Rebel Educator®

Natalie Chen is a ninth grade high school student and was one of my daughter Eliza’s best friends.  Natalie has encountered a variety of educational approaches throughout her academic career so far and she’s here to talk to us about her experiences, her thoughts on the pros and cons of the different styles that she's had and share with us some of the work she’s done to teach young learners a criti...

Frederick Lane is an author, attorney, educational consultant, and lecturer based in Brooklyn, NY. He is the co-founder of The Center for Cyberethics and is a nationally-recognized expert in the areas of cybersafety, digital misconduct, personal privacy, and other topics at the intersection of law, technology, and society. Lane has appeared on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS,...

Hailing from Pittsburgh, PA, Seth Ehrlich learned early the value and opportunity that exists within a strong community. He has engaged for more than 20 years in community engagement and building. Projects include multiple collaborative efforts and his professional work with SOS Outreach over the past 15+ years.  He currently serves as executive director for the organization and is dedicated to co...

Anthony Kim is a Corwin Press bestselling author, with publications including The New Team Habits, The New School Rules, and The Personalized Learning Playbook. His writing ranges from topics including the future of work, leadership and team motivation, improving the way we work, and innovation in systems-based approaches to organizations and school design. Anthony believes that how we work is the...

Dr. Joseph Jones is the Superintendent of Schools in the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District. Joe is a former high school teacher, assistant principal and principal. As principal, he was named the Delaware Secondary Principal of the Year and during his tenure, Delcastle Technical High School was the first high school to receive the state’s Outstanding Academic Achievement Award....

Dave Hurwitt is an innovator. Over the course of his career, he’s led the development and launch of new products and services – from toothpicks to wind turbines – that have generated well over $1 billion in sales.  If you have a large, front loading washing machine in your house, that was Dave and his team at Whirlpool. They re-envisioned the traditional, small European washer for the US market an...

Steve Hargadon is the founder and director of the Learning Revolution Project, the host of the Future of Education and Reinventing School interview series, and the founder and chair (or co-chair) of a number of annual worldwide virtual events, including the Global Education Conference and the Library 2.0 series of mini-conferences. Steve's work has been around the democratization of learning and p...

Maureen O’Shaughnessy is on a mission to connect the dots between education, belonging, and youth empowerment. She is the founder of the human-centered micro-school, LEADPrep. This learner-focused middle / high school is a national model for micro-schools, helping students learn from a place of love and personal alignment.  Dr. O’Shaughnessy is the author of Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mis...

Chris Balme is an education leader, writer, and school founder, passionate about helping young people discover more of their human potential. Chris currently serves as Founding Principal at Hakuba International School. He is also the Founder & Director of Argonaut, an online advisory program for middle schoolers around the world.  Prior to this, Chris co-founded and served as Head of School at...

Shaunak founded Yellowdig in 2015, a community-driven active and experiential learning platform. It is now used by hundreds of thousands of students of all ages and backgrounds in the US and around the world. Shaunak graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from IIT Bombay and completed his graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to founding Yellowdig, Shaunak...

AJ Crabill serves as Conservator at DeSoto ISD — where during his guidance, DeSoto improved from F ratings in academics, finance, and governance to B ratings — and as Governance Director at CGCS. He has also served as Deputy Commissioner at Texas’ Education Agency and Board Chair of Kansas City Public Schools. Join us for this conversation about creating effective school boards, letting go of ego,...

Vriti Saraf is the CEO & founder of k20 Educators where she builds metaverse spaces for learning. She is also a co-founder of the first community organization on blockchain for educators, by educators, called Ed3 DAO. Both organizations aim to reimagine learning. Vriti has served as a teacher, a professor, a dean, & a director in public, private, & charter schools both locally & in...

Sarah Omar is a freelance teacher trainer and educator with over 10 years experience in the field of teaching ESL/EFL. She has worked for the British Council in Cairo for eight years, in addition to a couple of other organizations. She is interested in teacher well-being, assessment, and materials development.   Sarah has collaborated with her colleagues to record a series of videos on YouTube, IE...

