Board of Directors
Concord Consortium board members comprise a distinguished group of educators and business people, including the following:
Lauren Walters, Chair
Lawyer, Co-Founder and CEO of Two Degrees Food
Lauren Walters, a lifelong political activist and entrepreneur, is Co-Founder and CEO of Two Degrees Food. Walters is a Concord resident and former Chairman and Member of the Concord-Carlisle Regional School Committee. He earned a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and a law degree from Georgetown University. He was a Fulbright Professional Scholar in Law and International Business. Walters has been in private law practice, worked with Arthur D. Little, Inc., and served as a professional staff member on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget. He is a private investor in early state new media, technology, and biotechnology companies and provides management and strategic consulting to the private and public sectors. Walters has been a member of Concord Consortium's board since 2002.
Richard Abrams
General Manager, Tom Snyder Productions, a Scholastic Company
A 22-year veteran of the educational software industry, Rick Abrams has guided the growth of Tom Snyder Productions from a start-up company into one of the leading educational software publishers in the K-12 market. He is a member of the Education Section board of the Software & Information Industry Association and is a board member of Educators for Social Responsibility. He is also a corporation member of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Abrams graduated from Colby College. He and his wife Susan, an attorney, have three children and live in Lexington, Massachusetts. Abrams has been a member of Concord Consortium's Board of Directors since 1997.
Kate Byrne
Chief Brand Officer, Tides
As Chief Brand Officer, Kate serves as the voice for Tides, positioning, evangelizing and building the Tides audience and brand. A creative, strategic self-starter, Kate has been a leader in the media realm for over 20 years. Marrying her interest in technology and its ability to advance publishing, she has a track record of successful launches for key brand initiatives at such well-known media outlets as BusinessWeek's small business edition and Fast Company's Social Capitalist Awards, the first of its kind to recognize and honor the world of social entrepreneurship. Kate has been influential in creative education practices and next generational thinking and has built both the website and the digital magazine edition for Edutopia, the publication and website for the George Lucas Education Foundation. In 2011, she was named to the Folio: 40, one of the media industry's top honors, and recognized as one of the 40 most influential and top industry performers. She continues to support education through her work with Dogo News, the largest independent kids and teacher's news site. Kate also supports women's empowerment through World Pulse, Women for Women International and Exceptional Women in Publishing (EWIP). Kate graduated from Stanford with a BA in Psychology.
Goery Delacote
Chief Executive of At-Bristol in the U.K.
Goery is a retired professor of physics from the University of Paris who has spent a large part of his professional life on innovation in science education and promoting scientific culture. After initially doing research in solid-state physics applied to organic crystals, he created the interuniversity laboratory for doing research on science and technology learning and teaching under the auspices of the French Physical Society. He launched the French Science City for science and industry and took a director's position at CNRS, the French National Centre for Scientific Research where he developed the French National Library for Research. He also chaired the National Institute for Pedagogical Research. For 15 years, he served as head of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Under his leadership, the Exploratorium was voted the best science centre in the world. He then moved back to Europe and transformed the Millennium Muséum At-Bristol into a sustainable science center now considered by its main founder, the Wellcome Trust, as the best science centre in the UK. He recently moved to Paris to develop a chain of small science centres across France. He is also chairing the Alliance Française of Paris Ile de France.
Diederich Framhein
International Investment Consultant based in Europe
Diederich Framhein is an International Investment Consultant based in Europe. A German national, he earned a law doctorate from the University of Cologne and an MBA at INSEAD. In 1969 he joined S.G. Warburg & Co., Ltd., the British investment bank, where he held senior positions in London and Paris related to international finance until 1998. Since then he has been associated with a corporate finance advisory firm in Paris. His special interests include biotechnology-related research. Framhein has been a member of Concord Consortium's Board of Directors since 2003.
Margaret Honey
President and CEO, New York Hall of Science
Dr. Margaret Honey is the President and CEO of the New York Hall of Science. Previously, she served as a Vice President of the Education Development Center and Director of EDC's Center for Children and Technology. Her doctoral studies in developmental psychology at Columbia University led to early involvement in the notable public television series 'The Voyage of the Mimi', and to continuing work using digital technologies to support children's learning across the disciplines of science, mathematics, engineering and technology. Margaret Honey has led numerous innovative and successful education efforts involving the use of digital media, including the nationally recognized reform work in the Union City (NJ) school district. Dr. Honey has shared what she's learned before Congress, state legislatures, and federal panels, and through numerous articles, chapters, and books.
Holly Jobe
President, ISTE Board
Holly Jobe has been involved in all levels of education. Her interests are educational leadership and the role of educational technology in reforming education and engaging students in taking responsibility for learning. From 2006 to June 2011, she served as the project manager for the Classrooms for the Future high school reform program at the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Prior to that appointment, Jobe served as a technology specialist and supervisor before becoming the director of the technology program at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit (PA).
Jobe began her career as a second grade English teacher in Beirut, Lebanon, and is interested in helping educators connect with colleagues around the globe. She has participated in several international projects, conferences and exchanges. Jobe currently serves as president of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) board and is an educational technology consultant.
