Speakers

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Stephen M. R. Covey is co-founder and CEO of CoveyLink Worldwide. A sought-after and compelling keynote speaker and advisor on trust, leadership, ethics, and high performance, he speaks to audiences around the world. He is the author of The SPEED of Trust.

He is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which, under his stewardship, became the largest leadership development company in the world. Covey personally led the strategy that propelled his father's book, Dr. Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to one of the two most influential business books of the 20th Century, according to CEO Magazine. A Harvard MBA, he joined Covey Leadership Center as a Client Developer and later became National Sales Manager and then President & CEO.

Laurence F. Johnson, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer, New Media Consortium (NMC)

Laurence F. Johnson, Ph.D. is Chief Executive Officer of the New Media Consortium (NMC), an international consortium of more than 200 world-class universities, colleges, museums, research centers, and technology companies dedicated to using new technologies to inspire, energize, stimulate, and support learning and creative expression. He is an acknowledged expert on the effective application of new media in many contexts, and has worked extensively to build common ground among museums and universities across North America and in more than a dozen other countries. Having served as president and senior executive at institutions in both the higher education and not-for-profit realms, Dr. Johnson has more than 25 years of experience leading high-profile, high-stakes projects. His educational background includes an MBA in Finance and a Ph.D. in Education that focused on research and evaluation. Among many other recognitions, Dr. Johnson has been honored as a Distinguished Graduate by the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Barbara Kurshan
Executive Director, Curriki: Global Education & Learning Community

Dr. Barbara “Bobbi” Kurshan’s career is devoted to utilizing technology to improve learning opportunities for children. As a result, she has founded several successful companies focused on technology and education. Presently, Dr. Kurshan serves as Executive Director of Curriki – the Global Education & Learning Center, a site dedicated to creating a global community that will supply the finest Open Source Curricula. Dr. Kurshan created the first children's software products for Microsoft and also created award-winning products for Apple Computer, McGraw Hill, and CCC (Pearson). While a professor, she aided students in researching the impact technology has on learning. She also publishes articles based on her own research which explores female’s attitudes with regard to technology and how children use computers. Dr. Kurshan has been quoted in various prominent journals. She is a reviewer and advisor for research projects the National Science Foundation and other government and business groups perform.

Claudia L'Amoreaux/Claudia Linden
Education Manager for Second Life, Linden Lab

Claudia L'Amoreaux is a Community Developer at Linden Lab, creators of the trailblazing virtual world, Second Life. Claudia supports middle school and secondary school educators using Second Life to facilitate extremely immersive, constructivist learning experiences with their students. Before joining Linden Lab, Claudia ran her own eLearning consulting company, pioneering collaborative learning on the Internet since 1985. An early adopter, she started using one of the first networked 3D virtual worlds--Worlds Chat--in 1995. She has provided leadership on internet education projects in the U.S., Brazil, Fiji, Europe, and the Middle East. She is co-founder of the Meta-Learning Lab. Her work has been featured on New Dimensions World Broadcasting Network, BBC World Radio in their Essential Guide to the New Millennium, and in the film, On the Wild Side--Meetings with Remarkable Women. She co-authored the book /Creating Learning Communities/. In Second Life, she is Claudia Linden.

Bill Moseley
Professor, Bakersfield College

Bill Moseley is a Professor of Computer Studies at Bakersfield College in California and an Adjunct Faculty in Pepperdine University's Masters in Educational Technology Program. He is currently finishing his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with a focus on the ways today's learner relates to technology, information and learning. His interests include alternative learning environments, virtual worlds, and video games in learning. Bill has been participating in virtual worlds and online multiplayer games and environments for almost as long as they have been available. His relationship with Second Life began a few years ago when he ventured into the newly opened world to explore and investigate the technology. More recently he began bringing students into the world to explore the possibilities that a virtual environment can provide. In the last year, his students' projects have been featured in the Christian Science Monitor and the New York Times. In his work, Second Life has become a proving ground for the idea that education should be student-centered, dynamic, and most of all - fun. Bill can be found in Second Life with the name Pirate Shipman.

Janet Napolitano
Governor of Arizona

Named one of America's Top Five Governors by Time Magazine, Janet Napolitano has led Arizona into a new era of prosperity and record growth. When Governor Napolitano took office in 2003, Arizona faced a billion-dollar deficit, the worst financial crisis in its history. Through smart management, she turned that deficit into a record billion-dollar surplus, without raising taxes- proving that you can be fiscally responsible, while investing in the future. Governor Napolitano has made education the driving force of her administration. She created a new grade level through state-funded voluntary full day kindergarten and secured a historic $100 million teacher salary package to keep Arizona's best teachers in the classroom. She's improved Arizona's high school and college graduation rates, and has brought Arizona's business and education communities together to ensure graduates have the skills they need for a 21st century economy. While preparing students for the new economy, Governor Napolitano believes that we must also create good jobs that will be there when they graduate. That's why she led the effort to create Science Foundation Arizona to foster innovation, science and research, and partnered with business to support the expansion of Arizona's core sectors while growing and developing the state's bioscience and high-tech industries. She has accelerated Arizona's prosperity through incentives for angel investment, tax relief for hi-tech manufacturers who create jobs in the state, and by signing into law one of the largest business property tax relief measures in Arizona history. And she eased the tax burden on Arizona families through a $370 million income and property tax relief package. Recently named Chair of the National Governors Association by her peers, Republicans and Democrats alike, Governor Napolitano stands out as a leader in developing innovative solutions to our country's greatest challenges. Her Chair's initiative, Innovation America, is designed to enhance the United States' capacity to innovate, maintain its global competitive edge, and lead industries of the future.

