CVs:
Jim Snyder works for NWEA as an Account Executive. He is the director of the NW Education Cluster. He is a also part-time Ed.D. candidate
at
George Fox
University; and is an adjunct
instructor of business and math at DeVry University.
He deeply believes that everyone is a life long learner. Jim has an MBA
from Portland State
University (1996), an MS in Physics from the University
of Oklahoma (1993) and a BA (cum
laude) in math and physics from Kenyon College
(1991). Jim has over 15 years of work experience in marketing,
finance, and account management at companies like Zairmail,
Nokia, NWEA, PacifiCorp and CFI ProServices.
He enjoys leveraging that marketing and high tech experience, coupled
with his educational background, into a position that enables an
e- learning/educational organization to succeed and grow. In his spare
time he enjoys playing soccer
and his French horn. Email: jlouiset@msn.com;
phone 503-702-7420
Keith Oelrich, Keith founded Insight Schools as a means to help high school students fulfill their potential. He brings unmatched experience in the K-12 virtual school market, having led several virtual school programs which collectively have educated over 700,000 students. Prior to founding Insight Schools, Keith was President and CEO of KC Distance Learning (KCDL), where he operated Keystone National High School – the largest private online high school in the United States. As part of KCDL, Keith also founded iQ Academy of Wisconsin, a publicly-funded online high school. Prior to joining KCDL, Keith was President and CEO of Apex Learning, a leading virtual high school company founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Under Keith’s direction, Apex’s products were adopted by 14% of the nation’s school districts and served over 120,000 students annually. Keith and Apex Learning were featured in various national media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Education Week, Business Week, and many others. Keith earned his Master in Business Administration from Cornell University and his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Washington. Read Keith’s full biography (PDF)
Mark Fulop. MA, MPH. is currently returning to
his career in education after taking a year to complete an environmentally
green restoration of a home on the
Oregon
Coast
. Mark’s career
has blended the education and skills related to performance improvement,
adult learning theory and instructional design, training, facilitation,
conflict resolution, and coaching and mentoring with direct experience in a
variety of mid to large nonprofit settings. For the last 12 years, he held
leadership positions working to create systemic and systematic change to
improve the performance of nonprofit agencies nationwide. In his various
roles, Mark has developed learning communities and social networks, created
information resource centers, orchestrated large-scale training events and
conferences, directed the development of online learning websites and managed
a nonprofit publishing and distribution center. He has served as a national
trainer, consultant, facilitator and subject matter expert in several content
areas. He has a Master’s degree in
Educational Technology from
San
Diego State University
, and a Master’s Degree in
Public Health. Email markfulop@yahoo.com Phone: 503-282-1271
Joel Dunn. I graduated from Brown in 1994 (B.A.) and Lewis
and Clark college in 1996(M.A.T.) I have taught high school for the
past 7 years- most recently 6 years at Canby High School. I've taught
primarily US History, Government and World Studies. I've coached
basketball and football at the high school, too. Like most educators I'm
always interested in finding new ways to effectively teach students. At the
same time, I'm worried about the long-term effects
Oregon
's budget woes will have on our
system of education and if there's a role
business can fill to help educate our students in this challenging climate.
Email: ajdunn7@juno.com; Phone: 503-266-6977
Frank Hall, President, EntreDigm Consulting
LLC, Frank runs a corporate/business development consulting firm for software
and Internet companies. He is active in the SAO and sit on the SAO board,
where he takes part in the cluster strategy task force with Mona. He is
interested in supporting the Education software business cluster and because
one of his clients (Elia Freeman and Infinity Softworks)
is part of that cluster.
Wes Hansen is a shareholder in Symonds, Evans & Company P.C.,
Certified Public Accountants, specializing in tax for middle market companies
and their owners, as well as non-profit organizations and financial
institutions. He is a graduate from
Oregon
State
University with bachelor degrees in Accounting and Animal
Science. From 1987 to 1990 he was employed by
AT&E Corporation, a local hi-tech firm. From 1990 to 1995, Wes
worked at Odenberg, Ullakko,
Muranishi &
Co.
(a mouthful when answering the phone!), a San Francisco CPA Firm specializing
in middle market clients. He then took a seven-month hiatus to travel
through the Middle East and
Africa
.
