I was already inside a school when the world went remote.
Learning science has been the foundation of this work since before EdTech was a job title. The pandemic made that visible — it didn't create it.
- — Built interactive learning infrastructure at iLrn in 2000, working alongside instructional designers and educational psychologists before the platforms and the pedagogy had settled into what they'd become.
- — Returned to schools in 2018 at UP Education Network: Chromebook infrastructure, Google Workspace administration, and student data systems at UP Academy Kennedy — a state-designated turnaround school, and one of the most critically underperforming schools in Massachusetts at the time.
- — Five years at Veritas Prep Charter School (2020–2025): SIS implementation, LMS integration, device management, DESE compliance reporting, and PD design and delivery across 150+ educators.
- — Led the Schoology LMS implementation concurrent with Veritas's first physical campus build, timed so the platform was live when the building opened.
- — Designed the engagement to end: Technology Director, Data Lead, and a team of internal coordinators, all developed from within the school. The measure of success was a function that didn't need me.
The origin and the work are below.
Learning science came first. Design came second. The order matters.
In 2000, I joined Digital Learning Interactive (iLrn) as one of the founding designers of what would become one of the first learning management platforms ever built. The venture raised $22 million, placed the platform in over 400 American colleges, and was acquired by Thomson Learning. In those rooms I sat across from subject matter experts, instructional designers, and educational psychologists — learning what a learning taxonomy actually is, not as vocabulary but as a structural principle that determines whether information reaches a learner or slides past them. I was reading Tufte and Nielsen and Krug as operational constraints, not design theory.
Metadata was the lasting lesson. Its relationship to knowledge structure runs under everything that followed. We built an XML-driven system where a module developed for American History I could surface in American History II, World History, and International Studies through a metadata tag layer, each time feeling contextually native. Data about data reveals connections no single piece of content can anticipate. When I returned to schools in 2018, first at UP Education Network and then Veritas Prep beginning in 2020, I walked in with that foundation intact. The platforms had changed. The underlying problem had not.
UP Education Network — 2018–2019
One school year at UP Academy Kennedy in Springfield, a state-designated turnaround school and one of the most critically underperforming schools in Massachusetts at the time, part of a six-campus network built around educational recovery. Chromebook fleet management, Google Workspace administration, student data systems, first-line support for educators and administrators. A year of re-entry into K–12 operations, relearning the gap between what platforms promise and what works when a class of eighth graders is in the room. UP's Springfield campus closed at the end of that year.
Veritas Prep Charter School — 2020–2025
The engagement that was supposed to last two weeks lasted five years. I was brought in at the start of March 2020 for a bounded project: a schema refactor of Veritas's storage systems, a few days of work. COVID was not on anyone's radar. By the end of that week, Massachusetts schools were closed. Veritas ran two 5–8 middle school campuses, Springfield and Holyoke, each in its own district with its own technology infrastructure, reporting requirements, and data systems. Neither campus could see the other's data. Both were already 1:1 with devices, but there was no remote-learning infrastructure and no LMS. We deployed Zoom and Google Classroom in the first days. Bridging them required a central hub. Clever became that hub. That was the beginning.
Over the following years the scope expanded: PowerSchool migration from Schoolbrains, Schoology LMS integration, device fleet expansion as the school grew to include a new high school campus, student data fidelity across four consecutive DESE reporting cycles, and a dual-enrollment integration between Veritas's SIS and a partner college's LMS. Clever served as the connective layer throughout, providing a safe, compliant path between the SIS, through its migrations, and every platform we added over time. Working alongside content and pedagogy staff, I designed and delivered professional learning for every platform in the school's technology environment, calibrated separately for classroom teachers, administrators, and new hires as staff turned over. The other half was people. Working with school leadership, I identified and guided the hire of Veritas's first internal Technology Coordinator, then mentored them into the Technology Director role. They built their own team of coordinators in the process. I also mentored the school's Data Analyst into the Data Lead role. When I departed in 2025, Veritas had a full internal technology function: a director, a data lead, and a team — built, trained, and running without outside support.
The platforms listed here were not evaluated and handed off. For major implementations (PowerSchool, Schoology), vendor post-sales teams led the initial onboarding. That was the entry point, not the ceiling. In each case the pattern held: learn it thoroughly, put it to work within Veritas's specific configuration and constraints, then make it teachable to the growing team. Once the foundation was solid, administration, maintenance, and day-to-day content work moved to coordinators, teachers, and subject matter experts. I built and maintained the integration architecture: how the platforms connected, communicated, and stayed in sync system-wide.
Student Information Systems
- PowerSchool
- Schoolbrains
Learning Management
- Schoology
- Google Classroom
- iLrn (founding team)
Identity & Rostering
- Clever
- Google Workspace (Admin)
Assessment & Compliance
- MAP Growth
- ANet
- Pear Assessment
- PearsonAccess Next (MCAS)
- WIDA
- DESE SIMS / SCS / EPIMS / SSDR
Device & Safety
- Google Admin MDM
- GoGuardian Admin & Beacon
- Device Manager+
Special Programs
- Frontline IEP / 504 / RTI / EL
- DeansList (Behavior & MTSS)
- Edwin Analytics
Communications
- Zoom Meetings & Phone
Standards & Integrations
- IMS Global (LTI, OneRoster)
- Clever integrations
- Custom SIS middleware (FERPA-compliant)
- Dublin Core metadata
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