As a leader in technology integration, she has served as the catalyst to initiate the integration of technology into all curriculum areas throughout her school district, the state, nationally. Sheryl is an accomplished grant writer and regularly conducts institutes to fund innovative technology programs. She has been involved in diverse staff development programs involving restructuring schools through the infusion of technology and curriculum enhancements. She serves on numerous national, state, and district committees She is a member of the ISTE NETS Writing Team and the Technology for School Administrators Writing Team. Sheryl is the former Chair of the Board for the consortium for School Networking (CoSN) in Washington, D.C. Ellen Bialo
President, Interactive Educational Systems Design (IESD)

Ellen Bialo is President of Interactive Educational Systems Design (IESD), Inc.-recognized in the educational technology and publishing communities as a leader in research and analysis, instructional design consulting, and materials development. IESD conducts research on educational programs and products (both technology- and print-based) and provides a variety of consulting services related to their development, evaluation, implementation, and marketing. IESD's clients include education market publishers, technology hardware manufacturers, government agencies, non-profit institutions, and school districts. She has over 20 years experience in providing research services including both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Ms. Bialo serves as the co-chair of the Ed Division Marketing Committee and on the SIIA Ed Division Board of Directors. She has coauthored numerous reports and articles on educational technology and received her graduate degree from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Karen Billings
Vice President, Education Division, SIIA

Karen Billings has over 30 years of experience in the education technology industry with positions in management, development, marketing, sales, and classroom teaching. At SIIA she drives the association's work with its 140 member companies for whom educational publishing is a primary business. Prior to SIIA, Billings, was Vice President, Major Business Initiatives for bigchalk Inc, where she drove relationships with major industry partners to respond to new business opportunities and Vice President and General Manager of its MediaSeek Division. She worked at Microsoft Corporation, managing K-12 Strategic Relations and at Claris Corporation, where she ran the Worldwide K-12 and Higher Education Marketing Programs. She served as Director of Sales at Logo Computer Systems, Inc. and as an Executive Editor in the School Division at Houghton-Mifflin Company.

Charlene Blohm
President and CEO, C. Blohm & Associates

Charlene Blohm founded C. Blohm & Associates, Inc., in 1991 and has worked with publishers and manufacturers whose products space the educational landscape from printed books to broadband-delivered online curriculum. Her expertise in developing and implementing strategic marketing plans has been fine-tuned over the years, and she is now one of the “go-to” people in the educational publishing industry.

Todd Brekhus
Vice President, Product & Market Management, PLATO Learning

Todd Brekhus is an educational visionary devoted to introducing innovative technologies to educators and administrators. As Vice President - Product and Market Management, Todd and his 14 direct reports are responsible for the entire product library, integration of acquired product lines, and bringing new product ideas to market at PLATO Learning. Todd guides 20 million in capitalized product development spending. Before coming to PLATO via acquisition, Todd was President and COO of Learning Elements and was responsible for implementing strategic direction and business strategy. He played a critical role in the company's early growth and R&D initiatives, which included the design and development of FOCUS, a foundational reading program. Prior to LearningElements, Todd spent four years creating and directing educational programs for MCI WorldCom, where he helped to build and implement the MarcoPolo Program. This included conceptualizing the overall teacher professional development program, creating teacher-training materials, launching a roll out that has now expanded to 30,000 schools throughout the United States, and signed agreements with 49 state technology directors/leaders. Todd is an Education Board Member of SIIA (Software Information Industry Assoc.) and leads the Instructional Task Force for SIF/SIFA. Todd has presented at many education conferences and seminars in the U.S and overseas. Todd was also a teacher, humanities chair, and a technology coordinator in suburban Maryland for eight years.

Dr. Jay Budzik
CTO, Intellext, Inc.

Dr. Jay Budzik leads research and development at Intellext, Inc., which he and his Northwestern University colleagues founded to commercialize pioneering research in contextual search. Contextual search revolutionizes information delivery by bringing relevant information to users based on what they are doing. Users are delighted when content they want comes to them automatically. Publishers benefit because contextual search opens new distribution channels and creates opportunities to increase traffic. Budzik is widely published in the computer and information science literature on topics ranging from groupware to intelligent agents. He has been invited to speak at numerous conferences, trade shows, and company events, including the Reed-Elsevier Global Technology Conference, the MIT Media Lab, the International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, and the American Society for Information Science. Budzik earned a B.S. with both general honors and honors in computer science from The College of The University of Chicago, and holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University.

Frank Catalano
Senior Vice President Marketing, School Companies, Pearson Education

Frank Catalano is a marketing executive and author. Since 2004, he's been a senior vice present of marketing with Pearson Education. He has current responsibility for marketing strategy for Pearson's U.S. School Companies, which include curriculum, testing, student information and teacher development businesses. Previously, he was principal of Catalano Consulting for a dozen years, holding both long-term interim marketing executive assignments and advising many technology-related companies in computing, education and publishing. He also held marketing management positions at Egghead Discount Software and the Apple Programmers and Developers Association.

Frank is perhaps best known to SIIA members as a marketing strategist and technology industry analyst in print, on radio and on television. His regular columns appeared for a decade in Seattle Weekly and the Puget Sound Business Journal (including a long-running e-mail newsletter), and his analysis and commentary was a fixture on KCPQ-TV Seattle for four years. He is the author of two books on marketing (including Internet Marketing for Dummies), has published hundreds of essays, and has frequently been quoted on trends by national news media.

Karen Cator
Director, Education Leadership, Apple

Karen Cator directs Apple's leadership and advocacy efforts in education. In this role, she is responsible for Apple's strategic business development, teaching and learning solutions, professional development programs, and customer advocacy. Cator came to Apple in 1997 from the public education sector, most recently serving as Technology Director in Juneau, Alaska. She also served as Special Assistant for Telecommunications for the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. She currently serves on the boards of the Software & Information Industry Association’s Education Division and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Cator is also a member of the advisory group for the Youth Technology Support Forum.