Wes worked in the middle market group for
PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP from 1996 to 2000, prior to joining
Symonds, Evans & Co. Wes is a member of the
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the
National Association of Stock Plan Professionals, and the Hospital
Financial Managers Association. Email:
whansen@symondsevans.com
Wes Harper, President, The mission of my company, Management
Psychology Northwest, is to help business organizations
utilize and develop their management resources more
effectively. I work in the areas of management and organizational
development. For 25 years I have been helping companies
select, develop, and promote management talent. When
individuals or groups are not functioning effectively, I address
the problems by working with the individual, the person's
manager, the structure or functioning of the organization,
or some combination of these. One of my most important
contributions is to act as a professional and informed but objective sounding
board for CEO's and their senior executives.
Basically, I utilize my understanding of how business, individuals, and
organizations work to help managers and management groups accomplish
business objectives more effectively. Email: Wharpermpn@aol.com
Bill Kelly, CEO, Chairman, and Co-founder of Learning.com. Bill
received his MBA from
Harvard
Business
School
in 1993 and has
worked in multimedia and online companies since then. In 1996 he was the
co-founder and Executive Vice President of Sapient Health
Network, Inc. (SHN) in
Portland
,
OR
. SHN was a pioneer in
developing online health-oriented communities for
consumers and was listed by Business Week Magazine as one
of seven "Best Web Sites" in December 1998. SHN was acquired by
WebMD, Inc. in January 1999. After the acquisition, Bill
worked as VP Commerce for WebMD until July 1999. Bill
spent a short time consulting with concept stage companies
until becoming the co-founder of Learning.com. Email:
wjk@learning.com
Greg Kulander, Ph.D. is Director of Student & Educator
Services at the Business Education Compact (BEC), a non-profit organization
focused on connecting the classroom and the workplace through student and
educator internships, facilitating programs for teacher professional
development and by bringing business professionals into the classroom. He
previously lived and worked in
China
for almost a decade where,
among other experiences, he was involved in a newly established private
college, served as Board Chairman for an international school and was
co-founder for a legal education and training company. Prior to
China
,
he lived in
Denmark
for 12
years where he obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Chinese studies at
Aarhus
University
. His Ph.D. research examined the impact of
economic reform on higher education in
China
, and showed how the
development of a market economy had a profound impact on not only curriculum
and teaching methods, but also on R&D programs, human resource policies,
and university outreach activities. Greg also holds a business degree from
Washington
State
University
(Summa Cum Laude) and is fluent in Chinese and Danish. Prior to his current
position at the BEC, he was Director, China Business Development for the
Portland-based Vesta Corporation. He serves on the
board of the Northwest China Council, where he heads up the Chinese Language
Education Committee. Greg can be contacted by email at greg_kulander[at]yahoo.com.
Lois Leveen holds a PhD in English,
and taught for four years at UCLA and three years at
Reed
College
.
Her research and publications on education focus on instructional uses
of New Media. She is a Primary Investigator in the Visible Knowledge
Project, a national five year study of educational technology. Dr. Leveen also serves as the Electronic Resources editor for
several Houghton Mifflin scholastic publications and as an
Academic Advisor to a new OPB production, "Artifacts and Fiction,"
that trains high school teachers to use multimedia and
multicultural materials in their classrooms. She can be
reached at
lois@loisleveen.com
or
503-241-9672.
Kelvin Ng, Harvard MBA’77, moved to
Portland
from NYC in 2002. He is impressed
with the amount and quality of talent that is available in
Portland
that
only need to be gainfully employed. He thinks he can do this just by throwing
everyone together in an evening like this. Education is
especially interesting, as it remains the key competitive advantage for our
nation. Email: Kelvin.n.ng@msdw.com. Phone: 503-293-4234.
Allan Olson, Is the former, President and Executive Director, NW Evaluation
Association. Under his direction, NWEA grew from a collegial
organization of 14 school districts to an agency with a membership of over
2500 school districts in over 45 states. Allan had conducted many local
and regional institutes to enable school districts and other educational
agencies to develop comprehensive assessment programs that meet their
assessment goals. These assessment programs combine an emphasis
on strong measurement and data-based decision-making with an appropriate
mixture of assessment tools such as adaptive testing and functional level
testing. He is an accomplished writer and speaks at many
national conferences. Allan got his M Ed from the
University
of
Washington
Fred Phillips Fred Phillips is the former Associate Dean and Professor of
Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Maastricht School of Management in the
Netherlands
. Earlier, as a professor at
Oregon
Health & Science
University
,
he helped launch the Portland Education Cluster and was a member of the Board
of the Software Association of Oregon.
