Richard E. Culatta is the CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) [1] and ASCD. Prior to holding this position, he was the chief innovation officer for the state of Rhode Island and the director of the Office of Educational Technology for the U.S. Department of Education (2013-2015). [2]
Richard Culatta grew up in Rhode Island. [3] He received a bachelor's degree in Spanish teaching and a master's in instructional design from Brigham Young University. [2] He is the son of Richard and Barbara Culatta, both educators and widely-published researchers in the field of communication disorders. [4]
Culatta began his career as a high school Spanish teacher. During the early 2000s, he was a technology advisor for the David O. McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University, helping redesign the technology component of the school's teacher preparation program. During this time, he also served as the director of operations at the Rose Education Foundation, which helped create and operate schools in rural Guatemala. He worked at CIA University overseeing learning innovation, then became an advisor on education issues to U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). [2] [5]
Culatta was appointed to be a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education and Director of the Office of Educational Technology from 2013 to 2015. During his tenure, the office ran the #GoOpen campaign, [6] which encouraged schools to use learning materials with open copyright licenses and updated regulations to require all educational materials produced with federal grant money be open licensed. [7] Culatta's team led President Obama's ConnectEd Initiative which resulted in an increase from 15% of schools having broadband access in 2009 to 95% of schools having broadband access by the end of the Obama administration. As director, Culatta also led the creation of the 2016 National Educational Technology Plan. [8]
Culatta left the Office of Educational Technology to become the Chief Innovation Officer of the State of Rhode Island. During his tenure, Rhode Island was used as a "lab" state for education and government reform. A major focus was the personalized learning initiative, which aims to create learning experiences that are dynamic and individualized for each student. [9] Under Culatta's leadership, Rhode Island also became the first state to offer computer science in every K–12 school. [2]
Currently, Culatta is the CEO of ISTE. This nonprofit creates standards for using technology in education. A current focus for Culatta and ISTE is finding ways to use technology to close equity gaps and redefine Digital Citizenship. [3] In 2023 ISTE merged with ASCD to help ensure all students have access to high quality learning expereinces.
The Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) is an enterprise-level shore command of the United States Navy with more than 19,000 military and staff personnel at more than 1,640 subordinate activities, sites, districts, stations, and detachments throughout the world, and was established in 1971. NETC recruits, trains and delivers those who serve the nation, taking them from "street to fleet" by transforming civilians into highly skilled, operational, and combat ready warfighters.
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is a council, chartered in each administration with a broad mandate to advise the president of the United States on science and technology. The current PCAST was established by Executive Order 13226 on September 30, 2001, by George W. Bush, was re-chartered by Barack Obama's April 21, 2010, Executive Order 13539, by Donald Trump's October 22, 2019, Executive Order 13895, and by Joe Biden's February 1, 2021, Executive Order 14007.
ASCD, formerly known as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, is a education non-profit organization founded in 1943. It has more than 125,000 members from more than 128 countries, including superintendents, principals, teachers, professors of education, and other educators. The ASCD community also includes affiliate organizations Student Chapters.
Aneesh Paul Chopra is an American executive who served as the first Chief Technology Officer of the United States. He was appointed in 2009 by President Barack Obama and was at the White House through 2012. Chopra previously served as Virginia's Secretary of Technology under Governor Tim Kaine. Chopra was a candidate in 2013 for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. He is the author of Innovative State: How New Technologies Can Transform Government (2014) and co-founder and president of CareJourney. In 2015 he joined Albright Stonebridge Group as a senior advisor.
The United States Chief Technology Officer is an official in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The U.S. CTO helps the President and their team harness the power of technology and data to benefit all Americans. The CTO works closely with others both across and outside government on a broad range of work including bringing technology expertise to bear on federal policy and programs, and promoting values-driven technological innovation. The CTO and their team have historically focused on leveraging technology and technical expertise to help create jobs, strengthen privacy protections, harness the benefits and mitigate the risks of artificial intelligence, create paths to improve government services with lower costs, higher quality and increased transparency and accessibility, help upgrade agencies to use open data and expand their data science capabilities, improve quality and reduce the costs of health care and criminal justice, increase access to broadband, bring technical talent into government for policy and modern operations input, improve community innovation engagement by agencies working on local challenges, and help keep the nation secure.
The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) is a state agency in Rhode Island that oversees the elementary and secondary education system from pre-Kindergarten through twelfth grade. It is headquartered in Providence. RIDE works closely with the Rhode Island Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner (RIOPC), the agency charged with overseeing higher education. Together, RIDE and RIOPC aim to provide an aligned, cohesive, and comprehensive education for all students.