Alvin Crawford
SVP, Corporate Marketing and Development, SchoolNet

As a charter employee at SchoolNet, Alvin has been instrumental in the 100% year over year growth of SchoolNet for the last six years; having taken on many roles from Product Development, Sales, Marketing and Business Development. As Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Development, Alvin is responsible for overseeing all corporate marketing, business partner development, international sales and new business projects. During his tenure, Alvin has helped to secure partnerships in some of the largest school districts in the US, including Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, District of Columbia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Albuquerque, Corpus Christi, San Antonio (Northside), Fulton County, Wichita and the Florida Department of Education. He brings strong entrepreneurship and internet strategy and management skills to the SchoolNet team, with many years of interactive advertising agency experience. Since earning his M.B.A. from Boston College in 1997, Alvin has worked with several internet Agencies (Digitas, Ogilvy & Mather and Zentropy Partners) in developing and implementing internet strategies for large corporations, including Kodak, IBM, AIG, American Movie Classics and Express Scripts. Alvin began his MBA, part-time, while he worked as marketing manager for the Center for Corporate Community Relations, a corporate community relations think tank. As a full time MBA student, Alvin wrote and published case studies on internet best practices with B.C. Professor and Fortune Magazine columnist, Mary Cronin.

Kevin Custer
Founding Partner, ARC Capital Development

Kevin Custer offers over 17 years of experience in technology and telecommunications and is a recognized leader in launching and growing successful technology businesses in the online and enterprise markets. He has been the primary architect in the launching of five startups, four of which achieved over $10 million in revenues within their first 3 years. Kevin serves as a Principal in Arc Capital Development who invest in and operate emerging market companies. Previously he took a small Internet company, Brainium Technologies, public through a reverse-takeover of Canada¹s seventh-fastest growing public company. In his previous position at Infonautics, he led the creation of Electric Library, an Internet-based subscription service that grossed over $20 million in its first 30 months. Kevin also served as the chairman of both the e-business and the education section of the Software & Information Industry Association.

Steven Dowling
President & CEO, Pearson School Companies

Steve Dowling is responsible for all of the Pearson Education school companies in the US, including basal and supplemental textbook publishing, instructional technology and software, school administrative software systems, large scale and individual assessment as well as the clinical assessment and data management, scanner and forms businesses. He joined Pearson in September 1997. From 1997 until 2002, he was president of the Pearson Education International Group with sales and publishing operations in over 50 countries. From March 2002 until July 2003, he served as executive vice president for Peter Jovanovich, CEO of Pearson Education, responsible for strategic planning, acquisitions and operational support. He was appointed to his current position in July 2003. Mr. Dowling started his career in publishing in 1970, after a year as a high school teacher, in higher education publishing as sales representative, editor and later as president of Academic Press College Division. In 1985 he was appointed president of Academic Press (the largest US-based scientific publisher). In 1989 he became president of Holt, Rinehart and Winston School Publishing and in 1992 president of Videodiscovery. From 1993 to 1997 he was president of Macmillan/McGraw-Hill School Division.

Mark DeFusco
Managing Director, Berkery, Noyes & Co., LLC

Mark DeFusco joined Berkery Noyes in 2006 with long and varied experience in higher education management. He served as Chief Executive Officer/President at Vatterott Education Holdings, a private-equity held for-profit college with 20 campuses in nine Midwestern states. Prior to that, Dr. DeFusco served in several senior management capacities with the University of Phoenix (Apollo group). He holds a Bachelors degree from Villanova University and a MS and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California (USC). He sits on the board of several education companies, and serves on the executive committee of the Board of the Education Industry Association.

Ntiedo Etuk
Chief Executive Officer, Tabula Digita

Mr. Etuk is Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Tabula Digita. Prior to founding Tabula Digita, Mr. Etuk worked with Citigroup as a member of the Payment Innovation Team, responsible for the creation and implementation of next generation concepts that could generate $100 million in profit for the company. He has also worked with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, and as a marketing and strategy analyst with Bank One. Mr. Etuk is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Electrical Engineering and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School where he was a Beta Gamma Sigma graduate and a Board of Overseers Fellow. Mr. Etuk has spent many years tutoring students in mathematics and other subjects.

Edward M. Fields
President & CEO, HotChalk, Inc.

Edward M. Fields is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of HotChalk. Mr. Fields has extensive experience in developing and delivering educational software and enterprise class product lifecycle management software solutions. Prior to founding HotChalk, Mr. Fields served as SVP of Marketing at Agile Software Corporation. Mr. Fields was also the CEO of ProductFactory, Inc., a software firm that he co-founded, which was acquired by Agile in 2003. Before ProductFactory, Mr. Fields was the Director of Interactive Publishing at the Learning Company.

Ed Fish
CEO, ePALS

Prior to joining ePALS, Ed Fish was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Premium and Subscription Services at AOL, responsible for creating, building businesses for, and launching more than a dozen subscription and free consumer products, including online education products for students and parents. He also served as the Senior Vice President and General Manager for AOL Desktop Messaging, with responsibility for AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and ICQ. Previously, Fish was Director and a President of InterTrust Technologies Corp., the leading digital rights management firm. With the founder, he took InterTrust from start-up phase to a market-leading NASDAQ traded company, forging relationships with, among others, Bertelsmann, Universal Music, Mitsubishi, and NatWest Bank. Earlier, Fish worked with a leading intellectual property law firm, where he focused on technology transactions and intellectual property for emerging technology companies.

Jeffrey Fromm
Partner, Corporate & Securities Group, Eiseman Levine Lehrhaupt & Kakoyiannis, P.C.

Mr. Fromm, a member of the firm, is a partner in the firm's Corporate and Securities Group. Mr. Fromm received his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1987 and his M.B.A. from Columbia University in 1998. He practiced in the areas of corporate, securities, venture capital, and mergers & acquisitions law at O'Sullivan Graev & Karabell and Quasha Wessely & Schneider, following which he became Vice President and General Counsel of Quadrant Management, Inc., a New York-based investment group, and then Vice Chairman and General Counsel of Quadrant-Amroq Bottling Company Limited (an international Pepsi-Cola bottling company). Mr. Fromm founded KnowledgeQuest Ventures LLC, a financial advisory and management consulting firm, in 1998, and merged it into MarketingWorks, a leading marketing, sales, research and consulting firm serving the education industry. With extensive transactional experience in the education industry, Mr. Fromm developed the Survey of Education Venture Capital, wrote articles about the industry in the Journal of Private Equity and the Venture Capital Journal, and chaired, moderated or presented at dozens of industry conferences. Mr. Fromm also served as a Board member on the Education Division Board of the Software and Information Industry Association from 2001-2004. Mr. Fromm concentrates his practice in private equity financings, mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, and general corporate representation.

