ALMA - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Advisors

Adam Bellow is one of today's leading speakers on educational technology and infusing technology to aid school reformation. He is the founder of both eduTecher and eduClipper. In addition to these free resources, Adam launched the popular Change the World student-focused charity campaign. Bellow was honored by ISTE in 2010 as an emerging leader and then again in 2011 when he was named Outstanding Young Educator of the year. In 2014, he was a recipient of the Making IT Happen award by ISTE, as well as Innovator of the Year recognition from the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences. Adam is currently serving as CEO of eduClipper, the edtech startup that he founded in 2012. eduClipper is a web tool focused on helping students and teachers find, share, and build valid learning experiences in a K-12 safe educational social platform. He lives in New York with his wife and two awesome boys.

Job Titles:

• Co - Founder
• Member of the Founders and Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board
• Member of the Founders and Board of Directors

Fahad leads Alma's Business Development needs with a strong focus on establishing partnerships that will enhance Alma's presence in the marketplace. Prior to joining Alma, Fahad was the founder and CEO of Always Prepped, which enabled school administrators and teachers to integrate and analyze student data from various ed-tech platforms in one unified dashboard. Fahad has more than ten years of experience in the education technology industry. Previously, he was founder and CEO of Daylert, a mobile based ed-tech platform for the higher education vertical that enabled college students to better manage their time with the ability to have institutions intervene before a student was at risk of dropping out. Daylert company was acquired in 2008 by Intelliworks (a Hobsons company) where Fahad served as Vice President of Business Development. He earned his B.A. from Virginia Tech University in Interdisciplinary Studies. Denton leads a developer and quality assurance team with over 50 combined years of development experience. He oversees daily and long term planning of technical aspects across the company, including product development, implementation, customer service and sales. Denton most recently served as VP, Global Markets & Operations at Bank of America. He has worked in management positions for a broad range of companies from Fortune 500 businesses, including TD Ameritrade and Merrill Lynch, to start-up ventures. Denton has diverse technology architecture experience and an agnostic approach to solution design and brings strong analytical, planning and management skills to Alma. He has a proven track record of quick and effective adaptation to changing business climates, technological challenges and rapidly evolving customer demands. Denton received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Arizona. Mike leads Alma's product development and implementation teams to ensure the company's offerings meet the evolving needs of schools with a strong focus on the user experience. Prior to joining Alma, Michael co-founded Backstory, which enables sites to get to know their visitors and why they're visiting and then customize their site on the fly to provide a fully personalized experience.

Job Titles:

• Co - Founder
• Member of the Founders and Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Senior Fellow
• Senior Fellow at International Center for Leadership in Education

Eric is a Senior Fellow and Thought Leader on Digital Leadership with the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE) and Scholastic Achievement Partners (SAP). He also maintains a presence as a practitioner by serving as the K-12 Director of Technology and Innovation in the Spotswood School District (NJ). Prior to this, Eric was the award-winning Principal at New Milford High School. Under his leadership, his school became a globally recognized model for innovative practices. Eric oversaw the successful implementation of several sustainable change initiatives that radically transformed the learning culture at his school while increasing achievement.

Job Titles:

• Teacher of the Year

Erin Klein is an award winning educator, national keynote speaker, author, and mother who has been twice selected to serve on the Scholastic, Inc. Top Teaching Team based in New York. Her recent publication, Amazing Grades, was a collaboration with experts from 13 countries around the world. She travels the country speaking about the power of student voice, how meaningful technology integration can enhance learning experiences, and the impact of classroom design on today's learner. Klein is certified in Brain Gym, Educational Kinesiology, and has studied under consultants from The Center for Effective Learning to understand how design affects cognition and learning. She serves as a classroom design consultant and creative partner for the publishing company, Carson-Dellosa. Some of her articles and interviews on design for education and technology tools for the classroom can be found on Smartblogs for Education, MindShift, Scholastic, Edudemic, Edutopia, EdSurge, and EdReach. Klein served for the past three years as the state's technology chairperson for the Michigan Reading Association and is the 2014 recipient of the MACUL Pre-K - 12 Teacher of the Year for Michigan. In 2013, Klein was also awarded her district's Teacher of the Year award. She currently serves on the advisory board for Remind101 in San Francisco and is an organizer for the EdCamp Detroit Annual Educational unConference. Among Klein's accomplishments, she was also recognized as a SMART Technologies Exemplary Educator, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) 2012 Social Media Influencer, a National Association of Independent Schools Teacher of the Future, ASCD Emerging Leader, and a member of The National Writing Project. In the summer of 2014, Klein was accepted into The Teacher's College at Columbia University to advance her studies in reading and writing workshop. Klein has also hosted webinars for The United States Department of Education to share her perspective on Future Ready Schools. Most recently, she was one of nine professionals selected to be a featured speaker on Future Ready Schools at the national Digital Learning Day in Washington D.C. For the past two years, Klein has been invited to Washington D.C. to represent the BAM 100 Influential Voice in Education. In 2014, Klein was selected to serve on the state of Michigan's Voice Fellowship, through America Achieves. Through this initiative, she was invited to be part of the national Teach to Lead summits through The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the United States Department of Education where she continues to work on shaping teacher leadership across the country. She has her Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction, currently teaches at the elementary level, and lives in Michigan with her family. Klein's work can be found on her award-winning educational blog, Kleinspiration.com, and you can follow her on Twitter @KleinErin.