On the basis of his
courses in entrepreneurial marketing of hi-tech products,
and his involvement with the Austin Technology Incubator, MOOT Corp., and the
IC2 Institute's NASA incubator in
Silicon Valley
,
he was nominated for the 1995 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Award. His latest book is The
Conscious Manager: Zen for Decision Makers, and he published a new book on high tech economic development
titled The Technopolis Columns in 2006. Email:
fp@generalinformatics.com
Jacqueline Raphael serves as a research and development associate at
the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon
.
She focuses on education reform policies and programs at
the K-12 level. Most of Ms. Raphael's work is based on
qualitative research methods and collaboration with practitioners and
policymakers to better understand and influence
educational reform. She has provided technical assistance
to educators, administrators, and policymakers at local and state levels and
has worked closely with staff from nonprofit organizations
and special programs to improve educational opportunities
for children and youth. Currently, she is developing a series of
tools, including training and written materials, to help
schools organize staff into professional learning teams.
Before coming to
Portland, Ms. Raphael worked
as a research associate in The Urban Institute's Education Policy
Center, in Washington, DC.
She has spent over ten years studying and writing about
educational and youth development programming and has
published in journals such as Educational Leadership, Change, Journal of
Research in Science Teaching, and The National Association of
Secondary School Principals' Bulletin. She has co-authored
two volumes on student testing innovations in
postsecondary science, a guide on program evaluation for district
personnel (forthcoming from The Urban Institute Press),
and has edited several additional books in education and
other topics. Ms. Raphael has also provided grant writing,
program planning/ development, communications, and evaluation services to
community- and university-based education programs, and
has served as a guest writing instructor in public school
systems in Tucson, AZ,
and Washington, DC. Ms. Raphael is a graduate of
Yale University (BA) and the University of Arizona (MFA).
Adam Rose is an attorney at the law firm of Stoll Stoll
Berne Lokting & Shlachter,
P.C. where his practice focuses
on corporate and real estate transactions. Adam graduated
with his law degree from Harvard University
in 1997. He is a member of the Oregon State Bar and
currently serves as co-editor of The Oregon Business Lawyer. Adam has
authored chapters in the Oregon Continuing Legal Education
treatises on contract law and computer law. Adam
regularly represents clients in a variety of industries including
health care, real estate investments, financial services,
and others. Adam is also active in the Portland community,
serving on the Governing Board of Adventist Medical Center
and the steering committee of the New Leaders at United Way.
Marie Schumacher is currently Director of Operations at Sustainable
Harvest Coffee Importers. She works on the operational and
administration systems for Sustainable Harvest with
communications between the Portland and Oaxaca offices, and helps guide the
company's strategic planning.Before joining
Sustainable, Marie consulted to GreatSchools.net
(an online guide to California schools), the
Mills College School of Education, and the Developmental Studies
Center. Earlier, as an
environmental science teacher in Berkeley,
California, Marie piloted the
Edible Schoolyard curriculum, an innovative school garden
program pioneered by Alice Waters. She spent a year living in Mexico City as a staff
member for the Mexican Foundation for Family Planning. Marie is also a
professional musician with two CDs of original songs and has extensive
experience teaching music to adults and children. Marie has a B.A. from
Harvard and an M.A. from UC Berkeley. Email: vox@marieschumacher.com
Brad Stenger is a freelance technology
journalist who frequently works on special projects for Technology Review
Magazine. He has been project editor on its TR100 Award since the magazine
started the honor recognizing leading innovators under age 35 in 1999. He has
also contributed to Genome Technology, biospace.com, digitalsouth,
and IDC Research. Stenger recently earned his
Masters in Human-Computer Interaction at Georgia Tech, and does technical
work on software and laboratory design for industrialized biology. Past
projects include PartsList.org with Yale
University's Mark Gerstein Lab, and Labscape, part of the University of Washington
Cell Systems Initiative. He also has worked for
lab architecture firms, CUH2A and Payette Associates, and in technology
transfer groups at Georgia
Tech Advanced
Technology Development
Center, Mitsubishi
Electric Research Laboratory, Yale, and Research Triangle Institute. Brad holds
undergraduate degrees from the University
of Rochester in
Mechanical Engineering and English. Email: bstenger@yahoo.com
Brian Thomas began his professional career as an actor in New Haven, Connecticut
after graduating from Yale in 1984. In education, Mr.