Donna Gent
Senior Vice President, Practice Director - Education, National Strategies Inc.

Donna Gent is responsible for National Strategies' Business Development and directs the company's Education Division. She manages the firm's relationships with state and local political leaders, lobbyists, international embassy's, and channel partners; negotiates partnerships and acquisitions; generates new business, sets direction for client accounts, oversees research projects, and manages client engagement teams. Prior to joining NSI, Ms. Gent was President and CEO at Vale Solutions, developer of the Kinderstreet and Precipio Internet-delivered management and communication software applications for public schools, municipal governments and non-profits. She was previously Vice President of Centromine, Inc., and also worked for Oracle Corporation and Electronic Data Systems. Ms.Gent is an active volunteer with a variety of non-profit organizations working children and low-income families. She is a published author and frequent speaker on business, public sector and technology matters.

Chuck Grant
President, HotMath

Tom Greaves
Chairman, The Greaves Group

Mr. Greaves has 41 years experience in the computer industry, including 26 years at IBM. Following IBM he has been CEO of three educational companies. Over the years he has been responsible for either marketing, development or product marketing for over 200 award winning software products, including a few Codie's. Mr. Greaves is recognized as a visionary in the conceptualization, design, engineering, and marketing of 1:1 technologies for schools. He has been involved in hundreds of 1:1 projects at the district, state, and federal levels. He holds multiple patents and patent disclosures for student computing technologies. Mr. Greaves' most recent project is America's Digital Schools 2006, a syndicated study of the top 2,500 U.S. school districts. The survey provides numerous insights into the future of the digital school, including software, from the perspective of superintendents, curriculum directors, and technology directors over a five-year horizon.

Jonathan D. Harber
Founder, CEO, President, SchoolNet Inc.

After a successful career as an investment banker and co-founder of two software companies that were acquired by public companies Jonathan Harber turned both his philanthropic and entrepreneurial energies toward improving education. In 1998, Jonathan D. Harber conceived and founded SchoolNet Inc., a company with the philanthropic mission to transform the world's school systems into efficient, highly productive and exciting places for students to learn. As a result of Jonathan's leadership and passion SchoolNet has been recognized by both Deloitte's Fast 50 and INC. Magazine's 2006 Top 500 List as one of the fastest growing private companies in the country. Harber earned a M.S. from MIT and completed a joint Master's thesis between the MIT Media Lab and the MIT Sloan School. Harber received a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Cognitive Science from Wesleyan University.

Dr. Richard T. Hezel
President and Founder, Hezel Associates

One of a few pioneer researchers in distance learning, Richard Hezel is the founder and president of Hezel Associates, an educational research, evaluation, and strategic services company based in Syracuse. Since 1987 Dr. Hezel has led the firm’s various projects in distance education and e-learning development and assessment, including the recent market report, Global E-Learning Opportunities for Higher Education. His company evaluates numerous education initiatives, including PBS TeacherLine, Texas Reading First, and data-driven decision making systems in New York and Ohio. Hezel’s market research and strategy has resulted in the launch of successful college and university distance and continuing education programs in the U.S. and abroad. Once upon a time Richard was a public television producer and a university professor of mass communication.

Dzana Homan
Presdident and CEO, FutureKids

Michael Huffman
Special Assistant to the Comissioner on Technology, Indiana Department of Education

Mike Huffman presently serves as Special Assistant to the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Indiana for matters related to technology. Having served for eight (8) years as the Department's IT department and successfully moving the department from batch-oriented to online and web-based systems, Mike's focus has shifted to developing affordable, sustainable, and repeatable models for one-to-one instruction in Indiana's classrooms. Currenlty, Indiana's deployment of linux-based desktops in classrooms, complete with open-source software, is the world's largest. Low-cost hardware, open-source software, and robust partnerships are viable alternatives to current models used in schools. The Indiana ACCESS (Affordable Computers for Every Secondary Student) program is redefining the metrics commonly used to measure schools' successes with technology and helping to prepare thousands of students for life in the 21st century.

Bill Jackson
Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, GreatSchools

Sharnell Jackson
Chief Learning Officer, Chicago Public Schools, IL

Sharnell is currently providing leadership to a team of dedicated educational technology specialists to train, deploy and provide end user support for personal digital assistant early literacy assessments for over four hundred and fifty elementary school teachers and principals. She has worked with International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) to develop a Principal's Technology Leadership Institute, Data Driven Decision Making professional development, National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) assessments, curriculum, and professional development for teachers, students, administrators available to all CPS schools. Sharnell is currently a CoSN Board Member, a participating member on the ISTE Policy and Advocacy Committee.. She obtained an Administrative degree from Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois and a Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from National Louis University in Evanston, Illinois. Sharnell received a Masters of Education degree in Mathematics and Science as part of fellowship with NASA's Classroom of the.

Michael Jay
President, Educational Systemics

Michael taught science in San Jose, CA, where he also worked in developing the first set of Technology in the Curriculum materials for the State of California. He left the classroom in 1986 to join Apple Computer's Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT) research and development project, serve as Apple's Education Competitive Analyst and lead major curriculum-related marketing initiatives. Michael left Apple Computer to pursue the development of a technology of his design that dynamically indicates the relationship between curriculum, curriculum standards and instructional resources - for which he received patents in 1998. He continued the development of tools for children and educators as Director of Education Business Development at N2H2 and VP and GM of Brainium Technologies in the following years.

Bill Kelly
Chief Executive Officer, learning.com

Bill received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1993 and has worked in multimedia and online companies since then. In 1996 he was the co-founder and Executive Vice President of Sapient Health Network, Inc. (SHN) in Portland, OR. SHN was a pioneer in developing online health-oriented communities for consumers and was listed by Business Week Magazine as one of seven "Best Web Sites" in December 1998. SHN was acquired by WebMD, Inc. in January 1999. After the acquisition, Bill worked as VP Commerce for WebMD until July 1999. Bill spent a short time consulting with concept stage companies until co-founding Learning.com. Bill was elected to and served on the SIIA Education Board of Directors.

