learning. In addition to school district roles, Carrie was a contributing writer to the Common Core Edition for the Geometry text in the Center for Math Education (CME) series. She also contributed to professional development learning for CME and delivered PD across the country. Carrie was on the writing team for Illustrative Mathematics (IM) middle school and high school curriculum. Finally, Carrie’s role at CCR is to curriculum development for Modern Math Modules. She finds this role to be engaging because she is often concurrently working and learning. Carrie views herself, and all humans, as lifelong learners with a growth mindset. She enjoys telling her students and family about all of her new content knowledge as well as developing this content in coherent, meaningful and accessible modules for students and teachers alike. When not engaged in math teaching and learning, Carrie enjoys jogging in Chicago (especially on her neighborhood trail, The 606), reading and learning with her 10 year old son who is currently obsessed with Greek Mythology, and eating at interesting restaurants with her husband.

Andy Pethan
Andy is an engineer by training and classroom teacher by experience. As a product of the educational startup Olin College, he has been using his design and engineering mindset to rethink math instruction alongside his departmental team at a small public high school in Byron, MN.

Andy experimented with flipped resources, mastery-based learning, and various forms of collaborative instruction. As part of a small school, his experience spanned nearly all courses, but he invested most deeply in the curriculum development around a 9th grade Algebra intervention course and a project-centered Statistics curriculum. He enjoyed working with both college-bound and at-risk students, actively tracking growth data and investing in student relationships.

Andy has also maintained his passion and skills as an engineer. He helped launch Byron’s FIRST Robotics Competition team and remains an active mentor today. He also launched an elective course focusing on IoT (internet of things) devices, product design, and entrepreneurship. Andy is now pursuing a start-up focused on making IoT technologies accessible to every classroom.

Janet Slesinski
Janet Slesinski is a teacher, leader, and curricular designer. Janet holds degrees in Math, Physics, and Education, along with a Master’s in Curriculum. Janet is a high school math teacher with over a decade of experience. She has taught in urban and suburban settings in both public and private schools. She is passionate about showing all students that they can be mathematicians. She is well versed in International Baccalaureate curriculum and has embodied project based learning and developing the whole child by providing a rigorous and relevant educational experience. Janet brings a wealth of knowledge around technology and its effects on pedagogy which she implements in her classroom and CCR curriculum. In her role at CCR, Janet connects modern math content with interesting real life applications to engage and motivate students. Janet believes all students can learn math and wants to create a curriculum that motivates, excites, and challenges students. In addition to math, Janet enjoys home renovation, running, hiking with her husband, and cooking flavorful vegetarian dinners.

Emma Smith Zbarsky
Emma Smith Zbarsky comes from a family full of opinionated educators. She is currently an active researcher in the pedagogy of mathematics and has spent three years as a PIC Math Fellow working on integrating real world research problems into college classrooms. Her interest in math education for younger students has come from studying the problems students run into in early college courses, many of which have their roots in topics generally addressed earlier in their math educations. Emma started out studying theoretical math at MIT and the University of Chicago, before she became involved in developing and implementing a new undergraduate program in applied mathematics at the Wentworth Institute of Technology. She became convinced that a Ph.D. in theoretical math was not sufficient preparation for this task, and this led her to a second master’s degree, this time in applied mathematics, from the University of Washington.

Paul D. Thomas
Paul Thomas has spent the past 25 years developing research-driven curriculum for small startups, public corporations, and nonprofits. His work includes dozens of courses for virtual, blended, and traditional classroom contexts as well as textbooks. Paul started out as a high school math and computer science teacher, and holds degrees in Mathematics and Operations Research from George Mason University.

Computer Science

Kim Quinn Hutchinson
Kim Quinn Hutchinson is a passionate, results-orientated educator, advocate, administrator and national educational technology expert. Quinn Hutchinson grew up in central Maine graduating from University of Maine Farmington with a BS in math/computer science education and the University of Maine Orono with a M.Ed. with a focus on instructional technology.