Thomas has taught in schools and worked with children in a
variety of settings since graduating from college but has
worked mainly in the Independent School world over his 17 year career.
Currently, Brian acts as the assistant upper school head
at the Catlin Gabel School
where he also teaches English and facilitates the Ubuntu Council, which spearheads the
school’s diversity efforts. Mr. Thomas has written
frequently about educational and parenting issues, as well
as about his time growing up in Chicago
as the son of the son of the folks who made
the great Migration North. Some of his article
titles include “Why I Stay” for Independent School
Magazine, “The Mayor of Bronzeville” for Webzine In
Which, “The Case for Diversity”
for A Child’s Book.com, Mr. Thomas’s own education and parenting
website. Brian began his career in education as a
studio teacher on the set of The Cosby Show, working with
Cosby kids Malcom Jamal Warner and Tempestt Bledsoe. Before (and during)
his early days in education Brian worked as an actor in regional theaters and
off-Broadway and then in Hollywood. His previous work could be
seen at Portland Center Stage’s JAW West Festival,
off-Broadway at the Judith Anderson Theater, Circle
Repertory Theater, the Negro Ensemble Company, and the Hartford Stage
Company. His television and film credits include A
Different World, Mancuso, FBI, China
Beach,
227, Legal Deceit, and Stanley and Iris. Mr. Thomas
received an Emmy Award in 1988 for the drama Fastbreak to Glory. Email: Brian@achildsbook.com
Mona Westhaver is President and
Co-founder of Inspiration Software, Inc. Mona has over 20 years
experience in software product development and corporate
management. As President of Inspiration Software, Westhaver guides the
overall direction and focus of the company. Inspiration
Software is the leader in visual thinking and
learning tools for K-12 education. Their products, Inspiration® and
Kidspiration® have over 10
million users worldwide and are used in more than 60% of the
U.S.
school districts. Inspiration Software experienced 745% sales growth between
1997 and 2001 and closed 2002 with $17.8 million in
revenue. They have approximately 65 employees the majority
of which are based in
Portland,
Oregon
. Mona is co-chair of
the Software & Information Industry Association
(SIIA), Education Division, and a board member of the
Software Association of Oregon (SAO). She holds a Master of
Science degree in whole systems design, with an
emphasis in organizational development from
Antioch University in Seattle.
Email: mwesthaver@inspiration.com
Noël Wiggins is currently the Manager of the Community Capacitation Center (CCC) at the Multnomah County Health
Department. The CCC provides training, networking
and professional development opportunities for Community Health Workers (CHWs) and assists a wide variety of
groups to develop the ability to use Popular Education methodology.
From 1986-1990, Ms. Wiggins trained and supported CHWs
in a rural, conflictive area of El Salvador. From
1990-1995, she directed La Familia Sana, a CHW
program serving the migrant and seasonal farmworking community in Hood River,
Or. Ms. Wiggins is a past president of the Oregon Public Health
Association and served as Associate Director of the
National Community Health Advisor Study. Ms. Wiggins holds
a B.A.(summa cum laude) in History from Yale University
and an M.S.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health
Kristin E. Wolff, Policy Analyst, Rainmaker. Kristin is interested in
how public, private and third-sector organizations interact to create (or
impede) economic opportunities for individuals, firms, and
communities. After two years in the United
Kingdom, firs working for the Blair administration
in London, and subsequently with a
collaboration of economic development
firms in Newcastle, she recently returned to Portland, where she opened a west
coast office of CSW, a public policy firm based in Ann Arbor, MI
and started her own firm, thinkers & and-doers, llc. She is currently looking at ways to make work work in the 21st
Century—making benefits portable, increasing access to health
insurance, retirement and professional development, and
helping individuals blend work, learning and business ownership in creative
ways. She is also active in numerous local and
professional networks and associations, and political organizations, and serves
on the board of Wired Women Web, a network of women
technology professionals and entrepreneurs in Oregon. Email: kwolff@thinkers-and-doers.com |