My EdTech Life

Marnie Stockman is co-founder and CEO of Lifecycle Insights and a former district leader. She works with schools on what it really means to graduate students who are 'ready' for life beyond school — not just finished with it.

Nick partners with Marnie Stockman on the 'Ready Beats Finished' work, bringing a leader's lens to portrait-of-a-graduate design and the everyday practices that move students toward real-world readiness.

Karle Delo is an AI Strategist at Michigan Virtual and a former district curriculum director. She helps schools across Michigan move past pilot fatigue into coherent, statewide strategy for AI in teaching and learning.

Olivia Odileke is the founder of Spark Curiosity EDU and a regular Education Week contributor. She argues that the missing ingredient in modern classrooms isn't more technology — it's curiosity, and the conditions that protect it.

Jonathan De La Cruz is an instructional designer who works at the intersection of learning science and generative AI. He helps teams figure out what AI can productively draft — and what only a designer can decide.

Cheryl Strauss Einhorn is the founder of Decisive and a decision-sciences educator who teaches leaders and students how to make better choices in an era when AI answers before you finish the question.

Valerie Brock leads curriculum for Day of AI, the MIT RAISE initiative bringing AI literacy to millions of K–12 students worldwide. Her work focuses on what AI literacy actually means for young learners — well beyond prompt engineering.

Dr. Betsy Cooper is the founding director of the Aspen Tech Policy Hub and a leading voice on AI governance. She helps schools and public institutions take governance seriously from day one rather than after the headlines hit.

A.M. Bhatt runs one of the only public-school quantum computing programs in the United States, opening access to advanced computing for high school students with no prior computer science background.

Almar Tishenko is a 19-year-old co-founder of Reading Rooms, a platform reimagining how students read, write, and get feedback in classrooms where AI is now part of the conversation.

Max Litvinenka co-founded Reading Rooms with Almar Tishenko while still a teenager, focused on tools that protect — rather than replace — student thinking in the AI era.

Tim Belmont teaches Language Arts and coordinates technology at Lyndhurst High School. He builds programs that give student voice a real stage — podcasting, publishing, and public speaking included.

Caleb Hurd is the founder of Chatperone, a child-safe AI assistant. A father of two and 20-year tech veteran, he built the product for his own kids first — long before pitching it to schools or investors.

Aaron Makelky is a high school social studies teacher and AI-in-the-classroom advocate who now also partners with Descript to help educators tell better stories with audio, video, and AI. He's known for grounded, classroom-tested takes on agentic AI and creator tools.

Dr. Kip Glazer is the principal of Mountain View High School and the author of Ready to Lead With AI. She helps school leaders move from anxious experimentation to confident, principled AI leadership.

Dr. Mark Hobson is a neuroscience and learning expert who translates brain research for educators — including the surprising overlaps between how the brain learns and how AI 'learns,' and what that means for teaching.

Melissa Morgan is the founder of Coraltalk, a conversational learning platform built on the idea that real learning comes from dialogue, not content consumption — and that AI should make conversations richer, not rarer.

Dr. Paula Cushanick — known to thousands as Dr. C on TikTok — is an educator and creator who pushes back on one of edtech's most stubborn myths: that usage data equals impact.

Lindy Hockenbary is a former classroom teacher turned K–12 EdTech advisor and host of Make EdTech 100. Based in rural Montana, she helps districts make AI literacy and digital literacy part of the work itself — not one more thing.

Eric Tao is the founder and CEO of Mega Minds, bringing real-world Career & Technical Education experiences into K–12 classrooms by connecting students with working professionals across industries.

Austin Levinson works with Mega Minds to design CTE experiences that connect students with real industries, real practitioners, and real career pathways while they're still in K–12.

Tisha Richmond is a veteran CTE educator, instructional technology coach, and author whose framework for Career & Technical Education centers joy, identity, and human connection alongside skill-building.

Jeff Riley leads work at Day of AI and MIT RAISE, helping schools, families, and students engage with AI safely and ethically through curriculum and large-scale learning events.

Kyle Sumrow is the Director of Outreach at Tech My School and leads work on Relief Roster, a substitute-management and volunteer coordination platform built for the realities of today's staffing chaos.

Sean McLaughlin leads UK community and partnerships for Adobe for Education. He works with schools, MATs, and government partners to use Adobe Express and purposeful AI to put creativity at the center of learning.

Dr. Joey Mendoza is a South Texas educator and CTE leader who works on the unglamorous moving parts — certifications, pathways, tutoring, attendance — that make Career & Technical Education actually work for students.