As the Coordinator of Educational Technology for the State of Maine, Quinn Hutchinson worked closely with then Governor Angus King leading Maine in becoming the first state in the nation to implement a statewide one-to-one laptop initiative for all 7th and 8th grade students and teachers. In 2004, she moved to Georgia as the Director of Instructional Technology for the State where she focused on the Regional Education Service Agencies (RESAs) and the development of the Georgia’s Virtual education programs. As Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Cobb County, GA., she oversaw all district technology planning, purchasing, deployment and implementation of technology. As VP of School Development for K12, Inc., she developed statewide and large district partnerships providing individualized learning opportunities for all students regardless of geographic location or socio-economic background.

Quinn Hutchinson also held board positions for two national education organizations. State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA) was created by state education agency leaders to serve and support the use of technology for teaching, learning, and school operations and, Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) whose mission is to serve as a catalyst to position 21st Century Skills at the center of U.S. K-12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders.

Jonathan LoPorto
Jonathan LoPorto is a Curriculum Writer for CCR and the Director of Technology Education at the Dearborn STEM Academy in Boston. He is a CSTA Excellence in Teaching Award winner and a Massachusetts STEM Teacher of the Year finalist. Jonathan is passionate about creating Computer Science curriculum and experiences which allow students to self actualize in the field of CS. Before entering the education field, Jonathan worked at Irrational Games on the award winning Bioshock Franchise, where he experienced first hand that at the core of great technology is creativity and collaboration.

Paul D. Thomas:
Paul Thomas has spent the past 25 years developing research-driven curriculum for small startups, public corporations, and nonprofits. His work includes dozens of courses for virtual, blended, and traditional classroom contexts as well as textbooks. Paul started out as a high school math and computer science teacher, and holds degrees in Mathematics and Operations Research from George Mason University.

Contributors

Amoura Amine
Amoura Amine is a teacher, a trainer and an entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Wise Institute for Human Development and Mastery of Technology, a K-12 school where they use a unique turnaround model and implement different pedagogical approaches that are not used in Algeria. In 2016 he was selected by Legacy International as a fellow of the International Professional fellowship Program in Washington DC where he designed a workshop training program working at the nexus of education, innovation and technology. He delivered training and participated in an international leadership conference.
He works on empowering youth and civil society through his involvement in educational quality and organizational management. Mr. Amoura is now a researcher in cognitive sciences – very especially Knowledge Management – logic and concept. His work focus on the creation/delivery of interdisciplinary lessons as well the use of arts (cinema and literature) in classroom. He aims to redesign a new curriculum for a new generation of primary students. Mr. Amoura holds a Masters degree in Networking and Telecomunication from the University of Ibn Khaldoun, Tiaret, Algeria.

Katherine Bassett
Katherine Bassett served as Director of Partnerships for the Center for Curriculum Redesign. She is also currently the CEO of Research and Assessment: Design Science Solution an organization focused on solutions to assess social and emotional skills; and co-founder of Tall Poppy, a company devoted to the training of education leaders and standards revision/development.

Throughout her career, Katherine has advocated for students to receive the highest-quality of education regardless of their zip code or family circumstances. She has championed the strengthening of the teaching profession and the inclusion of educator voices in every aspect of education policy formation and implementation. With these broad goals in mind, she has served as President and CEO of the National Network of State Teachers of the Year, Director of Policy and Partnerships for the Center for Educator Effectiveness at Pearson, and as Director of Educational Relations, Educational Testing Service (ETS).

Among Katherine’s many career accomplishments she co-developed: (1) the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certificates for Library Media and Literacy; (2) the Take One! program booklet (which led to the development of performance-based assessments across the continuum of professional educator practice in several states); (3) the Teacher Leader Model Standards; (4) the Model Code of Educator Ethics; and (5) Teacher Leadership Initiative competencies and Capstone project for the NEA, NBPTS, and CTQ.

Before joining the assessment community, Katherine spent 26 years in the classroom as a middle school librarian and served as New Jersey’s 2000 State Teacher of the Year.

