John Couch is Apple’s vice president of Education and is responsible for driving Apple’s sales and marketing strategy in the education market. He has over thirty years experience as a computer scientist, executive and advocate for technology in education. Directly prior to his current position at Apple, Couch was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DoubleTwist Inc, the first company to provide a comprehensive annotation of the human genome. The year before joining DoubleTwist, he was Executive in Residence for Mayfield Fund, where he provided strategic planning, management and technology advice to high technology companies.

Alan November
Senior Partner, November Learning Inc.

Alan November is recognized internationally as a leader in education technology. He began his career as an oceanography teacher and dorm counselor at an island reform school for boys in Boston Harbor. He has been a director of an alternative high school, computer coordinator, technology consultant, and university lecturer. As practitioner, designer, and author, Alan has guided schools, government organizations and industry leaders as they plan to improve quality with technology. Alan is well known for applying his humor and wit to inspire us to think about applying technology to improve learning. His areas of expertise include information and communication technology, planning across the curriculum, staff development, long-range planning, building learning communities and leadership development. He has delivered keynote presentations and workshops in all fifty states, in every province in Canada, and throughout the UK, Europe and Asia.

Jack O'Connell
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, California Department of Education

Jack O'Connell was elected to serve as California's 26th State Superintendent of Public Instruction on November 5, 2002, garnering more votes than any other contested candidate in the country. Previously, he served for two decades in the California State Legislature representing the Central Coast. At the helm of the California Department of Education, Superintendent O'Connell has focused on accountability, rigor and high standards for all students. He has worked to reduce the bureaucratic burden placed by state government on local school districts and created clearer, more appealing communications tools to benefit parents. He is a strong advocate for increasing rigor and improving student achievement in California high schools. A proven team builder with the ability to forge consensus on thorny issues, especially where challenges are strongest, Superintendent O'Connell has worked to fortify California's world-class academic standards, strengthen California's assessment system, and bolster support for the state's classrooms. He is a long-time advocate for smaller class sizes, improved teacher recruitment and retention, comprehensive testing, and up-to-date school facilities.

Geoffrey Moore
Best-selling author, Managing Director of TCG Advisors, and Venture Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures

Recognized as a leading business consultant to large companies facing formidable strategic challenges, Geoffrey works as Managing Director at TCG Advisors with established enterprises. He divides his time between consulting on strategy and transformation challenges with senior executives and developing mental models to support the practice. With this focus in mind he has written Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution. Also recognized for his expertise in market development and business and investment strategies, as a Venture Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures he serves as an advisor to many of their portfolio companies by drawing upon best practices derived from his extensive background working with technology startups. Geoffrey has made the understanding and effective exploitation of disruptive technologies the core of his life's work. His books, Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game, and Living on the Fault Line are best sellers and required reading at leading business schools. Highly regarded as a dynamic public speaker, Geoffrey is the founder of The Chasm Group and currently is the managing partner of TCG Advisors. Earlier in his career, he was a principal and partner at Regis McKenna, Inc., a leading high tech marketing strategy and communications company, and for the decade prior, a sales and marketing executive in the software industry.

Juliette Adams is currently Director of Digital Curriculum at Scholastic Inc. Her background is in large Web-based product development with a specific focus, over the last 7 years, in the education and publishing technology arenas. Juliette's particular interests are finding ways to unleash the power of techonology for teaching and learning, and implementing purposeful methods of using data to inform differentiated instruction. By combining her research in learning object theory with her experience at Scholastic as, notably, the Project Director and lead design architect for the new Learning Management System, Juliette is now heading a new initiative, analyzing effective learning in technology-rich learning environments. Juliette is ex-vice chair of the DREL workgroup for the IEEE Learning Technology's Standards Committee, an active participant in SIF, and tireless trend-spotter.

Lois Adams-Rodgers
Chief Operating Officer, Council of Chief State School Officers

Chuck Amos
Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Learning

Chuck Amos is the CEO for Atomic Learning. Atomic Learning is an award winning provider of software training and support for education customers worldwide. Before joining Atomic Learning in October of 2003, Mr. Amos worked as a regional Manager covering the Central US for Apple Computer. Chuck has worked in educational technology for 13 years serving schools in the US and around the world.

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, Inc.

Charlene has nearly 20 years experience in the communications and marketing fields. Since founding CB&A in 1991, Charlene has worked with publishers and manufacturers whose products span the educational landscape from traditionally printed books to broadband-delivered online curriculum. Charlene began her career as a reporter, columnist and managing editor for newspapers in Montana and Texas. 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.

Nick Blozan
SVP of Marketing and Sales, OpSource

Mr. Blozan has over 20 years of experience in IT, including roles in marketing, product management, sales, and engineering. He previously served as Vice President of Marketing at Allocity, where he was responsible for all aspects of marketing and product management and helped to lead the company through its acquisition by EMC in 2004. Mr. Blozan also spent eight years with VERITAS in various capacities. He was most recently responsible for developing and driving the company's Windows strategy. Prior to this role, Mr. Blozan ran all channel and OEM sales, as well as strategic alliances, for VERITAS in Australia and New Zealand, including developing the channel strategy, selecting appropriate partners, creating the business and marketing plans to drive sales through the channel, and managing strategic alliances with significant partners such as Microsoft, Oracle, Brocade, and Cisco. Before joining VERITAS, Mr. Blozan was a Director of Product Management and Business Unit Director for Seagate Software. He holds a B.S. from San Diego State University.

Annette Bohling
Deputy Superintendent, Wyoming Dept of Education

Annette serves as Deputy State Superintendent of Educational Quality and Accountability for the state of Wyoming. She brings 24 years of experience in education to this position beginning with the Department of Education in 1998. Annette has held teaching positions at both the high school and junior high levels and has been a practicing attorney. She received her Bachelor of Arts, Master of Science in Education, and Juris Doctor in Oklahoma and received her Master of Arts in Educational Leadership in Wyoming. Annette leads the charge in the standards and accountability requirements under No Child Left Behind. She also works closely with the districts and schools in the school improvement process as the State Director of the North Central Association, providing them with trainings, statewide conferences, and specific technical assistance. In addition, she is the Project Director of the Wyoming Education Gateway (WEdGate), a customized online resource aligned to the state standards

Bill Bradfield
President and CEO, PerceptIS

Bill Bradfield has more than 30 years of executive experience in the telecommunications, professional services and software industries. Prior to his work at CASE and with PerceptIS, Bill was the co-founder and CEO of controlGen, Inc., and EVP-Sales and Marketing and Board Member for Phoenix DataComm. He was President and COO of Maxwell Systems, Inc., and founder and CEO of Advantage Communications, Inc., which provided strategic technology planning and business development services to colleges and universities. From 1971 through 1992, Bill held various management positions at Bell Atlantic Corporation in finance, sales, information technology and operations, including Founder, President and CEO of Bell Atlantic's System Integration Corporation and also Founder, President and CEO of Bell Atlantic Public Sector Systems.

