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K-12 Advisory Council

The K-12 Advisory Council enables effective collaboration among school district and state leaders who are creating and implementing technology integration strategies that enable continuous improvement in instruction and personalized learning. The Advisory Council leads the adoption of open instructional technology interoperability standards for curriculum, assessment, and all aspects of instructional improvement for the benefit of school districts and states working to put in place a new generation of IT infrastructure.


Bill Bass
Innovation Coordinator
Bill Bass is an award winning educator and former English teacher who now serves as Innovation Coordinator for Instructional Technology, Information, Library Media and Federal Programs in the Parkway School District in St. Louis, MO. As an international speaker, writer and professional developer, he focuses on systemic and sustainable integration of technology into classrooms at all grade levels. Bill has served as the president of ISTE Board of Directors and was named as one of NSBA’s 20 to Watch EdTech Leaders. He is an ISTE Certified Educator, Google Certified Innovator, Google for Education Certified trainer and has written numerous articles and book chapters. He has also authored three books: From Inspiration to Red Carpet (ISTE 2012), Digital Reading: What’s essential in grades 3-8 (NCTE 2015), and Leading from the Library (ISTE 2019).

K-12 Advisory Council Term: June 1, 2023 - June 30, 2025
Joyce Bearden
Director of Knowledge and Resource Management​
As the Director of Knowledge and Resource Management​, Joyce supports processes for creating, sharing, applying and managing knowledge and instructional resources. This includes facilitating and leveraging innovative solutions and expertise within technology services, managing training and learning on various applications, and establishing workflow systems for content, document and digital standards to support all GaDOE divisions and users, Georgia education stakeholders, and other external education partners.
Benjamin Brown
Chief Technology Officer
Benjamin “Benjie” Brown serves as the Chief Technology Officer for Darlington County School District. Mr. Brown provides leadership for the continued development of an innovative, robust, and secure information technology environment throughout the District.
Darlington County School District Technology Department provides support for instructional technology, digital tools, delivery of IT infrastructure and services, information security systems and compliance, administrative systems, and client support services.
Brown is committed to working with the DCSD team to create an instructional environment that fosters and encompasses innovation as well as a sustainable IT infrastructure that supports personalized student learning and bolsters achievement.

K-12 Advisory Council Term: July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2024
Ryan Gravette
Director of Information and Technology
Ryan Gravette is the Director of Information and Technology at the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance. Ryan has been an integral part of the Idaho Digital Learning Academy team for the past 19 years, developing systems and support infrastructure to make online learning possible. Prior to joining the Idaho Digital Learning Academy, Ryan worked in school districts in Idaho and California, where he supported and led networking and data projects. Ryan has been recognized for his exceptional support for technology by the Idaho Educational Technology Association, receiving the Presidential Award in both 2011 and 2020. Ryan is passionate about supporting students across the state and has a BS in Psychology from Westmont College, an MBA from Boise State, and is currently pursuing his doctorate in district administration.

K-12 Advisory Council Term: Sept 1, 2023 - June 30, 2025
Kimberly Jackson
Executive Director of Instructional Technology
Kimberly Jackson serves as the Executive Director of Instructional Technology where she provides leadership for the Instructional Technology and Media Services, Data Accountability and Analytics Reporting, State and Federal Reporting/Student Information Services, and Information Systems departments. She has been an educator for over 23 years. During her career in education, Kimberly has been a classroom teacher, instructional technology specialist, school administrator, and district-level leader. In her current role, Kimberly leads initiatives such as the development of the 2022 1EDTECH Learning Impact award-winning platform, HenryConnects, which is a fully interoperable one-stop shop leveraging a variety of IMS Global Standards and a range of digital transformation initiatives that require the adoption of IMS Global Standards that directly enhance students’ educational experiences.

Kimberly earned her undergraduate and Educational Leadership degrees from the University of Georgia, a Master of Middle School Education from Georgia Southwestern State University, and an Education Specialist degree of Instructional Technology and Media Services from the University of West Georgia.

