She Snoops for Scoops: The Personal Side of the EdNET Community
She Snoops for Scoops: The Personal Side of the EdNET Community
Vicki Smith Bigham — Friday, January 13, 2012
Well, happy Friday, the 13th, to all of you! I am not superstitious, and I always love Fridays. I hope yours has been a good week. It's been another busy one here while I try to get over some respiratory bug, too—ugh! But it's time for a weekend, and that is a good thing. Before you head out, you know the message: check out the scoops....
New positions....
Education policy expert and writer Thomas Toch has joined the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a senior fellow for public policy engagement. He will contribute to Carnegie's initiatives to strengthen the K-12 teaching profession, improve the success rates of students in public higher education, and rethink the relationship between research and practice in American education. Tom brings a wide range of experience to this new work with Carnegie. He co-founded and co-directed Education Sector, a leading independent think tank in Washington, D.C. He spent three years as a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution. And he has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and authored two books on American education, In the Name of Excellence (Oxford University Press) and High Schools on a Human Scale (Beacon Press). Tom spent a decade as the senior education correspondent at U.S. News and World Report and has contributed to The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, The Wilson Quarterly, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Monthly. His writing has won numerous prizes, including the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Goldsmith Prize, the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, the Society for Professional Journalists Public Service Award, and several awards from the Education Writers Association. He currently writes the monthly WashingtonView column for Kappan magazine and is a contributor to the National Journal's Education Experts blog.
And Dr. Steven Paine, recently with McGraw-Hill, has joined Engrade, a startup out of Santa Monica, California, as Chief Academic Officer. Steve reports they are an exciting little technology company that has chosen to begin in the education space. Engrade began by developing a gradebook program that has now evolved into a full service ILS/LMS solution. They are well financed out of the New York City investment market and have attracted the support of Charlie Annenburg of the Annenburg Foundation in southern California. Steve says they have brilliant leadership and developers and are sure to make a splash soon. Well, that sounds great, and they are extremely fortunate to add Steve to the talent on their leadership team! Congratulate Steve on his new role at steve@engrade.com.
EdNET 2012 Industry Advisory Board
I am so pleased to be working with Steve Paine and other talented industry leaders in planning for this year's EdNET Conference, to be held September 30th-October 2nd, 2012, in Baltimore, Maryland. And I am honored now to announce the members of this year's Board:
EdNET 2012 Industry Advisory Board
- Ted Brodheim, Chief Operating Officer, ePals
- Kevin Custer, Founding Principal, Arc Capital Development
- Bruce Davis, Executive Vice President, K12 Inc.
- Dr. Ronald Fortune, CEO, Education.com
- Judy Harris, Chief Executive Officer, Carson-Dellosa Publishing LLC
- Din Heiman, COO and General Manager, BrainPOP
- Kathy Hurley, SVP, Strategic Partnerships, Pearson
- Mark McCusker, CEO, Texthelp Systems Inc.
- Michael Moore, Director, Business Development, Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA)
- Steven L. Paine, EdD, Chief Academic Officer, Engrade
- Tom Schenck, President and COO, Follett School and Library Group
- David Stuart, Chief Customer Officer, Mentoring Minds
- John J. Stuppy, PhD, CEO, Edumetrix
- Tami Zale, President, Evans Newton Incorporated
An amazing group who will be working on behalf of our community!
A proud mom....
Mimi Jett, Vice President of K-12 Business Development, Avant Assessment, is one proud mom! She will be in Houston this weekend to see her daughter run in the Olympic Trials Marathon. The race is Saturday morning and will be televised on ESPN. Her daughter's name is Gretchen Hurlbutt, from Boise, Idaho. Gretchen set the goal of running in the Trials when she began running Cross Country at age 15...18 years ago! To qualify, she had to run 26.2 miles in under 2 hours 36 minutes (sub 6 minutes/mile!). Check out her blog and join me in cheering her on this weekend! And send a note to her proud mom at mimi.jett@avantassessment.
Baby news....
Reading all my baby news from last week, Charlene Gaynor, CEO of the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP), was reminded to let me know that she has a new grandson! Nikolai, nicknamed Niko, was born to her son and daughter-in-law on December 17th. He weighed in at 10 lbs. She sent me two of the most beautiful pictures, one taken on the day he came home from the hospital and another on the day Charlene and her husband met him. He is absolutely adorable, as his big sister Dorothy Mae, who is 5. Send Charlene congratulations on her newest blessing at cgaynor@aepweb.org.
That's it for this week, friends. Go enjoy a wonderful weekend! Till next week....Vicki, the Snoop