Lisa Brady-Gill
Executive Director, Educational & Productivity Solutions, Texas Instruments, Inc.

Lisa Brady Gill is the Executive Director of the Office of Education Policy in the Educational and Productivity Solutions Division at Texas Instruments. Her team builds business strategies from education policy and develops relationships with national educational influencers, associations and organizations. Before joining Texas Instruments, Ms. Gill managed Texas' statewide efforts for Project ACHIEVE and was a founding member of Voyager Expanded Learning. She started her career as an elementary school educator. Ms. Gill served on SIIA's Education Division Board, is on the Coordinating Committee of the Texas Business in Education Council (TBEC) and is the Co-chair of SIIA's Education & Workforce Development Policy Committee.

Kathleen Brantley
Director of Product Development, Market Data Retrieval, a company of D&B

Kathleen, with over 20 years in the industry, offers in-depth understanding of the unique characteristics of the education market, and the emerging trends that impact how schools operate. Her expertise is often leveraged to help marketers design and implement successful sales and multi-channel marketing strategies. Kathleen has been instrumental in the expansion of MDR's product line which now includes web-based sales solutions, turnkey e-mail marketing services and Market Research Solutions. In her current role, she is responsible for strengthening MDR’s brand through expanding industry alliances and partnership.

Frank Catalano
SVP Marketing, Pearson Assessments & Testing

Frank Catalano joined Pearson Education's U.S. Assessments & Testing Group as senior vice president of marketing in fall 2004 and has marketing responsibility for Pearson Educational Measurement, Pearson Knowledge Technologies, Pearson NCS and Pearson Assessments. Previously, Frank was principal of Catalano Consulting for a dozen years and held long-term interim marketing executive assignments for MetaMetrics, Boxer Learning, iCopyright and McGraw-Hill, as well as advising many technology-related companies in education, computing and publishing. He is the author of two books on marketing, has published hundreds of essays and is frequently quoted on trends by national and local news media.

Karen Cator
Director, Apple Education Leadership, Director, Advocacy and 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.

Sue Collins
Principal, CollinsConsults

Sue Collins has more than 30 years of experience in education and technology. She has been a science teacher, district coordinator, and Director of Instructional Services and Technology for the Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction. She was appointed to the Web-based Education Commission by President Clinton, named one of the top 30 movers and shakers in education by eSchoolNews, and wrote ”eLearning Frameworks for NCLB” for the U.S. DoED National Educational Technology Plan 2004. In the private sector, Sue has implemented strategic programs for Apple Computer, led the development of Compaq Computer’s K-12 and Higher Education initiatives, held senior-level positions with Jostens Learning Corporation and bigchalk.com, and served as Chief Education Officer at Apex Learning. Sue has also held industry board seats at ISTE and SIIA.

Kevin Custer
Founding Partner, ARC Capital Development

Kevin Custer is a Founding Principal in Arc Capital Development who invests in and operate emerging market companies. He offers over 19 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. Currently, Mr. Custer is the CEO of KinderStreet an Arc Portfolio company that provides the management software for the Childcare market. 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 has served as the chairman of both the e-business and the education section of the Software & Information Industry Association

Greg Downey
Editor and Publisher, eSchool News

Gregg is co-founder of eSchool News, the nation’s Number One ed-tech print newspaper, and eSchool News Online, the world’s most visited ed-tech publication web site. He brings 20 years of experience to the job, winning more than 30 national awards in education journalism. Gregg is a newspaperman who has spent much of his career in the service of education. He's the former editor-in-chief of The American School Board Journal, founding editor of The Executive Educator magazine, and launched the quarterly technology publication, The Electronic School.

Helene Duvin
VP Business Development, Pearson Knowledge Technologies

Helene Duvin joined Pearson Knowledge Technologies in 2005. In her current role, she creates business alliances within the Pearson company family as well as education industry businesses to develop and distribute PKT products. Prior to joining PKT, Helene held a variety of business development and marketing leadership roles at Educational Testing Service (ETS) with more than 20 years of experience in the K-12, higher education and global education markets. Helene's focus has been business growth and diversification through development and execution of partnership and strategic alliances, M&A and business integration as well as product lifecycle planning.

Peter Eddison
President & CEO, AutoSkill International Inc.

Peter Eddison is the President and CEO of AutoSkill International Inc., a position he has held since September 2001. AutoSkill is a developer of reading and mathematics intervention software for the K-12 market. Prior to joining AutoSkill Peter was a founding partner of Reid Eddison Inc., a consulting firm that provides business mentoring to the senior management teams of high-growth technology firms. He had previously held a variety of executive positions at several Canadian software and technology companies, and was a frequent conference panelist and invited speaker at key information industry events throughout the U.S. and Europe. Peter is a member of the Board of Advisors of The Queen’s University School of Business and of WorldReach Software, was a lecturer and advisory Board member of the Technology Marketing program at Algonquin College, and was a founding executive member of ZoneFive, the technology marketing forum of the Ottawa Center for Research and Innovation.

Mark Edwards
Vice President of Business Development, Harcourt Assessment

Dr. Mark Edwards was recently named Vice President of Business Development with Harcourt Assessment. In this role, Edwards supports regional activities in key school districts and state contract opportunities, works closely with the Sales & Marketing management team on the roll out and launch of Harcourt's Formative Instructional Assessment product lines, and oversees and manages relationships with key organizations. Prior to his position at Harcourt, Dr. Edwards was Dean of the College of Education at the University of North Alabama and Superintendent of Schools for Henrico County Public Schools in Richmond, Virginia. Before that he served on the teaching or administrative faculties at universities and K-12 school districts. He is the author of numerous publications, has presented and served as keynote speaker at many education conferences and has been the recipient of competitive grants and professional honors.

