About

Amanda is the Co-Founder and CEO of AI for Education. A former high school biology teacher and edtech CEO, she brings over 20 years of experience in the education sector. With a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities that AI can offer, she is a sought-after keynote speaker and a leading authority on AI and education. Through her work, Amanda has reached hundreds of schools and thousands of educators worldwide, and is committed to helping them maximize their potential through the responsible and equitable adoption of AI.

Sari’s vision and strategic direction guides Imagine Learning’s work to create effective, digitally enabled curriculum solutions. A lifelong teacher advocate, she works to ensure that every student has access to meaningful, educational experiences wherever learning takes place. Before joining Imagine Learning, Sari was a mathematics teacher and held leadership positions at several successful educational publishing and learning technology companies including Kaplan, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin, and Everyday Learning Corporation.

Chris leads the AI Hub for Education at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, aiming to be the trusted source for education system leaders on what’s working (and what’s not) to benefit students and schools and to reimagine learning. Across 25 years in experiential and applied education, Chris has both taught and led organizations in K–12 and postsecondary education. Before working at Stanford, Chris led US higher-ed strategy and credentials for Multiverse, an edtech startup using professional apprenticeships as an alternative to college and university.

Jason B. Allen is the National Partnership Director for the National Parents Union. He has worked in education for 20 years as a teacher, administrator, and leader serving students, families, and communities. As a storyteller, Jason shares his experiences through his company, Educational Entities. He is a longtime advocate for engaging men and elevating Black male teachers' and educators’ voices to help increase the number of male educators of color in classrooms and boardrooms. His life’s work is centered on his family’s foundation, Lillie’s Foundation, which supports grandparents and caretakers raising school-aged children.

Tom Vander Ark advises schools and impact organizations on the path forward. He’s a former public school superintendent, philanthropic and venture investor, entrepreneur, and author.

Mary Beck brings more than two decades of leadership in K–12 education, most recently serving as Deputy Chief of Teaching and Learning for Chicago Public Schools, where she led professional learning communities, district-wide instructional strategies, and innovative initiatives, including artificial intelligence (AI) integration by creating the CPS AI framework. Under her leadership, CPS saw significant post-pandemic academic recovery, leading the nation in reading growth among the top 40 urban districts.

Beck brings a wealth of school leadership experience, having served as Principal of Nicholas Senn High School, as well as an Assistant Principal at Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center and North Lawndale College Prep. Her background in educational leadership, budgeting, talent infrastructure, board engagement, fundraising, partnerships, and planning uniquely positions her to help strengthen Distinctive Schools’ impact and sustainability. She is a recognized thought leader in AI in education, equity-driven instruction, and postsecondary success.

Peter Foltz is Research Professor at the University of Colorado’s Institute of Cognitive Science. His research focuses on AI-based approaches for assessing and supporting higher-order cognitive skills. He is an experienced leader in both academic and industry settings with a history of leading innovative research and development teams resulting in the transition from ideas to proofs of concept to revenue generating products.

Jason architects Imagine Learning’s enterprise-wide AI strategies to transform student learning experiences and empower teachers with streamlined workflows. With over 20 years of experience navigating the complex intersection of technology and education, Jason specializes in making cutting-edge AI accessible and impactful in real classroom settings. Jason has held key product leadership roles, including VP of Product Management AI Products and Solutions at Pearson and VP Product Management and UX/UR at General Assembly.

Nicole Fuller is the Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy at the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD). In this role, she advances NCLD’s federal policy agenda by leading legislative strategy, cultivating relationships with congressional offices and coalition partners, and driving advocacy efforts that impact individuals with learning disabilities. Nicole cochairs the IDEA Full Funding Coalition and the National Coalition for Public Education, and she serves as Vice President on the Board of Directors for the Committee for Education Funding.

Nicole brings experience as both an educator and a policy professional to her work. Before joining NCLD, she taught middle school math in Fairfax County Public Schools and contributed to education policy research and resource development through roles at Transition Tennessee and the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. Her work has spanned supporting students with disabilities in the classroom, developing training resources for vocational rehabilitation providers, and conducting research to improve funding equity for students with disabilities and English learners.

Nicole holds a BS in Education from the University of Maryland and an M.Ed. in International Educational Policy and Management from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College.

Rotem is a junior at Design Tech High School in the Bay Area. Through working with small education technology companies on product design and user experience, Rotem was inspired to help the education system benefit from AI. Rotem is also a captain of her FIRST robotics team and enjoys playing basketball.