Maya Bialik
Maya Bialik is a writer, editor, and research manager at CCR, who is passionate about appropriate interpretation and the application of science at the personal and the policy levels. She has worked at CCR since 2012, during which time she’s written numerous papers and co-authored the recent book, Four-Dimensional Education: The Competencies Learners Need to Succeed. She is also co-founder and co-director of The People’s Science, a non-profit that improves the relationship between science and society. Maya is also the founder of ImprovWise, through which she leads workshops on science communication, improvisation, and interdisciplinarity. Maya holds a Master’s degree in Mind, Brain, & Education from Harvard, and her background includes research and writing in complex systems, education, environmental science, psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics, as well as Improv Comedy. Follow her on twitter @mayabialik.

Michelle Blanchet
Michelle Blanchet is an education consultant working to improve teacher prep and professional learning.  A former sociology and economics teacher, she now runs The Educators’ Lab, an organization which supports teacher driven solutions to educational challenges. Michelle earned a Master in International Relations from Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, and has presented at numerous events including SXSWedu and TEDxLausanne. Michelle is a part of the Global Shaper Community of the World Economic Forum. She has worked with organizations like PBS Education, Ashoka’s Youth Venture, the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, and the Center for Curriculum Redesign. She occasionally blogs for Edutopia and PBS TeacherLounge.

Elisabeth Branham
Elisabeth Branham is the Director of Marketing and Outreach at CCR, and specializes in developing and executing strategic marketing plans that build brand recognition, retention, and engagement. With an extensive track record in commercializing new and existing products and brands, she has pioneered integrated marketing programs and channel strategies in both corporate and startup business environments. Her integrative approach and collaborative style delivers quantifiable results. She is passionate about growing the awareness and adoption of the CCR’s mission by collaborating with stakeholders from the student level through the policy-maker level to change what students should learn for the 21st century. Elisabeth holds a M.B.A. from Babson College, and earned a B.A. in Marketing from the University of Notre Dame.

Tina Cardone
Tina Cardone is an enthusiastic, collaborative, and experienced educator whose interests in education span from K to 12 as well as from math content to equity. She began her career as a high school math teacher. During her decade in the classroom she taught courses from Pre-Algebra to AP Calculus to diverse groups of students with a variety of learning needs. As an active member of the online math community, in 2013 she organized the ideas of her Twitter network into the book Nix the Tricks (followed by a second edition in 2015). She has worked with districts to make a shift toward conceptual development and presented at regional and national conferences on nixing tricks in the mathematics classroom. Tina first left the classroom to write curriculum; she was the geometry lead for the Illustrative Mathematics high school curriculum. In 2019, Tina joined the Center for Mathematics Achievement at Lesley University, where she acts as assistant director, engaging in research while providing high-quality professional development, coaching, and training to educators nationally and internationally. At CCR Tina started on the curriculum team and then shifted her attention to the math standards project.

Scott Cody
Scott Cody is a doctoral candidate at University of Pennsylvania and adjunct professor at University of Southern California whose interest is in the intersection of health, communities, and schools. In particular, he is investigating how community schools can act as a hub to provide social services, especially in mental health, for students and community members. Prior to arriving at Penn, Scott received his Ed.M. at Harvard, consulted at Los Angeles Education Partnership and The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems, and taught middle school for six years.

Jason Gorman
For nearly 20 years Jason has been designing powerful, vibrant, and emotionally engaging environments for learners of all ages. These include a cutting-edge virtual science lab, a pioneering MEd in teacher preparation for WWA at MIT, fully online programs for the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a new experience-first approach to performance development with a Boston-based EdTech startup, and a custom learning management system for a company serving preschool teachers.

As Founder at Jackrabbit Learning Experience (jackrabbitlx.com) Jason is focused on partnering with any organization (EdTech startup, K-12, higher ed, corporate, etc.) who is starting the process of creating a new and extraordinary educational product or program. Jackrabbit LX’s services include strategy consulting, prototyping, testing, advising for sustainably assembling internal teams and external partners, and helping prepare to take a prototype design to scale.