Nicole Engelbert
Analyst, Education Technology, Datamonitor plc

Nicole Engelbert is an analyst in the Technology business unit at Datamonitor, covering Public Sector Technology with an emphasis on education. Prior to assuming her position at Datamonitor, Nicole was the Vice President of Educational Services at TestU, a provider of online test preparation courses and assessment products. In this role she worked with public school districts to design effective implementation plans that utilized technology and assessment to improve student achievement, as well as led the development of client reporting systems. Nicole also has experience in higher education, having held various leadership positions in admissions, career services, and institutional services. Nicole is currently completing a Ph.D. in education policy at Columbia University, from where she also holds a master’s degree.

Ntiedo Etuk
CEO, Tabula Digita

Ntiedo (Nt) Etuk is Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Tabula Digita, an educational gaming company focused on delivering innovative and effective educational games to students and institutions. Nt’s background is in the creation and implementation of disruptive consumer innovations, which he has done, in varying capacities, with Bank One, McKinsey, and Citigroup. Immediately prior to Tabula Digita, Etuk worked with Citigroup as a member of the Payment Innovation Team, responsible for the creation, evaluation, and implementation of next generation payment solutions designed to produce $100 million or more in profits. Nt is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Electrical Engineering. He also holds an MBA from Columbia Business School where he was a Beta Gamma Sigma graduate, recipient of the Board of Overseers Fellowship, and an awardee of The Lang Fund Grant for outstanding entrepreneurial ventures.

Mike Evans
President, Pearson School Systems

Mike Evans is President of Pearson School Systems (PSS) a provider of technology solutions to K-12 schools. Mike’s responsibilities include management of all PSS operations which are dedicated to the student information, benchmark assessment, data-analysis and business systems needs of school districts. Prior to his current role, Mike was responsible for Pearson Digital Learning’s Product Management and Publishing organizations, and was the Chief Operating Officer of Bigchalk, a K-12 library database provider. Before his career in education technology, Mike held various senior management positions in both broadcast and cable television including his role as Assistant General Manager of the Food Network cable television channel.

Barbara Freeman
COO, HELP Project Director, Digital Directions

Barbara Freeman, M.B.A., currently sits on Colorado ’s English Language Acquisition/No Child Left Behind Policy Advisory Council and is an advisor to the Colorado Mentoring Institute for Latino Leaders. She is the creator of the HELP program and has spent hundreds of hours observing, field-testing and working with students, teachers and administrators to translate conceptual analysis to useable HELP lessons. Ms. Freeman has 20 years of international experience in risk management and technology consulting, research and analysis, and business development. She is currently a doctoral student in the school of Educational Leadership and Change at Fielding Graduate University.

Mark Golczewski
Vice President - Technology, Catapult Online - Educate, Inc.

Mr. Golczewski has over 21 years of experience in the IT industry and currently holds the position of Vice President of Technology for the online platform that powers Catapult Online. Prior to joining Educate, Mr. Golczewski held the positions of Managing Director for MortgageRamp, a software products firm. In that role, he was responsible for all product development and delivery of the company's ASP-hosted products. From 1996 through 2001, Mr. Golczewski held the position of Managing Director for the Philadelphia branch office of RDA Corporation, a regional software development IT firm, where he led teams in designing and implementing enterprise software solutions in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, financial services, transportation, and retail industries. Mr. Golczewski has also held positions as Software Architect and Lead Developer on various enterprise software solutions products during his career and has consulted in development of systems for start-up businesses.

Page Gravely
Director, Global Education, Red Hat,Inc.

Page Gravely is Director, Global Education for Red Hat, the world's most trusted provider of Linux and open soure technology. He leads Red Hat's strategy to empower all global academic institutions with Red Hat's Enterprise Linux and open source resources to meet their academic and technology needs. Mr. Gravely came to Red Hat in 2003 after 3 years with LearningStation, the ASP serving the K-12 market where he was Sales Director for the East Coast. His 15-year sales and marketing career includes LAN/WAN software, design and networking to telecommunications.

Jonathan Harber
Director, CEO and President, SchoolNet, Inc.

Harber has extensive experience in the education technology market and has proven past success as an entrepreneur. Mr. Harber was the co-founder and Chairman of NewKidCo, a children’s video game publishing company based on licenses such as Sesame Street, Disney, Tiny Toons, and Tom and Jerry. Previously, Harber founded the award-winning children’s educational software company KinderActive. Harber was the Co-founder and President of Diva, a publisher of software to the multimedia and education markets. Harber began his career as an investment banker working for Merrill Lynch in corporate finance and decision support.

Nelson Heller
President, Heller Reports, a QED Company

Nelson Heller is president of The Heller Reports, a QED company. He is publisher of The Heller Reports/QED News Alert , an e-mailed industry headline service reaching over 20,000 education industry executives worldwide weekly. The Heller Reports also sponsors the annual EdNET: the Educational Networking Conference for education industry executives and offers periodic EdNET Virtual Roundtables with panels of experts regarding key issues impacting educational sales and marketing. Prior to starting The Heller Reports in 1988, he served as research vice president for SFN, the holding company for educational publishers Scott, Foresman; South-Western Publishing, University Park Press and Silver Burdett, as well as owner of radio and television stations, information service, legal and medical publishing businesses. He is recipient of the “Making It Happen” education industry award.

Lori Hensler
Manager, Human Resources and Facilities Riverside Publishing Company

Lori Hensler is the Manager of Human Resources and Facilities for Riverside Publishing Company, the division of Houghton Mifflin Company that publishes educational and clinical assessments and competes in the state assessment market and emerging market for formative assessments. Lori joined Riverside Publishing in June of 1992 and has managed and supported the organizations needs in Human Resources operations through out her tenure. She has a variety of human resources experience in manager and employee coaching, employee relations, recruiting, benefit administration, compensation, performance management, affirmative action programs, training, and overall management of the facility operations. She has worked also in the area of integration of newly acquired companies for the organization.

Jennifer House
President, RedRock Reports

Dr. House, a noted education market leader, is a former school district administrator and educational technology innovator. In addition to years of experience in teaching and administration in K-12 school districts, her experience also includes posts held at Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, Tenth Planet and Classroom Connect. Under Dr. House’s direction, RedRock Reports has assembled a team of database experts and school market research innovators to provide both primary research and related consulting and grant writing services.

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.

