Meet the Authors
Bobbi Kurshan
Dr. Barbara “Bobbi” Kurshan, is the President of Educorp Consultants Corporation and Senior Innovation Advisor, Graduate School of Education, Education Entrepreneurship, University of Pennsylvania, and a former education industry entrepreneur. Dr. Kurshan has more than 40 years’ experience in education as a researcher, entrepreneur, developer, investor, and company executive. She developed the first children’s software products for Microsoft, as well as award winning products for McGraw-Hill, Apple, CCC (Pearson), and others.
She is the author of several books, including Internet for Kids (Sybex); Exploring Creative Writer and Exploring Fine Artist (Addison-Wesley Longman); Understanding Computers Through Applications (Glencoe); Activities for Kids and Kids at Heart (Reston). She has received numerous awards and recognitions including the WISE Prize, the King Bahrain UNESCO Prize, 2019 Most Influential Corporate Board Directors, 100 Edtech Influencers, and Laureate Tech Awards – Technology Benefiting Humanity.
Kathy Hurley
Kathleen Hurley is a former senior executive for numerous educational publishing and technology companies, including IBM and Pearson. Currently, she is a senior advisor to educational technology companies, education associations, and school superintendent networks. She also serves on the board of directors for several non-profit and for-profit organizations. After retiring from Pearson, she was selected as a Fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) at Harvard University. Upon completion of the program, she co-founded a global nonprofit organization, Girls Thinking Global, which has since merged with the Women’s Education Project, where she serves on the board of directors.
In 2004 Kathy was inducted into the Association of Educational Publishers’ Hall of Fame and, in 2019, she received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in Education Technology from the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). In 2022, she received the Founders Award from the National Coalition for Technology in Education & Training (NCTET), the inaugural Distinctive Mentor Award from the Education Research and Development Institute (ERDI), and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS). She is the co-editor, with Priscilla Shumway, of Real Women, Real Leaders: Surviving and Succeeding in the Business World (Wiley) and co-author, with Dr. Bobbi Kurshan of InnovateHERs: Why Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurial Women Rise to the Top.
Contributors
Ginny Kirkland
Ginny Kirkland is an education industry consultant who assists companies and non-profits in the K-12 sector with marketing, communications, and strategic outreach. With more than 20 years of experience in government relations, marketing, and public relations, she works closely with companies to help them understand how to position themselves in the marketplace. Her clients have included for- and non-profit entities, such as Pearson Foundation, Cambium Learning, One In Tech, Fiserv, and Pennies for Peace to name a few. She conducts market research, including competitive analysis, funding research, legislative policy tracking and other data points to help companies understand where to target their efforts and resources.
Laura Smulian
Laura has over eight years of experience cultivating the entrepreneurial mindset in learners of all ages. At Alterna, Central America’s leading social entrepreneurship incubator, she led the initial growth strategy that led to the team’s expansion from 8 to 30 people, helping the team to serve more entrepreneurs in the region. She then began to work with young adults as a Lead Guide at Acton Academy Guatemala, designing learning environments that fostered innovation, curiosity, creativity, and resilience using cutting edge pedagogy and EdTech tools. During this team, she founded the E-Ship Bootcamp, a 6-week training in entrepreneurship for kids ages 11-14. She recently completed a Master’s in Education Entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania and has contributed research and analysis to this book.
Ginny Kirkland
Laura Smulian