Lillian Kellogg
Vice President, ENA

Lillian Kellogg has dedicated her career to education and technology and has more than 20 years of experience in working with school districts and libraries in the field of educational technology. Before joining ENA, Lillian served as Vice President of Strategic Relations for netTrekker, the trusted search engine for schools. Prior to netTrekker Lillian founded The Peak Group, an industry leading consultancy, that published industry analysis reports on emerging technologies in education such as virtual schools and wireless technologies. Lillian started her career as a high school teacher and has held national positions with education and library market leaders such as Encyclopedia Britannica.

Dr. Joan P. Kowal
Superintendent in Residence, Fischler Graduate School of Education, Nova Southeastern University

Dr. Joan Kowal recently completed her 38th year in public education. Prior to her position at Nova, she served as Superintendent in California and Florida (Volusia County and Palm Beach County). She was also Superintendent in Ferguson-Florissant, Missouri and Assistant Superintendent for five years in Denver, Colorado and administrator/educator for 17 years in the South Bend Community School Corporation. Dr. Kowal earned her Ed.D. and M.S. from Indiana and completed her B.A. at Marquette University. Her membership in professional organizations includes the Horace Mann League, Urban Superintendents Association of America, Phi Delta Kappa, and the Texas Tech University Superintendent Advisory Panel. Phi Delta Kappa recently released a "Fast Back" titled "What's Right with Public Education" co-authored by Kowal and Dr. M. Donald Thomas of Salt Lake City. Dr. Kowal currently serves as a Trustee for The Worldwide Junior Achievement Board.

Midian Kurland
VP, Technology & Development, Scholastic

Midian Kurland is a 25-year veteran of the educational technology industry with a career that has spanned from basic research at the Center for the Study of Reading and Bank Street College to cutting edge development projects as a scientist in the Apple Advanced Technology Group to senior-level executive positions with Computer Curriculum Corporation, Scholastic and various Internet start-up companies. Midian is currently VP Technology and Development for Scholastic Education. In this capacity he manages product development for all technology-based enterprise curriculum products.

Eliot Levinson
President, BLE Group

Eliot Levinson is the CEO of the BLE Group. Levinson founded the BLE Group in 1998. Levinson is known nationally for his work in technology planning and management for school districts. He co-authors "Tech from the Top," a monthly column that appears in Converge Magazine. Levinson has experience in education and technology as a teacher in California and Pennsylvania, a middle school principal in Massachusetts, and an assistant to the chancellor of schools in New York City. He has held research positions in educational change at the RAND Corporation and MIT's Sloan School of Management. Levinson holds master's degrees in Education and Anthropology and a Ph.D. in Organizational Studies from Stanford University. Levinson works as a strategic technology advisor to large school systems and consults with several firms in the education technology market.

Jane Lockett
Senior Vice President of Client Services, SchoolNet

Jane Lockett joined SchoolNet in July 2005 and oversees all of SchoolNet's service offerings including the client operations and academic services departments. Prior to SchoolNet, Ms. Lockett spent 18 years at IBM working most recently as a Consulting Principal in IBM Global Services, Business Consulting Services, Customer Relationship Management area, specializing in Public Sector, Education. She provided marketing and sales leadership to the entire IBM Education organization from Research and Development, to Sales and Distribution to support the Public Sector, Education and Government business. In addition, she was responsible for Global Education Strategy and Business Development targets exceeding $150M. Prior to working for IBM, Ms. Lockett consulted for five years with other computer corporations, as well as national and state professional organizations supporting the public sector. During her 11 year tenure as a teacher in Illinois, Ms. Lockett served as chief negotiating officer for 4 years representing the local teachers association. In addition, she did independent technology consulting for the Illinois School Boards Association, Apple and for the Illinois State Business Education Association. Ms. Lockett has held state and national offices in professional education organizations and led a committee that wrote the Business, Marketing and Management Curriculum for the State of Illinois.

Tim Lum
Marketing Director, PBS TeacherLine

As Marketing Director for PBS TeacherLine, Mr. Lum's responsibilities include marketing, distribution, and sales management for the leading online professional development program for teachers. Working at both the strategic and tactical level, Mr. Lum develops and implements successful programs to support the needs of diverse selling channels. Prior to joining PBS TeacherLine, Mr. Lum was Publishing Director for three education market publications managed by the Peter Li Education Group, responsible for advertising sales and strategic direction of the magazines. From 1995 to 2000, Mr. Lum worked for Quality Education Data (QED) and Market Data Retrieval (MDR,) where he built partnerships with key technology enterprises to grow their interest in the hardware, software, and networking needs of schools and districts. Mr. Lum previously worked in sales and marketing with several high-tech companies and in the advertising agency business.

David Martz
Vice President, Sales, Muzzy Lane

David is a multimedia and technology veteran, having founded two other successful start-ups: Cambridge Digital Media and Endeavour Software. Cambridge Digital Media developed the Drivin’ Route 66 Game and, under grants from Oracle Corporation’s Education Group, developed Making History Interactive. At Endeavour Software, David developed ProScout and ProActive, the NFL's first multimedia training programs, for the New York Jets Football Club. At Muzzy Lane, David is responsible for title sales to the Education and Consumer Markets, as well as licensing the company’s core SIGMA technology to publishers and other serious game developers. David holds an MBA from Boston University.

Mostafa Mehrabani
President, McGraw-Hill Assessment and Reporting, McGraw-Hill Education, The McGraw-Hill Companies

Mostafa Mehrabani, president of McGraw-Hill Assessment and Reporting, is responsible for the growth and development of CTB/McGraw-Hill and The Grow Network/McGraw-Hill. These companies were aligned under his leadership in December 2004 to better meet the current need for accountability at all levels of education. Prior to being named to this position, Mehrabani was executive vice president of Information Management and chief information officer for The McGraw-Hill Companies. He led a global information technology team focused on the most effective ways to meet the needs of the corporation's three business segments-Financial Services, Education, and Information and Media Services. Before joining McGraw-Hill, he served TRW, Inc. as vice president and chief information officer and was responsible for developing the company's information systems strategy and shaping its global information content, processes, and infrastructure. In 2001, Mehrabani was selected by ComputerWorld magazine as one of the top 100 technology leaders. He has served on a number of Boards and executive advisory committees including Satyam Manufacturing Technology Inc, Dell Computer, Microsoft, and AT&T, and taught advanced computer science and engineering courses at California State University at Dominguez Hills.