K-12 Advisory Council Term: July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2024
Karina Jones
KarinaJones
Karina Jones serves as the Deputy Associate Superintendent for IT Communications and Strategy at the Arizona Department of Education. In this role she oversees the intake and curation of digital initiatives across the agency, articulates their strategic goals, gets executive buy-in and defines implementation processes and evaluation metrics. Karina also sponsors the Office of Digital Teaching and Learning with the mission to serve K12 local education agencies by building a community of educators and solution experts dedicated to achieving digital equity for all students to achieve their full potential.

K-12 Advisory Council Term: July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2024
Howard Langford
Director of Information Systems
As the Director of Information Systems for Clayton County Public Schools, Howard Langford is dedicated to fostering collaboration with high-performing teams to drive technology innovation that aligns with the organization's strategic initiatives. With a focus on designing, planning, implementing, and maintaining enterprise-level IT infrastructures, Howard provides strong leadership to ensure interoperability within the digital ecosystem, and support for instructional objectives. Howard has over twenty years of experience in education and technology leadership in the K-12 sector.

K-12 Advisory Council Term: January 1, 2023 - June 30, 2025
Jessica Preisig
Assistant Superintendent for Technology Services
Jessica Preisig serves as the Assistant Superintendent for Technology Services in the School District of Pickens County. Mrs. Preisig provides leadership for a talented technology team dedicated to the continued development of a robust and secure digital ecosystem. Her department provides support for instructional technology, end-user devices, audio-visual technology, safety & security systems, IT infrastructure & services, and information systems & compliance. Jessica is passionate about working alongside the larger SDPC team to create an innovative and engaging instructional environment that empowers students for college, career, and life success.

During her 20 years as an educator, Jessica has served as a classroom teacher, instructional technology coach, school administrator and district leader. Jessica earned her initial undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of South Carolina prior to moving to upstate South Carolina, where she obtained an EdS in Administration and Supervision and will earn her doctorate from Clemson University.

K-12 Advisory Council Term: January 1, 2023 - June 30, 2025
Daniel Ralyea
Director
Daniel Ralyea, Director of the Office of Research and Data Analysis at the South Carolina Department of Education, works with a broad network of decision makers to make the most of his state’s educational data. With nearly 750,000 K-12 students in the system, trying to deliver the best results for these students requires a strong team that can discover, share and make decisions from available data.

K-12 Advisory Council Term: - January 1, 2021 - June 30, 2023
Lorne Rodriguez
Manager of Ecosystem Design
As the Manager of Ecosystem Design, Lorne focuses his time managing the ecosystem supporting Skyline, the CPS’ first-of-its-kind, standards-based, culturally responsive curriculum. The ecosystem consists of all the components involved in running Skyline, including Student Information System [SIS], Learning Object Repository [LOR], etc. Lorne manages the integrations between the components/teams and builds streamline systems to enhance the student experience. This initiative is one of the most important CPS projects ($135M+ budget) which requires Lorne to create usage reports which are utilized by internal teams to further enhance the lesson plans and curriculum.

K-12 Advisory Council Term: July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2024
Lakshmi Visvanathan
Chief Information Officer
Lakshmi Visvanathan works as a Chief Information Officer at Memphis-Shelby County Schools.
Walter White
Senior Director - Enterprise Architecture
Walter White serves as the Senior Director for Enterprise Architecture where he leads the Enterprise Project and Change Management Office, Quality Management Office, Mobile Device Management team, IT Service Management team and the systems administration team for Google and Office 365. Walt is a national Certified Government Chief Information Officer (CGCIO) educational technology leader in the private, public, and K-12 sectors with greater than 30 years of experience leading efforts for systems integration and interoperability, process automation and supporting technology in the classroom and the district.

K-12 Advisory Council Term: July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2024