Isabelle C. Hau is a visionary leader who is dedicated to transforming the way we nurture and educate our children.
As Executive Director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, she leverages brain science and technology to champion innovative, effective, and inclusive learning solutions.

Previously a successful impact investor, Isabelle led the US education practice at Omidyar Network and Imaginable Futures, where she invested in mission-driven organizations that have reached millions of learners. She is the author of Love to Learn: The Transformative Power of Care and Connection in Early Education. She also writes a popular weekly newsletter called Small Talks. At Stanford University, Isabelle teaches the class “Design to Equip Learners in Under-Resourced Communities.” She serves on the board of EDC and Sonen, the steering committee of the EDSAFE AI Alliance, the Brookings  Global Taskforce on AI in Education, and the World Economic Forum’s Education 4.0 Alliance.

Named as one of the 100 most inspiring women by Harvard Business School, Isabelle has received distinctions in early childhood education and human-centered artificial intelligence. She also costarred with Grover of Sesame Street. Her lifelong professional goal is to bring the love of learning to each and every child.

Caleb is a lifelong educator with more than 20 years of experience. He has been a middle school teacher, a school leader, an instructional designer, and a repeat edtech founder. Caleb is the founder and CEO of SchoolAI. SchoolAI puts AI to work to make school awesome for students—and the teachers, parents, and school leaders who support them—by finding out what they need and making it happen.

Irina is a Research Director working on LearnLM at Google DeepMind, where she leads a multidisciplinary team to infuse the science of learning into Gemini—and the products it powers—to create the world’s most pedagogical AI. Before this, she worked on improving reasoning in language models, while her early work at DeepMind focused on fusing together ideas from machine learning, neuroscience, and physics to understand how intelligence represents information. Before joining DeepMind, Irina earned a DPhil at the Oxford Center for Computational Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence and won the British Psychological Society Undergraduate Award in Experimental Psychology.

As Executive Director of the Next Education Workforce, Brent collaborates with colleagues across ASU, P12 educators, and the community to redesign models of schooling based on teams of educators with distributed expertise who are better able to deliver on the promise of deeper and personalized learning for ALL students. Additionally, these team-based models help address many of the reasons educators leave the profession by creating more equitable and sustainable ways to enter and advance in the profession. Prior to coming to ASU, Brent was a co-founder and Provost at the Relay Graduate School of Education where he set the curricular vision for the institution and managed teams focused on curriculum design, institutional research, and programmatic innovation. While at Relay, Brent also founded TeacherSquared--a national center dedicated to increasing collaboration among teacher preparation institutions. Prior to helping launch TeacherSquared and Relay, Brent earned a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, served as a founding staff member at IDEA College Prep, and was a National Board Certified Teacher in secondary science.

Medha is a high school senior and advocate for AI literacy. She leads an AI literacy initiative at Summit Tahoma that has since been adopted across the Summit charter school network. Medha interned with AI for Education, where she presented at webinars for educators worldwide, and has spoken at World Savvy’s national discussion on AI in education.

Dr. Babak Mostaghimi is a Founding Partner at LearnerStudio, where he focuses on systems transformation, artificial intelligence, and the future of learning. Babak was previously an Assistant Superintendent at Gwinnett County Public Schools, where he spearheaded the first embedded PK–12 artificial intelligence readiness learning model and a county-wide early learning ecosystem. He began his career as a fifth-grade teacher in Shelby, Mississippi, where he was named 2008 District Teacher of the Year. Babak holds a doctorate in Education Leadership and an MPP from Harvard, as well as a BA from Johns Hopkins.

Ji Soo Song is the Director of Projects and Initiatives at SETDA, where he oversees a portfolio of initiatives to help 40+ state education agencies implement promising practices on topics such as digital opportunity, edtech procurement, professional learning, sustainability, and AI. He leads SETDA’s partnerships with philanthropic groups and corporate sponsors and advises the organization on federal advocacy strategies. Ji Soo also oversees the design and evaluation of SETDA’s signature events and represents state leaders in national and international forums, including as a designated focal point for the UNESCO–UNICEF Gateways to Public Digital Learning Initiative.

Matthew Winters is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Educational Specialist for the Utah State Board of Education (USBE). He was formerly a product manager and statewide trainer for the Utah Education Network, specializing in Google Workspaces for Education. He was also the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology (UCET) President for 2022–2024, our Utah ISTE affiliate. He was awarded the Education Innovation Award for Impact at ASU+GSV, named one of the International Society for Technology in Education’s 20 to Watch in 2023, and listed as one of District Administration’s Top 100 Innovative Educators in 2025. He is a former English Language Arts teacher at the secondary and college levels.