Mike Morache
CEO, PLATO Learning, Inc.

Mike Morache has spent more than 30 years developing, leading and growing technology businesses in diverse markets including education, state and federal government, and banking. Prior to joining PLATO Learning Mike served as the president of Pearson Education Technologies (now Pearson Digital Learning) from 2000-02. During his tenure, the company achieved significant operating income turnaround. Mr. Morache served from 1996-2000 as president of NCS Services, which was acquired by Pearson plc in 2000. Prior to that he was a vice president of Unisys Corporation from September 1995 to May 1996. Previously, he was a senior vice president with ALLTEL Information Services, Inc. for more than five years. He also held significant sales, sales management, marketing, and product management positions through his tenures at both IBM and Fujitsu.

Adam Newman
Managing Vice President, Eduventures

Adam is responsible for the strategy, operations, and growth of Eduventures* Industry Solution division, which delivers strategic management consulting and customized research services to K-12 and postsecondary suppliers; foundations, associations, and government agencies; and financial services firms. A recognized industry expert, Adam has extensive experience analyzing, publishing, and presenting on market and company dynamics across the education sector. Prior to joining Eduventures, Adam worked closely with corporate strategy executives at Global 2000 companies as a senior manager at the Corporate Executive Board. Adam also has several years* experience teaching and coaching at the middle and secondary school levels. Adam holds a B.A. in English from Duke University.

Jamie Piotti
Chief Executive Officer, Evans Newton Incorporated

Jamie is CEO and owner of Evans Newton Incoporated (ENI). Jamie acquired the company 10 years ago and has worked in the business for over twenty years. ENI is best known for its signature solution "TargetTeach" that helps districts dramatically improve student achievement with its proven research-based school reform model that incorporates deep curriculum alignment, state-specific formative assessments, web-based software for monitoring assessments and instructional resources, customized teaching tools, and professional development and coaching to promote teacher effectiveness. ENI also develops assessments and curriculum for many of the U.S. educational publishers. Since Jamie has been CEO, the company has grown and now services thousands of schools nationwide, including Puerto Rico. Jamie also runs the Foundation for Educational Opportunity, a non-profit 5013C that provides college scholarships to needy children.

Jeremy Poisson
eMedia Editor, Behrman House

Jeremy E. Poisson is e-Media Editor of Behrman House Publishers, where he develops educational interactive gaming software. Jeremy is the creator and author of the Hebrew software programs Shalom Uvrachah Interactive, Hineni Interactive series, and Ulpan Alef Interactive. He is in the process of developing a patent pending 3-D 3rd-person-view gaming technology that teaches values, morals, ethics and even science through bible stories. For ten years prior to joining Behrman House in 2003, Jeremy was the founder and president of Poisson Software, a software development company, and Blue Rose Computer Systems, a manufacturer of custom-built high end PC's for home and business networks. Jeremy has a B.S. in Engineering from Michigan State University.

John Porter
Deputy Superintendent, Montgomery County Public Schools, MD

John Q. Porter is the deputy superintendent of the Office for Information and Organizational Systems for Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland, the seventeenth largest school district in the country serving more than 140,000 students. In this capacity, John leads the work of the organizational development, technology, and accountability units in using innovative approaches and strategic technologies to support the school district's reform initiatives. Prior to his career in education, John served in several executive positions in the information management industry and founded a full-service information technology firm. He was selected as the 2005 Public School Chief Information Officer of the Year from Public CIO magazine. John is a member of the Consortium of School Networks (CoSN) board of directors and the INTEL and Center for Digital Education advisory boards. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Catholic University of America and a Jurist Doctor degree from Ohio State University.

Craig Powell
President and Founder, ConnectEdu

Craig Powell, 29, is the entrepreneurial force and visionary behind ConnectEdu. His passion for ensuring that all families have access to the expertise they need to maximize their educational potential, investments and experiences led Craig to found ConnectEdu. This sense of mission was born from the lack of guidance he received growing up in a working-class family in rural Missouri, in contrast to the attention he gained once he attended a private East Coast high school. As an undergraduate at Brown University, Craig founded and operated IvyTutors, a tutoring and study-skills company grounded in the theories of generational mentoring. While operating IvyTutors, he developed a deep understanding for the emotional and financial struggles that families face in the education planning process, regardless of socioeconomic background. Craig's IvyTutors' experience convinced him that technology was the only way to meet all students' individual needs by democratizing access to crucial expertise.

Liz Prigge
Manager, Editorial Technology, Thomson Business & Professional Publishing

Liz is the veteran of a 35-year career in publishing management and publishing technologies, and is currently managing the K-12 and post-secondary technology product development for a business unit of Thomson Higher Ed. Prior to her current position, she worked for Synapse Corp., Information Handling Services, Addison-Wesley, R.R. Donnelley & Sons, and ABC-Clio, Inc. She is responsible for implementing universal design processes and accessible technologies into product design, and works with the Technical & Development Issues Working Group of the SIIA Education Division.

Ralph Protsik
Managing Director, Boston Search Group

Michael Ross
SVP & Education GM, Encyclopaedia Britannica

Michael Ross is the Senior Vice President, Corporate development, in charge of product development and technology for Encyclopaedia Britannica. Prior to joining Britannica in 2003, he was the Executive Vice President and Publisher for World Book, Inc., where he headed all worldwide print and electronic publishing. Earlier in his career he held senior-level positions at NTC Publishing Group and McDougal Littell. He began his publishing career as an editor for Time-Life Books in Tokyo. Michael is a past-president of the board of directors of the Association of Educational Publishers and is also on the boards of Intellisophic and SmartPro3, an educational technology company. The products he has developed have won numerous awards, including SIIA’s Codie Award. He has contributed to several industry publications, including the Experts’ Guide to the K-12 School Market, and has spoken frequently at international conferences on electronic publishing, strategic alliances, and licensing. He is listed in Who’s Who in America, and in October 2002 he was inducted into Printmedia’s Production Executives’ Hall of Fame.