Randy Jennings
President & CEO, Education Technology Partners

Randy Jennings is founder and president of Education Technology Partners, a value-added distributor offering sales, marketing, and professional development representation in the central United States to technology companies serving the K-12 market. After leaving the classroom – where he taught 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th grades and coached at the high school level – Randy joined Control Data Corporation as a sales and business development leader for its PLATO Division. At Apple Computer, Randy held sales, marketing and operational management positions, and was a key member of the senior management team that built Apple's dominate position in the K-12 market. He later joined Thomson Learning as a senior vice president and general manager of Wave/Thomson Learning's Enterprise Learning Solutions Division, a division he created for the company. Randy is an Emeritus board member of the University of Missouri-St. Louis Chancellor's Advisory Council and a past board member of Literacy Investment for Tomorrow - Missouri.

Lillian Kellogg
Vice President, Business Development, 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.

Michael King
Director, Marketing Development, IBM

Mr. King has been with IBM for over 20 years in various executive and management positions. He is currently responsible for market development and solutions for the worldwide IBM Education Industry. In this role, he leads IBM’s industry offerings and partner programs across schools and higher education, including innovation projects in key markets. His prior responsibility was as Director, Alliances for IBM Learning Solutions, where he led a team in developing partnerships across the learning marketplace. Prior positions include Lead Market Manager for Learning and the Global Segment Executive for the IBM Education industry, and also the Worldwide Marketing Manager for Higher Education. Mr. King has also served as the client executive with responsibility for research universities in California, including the University of California system. In that position, he worked with leading universities in developing creative technology solutions for administrative and academic applications.

Chuck Kleiner, Ed.D.
VP Sales & Marketing, SMARTHINKING

Chuck is responsible for leading the sales and marketing efforts of SMARTHINKING. Chuck is an award-winning, high performing sales professional with 20 years experience in the education market. During his career, Chuck has been in sales positions at Wasatch Education Systems and Jostens Learning. He was the Western Regional Vice President at Riverdeep and National Vice President of Sales for Academic Systems. Before coming to SMARTHINKING he was president of Kleiner & Associates where he advised companies in the areas of strategic planning, sales management, new product launches and business expansion.

Midian Kurland
VP, Technology & Development, Scholastic,Inc.

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.

Lawrence Korchnak
Director, Grants and Development, Cognitive Concepts/Houghton Mifflin Company

Dr. Steve Kutno
General Manager, Kaplan K-12

Steve Kutno, Ph.D., is Kaplan K12 Learning Services’ general manager and is responsible for developing and delivering high quality instructional programs focused on literacy. As a senior manager of the K12 division, Kutno also oversees the research team, collaborates with Kaplan’s school partners, engages with policy affairs, and contributes to overall strategic developments. Over the past 10 years, he has focused his career on meeting the needs of schools and students through thoughtful connections between assessment and instruction. Previously, Kutno worked at Scholastic as managing director of assessment in support of Scholastic Reading Inventory, Scholastic Reading Counts, and Read 180. Kutno was responsible for an early cross-publisher collaboration to bring a reading-incentive program to the Internet.

Eliot Levinson
President, BLEgroup

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.

Tim Loomer
President, Testing & Assessment Division, Scantron Corp.

As President of Scantron’s Testing and Assessment Division, Loomer is responsible for designing and executing the company’s K-12 strategy. His mission is to establish Scantron as the premier provider of assessment platform technologies. Loomer earned a B.A. in Business from the University of Washington and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Robert Maginn Jr.
Chairman & CEO, Jenzabar, Inc.

Robert A. Maginn, Jr. is a 2005 appointee to the Board of SIIA’s Educational Division. He has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Jenzabar, Inc., since December 1998 and as Chief Executive Officer since March 2001. As the Chief Executive of Jenzabar, Bob oversees one of the leading providers of ERP and portal solutions and professional services employed by close to 700 colleges and universities across the U.S. Jenzabar clients span public and private institutions, for-profit and not-for profit, and virtually every sector of Higher Education. Prior to Jenzabar, Bob worked for more than 17 years at Bain & Company, where he served as a Senior Partner and Director. Bob is involved in many charities and other outside activities, including the Clinton Global Initiative, as part of his commitment to support others who are trying to make a difference in the world.

Tim Magner
Director, Office of Education Technology, U.S. Department of Education

Tim Magner is the Director for the Office of Educational Technology for the U.S. Department of Education. The Office coordinates the development and implementation of the Department's technology policies to maximize technology's contribution to improving education. Mr. Magner previously served as Deputy Executive Director for the Council of Chief State School Officers, Deputy Director for the Office of Educational Technology, Executive Director K12 Education for Microsoft Corporation and Director of the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF). He also served as the Director of Technology for the Framingham Public Schools in Framingham Massachusetts, and taught graduate courses in educational technology at Framingham State College and George Mason University. Mr. Magner began his career as a high school social studies and theater teacher at the middle and high school levels in the US and Europe. Mr. Magner received his bachelor of arts from the College of William & Mary and a Masters Degree in Education from Harvard University.

Glen McCandless
President, Focus Marketing, Inc

Glen McCandless is principal of Focus Marketing, Inc. with over 20 years of educational technology business management, sales, marketing, and channel development experience. He is also editor of SellingToSchools.com, a free online magazine that provides software publishers with advice and resources to help them market and sell technology products to educators. Since 1995, Focus Marketing has provided strategic marketing and business development services to publishers of curriculum and administrative software and developers of digital media used by educators in K-12 schools, colleges and universities.

David McCool
President, Muzzy Lane Software

As a visionary advocate for using technology to engage students in educational content, Dave is a founder of Muzzy Lane Software. He designed the first Making HistoryTM game, The Calm and the Storm, and led the design team for the Muzzy Lane Simulation Game System. A founding member of two successful venture-backed technology companies, Dave has been instrumental in building solid companies and products. He was a co-founder of Shiva Corporation, a company that saw a successful IPO after 8 years, and a founder of Aptis Communications which was later acquired by Nortel. Dave holds a BS in Computer Science from MIT.

Judith Miller
Director, East Mississippi Center for Education Development

Dr. Judith H. Miller is executive director of the East MS Center for Educational Development, Inc. (EMCED), a regional service agency serving 21 school districts and one Federal tribal school district in east central Mississippi. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Southern Mississippi, a M.Ed. in secondary school administration and a B.S. in business education and economics from the University of West Alabama. A 25-year veteran school/district administrator and university professor with Mississippi State University, Dr. Miller has served as executive director of EMCED for the past ten years. She currently serves as on the executive council of Association of Educational Service Agencies (AESA) and chairs the Membership Services Committee.