Jason has an MEd in Instructional Design from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Formerly he was VP of Learning Experience for EqualEd, and VP of Learning Experience Design Services at a Boston-based education design firm. He serves on the advisory board for Brandeis University’s graduate program in Instructional Design and Technology, and as a mentor for startups at the LearnLaunch Accelerator.

Dr. Kshanti Greene, Ph.D.
Dr. Kshanti Greene aspires to engage people’s innate problem-solving skills to creatively and collaboratively take on problems that face them. She founded Wily Desert Labs to develop software for this purpose. She has also taught computer science classes at Southern Maine Community College, teaching students from diverse backgrounds to solve robotics challenges and helping them think critically and analytically in introductory computer science classes, She is excited to continue teaching CS at the high school level in Waterville, Maine. Previously, Dr. Greene was Principal Investigator on several R&D grants from the US Department of Defense, including a five-year DARPA Small Business Innovation Research contract for a topic called “Massively Distributed Problem Solving.” She has a patent on graph visualization and has published several articles on her research integrating crowdsourcing, social choice, and cognitive reasoning. Kshanti received a Bachelors in Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University, a Bachelors of Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico.

Eliza Griscom
Eliza Griscom is a curriculum development and instructional design consultant specializing in K-12 computer science education, technology integration and online/hybrid course design. She has over 15 years experience in the computer science education field- as a teacher and curriculum developer in public, private and fully online K-12 schools. Eliza also has experience in online and hybrid course design in higher education where she worked as a senior instructional designer for several undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as a MOOC-initiative. Eliza holds a Master’s of Science in Education, with an additional Graduate Certificate in E-learning and Educational Technology Leadership. She has a passion for getting and keeping girls interested in computer science and technology and was awarded an Aspirations for Computing Educator Award from National Center for Women and Information Technology in 2014.

Courtney Hall
Courtney Hall is an educational consultant and a researcher at the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard. She has extensive experience working at the local, district, and state levels conducting education program and policy evaluations focused on improving student learning in K-12 and higher education. In particular, Courtney currently works closely with faculty and staff at Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health to study the impact of online learning on student outcomes. Previously, Courtney was the Senior Statistician for the New Mexico Public Education Department, where she worked with state and local leaders to evaluate policy initiatives and support data driven decision-making. She holds Master’s degrees in both Quantitative Methods for Educational Psychology and Urban Education Policy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Brown University, respectively. She received her Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and public policy from Brown in 2011.

Dr. Sue Horner, MBE
Dr. Sue Horner has directed the development of the primary and secondary national curriculum in England, with several national roles including as Director for Curriculum for England. Her work on curriculum design focused on the interplay of learning in the dimensions of knowledge, skills, character and meta-cognition. The implementation of new frameworks involved developing partnerships with a range of stakeholders, influencing opinion and action, as well as training school and college staff in new ways of thinking.

Dr. Horner is the author of an influential assessment system for teachers which is widespread across schools in England. She has also led the development, regulation and quality assurance of national examinations.

She has been principal adviser on major strategic programmes to reform curriculum and assessment in Oman and Rwanda and has contributed to other international initiatives.

She is recognised as an international expert on reading and its assessment. Her Ph.D. explored language and pedagogy in the classroom. Long involvement in the teaching and learning of literacy and English has led to Dr. Horner’s roles in a number of international projects on reading and writing, including the Reading Expert group for PIRLS.

Dr. Horner is chair of the Royal Society of Arts Academies Trust, a group of schools in the West Midlands which are seeking to develop distinctive ways of teaching and learning. She is on the Board of Governors of Coventry University.

Dr. Horner was awarded the MBE by the Queen of England for her work on children and literature. She is on the board of several charities which aim to bring the joy of reading, writing and literature to young people.

Michaela Horvathova
Michaela Horvathova worked as a consultant within the Innovation and Measuring Progress Division (IMEP) of the Education and Skills (EDU) Directorate at OECD for over two years during which she contributed to the flagship publication “Education at a Glance” which is an authoritative source of information on the state of education around the world. Prior to that, she worked on the Education 2030 project, aimed at developing an internationally validated framework of the key competencies for the future. Furthermore, she wrote four reports for the “Onderwijs 2032” project, an ongoing curriculum reform in the Netherlands that were published by the Dutch Ministry of Education.