David Milton Steiner is executive director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and professor of education at Johns Hopkins University. His previous appointments include New York State Commissioner of Education in the New York State Education Department; director of arts education at the National Endowment for the Arts; founding director of the City University of New York Institute for Education Policy at Roosevelt House and the Klara and Larry Silverstein Dean at the Hunter College School of Education; and member of the Maryland State Board of Education and Maryland Commission for Innovation and Excellence in Education. Steiner currently serves on the boards of the Core Knowledge Foundation and Relay Graduate School of Education. Most recently, he was appointed to the Practitioner Council at the Hoover Institute, Stanford University.
The National Equity Project, formerly known as the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools or BayCES, is an education reform organization that specializes in leadership development and changing culture and conditions in order to further equity objectives. It is a coaching and consulting organization based in Oakland, California; its name change in July 2010. The name was changed as the organization had expanded into new regions and began offering new services. In addition to schools, they also work with many districts and nonprofits on educational equity initiatives.
Paul Kim is currently a Korean-American Chief Technology Officer and Associate Dean at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and has held this position since 2001.
Thomas Amadeus Kalil is an expert on technology and innovation policy, and is currently the Chief Innovation Officer at Schmidt Futures. He was previously Deputy Director for Policy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Obama, and was also the Senior Advisor for Science, Technology and Innovation for the United States National Economic Council.
The Office of Educational Technology is located in the Office of the Secretary of the United States Department of Education. OET develops national educational technology policy and advocates for the transition from print-based to digital learning and supports the President's and Secretary’s educational priorities.
Jon (Jonathan) Bergmann is a chemistry teacher and one of the developers of the "flipped classroom" model of teaching along with fellow chemistry teacher Aaron Sams. Although already noted for his teaching, Bergmann decided to "flip" what students did in his classes, watching video lectures at home and doing exercises (homework) in class under supervision. He and Sams not only found that grades went up, they also found time for other types of activities, which Bergmann states is more important than the videos. Bergmann has since become the lead technology facilitator for a school in Illinois, and has worked to promote the models speaking at schools, universities and more both in the United States and abroad. He currently teaches science at a high school in suburban Houston Texas.
Nick Sinai is a venture capitalist, adjunct faculty at Harvard Kennedy School, author, and a former senior official in the Obama Administration.
The American School Foundation of Guadalajara is a bilingual private school offering academic programs in dual languages English and Spanish from primary to high school. As the only U.S. State Department accredited school in Guadalajara, graduates receive both a Mexican and a U.S. Diploma. The Mexican Diploma is certified by the Universidad Nacional Autonóma de Mexico (UNAM) and the Secretaría de Educación Jalisco (SEJ) as the State’s Federal Institution in charge of Education.
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on accelerating innovation in education through the smart use of technology in education. ISTE provides a variety of services to support professional learning for educators and education leaders, including ISTELive—an ed tech event, the ISTE Standards for learning, teaching and leading with technology, and ISTE Certification. ISTE also provides a suite of professional learning resources, including webinars, online courses, consulting services, books, and peer-reviewed journals and publications.
21st century skills comprise skills, abilities, and learning dispositions identified as requirements for success in 21st century society and workplaces by educators, business leaders, academics, and governmental agencies. This is part of an international movement focusing on the skills required for students to prepare for workplace success in a rapidly changing, digital society. Many of these skills are associated with deeper learning, which is based on mastering skills such as analytic reasoning, complex problem solving, and teamwork, which differ from traditional academic skills as these are not content knowledge-based.
The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is a United States Department of Defense (DoD) organization founded to help the U.S. military make faster use of emerging commercial technologies. Launched in 2015, the organization has been called "the Pentagon's Innovation Experiment". DIU is staffed by civilian and both active duty and reserve military personnel. The organization is headquartered in Mountain View, California — Silicon Valley — with offices in Austin, Boston, Chicago, and the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C.
ConnectEd is a United States Federal Government Initiative that aims to increase internet connectivity and technology in all public schools to enhance learning. The ConnectEd initiative is funded through Title IV Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which designates specific monies for the effective use of technology in schools. The 2016 National Education Technology Plan aligns with ConnectEd as a published action plan to meet these goals of technology integration and connectivity.
The David O. McKay School of Education (SOE) at Brigham Young University (BYU) specializes in teaching, administration, communication disorders, and educational inquiry. It is located in three buildings on BYU's campus in Provo, Utah, the David O. McKay Building, the John Taylor Building, and the George Albert Smith Fieldhouse. It was ranked number 84 in the United States for best education schools for 2021.
Julia Nesheiwat is an American national security adviser who served as the 10th homeland security advisor in the Trump administration from 2020 to 2021. She also served in the Bush and Obama administrations.
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