Ed Murphy
Vice President of Engineering, IntelliTools, Inc.

Ed is responsible for leading strategic technology initiatives at IntelliTools. Ed has recently finished a research project that resulted in technology that enables software to measure mathematical fluency in students that use alternative input devices. Prior to joining the company in early 2003, Ed held technology and executive management positions with Talking Fingers, Inc., Sapient Corp., and Humancode, Inc. Prior to that, Ed served as President of Presage Software Development where he developed award winning educational software and technology for 10 years.

Larry D. Nelson
Director of Collaborations and Partnerships, Global Education & Learning Community (GELC)

Larry Nelson is now Director of Collaborations and Partnerships for the Global Education & Learning Community (GELC). He had previously established GELC as an independent non-profit organization, directed strategic planning, partnerships, and tactical aspects of the GELC's web presence and drove other strategic initiatives within Sun Microsystems Education Line of Business. Prior to this work, Larry Nelson was responsible for Sun's K-12 strategy and solution partnerships. In this capacity he and his staff managed relationships with partners in the administration, infrastructure, student information systems and eLearning segments in the K-12 marketplace. Prior to joining Sun, Larry Nelson was Vice President of Marketing & Finance at SchoolCity.com, where he managed the marketing, business development, telemarketing and sales. Before that, he was President and CEO of Decision Development Corporation (DDC), a privately held educational software and Internet publisher. At DDC he positioned its branded software products for successful and groundbreaking statewide adoption of technology-based curriculum in 15 states including California, Texas, Florida, Georgia and Indiana-allowing schools in these states to use state-provided textbook money to purchase software products.

Pam Nelson
Principal, Nelson Consulting

Pam Nelson is a well recognized industry leader with senior executive level experience leading marketing, research, and product development in K-12 education companies including Holt, Rinehart & Winston, PowerSchool / Apple; The Learning Company, Open Court Publishing and Pearson Learning. A former teacher with a Masters degree in Curriculum & Instruction, Pam is a frequent conference speaker on branding, integrating sales & marketing channels, boosting sales, and market trends. Nelson currently co-chairs the Board of Directors for the Education Division of SIIA and is has been a Board Member of SIIA for many years. Pam currently consults with educational companies on strategies to grow their business.

Denis Newman
President, Empirical Education Inc.

Denis Newman founded Empirical Education in 2003 after a 25 year career in education. Specializing in rigorous research, the company has been responsible for over a dozen randomized experiments on K-12 instructional and staff development programs. He received a Ph.D. in developmental psychology and has conducted research and development at The Rockefeller University, UC San Diego, Bank Street College of Education and BBN Corporation. He has published over 35 books and articles and has served as program chair for the American Educational Research Association’s Curriculum and Learning Division. He was a pioneer in the application of Internet technologies for student learning, professional development and school administration. His business career has included senior positions at educational software companies, Tegrity and Soliloquy Learning.

Steve Nordmark
Director, Product Development nettrekker/Thinkronize

Steve directs all areas of product development for Thinkronize. His responsibilities include research, design, development, and maintenance of existing and new products. He provides effective and innovative leadership in multimedia systems development and educational research. Steve brings over 10 years of software research and development experience to the team, using solid educational strategies and strong project management skills. His recent professional experiences include VP of Research and Development at Failure Free Reading and Consulting Manager for Information Systems at Andersen Consulting

Jason Palmer
VP Business Development, SchoolNet, Inc.

Jason Palmer is the Vice President of Business Development for SchoolNet, Inc., a leader in Instructional Management Solutions (IMS) that improve efficiency and increase achievement in K-12 school districts. At SchoolNet, Mr. Palmer focuses on strategic partnerships that bolster SchoolNet’s sales, marketing, and product development efforts, including partnerships with leading software companies. Mr. Palmer also spearheads SchoolNet’s merger & acquisition efforts. Before joining SchoolNet, Mr. Palmer was most recently a Product Manager and Education Solutions Specialist at Microsoft. Prior to his work at Microsoft, Mr. Palmer founded three technology and services companies: Mascot Network, Inc., BridgePath.com, and The Corner Meal Plan.

Gail Pierson
Chief Education Officer, Riverdeep, Inc.

Gail Elizabeth Pierson is currently serving as the Chief Education Officer for Riverdeep Inc., LLC. She joined the Riverdeep Group in July 1999 as Chief Operating Officer following the acquisition of Logal Software, and served as President and Chief Operating Officer from November 1999 to September 2001, and President, Product Development and Operations from October 2001 to her recent appointment as the Chief Education Officer. She also served as an Independent Director and on the Riverdeep Board from November of 2001 through April 2003. Ms. Pierson has over 20 years of experience in senior management, specializing in education and publishing operations. She served consecutively as chief operating officer for The Christian Science Monitor and president of J-Net Consulting before joining Riverdeep.

Willa Perlman
Managing Partner, Ligature Partners

Willa Perlman is Managing Partner for Ligature Partners, LLC. She moved into executive search in 2001 after more than 20 years of senior level experience in publishing, intellectual property development, and general management. Her prior executive credentials include: President of Hasbro Properties Group, at Hasbro, Inc; President of Golden Books Publishing Group; President & Publisher of Simon & Schuster Children’s Books Division; Vice President, Editorial Director of “Willa Perlman Books,” an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Division. Willa began her career at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, where she held positions in marketing, publicity, and advertising, then named Director of the entire Harcourt Children’s Trade Division and worked collaboratively with Harcourt Education on the development of the highly acclaimed “Treasury of Reading” basal textbook program.

Liz Prigge
Manager, Editorial Technology, Thomson Business & Economics Publishing, School & Post-Secondary

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.

Lise B. Ragan
President, CEO, and Founder, Course Crafters, Inc.

Lise Ragan is President, CEO, and founder of Course Crafters, Inc., a company that specializes in developing educational content and materials for the K-12 English Language Learner (ELL) market. A former English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher who entered the educational publishing field in 1976, Lise has held both editorial and marketing leadership positions at a number of educational publishers, all in the second/foreign language field. In the 1980’s, she was Marketing Manager of Addison-Wesley Publishing Company’s World Language Division. She founded Course Crafters in April 1993, has developed ESL/ELL content and materials for dozens of educational publishers and published some of the most comprehensive and reliable data and analysis available on the burgeoning ELL market in K-12. Lise has taught publishing courses at Boston area colleges and is a frequent speaker and consultant on the opportunities in the U.S. ELL market, for publishers as well as trade organizations.

