Advisory Board

Ace Parsi serves as the Director of Coalition Engagement at iCivics. He first got exposed to iCivics through serving on the Steering Committee and various task forces for the Educating for American Democracy project. Ace’s civics journey began when he and his family immigrated to the US from Iran when he was eight. His own experience as an English language learner and free and reduced-price lunch student led him towards a passion for utilizing education as a driver for greater equity and inclusion.

Alana Winnick is an award-winning leader who holds positions as the Educational Technology Director and Data Protection Officer for Pocantico Hills Central School District in Sleepy Hollow, NY, and Hudson Valley Director for the New York State Association for Computers and Technology in Education (NYSCATE). She has established herself as a leading expert on AI in education and is both the author and host of The Generative Age, a book and podcast that explores the rapidly evolving world of generative artificial intelligence and its impact on education. Alana is also the founder of Students for Innovation, an organization that empowers students to become advocates for change in their schools.

Amanda is the Co-Founder and CEO of AI for Education. A former high school biology teacher and EdTech executive with over 20 years of experience in the education sector. She has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities that AI can offer. She is a frequent consultant, speaker, and writer on the topic of AI in education, leading workshops and professional learning across both K12 and Higher Ed. Amanda is committed to helping schools and teachers maximize their potential through the ethical and equitable adoption of AI.

Student leader and Co-founder of Students for Innovation, an organization dedicated to reimagining education in the age of emerging technologies. I advocate for empowering students to take ownership of their learning and promote innovation in the classroom.

Annie Shan is a high school senior at BASIS Independent Brooklyn and the co-founder of Mindset Math, a youth-led nonprofit reimagining how students learn STEM. She has led projects at the intersection of AI and education, including MathVoyagers, a GenAI-powered platform created with a learning scientist at the Concord Consortium to support collaborative problem solving and competition-style math. Annie has also conducted academic research on how elementary school students use AI to design creative board games and imagine equitable futures for their communities, and her team's work was recently featured at the 2025 MIT AI in Education Summit. Passionate about expanding AI literacy as an essential skill for student success in a rapidly evolving world, she hopes to integrate it more deeply into the way young people learn. She aspires to pursue careers in teaching, educational policy, and nonprofit leadership.

Claire Zau is a Partner and AI Lead at GSV Ventures, where she spearheads the firm's AI investment coverage and authors a widely read newsletter on AI and education (aieducation.substack.com). She has played key roles across both the GSV Ventures investment team and the ASU+GSV Summit, collaborating with leading thinkers across the edtech ecosystem to curate programming and shape thought leadership.||Claire was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Venture Capital in 2025 for her work at the intersection of AI, startups and edtech. She is also a fast-growing voice, building a following of 150K+ across platforms by breaking down the latest tech and AI news for a broad audience.||Her thought leadership includes keynotes and panels at the World Economic Forum, ASU+GSV, EdTech Week, ISTE, and more. She also advises Arizona State University's External AI Thought Leadership group, helping ensure the responsible use of technology aligns with ASU's Charter goals of inclusive access to education at scale.||Claire graduated from Stanford University, where she was a varsity fencer competing nationally and internationally, and earned her Master's at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, where she was a Venture Fellow at Red & Blue Ventures and worked at Penn's education accelerator Catalyst. Her professional background spans technology and finance, and she has lived in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and the Bay Area. She now resides in New York City.

I guide EdTech companies—new ventures or established names like Stride K12, aiEDU, Outlier (now Savvas), Gladeo, and more—to break through cold outreach fatigue and connect with decision-makers in a constructive, human-centered way.

Jason B. Allen is the National Partnership Director for the National Parents Union. He has worked in Education for nineteen (19) years as a teacher, administrator, and leader serving students, families, and communities. As a long-time storyteller, Jason shares his experiences through his company, educational entities, LLC, which includes The Educators Voice Blog (TEVB), No Cap Zone podcast, Speak Black Man podcast, and i Win Morning Show. His life work is centered on his family’s foundation, Lillie’s Foundation, supporting grandparents and seniors raising school-aged children.