Prior to joining the OECD, she worked as a project manager with a team of educators to establish the LEAF Academy in Bratislava, Slovakia aimed at developing future leaders of the Central European region and co-designed the curriculum aimed at developing students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes, preparing them for work and life beyond. While working on the Khan Academy project for the Lemann Foundation in Brazil, she gained experience with educational technology and the importance of its effective implementation.

As a researcher and curriculum expert at CCR, she contributed to the recent book, Four Dimensional Education: The Competencies Learners Need to Succeed and co-authored paper, “Character Education for the 21st Century: What Should Student Learn?” She is passionate about 21st century competencies, its integration into the curriculum design and the way curriculum reform and education policy can support this change.

She holds Ed.M. in International Educational Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education, Master of Science in Global Human Resources Management from Pace University and Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Florida Tech.

Sarah Hyun
Sunah Hyun (Sarah) is a Ph.D. student in Applied Child Development at Tufts University and a doctoral research assistant focusing on early childhood education and development research. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from University of Washington and a Mater of Education in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Prior to entering Tufts, Sarah worked at Korean Educational Development Institute (a government-run research institute in Korea) for about a year where she organized the international forum for the 5th APEC Education Ministerial Meeting on Educational Innovation for Creative Talent Development, and she also conducted and analyzed the research regarding improving the public school system with a nation-wide data set, which was later published. While she was obtaining her master’s degree, she also worked as a research assistant and lab manager at Harvard Department of Clinical Psychology, where she coordinated all the research initiatives focusing on the effects of stressful life events on children’s cognitive development and understanding their psychological reactions to these events. Sarah is very interested in helping children with the barriers to learning and removing these difficulties so that all the children enjoy learning and become strong individuals to live meaningful lives in a challenging world.

Alexandre Kabbach
Alexandre Kabbach is a Master student in Special Studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education focusing on philosophy of education.  He holds a Master of Science in General Engineering from the École Centrale de Lyon and a Master of Arts in Social Psychology from the Université Lumière Lyon II. Prior to entering Harvard, Alexandre worked as a change management consultant for Accenture Paris and as a research assistant in linguistics and computer science at  Keio University, Japan. He also took part in several engineering projects involving nuclear safety for the French electric utility company EDF and mechanical design for the Japanese company Oshima Shipbuilding.  His work for the Center focuses on mathematical skills of the twenty first century and algorithmic and algebra teaching.

Jessica Lin
Jessica  has spent the past two years in the innovation, design and engineering space at Harvard, where she most recently developed and led the  Idea Translation Lab in Cape Town, an experiential education and aspirational design fellowship for Harvard students in South Africa. She also serves as a GED instructor with X-Cel Adult Education in Dorchester, Boston. Jessica previously managed the South Africa Fast Growth, a ranking of fast growth companies in South Africa, a part of AllWorld Network, chaired by Professor Michael Porter and was a fellow at The Laboratory at Harvard , a platform for idea experimentation and exhibition in the arts and sciences. Jessica is also a co-founder of sOccket, a soccer ball that harnesses the energy during game play for later use as a source of electricity, and a Popular Mechanics 2010 Next Generation Breakthrough Award winner. Jessica graduated from Harvard University, where she studied Government, African Studies, and Swahili.

Dr. John MacCormick:
John MacCormick is a computer science educator, writer, and researcher. He is the author of three books, including Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today’s Computers and What Can Be Computed?: A Practical Guide to the Theory of Computation. Dr. MacCormick has filed over a dozen US patents on novel computer technologies and is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles; his Nine Algorithms book has been translated into eight languages. Dr. MacCormick’s work spans several sub-fields of computer science, including computer vision, large-scale distributed systems, computer science education, and the public understanding of computer science. He has degrees in mathematics from the University of Cambridge and the University of Auckland, and a doctorate in computer vision from the University of Oxford. Dr MacCormick was a research fellow at Linacre College, Oxford from 1999-2000, a research scientist at HP Labs from 2000-2003, and a computer scientist with Microsoft Research from 2003-2007. Since 2007, Dr. MacCormick has been a professor of computer science at Dickinson College.