Brenda Raker
President, The Greaves Group

Brenda has over 20 years of experience working with a variety of innovative educational technology companies both as an employee and as a consultant. She has worked for companies such as Apple Computer and The Learning Company in a sales management capacity and as president of Educational Resources where she successfully positioned the company for a buyout. She has also worked with two large systems integration companies, BDM and SAIC, where she provided leadership in strategic planning, marketing and business development. Brenda¹s work with a wide variety of companies allows her to apply diverse experience and expertise to her consultant clients. As an industry consultant, Brenda has worked with corporations on strategic planning, executive skills, sales management, marketing, competitive analysis, account development, project planning and management, and business alliances.

Steve Rappaport
Industry Consultant

Dr. Steve Rappaport has over twenty years of experience in education and technology in the public and private sectors, including positions as Assistant Dean for Computing at Rutgers University, Director of Technology of a large K-12 school, and Assistant to the Provost for Technology at Baruch College/CUNY. After leaving academic administration in the mid 1990s, Steve managed a national education sales division for an Internet company and then served as Director of Network Initiatives with Internet2 (led the K-20 Initiative), Director of Programs with Advanced Network and Services (managed ThinkQuest programs), and Executive Director of Strategic Planning with ETS. Steve now works as a consultant.

Barbara Ridener, Ph.D.
Content Specialist, Mathematics, CompassLearning

Dr. Ridener joined CompassLearning in May, 2005 and is responsible for directing the vision of the CompassLearning Mathematics content for K-12. Prior to CompassLearning she was Associate Professor of Mathematics Education and Assistant Chair of the Department of Teacher Education at Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Ridener has degrees in both Elementary and Secondary Math Education, eight years experience as a classroom teacher, and over fourteen years teaching at the university level. She worked with Texas Instruments as a Market Development Manager from 2001 - 2003. Dr. Ridener has written a book, Mathematics Content for Elementary and Middle School Teachers, published numerous articles in national and international journals on mathematics instruction as well as presented at international and national conferences. She has served as a reviewer/referee for NCTM and liaison to multiple state and national agencies investigating mathematics instruction and promoting the use of technology to teach mathematics.

Steve Ritter
Cognitive Scientist, Carnegie Learning, Inc.

Steve Ritter has been working as a designer, developer and evaluator of intelligent tutoring systems for over 10 years. He is the author of numerous papers on subjects related to educational technology and was responsible for some of the earliest and most complete web-based intelligent tutoring systems. Dr. Ritter also developed the first tool to use natural language processing to understand and produce instruction for algebraic word problems. In 1998, he helped to found Carnegie Learning. Dr. Ritter is a co-author of an article given the highest rating in the What Works Clearinghouse. He earned his doctorate in cognitive psychology from Carnegie Mellon University. Steve serves on the SIIA Education Division Board of Directors and the Vision Working Group.

Piedad F. Robertson
President, Education Commission of the States

Piedad F. Robertson has served since February, 2005 as president of ECS, an interstate compact created in 1965 to improve public education by facilitating the exchange of information, ideas and experiences among state policymakers and education leaders. Robertson came to ECS from Santa Monica College, where she was president for ten years. From 1991 to 1995, Robertson served as Massachusetts secretary of education, where she had responsibility for a comprehensive K-12 Education Reform Act and other initiatives. Robertson was previously president of both Bunker Hill Community College in Boston and Miami-Dade Community College in Miami. She is currently on the boards of numerous organizations, including the American Council on Education, ETS, Gates Millennium Scholarship, Tomas Rivera Policy Institute and the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

John G. Robinson
Chairman, The rSmart Group

John Robinson is a widely recognized visionary in Higher Education. For more than 35 years John has been serving colleges and universities worldwide with innovative software technology. Having previously worked his magic with three companies, Information Associates, The Robinson Group (TRG), and SCT (Thync), John launched The rSmart Group in 2002 with Anthony Potts and Chris Coppola. His true passion is for helping the education community find technology solutions that meet their ever-changing and growing needs.

Steven L. Robinson, Ph.D.
Director, Technology Solutions, Elementary and Secondary Education, ETS

Dr. Robinson is the Director of Technology Solutions for ETS Elementary and Secondary Education. He has extensive experience as an educator in K-12, higher education and in business settings. His focus is on effective teaching, implementation, evaluation and learning with technology in classroom settings. He has specialized in the use of classroom response technology in 1:1 settings to improve instruction and computer evaluation of essays.

Jane Rogers
Coordinator, Education Division, SIIA

Jane Rogers joined SIIA's Education Division in 2002 and works on the production of the TrendsWatch Database as well as member communications, reports, virtual meetings, and in-person events. She also distributes key announcements and e-newsletters, including the well-received SIIA Ed Tech Daily. Prior to SIIA, Jane worked in the membership department at a nonprofit in Boston and as a researcher for a local trade publication.

Michael Ross
Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, 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.

Madeleine Rothberg
Director of Research and Development, WBGH National Center for Accessible Media

Madeleine Rothberg is the Director of Research and Development for the WGBH National Center for Accessible Media. She focuses on providing access to multimedia and educational technology for users with disabilities, both through directly accessible solutions such as captions, talking software, and audio description, and with improvements in infrastructure through standards. Ms. Rothberg established the IMS Global Learning Consortium’s Accessibility Working Group, creating the Access For All specifications for accessible distance learning systems. She also served on the technical panel that developed the NIMAS standard for accessible textbooks. Previously she directed an NSF-funded research project developing prototypes and guidelines to make science, engineering and mathematics multimedia software accessible to blind and visually impaired students. Before joining WGBH, Ms. Rothberg developed educational software at Learningways, a division of Davidson and Associates. She has an Ed.M. in Technology in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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.

Farimah Schuerman
Managing Partners, Academic Business Advisors

Farimah Schuerman has successfully introduced innovative educational technology products to the higher education and K-12 markets for more than 20 years. A recognized leader in the industry, Ms. Schuerman works with companies that deliver education via all formats of media, including new and emerging technologies, and has done considerable work with companies that specialize in community building platforms for education. She has also worked with more than one dozen start-up ventures. Her areas of expertise include business development, sales and strategic marketing for e-learning and video-based learning companies. Recently, Ms. Schuerman has extended her scope to include clients in the pharmaceutical and fashion industries. She is an active member of the Teaching and Learning with Technology Group and serves on the editorial board of Learning Times.