Highly dedicated, innovative, and goal-driven, Julian Fitzgerald is a spearheading nonprofit professional with a mission to cultivate human potential within underserved communities and the larger diverse diaspora through workforce development and entrepreneurship. Driven by the truth that, education touches the future, Julian co-founded and currently serves as the Executive Director of The Cxmmunity Foundation. The Cxmmunity Foundation is a tech-focused workforce development organization that leverages the appeal of video games, music and media to teach transferable technical skills. To date, The Cxmmunity Foundation has donated over $1.4million dollars and helped empower over 3500 students nationwide.

Karl Rectanus is an education leader, serial entrepreneur, and sought-after advisor and speaker helping policy makers, organizations and their supporters drive impact-centered innovations. Now CEO of Impact4Scale, Karl previously founded LearnPlatform, a category-creating education company, named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in the World, to systemically expand equitable, evidence-based education. Among his philanthropic and non-profit leadership, he chairs the Industry Council of EDSAFE AI, a group of 100+ leading solution providers committed to safe, accountable, fair, and effective AI in their policies, practices and products.

Katie Finnegan is a Content Manager at Code.org. She leads recruitment and community engagement for the TeachAI and Hour of AI initiatives, bringing together organizations to advance AI education worldwide. She also supports the development of the AILit Framework, a joint initiative by the European Commission and the OECD. Katie holds an Ed.M. in Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.S. in Secondary Education and English from Vanderbilt University.

Kelly Booz is Director of Share My Lesson at the American Federation of Teachers and co-founder of the AI Educator Brain. She leads national workshops on the ethical and effective use of AI in education and recently launched EdBrAIn, an AI-powered tool that helps educators customize Share My Lesson resources by grade level, format, standards, or language. Kelly also serves on the Alexandria City School Board, bringing deep experience in public education and policy.

Matthew serves as Stanford University’s senior administrator for digital learning and leads the Stanford Digital Education team. From 2017-21 he was the Associate Vice Provost for Digital Education and Innovation at Duke University, where he founded and led Duke Learning Innovation. He was previously Vice President and founder of the Office of Learning Technology & Innovation for the University of North Carolina system. Matthew launched JSTOR’s first international office in Berlin, led product teams at Wireless Generation (now Amplify), and built and launched their product development center in Durham, North Carolina. Earlier in his career Matthew helped launch the strategy group at ITHAKA, an incubator of higher education technology ventures (now Ithaka S+R). Matthew’s experience also includes Google, where he worked on the Book Search project to digitize the world’s published works. After undergraduate studies at Columbia University he did graduate work at Bogazici University in Istanbul on a Fulbright Scholarship and later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has been a Marshall Memorial Fellow, a Bertelsmann Foundation Fellow, a Stanford Fellow, and is a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow of the Robert Bosch Academy.

Dr. Michael Conner is a trailblazer in the field of education, renowned as the CEO/Founder of the Agile Evolutionary Group and Co-Founder of AEG Systems, Inc., an EdTech division within the Agile Evolutionary Group. Dr. Conner is a recipient of national and international awards. He was most recently recognized as a 2025 Top 100 Influencer in Education by District Administration (DA) and 2025 Global 100 by the Forttuna Group.

Michel Faliski serves as a VP, Program & Product for the ASU+GSV AI Show. Her professional background spans over two years as a UX Researcher at MasterClass, during which she played a role in product & content innovation supporting the Consumer, Growth, and Enterprise teams. Michel was born and raised in Michigan and currently resides in New York City! ||Michel's journey at the intersection of education, design, and technology began after graduating from the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation in May 2021, where her fascination with educational technology was ignited.

