50 on Fire will bring together D.C.'s best and brightest to recognize the disruptors, luminaries and visionaries that are pushing our city forward. Buy your tickets now and join us on Dec. 1 at Howard Theatre for the celebration and winners reveal.
Education is one of the most important and influential spaces, so it makes sense that we'll see some of the most innovative people in D.C. disrupting the way we think about the industry. From launching key education technology startups to changing the game at university entrepreneurship centers, here's who the most innovative D.C. education leaders are in 2016.
Chip Paucek, 2U — Landover, Md.-based 2U has had quite an impressive run. In May, they had their ninth straight quarter where they beat Wall Street expectations. As founder and CEO, Paucek has led the company through its IPO, its addition of its first Ivy League partnership and more as it continues to disrupt the education space.
Sonal Shah, Georgetown University's Beeck Center — As the executive director of Georgetown's social impact and innovation center, Shah is at the forefront of recruiting innovators to D.C. She has an extensive resume, that includes both public and private sector positions — from being an international economist at the Treasury Department to heading up to the Global Development Initiatives at Google.
Michelle Brown, CommonLit — Brown just moved her edtech startup from Boston to Washington this year, and it's only taken off since the move. In May, she got $125,000 from AT&T this year, and they were accepted into the Aspire Accelerator program. And in October, she got a $3.89 million in grant funding from the Department of Education.
Sara Herald, University of Maryland's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship — Herald joined the Dingman Center over a year ago to lead efforts in social entrepreneurship and bringing more women to events. She launched the "Ladies First" initiative on campus, and she teaches a course called Maryland Social Entrepreneur Corps, giving students an opportunity to spend their summer as community consultants in Latin America.
Tony Orlando, DubLabs — Orlando was named the CEO of the Vienna, Va.-based company in January 2015 and since then it's only flourished. In 2016, it reached more than one million student downloads. And more than 800,000 students were actively using their school's branded mobile apps built on DubLabs platform in the two months of back-to-school season.
Greg Davies, Full Measure Education — The former Blackboard executive closed a $6 million funding round in May, the multi-million dollar second round for the upstart edtech startup that was founded in 2013. Full Measure uses student biographic and academic data to predict potential school dropouts and those who may struggle more in school, and then automatically set up interventions for them.
Shanaz Chowdhery, General Assembly — As General Assembly DC's regional director, Chowdhery oversees education opportunities in web development, analytics, digital marketing, product management and more at the ever-growing presence in DC Tech. Chowdhery has also laid the foundation for a Virginia expansion through a partnership with 1776.
Mikah Sellers, Grafik — Sellers is the Chief Digital Officer at D.C.-based Grafik and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University who teaches business intelligence and big data.
Alix Guerrier, LearnZillion — Guerrier found the entrepreneurial bug while studying at Stanford, but it didn't catch up to him until his co-founder came up to him with the idea for D.C.-based edtech company. LearnZillion builds digital curriculums for K-12 teachers, working primarily with public school districts and parents who are homeschooling.
Jake Schaufeld, Real Time Cases — The Sterling, Va.-based edtech company has been a part of AOL's Fishbowl Labs incubator and raised a $600,000 seed round immediately after launching. Schaufeld also led the company through the launch of its web-based video content platform aimed at University students taking business courses.
Shannon Tucker, Reingold Inc. — Tucker is Reingold Inc.'s director of media relations. In that role, she has led multiple campaigns this year, including the U.S. Census Bureau's Statistics in Schools Program.
Kai-leé Berke, Teaching Strategies — Berke has been with Teaching Strategies a little over 10 years, and in her newer role as CEO of the company, she is seeing it adapt from a publishing focused company to a new edtech giant.
Image used via CC BY 2.0 — credit Maurizio Pesce