Dr. Thomas J. Shields
Director, Center for Leadership in Education, University of Richmond

Dr. Tom Shields is on the faculty at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies and is director of the Center for Leadership in Education at the University of Richmond. He is also an instructor at the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia. As director of the Center for Leadership in Education, Dr. Shields is responsible for the implementation of programs and research in leadership studies for students, teachers, and administrators in the K-12 market. Dr. Shields and other researchers at the Center are in the process of developing online leadership assessment tools for private and public schools. He has published articles in Academic Exchange Quarterly, the Journal of Black Studies and in Politics and Policy and has presented his research at numerous academic conferences.

Brian Shulman
Chief Executive Officer, Learning Through Sports

Brian is the CEO of Learning Through Sports which he founded in 2001. Prior to the founding of LTS, he was a senior sales and marketing executive in the healthcare information technology industry, most recently as President of the South Region for Eclipsys Corporation, a leading healthcare software and services provider. He began his career with Baxter Healthcare in their Sales and Marketing training program. Using business acumen honed from successful sales and management career and his Auburn University degree in business management, Brian launched and funded Learning Through Sports. He assembled a team of PhD researchers, educational content experts and software developers to design and create Kid's College - a Web-based math and language arts/reading program - and STAR Sportsmanship -- a Web-based role-playing program for youth teaching how to make good decisions on and off the playing field.

Sharon Sloane
CEO, WILL Interactive

Sharon Sloane, President and CEO of WILL Interactive, Inc. is a pioneer and leader in the virtual experience and interactive gaming industry. Sharon has 25 years experience in producing cutting-edge instructional systems for behavior modification and performance improvement technology. She holds the U.S. Patent for creating WILL's Virtual Experience Immersive Learning Simulations (VEILS™). Sharon designed the landmark DxTer program for training emergency room physicians in 1986 and since founding WILL in 1994, Sharon and her company's programs have been featured on NBC, CNN, as well as in Time magazine, the Washington Post, Washington Business Journal, and Training & Simulation Journal. Under Sharon's leadership WILL's programs have won numerous awards and are training over 3 million users. Clients include all branches of the US Military, DHS, the FBI and thousands of middle/high schools and universities across the country. An accomplished speaker, Sharon has presented keynotes at over 50 conferences.

Paul Smith
Product Marketing Manager, PowerSchool - A Divisioni of Apple Computer, Inc

Burck Smith
CEO and Founder, SmarThinking

Burck Smith is the cofounder and CEO of Smarthinking, a live, online academic support and tutoring service for colleges based in Washington, D.C. The five-year-old company evolved out of research Smith did while he was in graduate school at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and free-lance writing post-graduate school relating to the use of technology in education. After graduate school Smith, a Baltimore native, worked as an independent consultant in education and technology, doing marketing, strategic planning, economic analysis and business development. In addition he wrote for magazines such as Wired, University Business, and Converge Magazine.

Larry Snowhite
Vice President, Government Relations, Houghton Mifflin

Larry Snowhite joined Houghton Mifflin Company in 2001, after representing the company as outside counsel responsible for government relations for almost twenty years. He is responsible for representing the interests of Houghton Mifflin before Congress and federal agencies and departments, as well as with other governmental and non-governmental organizations, e.g., SIIA, and tracks legislative and political trends and the challenges and opportunities posed by federal law, regulations, programs, and policies. Larry was a practicing attorney in the District of Columbia, served as Director of Congressional Affairs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as Deputy Director of the State of New Jersey’s Washington Office, and was Legislative Counsel at the National League of Cities and U.S. Conference of Mayors. He has served on the SIIA Board of Directors and is a member of the SIIA Government Affairs Council, and an active participant in the Education Division.

Nicola Soares
Vice President, Product Innovation, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill

innovation. In her current capacity provides strategic direction for secondary educational technology product development and recommends new technology solutions for digital content delivery. In addition, she is responsible for developing strategic partnerships and alliances for Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a secondary education provider.

Jim Teicher
Co-founder and CEO, The CyberSmart! Education Co.

Jim Teicher is co-founder and CEO of The CyberSmart! Education Co., a company that provides online professional development to address the new literacy demands on educators and their students in our technology-enabled world. CyberSmart! is widely known for its free K-8 curriculum used in schools nationwide and cited by the White House, numerous federal and state agencies, school districts, and school web sites. Jim currently serves on the advisory board of the Congressional Internet Caucus, is a founding sponsor of the National Cyber Security Alliance, and chairs its K-12 Education Working Group. He was formerly President of Smart Tone, Inc., a leading innovator in voice biometric authentication. Prior to this, he was founder and CEO of Stockalert, Inc., the award-winning financial information service. Jim also served as Divisional Vice President of the PaineWebber Group Incorporated, and managed consumer online product development at AT&T.

Paul Thomas
Senior Vice President for Publishing, Partnerships and Research, Discovery Education, a division of Discovery Communications, Inc.

Paul Thomas is Senior Vice President for Publishing, Partnerships and Research at Discovery Education, a division of Discovery Communications, Inc. Discovery Education, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, with offices in Evanston, Illinois, and Chatsworth, California, includes the product lines of United Learning, AIMS Multimedia, and Rainbow Educational Media. Paul's previous experiences include management positions with the National Geographic society, the Leo Burnett advertising agency, tech industry researcher International Data Corporation, and the Advisory Board Companies. His childrens' teachers are subject to frequent test marketing of Discovery Education products and services.

Jim Tobias
Principal, Inclusive Technologies

Jim Tobias has thirty years experience in technology and disability in both the public and private sectors. He began his career at Berkeley’s Center for Independent Living, was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs and Bellcore, and their principal liaison with the Baby Bells on accessibility, aging, and education. He is now President of Inclusive Technologies, which develops accessible technology products, performs market analysis and consults on accessibility-oriented business practices . Clients have included AOL, Cisco Systems, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Panasonic, Verizon, and Xerox. Jim sits on the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee, Alliance for Telecom Industry Solutions’s Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Accessibility Forum, and International Standards Organization’s JTC1 Special Working Group on Accessibility.