Job Titles:

• Secondary Principal of the Year

Jimmy Casas is in his 21st year of administrative leadership. He received his BA in Spanish and Master's in Teaching from the University of Iowa and his Master's in Administrative Leadership from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee. Jimmy is currently working on his ED.S at the University of Iowa and serves as an adjunct professor for Drake University, teaching a graduate course on Educational Leadership. Jimmy has served as principal at Bettendorf High School in Bettendorf, Iowa for the last thirteen years. His passion for teaching and learning, coupled with a vision for developing a community of leaders, has procured a culture of excellence and high standards for learning amid a positive school culture for students and staff. Jimmy's core purpose lies in serving others. He continues to give back to his profession by speaking and presenting at the local, state and national levels and school districts around the country. He was named the 2012 Iowa Secondary Principal of the Year and was selected as one of three finalists for NASSP 2013 National Secondary Principal of the Year. In 2013 he received the Bammy Educators Voice Award as the Secondary School Principal of the Year. In 2014, Jimmy was invited to the White House to speak on the Future Ready Schools pledge. He is the Co-Founder of EdCampIowa and also the Co-Founder & Co-Moderator of #IAedchat, moderating the on-line discussion chat every Sunday evening at 8:00 p.m. CST. Finally, Jimmy recently co-authored a book with Todd Whitaker and Jeff Zoul entitled, "What Connected Educators Do Differently."

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board
• Member of the Founders and Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Co - Founder
• Member of the Founders and Board of Directors

Steven Anderson is a Dad, learning evangelist, educator, speaker, and author. As a former classroom teacher and Director of Instructional Technology, Steven is highly sought after for his expertise in educational technology integration and using social media for learning. As @web20classroom, he regularly travels the country talking to schools and districts about the use of Social Media in the classroom and how they can better serve students through technology. Steven has been a presenter and keynoter at several national and international educational conferences, including ISTE, ASCD, FETC, WISE, VSTE as well as numerous state and local conferences. Steven is the author of 3 books: The Relelvant Educator: How Connectedness Empowers Learning, co-authored with his good friend and social media maven, Tom Whitby The Tech-Savvy Administrator, part of the ASCD Arias series Content Curation: How To Avoid Information Overload, part of the Corwin Connected Educators Series. Steven is also responsible in helping create #edchat, a weekly education discussion on Twitter that boasts over 500 weekly participants. Steven has been recognized with the the 2009 and 2011 Edublogs, Twitterer of The Year Award, a "Top 50 Educational Innovators" award from the Center For Digital Education, a Microsoft Heros of Education award, along with a 2013 Bammy Award, recognized worldwide as the Educational Emmy, for his work with #edchat.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board
• Member of the Founders and Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Advisors
• Principal
• State & District Digital Learning Director, Alliance for Excellent Education

Thomas C. Murray serves as the state and district digital learning director for the Alliance for Excellent Education located in Washington, DC. He has testified before the United States Congress and works alongside that body and the US Senate, the US Department of Education and state departments of education, corporations, and school districts throughout the country to implement digital learning while helping to lead Future Ready, Project 24 and Digital Learning Day. Murray's experiences in K-12 digital leadership, which include implementing a 1:1 program, BYOD, blended learning, and a K-12 cyber school where he served as the director of technology and cyber education for the Quakertown Community School District in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, have been recognized nationally. He is also the co-author of the recent release, Leading Professional Learning; Tools to Connect and Empower Teachers (Corwin, 2015), and serves as a school district consultant for digital learning planning and implementation. A former CIO and school principal, Murray is passionate about proper digital learning implementation and personalized professional learning. He was the recipient of the Blended Schools Network Leadership Award, named one of the top 16 "forward thinking EdTech leaders in the country," named one of the "top 100 influential voices in education," has been featured in Tech & Learning magazine's Leadership Profile, and has appeared on various television shows. Murray's cyber- and blended-learning programs have been highlighted by Forbes.com, T.H.E. Journal, District Administration magazine, Project Red, Tech & Learning magazine, the Innosight Institute, and iNACOL, among others, and on Digital Learning Day in both 2013 and 2014. He also serves on the advisory board for T.H.E. Journal and Remind. Murray is the cofounder of #edtechchat, a weekly educational technology Twitter forum, where hundreds of educators from around the world discuss digital learning. As a follow-up, his weekly show, #edtechchat radio on the BAM Radio Network, is available on iTunes and is regularly one of the top downloaded education podcasts. Connect with him on Twitter @thomascmurray or at www.thomascmurray.com.