Chris Rogers, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Director, Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, Tufts University
Chris received all three of his degrees at Stanford University, where he worked with John Eaton on his thesis, looking at particle motion in a boundary layer flow. From Stanford, he went to Tufts as a faculty member. His first sabbatical was spent at Harvard and a local kindergarten looking at methods of teaching engineering. He spent half a year in New Zealand on a Fulbright Scholarship looking at 3D reconstruction of flame fronts to estimate heat fluxes. In 2002-3 he was at Princeton as the Kenan Professor of Distinguished Teaching where he played with underwater robots, wind tunnels and LEGO bricks. In 2006-7, he spent the year at ETH in Zurich playing with very, very small robots and measuring the lift force on a fruit fly. He received the 2003 NSF Director's Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award for excellence in both teaching and research. His work in particle-laden flows led to the opportunity to fly aboard the NASA 0g experimental aircraft.
Chris was awarded the Carnegie Professor of the Year in Massachusetts in 1998 and is currently the director of the Center for Engineering Education Outreach. He talks with over 1000 teachers around the world every year on ways of bringing engineering into the younger grades. He has worked with LEGO to develop ROBOLAB, a robotic approach to learning science and math.
David H. Rose, Ed.D.
Chief Education Officer, CAST
Dr. David Rose is a developmental neuropsychologist and educator whose primary focus is on the development of new technologies for learning. In 1984, Dr. Rose co-founded CAST, a not-for-profit research and development organization whose mission is to improve education, for all learners, through innovative uses of modern multimedia technology and contemporary research in the cognitive neurosciences. That work has grown into a new field called Universal Design for Learning which now influences educational policy and practice throughout the United States and beyond. Dr. Rose also teaches at Harvard's Graduate School of Education where he has been on the faculty for more than 25 years.
Dr. Rose is the author of several scholarly books, numerous award-winning educational technologies, and dozens of chapters and research journal articles. He has been the principal investigator on grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and many private foundations. Dr. Rose holds a B.A. in psychology from Harvard College, a master's in teaching from Reed College, and a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Greg Segal
Director of External and Government Relations for Rethink Education
Greg has long been active in both education investing and education policy. Most recently, he served as the Director of External and Government Relations for Rethink Education, a NY-based venture capital fund focused on early stage education technologies. Greg has a B.A. in Psychology from Duke University and holds post-graduate business certificates at Columbia University and NYU. Previously, Greg worked as a reporter for ESPN Magazine and ESPN Books. He is also a member of President Obama's National Finance Committee.
Following his father's heart transplant, Greg founded Organ Alliance, a non-profit organization focused on holistic solutions to solve the organ shortage problem, where he still serves at Executive Director and remains a passionate advocate for organ donation awareness.
Lev Sviridov
Senior Research Associate at City College of New York
Lev is a Senior Research Associate of the CUNY Energy Institute at The City College of New York, specializing in the chemistry of Manganese Dioxide for grid scale energy storage applications. CUNY Energy Institute is dedicated to American energy independence through energy management, energy generation and integration of renewable sources. Lev serves on the boards of Human Rights First and the 21st Century Foundation for The City College of New York and on the selection panel for the Sloan Award for Teaching of Mathematics and Science in New York City Public Schools. Elements of Lev's life have been recorded in books such as How to Raise an American by Myrna Blyth and After Etan by Lisa Cohen. Lev received his B.S. in Chemistry with minors in Physics and Mathematics from The City College of New York – CUNY and defended his D.Phil. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Robert Tinker
President Emeritus, The Concord Consortium
Robert Tinker has pioneered constructivist approaches to education, particularly novel uses of educational technology in science. He earned his Ph.D. in experimental low-temperature physics from MIT and learned about education on the job at a historically black college in the 1960's. In the '80's, he developed the idea of equipping computers with probes for real-time measurements and of using the network for collaborative student data sharing and investigations. In 1994, he started the Concord Consortium so he could concentrate on applications of technology to improve the quality of education. His early work at Concord pioneered applications of portable computers to education and the use of the Web for professional development and teaching. One of these early projects created the Virtual High School, which was spun out as an independent nonprofit that continues to be a trendsetter in online teaching. His current research includes educational applications of portable computers, the development and testing of computational models in education, and the development of “smart graphs” that are able to interact with students about important features of a graph. He is also involved in policy formation relating to educational technology and its role in improving STEM education worldwide. Tinker is the founder of Concord Consortium and chair of the Virtual High School.
Past Board Members
Sheldon Berman, Ed.D., is a founding member of the Concord Consortium Board. He is currently Superintendent of Schools in Eugene, OR. He previously served as the Superintendent of the Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, KY, from 2007 to 2011, and as the Superintendent of the Hudson (MA) Public Schools for 14 years. He collaborated with the Concord Consortium on the Virtual High School project, which continues as the VHS Collaborative.