As conversations about artificial intelligence have begun to eclipse questions of connection, Michelle Culver, a long-time leader in the education space, last year launched The Rithm Project-a nonprofit dedicated to rethreading the fabric of human relationship in the digital age. Through youth-led research, public storytelling, and transformative curriculum, Rithm invites us to slow down and ask: In a world of accelerating technology, how do we stay anchored in what makes us most human? With initiatives rooted in dialogue, design, and imagination, Michelle's work beckons us toward a future where intelligence is not just artificial, but empathetic.

Dr. Michelle Ament, CAO for ProSolve and Co-President for the Human Intelligence Movement is a visionary educational leader dedicated to crafting and advocating for human-centered learning experiences. Her commitment to preparing students for a post-AI world drives her to reimagine and transform our educational ecosystem, ensuring that the synergy between Human and Artificial Intelligence leads to deeper, more meaningful learning. With over two-and-a-half decades of experience, she has been advancing K-12 education through innovative practices that prepare students with critical skills for their futures.

Nathan Kriha serves as a P-12 Policy Analyst at EdTrust where he advocates for forward-thinking policies that strengthen educational outcomes for students from traditionally underserved communities, bridging research and policy to deliver insights regarding educator diversity and equitable AI implementation. Nathan holds a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy and a B.A. in Program of Liberal Studies from the University of Notre Dame.

Shawn's work in academic policy extends back to her role as an Associate Dean at the School of Arts, Sciences, and Education at SNHU through her present position as Senior Director of AI Policy. As Senior Director, Shawn oversees the guidelines and policies of effective and ethical AI use throughout the university. Her vantage point is enhanced by her extended work in philosophy and ethics in Education as both a teacher and researcher. Shawn has presented widely on the issues of ethical AI most recently at the AIxHEART conference where she presented her paper, “Prompting A Dialectic of Freedom in AI.”

Dr. Shonda Gibson is a catalyst for innovation, dedicated to unlocking the magic of education and student success. With extensive leadership experience in corporate, industry, and higher education, she fosters continuous improvement and excellence. As Chief Transformation Officer and Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at The Texas A&M University System, she oversees a team focused on academic programs, policy, student affairs, faculty innovation, digital learning, and institutional effectiveness. Dr. Gibson champions transformative educational initiatives and partnerships. |Beyond her professional work, Dr. Gibson enjoys traveling to unique destinations, savoring diverse cuisines, and cooking with family and friends. She believes that exploring different cultures enriches her life and leadership approach. Her dedication to student-ready universities ensures graduates are well-prepared to thrive in their careers and communities.

Sunil Gunderia is Chief Innovation Officer at Age of Learning, the company behind ABCmouse. He co-invented the AI-based personalized mastery learning system powering My Math Academy and My Reading Academy, game-based programs validated by 28 ESSA-aligned studies, which demonstrate student gains in literacy and math. Research finds over 90 percent of teachers want these programs in their classrooms because of their impact on learning and on students' confidence and interest. He serves on the boards of InnovateEDU and the Children's Institute and as Vice Chair of the EdSAFE AI Industry Council. He is an advocate for evidence-based innovation in education.

Valerie Brock serves as the Director of Curriculum at Day of AI, an initiative of MIT RAISE, where she leads the development of innovative, age-appropriate AI literacy resources designed to empower educators and inspire students around the world. In this role, she oversees the creation of interdisciplinary, standards-aligned curricula that make artificial intelligence accessible, ethical, and engaging for all learners.

Before joining Day of AI, Valerie worked as a Computer Science Education Manager with NYC Public Schools, where she supported teachers in integrating computer science and computational thinking across subjects and grade levels. Her background as a K–8 special education teacher informs her inclusive approach to curriculum design, ensuring every student can meaningfully engage with technology and see themselves reflected in the future of AI. A passionate advocate for AI education and digital equity, Valerie has also led the development of early childhood and family-facing AI curricula, helping communities understand and navigate the growing role of AI in daily life. She is particularly committed to fostering responsible AI literacy that bridges creativity, critical thinking, and social-emotional learning.