Tina Ruppelt
Ruppelt Consulting

Tina Ruppelt currently offers expert marketing consulting to companies who want to increase their K-12 sales and customer base. Through Ruppelt Consulting, she develops strategic marketing plans, creates effective positioning and messaging, and defines and implements marketing projects and deliverables. Previously, she served as VP of Marketing at Inspiration Software, VP of Marketing at Edmark and as a manager in K-12 Marketing at Apple. Her experiences as a teacher and from earning a M.A. in Education Technology from Stanford University serve as a solid foundation for her understanding of education content and customers.

Mark Schneiderman
Director Education Policy, Software & Information Industry Association

Mark Schneiderman represents SIIA's members before Congress, the Administration, state governments and other national stakeholders on education technology policies, including the government programs, funding and regulations that impact technology at all levels of education and training.

Roger Stark
Founder & CEO, Learning Enhancement Corporation

Roger has 25 years of proven business leadership in both consumer and business-to-business to LEC. His experience spans operations management, integrated marketing, sales, finance, new media, video and film production, and product distribution. Roger worked for companies such as Paramount Productions, Spectra Merchandizing, and Braun Design. He also founded WinkStar/S.P.A. Worldwide, an international interactive marketing company. He was instrumental in the new design launch of PC Magazine, Computer Shopper and PC Sources for Ziff Davis Publishing. He supported product launches for TerraGlyph Interactive Studios, including Steven Spielberg's first interactive new media game for Tiny Toons; Electronic Arts (EA Sports); Tiger Interactive; and Namco Cybertainment, Inc. Roger has devoted the last ten years to studying cognitve sciences and researching the learning enhancement marketplace, and most recently, the launch of BrainWare Safari.

Doug Stein
Vice President, Development, Learning.com

Doug has 20 years’ experience in software development and strategy consulting, including CTO stints in three financial services and enterprise application software firms and also as a Principal Consultant at Microsoft. He was one of the founders of Addison Wesley Interactive, an innovator in Higher Ed interactive media specializing in math, physics, engineering, and economics. He began his career as a teacher at Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, MA, where he founded the computer science department. Originally trained as a physicist, he received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania and his MA from SUNY at Stony Brook. He is also a co-author of Mathematica in the Laboratory published by Cambridge University Press as well as a number of papers on scientific visualization.

Dr. Kurt A. Steinhaus
Education Policy Advisor, Office of Governor Bill Richardson, New Mexico And President, International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

Mark Stevens
KOL Education Director & GM AOL@SCHOOL, AOL, LLC – Kids, Teens and School Division

Mark Stevens is the Executive Director for KOL Education & General Manager of AOL@SCHOOL. He joined AOL in 2003 to run AOL@SCHOOL which is the K-12 education division for America Online. In 2004 he added the responsibility to direct the KOL Education group (Kids Online), AOL’s online service just for kids. Mark is responsible for the creation, management and development of new educational products and programs to service the school and consumer markets for the more than 20 Million AOL members and online users. As a professional educator, he has over 28 years of experience in education with 11 years as a teacher, counselor and administrator, and 2 years as a teacher for the Department of Defense school system in Asia. He has held senior management positions at Macmillan McGraw-Hill School Publishing, Jostens Learning, T.H.E. Journal, Turner Learning (Turner Broadcasting Systems), and The JASON Foundation for Education. He has received awards for print, online and broadcast productions including Peabody, Telly, AEP Golden Lamp and SIIA CODIE. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Fairfax Education Foundation and the U.S. Department of State, Office of Overseas Schools, Association of Education Publishers (AEP), Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) and Florida Education Technology Conference (FETC).

Iwan Streichenberger
Industry Consultant, Former President, Edusoft/Houghton Mifflin

Iwan Streichenberger is an investor as well as the principal of its own consulting firm, focusing on strategic and operational issues. His clients include innovative start-ups in various industries as well as large publishing companies.Prior to this, Iwan spent 6 years with Houghton Mifflin where he was most recently the President of Edusoft, the Managing Director of its formative assessment business and a Corporate Vice President. Iwan joined Houghton Mifflin in 2001 and became the vice president of Strategy, Corporate Development and Technology Initiatives. He also served as President of Houghton Mifflin Learning Technology. Prior to joining Houghton Mifflin, Iwan was COO at Flipside Europe, the online gaming division of Vivendi Universal, where he was responsible for the company’s operations in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Hungary. Iwan also worked as a consultant for Bain and the Boston Consulting Group and spent several years in South Africa working for L’Oreal. Iwan served on the Education Board for SIIA between 2004 and 2006.

Trace Urdan
Managing Director, Signal Hill Capital Group, LLC

Mr. Urdan has covered the for-profit education industry as a research analyst for nine years and has twice been cited as an All-Star analyst by the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Urdan is well-known as the editor of a weekly industry newsletter, “Education Signals,” and is widely-cited as an expert on the topics of for-profit education and e-learning. He recently testified before the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Prior to joining Signal Hill, Mr. Urdan headed education research for Robert W. Baird & Co. Before beginning his career as an investment research analyst with DB Alex. Brown, Mr. Urdan held senior management positions within Time Inc. and KPMG Peat Marwick. Mr. Urdan earned his BA degree from Yale University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Patrick Vaughn
Business Development Manager, ITN Source

Patrick Vaughan has more than 20 years of experience in media including business development for stock footage licensing, launching satellite television channels for broadcasters and setting up on-air promotions departments. In 2006, he joined ITN Source - one of the largest film and video archive aggregators in the world. One of his top priorities was to identify and develop new market segments in the U.S. He quickly identified the growth potential in forming strategic relationships with companies producing video rich educational content.