Vivian Day
Natalie (Tally) Forbes is a founding member of the Concord Consortium Board. She served as the Vice President of Education and Development and the Vice President of Development at the Earthwatch Institute, which engages people in scientific research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment. Before her position at the Earthwatch Institute, Ms. Forbes was the Director of Alumni Relations at Milton Academy and has volunteered for countless programs.
Greg Gunn is an Entrepreneur in Residence at City Light. In 2000, he co-founded Wireless Generation, a leading educational software company serving more than three million children with groundbreaking assessment and instruction products. Mr. Gunn had previously served as Product Manager for InterDimensions; as Product Manager for Clique.com; and as an associate at the Carlyle Group. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Chicago and an MBA and Master’s in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Gunn also attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He serves on the boards of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the Oliver Program.
Sarah Haavind, Ph.D., is a founding member of the Concord Consortium Board. Dr. Haavind teaches online courses for elementary and middle school teachers seeking their master’s degrees and wishing to improve their science teaching. Her background is in K-12 curriculum design and professional development for NSF-funded science and mathematics curricula at TERC, BBN and the Concord Consortium, as well as for academic units using the SCANS skills for the Ford Foundation. She co-authored Facilitating Online Learning: Effective Strategies for Moderators.
Tom Hsu, Ph.D., is a Co-Founder of Ergopedia, Inc., and serves as its President. Dr. Hsu was the Founder and President of CPO Science (formerly Cambridge Physics Outlet) until 2002. He is nationally known as an innovator in science equipment, curriculum and teacher training. He is the author of six published middle and high school science programs in physics, chemistry and physical science. He was nominated for the Goodwin medal for excellence in teaching at MIT. Dr. Hsu holds a Ph.D. in Applied Plasma Physics from MIT and a B.S. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Beverly Jones, Ph.D., was appointed Interim Chancellor of North Carolina Central University in June 2007. She had previously served as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dean of NCCU’s University College and Director of the Institute for the Study of Minority Issues. She also directed the Saturday Academy, an academic enrichment program for third through fifth graders. In March 2008 she was named one of the 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business by The Network Journal, New York tri-state area’s premier business magazine for African-American professionals. Dr. Jones has published five books and many articles. She was the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in America History from the University of North Carolina.
Leon Lederman, Ph.D., is an American physicist who, along with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1988 for their joint research on neutrinos. He is Director Emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, IL. Dr. Lederman founded the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, in Aurora, IL, in 1986, and has served as Resident Scholar since 1998. He has championed the "Physics First" high school science curriculum sequence as far more logical for modern science than the traditional biology-chemistry-physics sequence.
Edith Mas
Penny (Penny) Noyce is a trustee of the Noyce Foundation, which supports improvements in public education, particularly in science and mathematics. Trained as a physician specializing in internal medicine, Dr. Noyce has been active for 20 years in supporting math and science education in Massachusetts. She served as a Co-PI of the NSF-funded Massachusetts State Systemic Initiative, PALMS. Dr. Noyce was appointed to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in October 2012. She currently serves on a number of nonprofit boards and chairs the Rennie Center for Education Policy and Research. She is the author of children’s fantasy books and has started her own company combining science activities with science mystery books.
Larry Rosenstock is the chief executive officer and founding principal of High Tech High, a network of innovative and high-achieving charter schools that emphasize student projects, real-world problem-solving assignments and internships with local businesses and community organizations. Launched as a single school, High Tech High has evolved into an integrated network of nine schools spanning grades K-12 and a Graduate School of Education. An influential voice in the national discussion of school reform, Mr. Rosenstock is an advocate of small, innovative schools or small learning communities within large urban schools. He is a winner of the Ford Foundation Innovations in State and Local Government Award, the 2010 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education, and is an Ashoka Fellow. In addition to a law degree, he holds a B. A. from Brandeis University and an M.A. from Cambridge College.
Barbara Tinker, Ph.D., is a founding member of the Concord Consortium Board. She is a psychologist with over 12 years of clinical experience and an interest in cognitive science. She holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Previously she developed curriculum and provided community support to teachers as part of the Global Laboratory Project at TERC.
Anne Yeomans is a founding member of the Concord Consortium Board. She has been involved in the Women's Well since it began in 1994 as part of The Interface Foundation. She is one of its founders and helped design and facilitate its program in Women's Spirituality. She has been a psychotherapist and group facilitator for over 40 years, and currently has an office in Shelburne Falls, MA. The roots of her psychotherapy practice are in Psychosynthesis and Spiritual Psychology. Ms. Yeomans has also trained in authentic movement and is interested in embodied spirituality.
Thomas Yeomans, Ph.D., is a founding member of the Concord Consortium Board. He is the founder and director of The Concord Institute. His background includes education at Harvard (B.A.), Oxford (M.A.), and the University of California (Ph.D.) and professional work in the fields of literature, education and psychology. Since 1970 he has worked as a psychotherapist, teacher and trainer of professionals in Psychosynthesis and, more recently, Spiritual Psychology throughout North America and in Europe and Russia. He has developed a theory and practice of group work within a spiritual context, which he uses in training and consulting to organizations.