Mike Flanagan is the CEO of the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC), a growing group of high schools creating a digital high school transcript that opens up opportunity for each and every student — from all backgrounds, locations, and types of schools — to have their unique strengths, abilities, interests, and histories fostered, understood, and celebrated.  Mike oversaw the design and development...

Yvette Larsson, an international Swede, is passionate about learning and innovation so that we can create  a better world together. She uses applied neuroscience, focusing on our human potential and the question: What does it mean to be human in a global age of technology?   Her personal story starts 100 kilometers above the Arctic Circle, where she grew up with a lot of freedom and adventure to r...

Malvika brings a wealth of education experience with a particular expertise in assessment design, learning sciences research, and outcomes measurement. At Owl, Malvika leads all portfolio services and partners closely with Owl’s 50+ portfolio companies on their impact and outcomes objectives. She also serves as an thought partner to many of Owl’s limited partners globally and leads the creation of...

Dr. Bobbi Macdonald serves as the Senior Partner for Ecosystem Growth and Advancement for Education Reimagined, a non profit organization dedicated to a transformational vision for education.  Her previous work as Executive Director of City Neighbors in Baltimore sought to provide an answer to the question, "What would it take for every student to be known, loved, and inspired?" That question rema...

Jacqueline Evanecz is a teacher-turned-entrepreneur, who's using her years of experience in elementary and secondary education to create a peer network for students to direct and manage their own projects. She has seen how transformative learning can be when students take the reins, so her mission is to support teachers and the work they are doing to foster self-directed learners in their classroo...

Vickie Brett was born and raised in Southern California and through the Inclusive Education Project she focuses on advocating and educating families about their legal rights. Vickie is committed to strengthening her clients who come to her disheartened and beaten down by the current education system. Because Vickie is bilingual, she represents and empowers many monolingual Spanish-speaking familie...

Known as Ella Wang, but named Yi Xiu, Ella is an East-Asian immigrant who has faced many struggles including language barriers, financial difficulties, low self-esteem, discrimination, and a loss of identity. The one thing that never changed was her passion for traditional instrumental music. It’s what motivated her to keep improving and believing in the present and the future. Today, with a combi...

Sauda Porter is a School Design Partner at Transcend. She has devoted her career to innovative learning and working to create systems to meet the needs of all children.   Prior to joining Transcend, she was a Principal, and later Senior Director, at Perspectives Charter Schools.  During her time there, Sauda was a true pioneer of digital learning and brought student agency to the network.  She hol...

Kelly Stuart serves as President and Chief Executive Officer at Collaborative Classroom. In earlier roles at Collaborative Classroom, Stuart worked as Chief Operating Officer, Vice President of Dissemination and Implementation, and Assistant Director of Dissemination. Previously, she served as the senior research associate at WestEd, where she led dissemination for the Doing What Works (DWW) websi...

Barnett Berry is a Research Professor at the University of South Carolina, and serves as Senior Director for Policy & Innovation. His work in the 1990s with the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future led to his founding of the Center for Teaching Quality in 1999, a non-profit that focused on igniting teacher leadership to transform public education for more equitable outcomes for...

Dr. Shira Leibowitz is founder and CEO of Discovery Village Childcare Center and Preschool and of REVABILITIES™ Educational Leadership Training Center. She is also a member of the faculty at Northeastern University, teaching and advising doctoral students in education.  Prior to opening Discovery Village and REVABIILITIES™, Dr. Leibowitz served for twenty years as a principal of pre-kindergarten t...

Mandy Rice was a classroom teacher for 10 years when she discovered that by flipping her classroom she got a 91% passing rate in her AP class. She works with teachers who crave a student-centered classroom by giving them the tools to get exactly what they want, which is a classroom culture of student accountability, innovation, and growth. She is the founder of Teach on a Mission where she advocat...