Pat Walkington
President, Pat Walkington Sales and Marketing

Pat Walkington is recognized as a top player in the educational market by major school districts, state department technology leaders, educational technology companies, and publishers. Pat has over 20 years experience creating, leading and growing the educational divisions of technology companies including Commodore Business Machines, The Learning Company and Broderbund Software. She played a major role in establishing the Learning Company as a leader in developing high-quality software products for schools, and worked with the senior management team to take the company public. Pat also co-founded Making It Happen a national non-profit organization created to recognize outstanding educators in technology, and she has served on various industry and company boards. Pat now works with large and small companies to provide strategic direction in business planning, new business development, marketing, direct and channel sales, operations, strategic partnerships and product development. conferences.

Ken Wasch
President, Software & Information Industry Association

Wasch's involvement in SIIA is based on both personal and professional interests. His long-standing interest in computers and software, coupled with the industry's need for a central trade association, led him to establish the Software Publishers Association (SPA) in 1984 with an initial group of 25 software firms. Wasch has led the association from its infancy to its merger with the Information Industry Association in January 1999, resulting in the formation of SIIA.

Joanne Weiss
Partner and COO, NewSchools Venture Fund

Mona Westhaver
President and Co-Founder, Inspiration Software

Mona Westhaver has over 20 years experience in software product development and corporate management. As President of Inspiration Software, Westhaver oversees the direction and daily functioning of the company and guides product management and marketing efforts. She is also a board member of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) Education Division, and the Software Association of Oregon (SAO). Westhaver is a graduate of Antioch University in Seattle, Washington, where she received a master of science degree in whole systems design with an emphasis in organizational development.

Bruce Wilcox
CEO, Project Inkwell

Bruce Wilcox, Chief Executive Officer, has an 18-year career in the development of instructional technology for elementary, secondary and adult learning settings. Prior to running Inkwell, Bruce was Vice President of eBusiness for Reed Elsevier's Harcourt Education Group, a leading publisher of K12 print-based instructional materials. Bruce's career spans early involvement in the development and sales of computer-based instructional programs for elementary and secondary education, diagnostic/prescriptive programs for adult learners in need of basic skills enhancement, startup and founder roles in education technology companies along with senior management roles at Simon & Schuster (now Pearson) and more recently with Harcourt Education Group.

Christine Willig
President, Thinkronize, Inc.

Christine Willig currently serves as President of Thinkronize, Inc., a Cincinnati-based Internet developer of award-winning educational technology products, leading the company to record accomplishments in sales, marketing, and development under her direction, including recognition in 2006 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies in the United States. Hired to create netTrekker, the company's flagship product in 2000, Willig had a major hand in developing the multi-award-winning product and helped broaden its functionality to address homework, research, all curricular areas, and classroom needs. As President, Willig has integrated a potent blend of technical, managerial, product development, and sales and marketing expertise to deliver on Thinkronize's mission. Pivotal to Thinkronize's success, Willig has also forged powerful partnerships with a variety of leading education companies including Dell Computers, McGraw-Hill, Scantron, Houghton Mifflin, Blackboard, and many more. Prior to Thinkronize, Willig spent 18 years at South-Western Publishing, now owned by Thomson Learning. In a variety of roles within K12 and higher education publishing, Willig led the production, design, development and formation of cross-functional work teams to drive innovation.

Lee Wilson
Principal, Headway Strategies

Lee Wilson has been a leader in the K-12 Education Technology Industry for 20 years. Currently Mr. Wilson is consulting with Numedeon, Inc. the makers of Whyville, a virtual world geared for teen and pre-teen girls and boys. Whyville has been in operation for 8 years and has partnered with organizations to bring math and science to its community. Other Numedeon created worlds include a virtual campus for the University of Texas Health Science Center and a field trip microworld for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mr. Wilson is a marketing and sales executive and has worked in software, hardware, and instructional materials companies (Apple, Chancery, Pearson, and Harcourt).Mr. Wilson has consulted with a wide variety of companies in the education market on marketing, business development, and sales issues. He has also served on numerous industry boards, including the SIIA Education Division Board of Directors, and is a frequent speaker on the business side of serving the education market.

Linda Winter
President, The Winter Group

Linda Winter is the founder and president of the Winter Group, a Denver-based marketing communications and research firm. Established in 1978, Winter Group serves companies marketing to the K-12, higher education and library sectors. Winter Group's portfolio includes work for Linworth Publications, Market Data Retrieval, Questia, Califone, Harcourt Achieve, Edusoft, ISTE, The National School Boards Association, JASON Foundation, Teacher Created Materials, Scholastic, Adobe Systems, Triumph Learning, The Wall Street Journal, Apex Learning, Blackboard, Nationwide Learning, ABC-CLIO, National History Day and other education organizations. Winter Group's staff includes writers, designers, project leaders, researchers, media buyers, and account planners. The firm's services include market research, advertising, direct marketing, exhibit design, sales support and collateral materials, image and identity campaigns, and brand development. Linda is a frequent speaker and panelist at national education market conferences. The Winter Group designed the SIIA Vision K-20 materials.

Anne Wujcik
Managing Editor, Heller Reports/QED News Alert

Anne Wujcik has more than 25 years of education and publishing experience. She is Managing Editor of The Heller Reports/QED New Alert service and an Education Market Analyst in QED's Market Research department. Anne has been with The Heller Reports since 1993. During this time she has been responsible for strategic positioning and content development for the newsletter and news alert services, conducted industry research and tracked education market trends. Following QED's acquisition of The Heller Reports in 2003, Anne's role expanded to include market research. She is now Education Market Analyst in QED's Custom Market Research department, using her market experience to inform quantitative and qualitative research projects and conducting focus groups nationwide. Anne entered the education technology industry in 1981, when she joined TALMIS, the leading market research company focused on educational technology use. In 1985, TALMIS was acquired by LINK Resources, where Wujcik served as TALMIS Program Director. Anne spent a year as market research director for the Software Publishers Association, now SIIA. Anne began her career as a classroom teacher and has teaching experience at all levels of the elementary school program.