Andreas Ua'Siaghail
President and Chief Creative Officer, Resolve Labs (formerly 23 YYZee - Pax Warrior Media)

Educated in communications, linguistics and design, Award winning Creative Andreas Ua’Siaghail has been producing, hosting and broadcasting since 1981. Equal parts artist, educator and entrepreneur he has initiated, developed and brought to the public - radio shows, music CD’s, Cd and DVD-Rom’s. Since 1992, he has focused on new media and games, leading teams in the development of over 60 CBT's and games and well over 100 websites. Andreas has presented to audiences in NYC, Brussels, Geneva, Milan, London, Paris, Montreal, Toronto and at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis.

Pat Walkington
Pat Walkington Education 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.

Phoenix Wang
Program Officer, Education Program, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Phoenix is a Program Officer in the Education Program at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Her current focus is on technology-based grants in the area of open content, as well as those that support universal basic and secondary education in developing countries. She has a long-term career interest in utilizing internet technology to connect people. Prior to joining the Hewlett Foundation, Phoenix was the Director of Business Development at iVillage Inc., where she extended iVillage’s reach to women online through partnerships in distribution, new products, and revenue opportunities. She was a manager at Accenture Consulting, where she developed technology-based training programs for clients in financial services and telecommunications. She also opened the Shanghai office for a health food company based in China.

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.

Tim Webb
Assistant Superintendent for Support Service, Tennessee Dept of Education

Dr. Tim Webb assumed the position of Assistant Commissioner for Resources and Support Services with the Tennessee Department of Education in July 2003. Tim oversees personnel, local finance, budget, accounting, procurement, school nutrition, and technology. He was formerly the director of schools for the Lewis County School System and a teacher and administrator. Webb has worked as a consultant for the Tennessee Institute for School Leaders and services on the Superintendents’ Study Council.

Mona Westhaver
President & Co-founder, Inspiration Software, Inc.

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.

Randy Wilhelm
CEO, Thinkronize, Inc.

Randy Wilhelm is the Chief Executive Officer of Thinkronize, Inc., a company providing highly effective technologies that enhance the education of youth. He is a co-founder of Thinkronize, the company conceived, built and launching netTrekker, the trusted search engine for schools, in the fall of 2000. The award winning netTrekker suite of products has subsequently experienced explosive growth in K-12 school. Randy is a fifteen-year manager experienced in company and divisional reorganization and growth, sales improvement, customer service programming, creating corporate culture, and delivering large partnership arrangements to the corporation. Prior to Thinkronize, he was a Regional Vice President for USI. He holds a degree in Economics from DePauw University.

Dr. Nancy Wilson
Deputy Secretary, Delaware Department of Education

Dr. Nancy Wilson currently serves as Deputy Secretary for Delaware’s Department of Education and has had a leading role in the state’s implementation of No Child Left Behind. In her previous position of Associate Secretary of Curriculum and Instructional Improvement, she led the largest branch within DOE with responsibilities ranging from curriculum development and content area standards to special education and charter schools. Key areas of her expertise include district and school improvement, early childhood intervention, interagency collaboration and education policy.

Howard Woodard
CIO, Georgia Dept of Education

Dr. Woodard is the Chief Information Officer for the Georgia Department of Education. He has responsibility for the Statewide Student Information Decision Support System and all agency technology. Dr. Woodard also holds an Associate Professor of Information Systems position at Georgia College & State University, Georgia's Public Liberal Arts institution. Howard's research interests encompass information systems planning and success, educational strategic planning, educational continuous improvement and reform, technology utilization in higher education administration, and teaching models. Howard has written numerous publications on technology and training and learning. Howard holds a Certified Computing Professional certification. He is a member of the Institute for Certification Computing Professionals, the Association of Information Systems, International Information Management Association, and International Society for Technology in Education.

Jessie Woolley-Wilson
EVP, LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc; President, Education and Training Group

Jessie Woolley-Wilson is the Executive Vice President of LeapFrog Enterprises and President of Education and Training Group, the school division of LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. She previously served as Vice President of Marketing, where she was instrumental in establishing LeapFrog SchoolHouse as a leader in education technology and as one of the fastest growing educational software producers. Throughout her twelve-year career in a broad array of education and service industries, Jessie has held several leadership roles in general management, marketing, and business development. She has extensive experience managing start-ups, turnarounds, and high-growth environments. Prior to joining LeapFrog, Jessie was Vice President of Marketing at collegeboard.com, the interactive division of The College Board. In addition, Jessie was part of a three-member team that built MyRoad.com, an innovative company that helped middle school, high school, and college students prepare for college and careers, before it was acquired by The College Board in 2001. Jessie began her career in education at Kaplan, where she held roles as Regional Area Director of the Southern California Test Prep Service Centers and Executive Director of Pre-College and Pre-Graduate testing programs (PSAT, SAT, LSAT, GRE, and GMAT). She was also President of Crimson & Brown Associates, a diversity recruiting firm and Kaplan's first acquisition in the career industry. She serves as a board member for numerous education related organizations including, (National Education Association Foundation, National School Board Foundation, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, Reading is Fundamental, Habitot Children’s Museum, and the Emery Education Foundation).

Linda Winter
President, The Winter Group

Linda Winter established the Winter Group in 1978 as a Denver-based marketing communications, design and research firm, focused on the K-12, higher education, library and related markets. The Winter Group’s work is known both for its ability to drive response and its client-focused messaging, and does market research, marketing communications for clients in education publishing and education market organizations. Linda serves as facilitator for the SIIA/CoSN Feedback Forums at three major education technology conferences each year.

Sarah Zaner
Leader, Strategic Learning, Center for Technology in Learning, SRI International

Sarah Zaner is leader of the Strategic Learning Consulting (SLC) practice at SRI International, helping to translate SRI expertise in learning research and technology into more innovative products for clients. Ms. Zaner has an extensive background in educational publishing, instructional design, and software development. During her tenure at Scholastic Inc., Ms. Zaner led development of READ 180, Scholastic's award-winning intervention product for struggling readers in grades 4 through 12. She was also instrumental in the development of Scholastic Red, which offers professional development courses for elementary and middle school educators. Ms. Zaner has also consulted for non-profits and universities, including extensive work with the Santa Cruz New Teacher Center (NTC), where she led the development and publication of the national rollout of NTC's curricula.