Sanjoy Mahajan, Ph.D.
Sanjoy Mahajan obtained his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology, after undergraduate degrees in mathematics from Oxford and in physics from Stanford.  Inspired by wonderful teachers, he has devoted his career to improving how we teach and learn science and engineering.

While a member of the physics faculty at the University of Cambridge, he helped found the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town and was its first Curriculum Director.  While on leave from Olin College of Engineering, he is MIT’s Acting Director of Digital Residential Education and a visiting professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

He is the author of “Street-Fighting Mathematics: The Art of Educated Guessing and Opportunistic Problem Solving” (2010) and “The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering: Mastering Complexity” (2014), both published by MIT Press and available in print and online under a Creative Commons Noncommercial ShareAlike license.

Jaime Mahoney
Jaime Mahoney is a curriculum development and design consultant and Professor at Bunker Hill Community College. As a curriculum development and design consultant, Jaime has created engaging student-centered information technology and computer science pathways for traditionally underserved populations in early college high schools in Boston and Chicago, and for non-traditional students at various Youthbuild sites throughout the country. Jaime has served as a content expert responsible for creating storyboards for animations designed to teach difficult information technology concepts through the use of everyday non-technical analogies. In addition, as a professor, Jaime has more than 10 year of experience developing computer science and information technology curriculum for a highly diverse community college population including working on the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant that looked at infusing computational thinking methods across the information technology curriculum and resulted in a project-based learning course called IT Problem Solving. Other curriculum she has developed has been focused in the area of cybersecurity including courses in Python programming and ethical hacking. Jaime holds a Master’s of Business Administration with a concentration in Entrepreneurship and Information Systems from the University of Maryland. She believes strongly that the way in which we educate students needs to undergo a renaissance to adjust to match the world students are living in and to do so, we must focus on incorporating research that has been done about happiness, character and skills for success.

Jonathan Martin
After 15 years as a school-leader for three schools in California and Arizona, Jonathan Martin became a full-time consultant and writer on 21st century learning and assessment in 2012. In the past five years he has consulted to more than thirty schools and more than twenty educational organizations, including Secondary School Admission Test Board (SSATB), Index (owner of the Mission Skills Assessment), National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), ProExam, Educational Collaborators, the Rhode Island Department of Education, EdLeader21, Blackbaud, and Think Through Math. He is the author of many reports and white papers on the future of assessment and on the effective implementation of innovative assessments for continuous improvement, including user’s guides to the OECD Test for School (based on PISA), the Mission Skills Assessment, and the High School Survey of Student Engagement. He is the Vice Chair of the Board for Arizona’s City Center for Collaborative Learning. Jonathan holds a B.A. from Harvard and an M.A. from the University of San Francisco School of Education. In 2008 he was a Visiting Fellow at Columbia University Teachers College.

Merrilea Mayo, Ph.D.:
Dr. Merrilea Mayo is the founder of Mayo Enterprises, LLC, a consultancy in the areas of innovation, workforce, technology and the future of learning. Her most recent work focuses on skills-to-jobs matching, with the Center for Curriculum Redesign being one of her clients. In a prior effort with Innovate+Educate, Dr. Mayo devised on-the-ground implementation of new hiring models — work that resulted in her appointment as an ACT Fellow and brief recognition of the effort on whitehouse.gov. Other consulting work has included providing metrics oversight to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s $27M New Options Project, delivering game-based learning recommendations to the Susan Crown Exchange, developing an overarching education strategy for the Office of the NASA Administrator, crafting a policy report on the US science and engineering workforce. Dr. Mayo has strong interests in game-based learning, as well as years of experience across a wide range of science policy issues. For example, Dr. Mayo’s policy work during her years as Director of the National Academies’ Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable included deemed exports, the offshoring of R&D, science and engineering workforce, emerging research institutions, and intellectual property agreements. Dr. Mayo also helped launch two non-profits, ASTRA and the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership, and served the founding director role in each. Dr. Mayo is a materials scientist and engineer by training, having received her doctorate in that field from Stanford University in 1988, publishing approximately 80 technical articles, and serving as the Materials Research Society’s President in 2003.

