experience

Twenty-five years,
one subject.

Since 2000 I have worked on exactly one problem: making data useful to the people who serve children. Everything before that taught me how systems actually behave.

25+
years in
enterprise data
7
statewide data
systems delivered
50+
district
implementations
100+
agencies
advised

I have built products and sold them, run the delivery and answered for it, negotiated the partnerships that made them possible, and sat on the agency side of the table watching it all arrive. That combination is the reason I am useful. I have been the vendor and I have been the customer, and neither one surprises me anymore.

the path

Roles, in reverse.

Now
Education Intelligence Lead
Public Consulting Group · Charlotte, NC

Standing up the Education Intelligence line of business, bringing enterprise data governance, analytics, and applied AI to public education agencies. Currently delivering data governance modernization for the Georgia Department of Education, and working with our Education CIO on the practice’s AI strategy.

2023
Solution Architect, Special Projects
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction · Raleigh, NC

Subject matter expert on the design of a modernized statewide longitudinal data system. Led the mainframe-to-Azure modernization of the funding platform supporting every public school in the state.

2019 – 2023
Vice President, Government Affairs
Renaissance Learning · Education Data Practice

Directed student data privacy legislative strategy with state and federal lobbyists, helping shape the statutes that govern how education data may be used. Built the government affairs business intelligence capability and led two state agency data collection programs serving more than 150 districts.

2019
Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships
Schoolzilla, PBC · Oakland, CA

Owned partnership strategy, revenue targets, and operations. Closed the largest contract in the company’s history. Acquired by Renaissance Learning.

2012 – 2019
Vice President, Education Solutions
Otis Educational Systems · Powder Springs, GA

Directed analytics product strategy and enterprise sales. Sold seven state longitudinal data projects generating over $12M and led a team of up to twenty developers and support staff building the NIMBLE K12 analytics product.

2010 – 2012
National Account Executive
K12 Incorporated · Tysons Corner, VA

Sold online and blended learning to state and local education agencies, securing the first blended learning customers in the Southeast.

Earlier
Follett Software · Otis Educational Systems · Synergistics
Sales, marketing, and product interoperability leadership

Closed over $5M annually in new analytics revenue at Follett. Grew Otis top line revenue over 300 percent by landing its first state education agency contract, which led to two more, and built the channel program with Dell, IBM, and Microsoft. At Synergistics, led integration of a knowledge management suite with third-party business intelligence platforms.

1995
Technology Consultant
BellSouth Telecommunications · Marketing Information Systems

Built and staffed the corporate help desk, managed divisional technology procurement, led the TCP/IP network rollout, and delivered a Lotus Notes intranet application during the commercial arrival of the web. Keynote speaker at an IBM and Lotus symposium in Atlanta. How I got here is a story.

Alongside
DazzlData
Independent consulting practice

Intelligent data solutions and early AI advisory for education agencies, including an AI in Education leadership retreat for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

the ecosystem

Most of this work is getting organizations to work together.

The technology is rarely the hard part. Over twenty-five years I have negotiated and managed the partnerships that made products possible, including an OEM agreement that put MicroStrategy’s engine inside our own analytics platform and then shipped it to two state education agencies.

MicroStrategy (OEM)IBM Education IBM Lotus Partner ProgramMicrosoft Education DellDatabricksDataedo eScholarTetraDataChoice Solutions ESP TechnologiesCELT

Where the standards get written

I lead the Special Education Data Model working group at A4L SIF and serve on the CCSSO Community of Innovation AI workgroup, representing PCG in both. I also work across CEDS and the Ed-Fi Alliance. Interoperability is not paperwork. It is what lets a small district have the same capability as a large one.

What I actually do all day

Data governance and architecture. Statewide longitudinal data systems and P-20W. Analytics and dashboard design people will actually use. AI strategy with a hard requirement for efficacy, safety, and honest implementation. Azure, Power BI, Tableau, and a long memory for how these systems fail.

Education and credentials

B.A. in Biology with a Business Management minor from the University of West Georgia, and an A.A. from Truett McConnell College. Certified Knowledge Management Professional through the Knowledge Management Consortium International. Certified Solution Selling Professional through IBM.