Nate McClennan
Vice President of Strategy & Innovation
Getting Smart

Resources

• Nate's slides

• Kristel's slides

Nate McClennen is Vice-President of Strategy and Innovation at Getting Smart where he supports schools, districts, organizations, foundations, and universities to determine a strategic path forward based on the future of learning. His expertise and interests focus on expanded learning ecosystems, learning networks, technology-enabled personalized learning, project-based learning, real-world learning, purpose making, rural communities, equity, and place-based education. Nate has built two ed-tech solutions, helped found and lead a PK-12 school, served as Head of Innovation for a non-profit, taught math/science at multiple levels, supported multiple school launches, consulted nationally and internationally, and launched a rural-school network over his 25-year career.

Nate lives in Wyoming with his family and spends his free time coaching soccer and exploring the outdoors. Nate is also the co-author of the book The Power of Place. For more publications by Nate, check out his Portfolio.

Rebecca Midles
Vice President of Learning Design
Getting Smart

Tom Vander Art
CEO
Getting Smart

Rebecca Midles is the Vice President of Learning Design at Getting Smart and is an innovator in competency education and personalized learning with over twenty years of experience as teacher, administrator, board member, consultant and parent. She has worked in several transformational systems in Alaska, California and Colorado that represent different scaling challenges from demographics to charters and comprehensive systems. Starting with some of the first district work nationally on competency-based/personalized learning in Alaska, Rebecca then helped design and create the first competency based high school. As a national consultant, she supported the most often cited CBE/PL districts and schools across the country. Rebecca was the district lead for competency-based learning in Lindsay Unified School District in California, as well as the Executive Director of Teaching and Learning for Mesa County School District 51 in Colorado, a district of 43 schools.

Tom Vander Ark is an advocate for innovations in learning. As CEO of Getting Smart, he advises schools, districts, networks, foundations and learning organizations on the path forward. A prolific writer and speaker, Tom is author of Getting Smart, Smart Cities That Work for Everyone, Smart Parents, Better Together, The Power of Place and Difference Making at the Heart of Learning. He has published thousands of articles and papers through GettingSmart.com, Forbes, and LinkedIn.

Previously he served as the first Executive Director of Education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Tom served as a public school superintendent in Washington State and has extensive private sector experience. He serves on the board of 4.0 Schools, Digital Learning Institute, Latinx Education Collaborative, Mastery Transcript Consortium and eduInnovation. He is also an advisor to numerous schools and startups.

Resources

• Slidedeck