Marco Morales
Marco Morales is a product designer for educational software products and startups, and is currently a user experience designer at EdX as well as the product designer for a small startup called BrightLoop Learning. Other educational projects Marco has worked on include R&D on self-paced learning environments for Autodesk through their IDEA Studio program and Olin College’s SCOPE Program. He has also worked as a product designer for Alleyoop, Pearson’s college readiness supplemental learning platform, and co-founded Alight Learning, a middle school learning tool, during a leave of absence from Olin College with other classmates. While a student at Olin College, he worked on various other educational projects, culminating in a NAE Grand Challenges Scholars Program portfolio titled “Creating Visual, Self-Directed Learning Environments.” Marco graduated from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering with a B.S. in Engineering: Product Design and Development.

Ignacio Pena
Ignacio is a strategic management consultant who performed over 100 projects assisting leading firms, NGOs and governments to design and execute growth and transformation agendas, mostly in emerging markets. He was Partner and Managing Director of the Boston Consulting Group, where he worked for over 12 years and lead the strategy practice of the firm in Latin America. He has significant experience in strategy, organization, governance, corporate development and change management. He also assisted for several years the largest education NGO in Brasil. Today he is focused on helping ambitious firms and entrepreneurs to leverage technology opportunities and promoting systemic efforts to prepare society for disruptive change. He holds an MBA from Wharton, an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania (Lauder Program) and a BSc in Economics from Universidad Católica Argentina.

Amelia Peterson
Amelia Peterson is a Ph.D. candidate in Education Policy and Program Evaluation at Harvard University, where she is an Inequality and Social Policy fellow. Her research focuses on changes in upper secondary education pathways across post-industrial economies. Amelia is from the UK where she is an Associate at Innovation Unit, a social enterprise which grows solutions to complex social challenges. As a researcher for the Global Education Leaders’ Partnership, she has helped create convenings on the future of education in a wide range of countries, including India, Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand. Her recent publications include the reports “Personalizing Education at Scale” and “Developing Agile Leaders of Learning,” and the book Thrive: Schools Reinvented for the Real Challenges We Face.

Juliana Porto
Dr. Juliana Porto holds a Medical Doctor degree with specialization in Pediatric Neurology and a Master degree in Neuroscience from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil. With growing interest in the field of education and early childhood mental health, Juliana was the Neuroeducation Program Coordinator of the International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal Edmond and Lily Safra (2011).

Juliana was invited as a Research Scholar at the Mind, Brain and Education Program of Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), where she worked with Prof. Kurt Fisher in the Research School model during 2012 and 2013. She is currently a Research Fellow at the Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Boston Children’s Hospital, conducting social-emotional development experiments using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in infants and toddlers. She is a Doctoral student in the Postgraduate course on Medicine and Health Sciences- Neuroscience at PUCRS.

Juliana is a project consultant at the Mindset Education, an organization focused on education innovation and curriculum adaptation for social-emotional and 21st century skills. She is also an associate member of the scientific committee of the Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância (NCPI), a collaborative initiative between Brazilian and North American organizations including the Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal and the Center of Developing Child, Harvard University. The NCPI seeks to translate scientific knowledge in Early Childhood to a more accessible language facilitating its use in public policies and professional practices.

Efi Saltidou
Efi Saltidou is an educator and edtech specialist who is passionate about active, innovative and inclusive learning. She currently works as Pedagogical Officer in European Schoolnet, where she provides trainings in the Future Classroom Lab, develops and coordinates Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on Teacher Academy of School Education Gateway – the European Commission portal for professional development of educators – and supports European projects focusing on digital competencies and innovative learning. Before joining European Schoolnet, Efi worked as a primary school teacher in private schools and educational institutions in Greece and has been awarded from the state for her academic performance. Efi holds a Master’s degree on Education with the use of New Technologies and ICT, and she has been specialized in the education of students with special educational needs.

Karen Sutton
Karen has extensive managerial experience in the non-profit sector including over twenty-five years focusing on educational programs. Prior to joining the Center for Curriculum Redesign, Karen was Vice President for EF Foundation, an international high school student exchange program. Additionally, she consulted with a variety of student exchange organizations and worked part-time in the student affairs office at the Boston Architectural College. In her leadership with non-profit organizations, she has successfully struck the delicate balance between dedication to the mission and the need for sound business management and innovative approaches. Today, Karen is focused on the success of CCR as well as maintaining active involvement in her children’s public school education as a member of school council and the PTO. Karen holds a Bachelor of General Studies from the University of Kansas and enjoys cooking and international travel.

Sharyn M. Sweeney, M.Ed.
Sharyn M. Sweeney has worked in mathematics education for nearly 40 years. As a consultant, she worked with public and charter schools and districts to help teachers understand and implement the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM). As a member of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) Science, Technology/Engineering and Mathematics team, she was a writer and reviewer of the CCSSM and facilitated the Massachusetts team that reviewed and commented on the standards as they were developed and ultimately adopted in Massachusetts. Her mathematics classroom teaching experience includes grades three through college in Massachusetts and in Canadian provinces Ontario and British Columbia in multiple venues including traditional classroom settings, individuals, and small group venues for non-traditional and at-risk students. She routinely incorporated real-world situations in her teaching. In the area of teacher professional development, she has extensive and diverse experience assisting pre-service and in-service teachers to develop better understanding of mathematical content and pedagogical strategies that will help them to be more effective teachers. Sharyn has worked with national assessment companies to develop, review and align items to the CCSSM and to articulate diagnostic statements for distracters that reflect common student errors. Her many presentations to various professional groups include such titles as “Life Is a Word Problem,” “No One in the World Multiplies Like That,” and “Show Me the Money (in the CCSSM).” Her masters degree work focused on developmental mathematics curriculum and how teachers can help students overcome mathematical reluctance and expand problem solving techniques to include unfamiliar situations.

Jim Wynn
Jim Wynn is CEO of Imagine Education and has worked in education since 1976. Jim taught mathematics and computing and was Principal of two secondary schools in England before moving into industry working for Microsoft, Cisco and others in education advisory roles. Working at Government level Jim is proud to augment policy work with real classroom practice and is currently working with the Government of Egypt to roll out a nation-wide scheme to help teachers develop the habits and behaviours of world class teachers. Jim is pationate about the wrk of CCR which is a key force in bringing the school curriculum out of the 19th Century into what is needed for today and is also focussed on developing different strategies to encourage and recognise the development of behaviours in all workers using apps that can capture credits at the point they are demonstrated. Jim holds a first class honours degree in mathematics from the University of Hertfordshire and helps keep honey bees with his wife Mary.

Dorothy Zablah
Dorothy Zablah is a Masters student in Mind, Brain and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education focusing on Learning Design for the 21st Century. Her background is in International Affairs, Psychology and Philosophy. Originally from Mexico, she has worked exploring unconventional education in Mexico, Kenya and Chile. In 2014 she was part of The GO Project, a learning experiment where a team of eight individuals from different geographical and professional backgrounds designed and implemented their own educational experience while working together in three different continents over the course of a year. She is now a co-founder of Global Opportunity (GO) a platform that connects multi-disciplinary teams of post-graduate talent with entrepreneurial communities around the world.

Mohd Zahir
Mohd Zahir is a full-time Chemistry lecturer at one of the matriculation colleges in Malaysia. He holds a Bachelor degree in Chemistry and Master’s degree in Educational Psychology from The National University of Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia respectively. His current interests include teacher professional development, motivation and cognitive psychology in education and STEM pedagogical innovations and classroom action research. Considering himself as a progressivist, he ventures in the Creative and Innovative Group (KIK), Ministry of Education in 2016 towards developing better Malaysia’s education system and simply to improve learning in the classroom. Apart from his main work, he actively involves as an examiner of the matriculation program and internal ISO auditor of his own working institution.