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 a founding designer on what became one of the first learning management platforms ever built ($22 million raised, placed in over 400 American colleges, later acquired by Thomson Learning). Sitting across from instructional designers and educational psychologists, I learned what a learning taxonomy actually is: 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. 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. 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
By the summer of 2018, corporate creative work no longer felt like enough. I'd considered teaching, then found something closer to what had first pulled me toward EdTech at iLrn: the Technology Coordinator role at UP Education Network. Taking it meant starting over at the bottom after a decade as a Creative Director. I knew it was the right path anyway. One school year at UP Academy Kennedy in Springfield, 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. My work in schools didn't.
Veritas Prep Charter School — 2020–2025
The engagement that was supposed to last six months 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 months of work. COVID was not on anyone's radar. Within two weeks, Massachusetts schools were closed. Veritas ran two 5–8 middle school campuses, Springfield and Holyoke, each in its own district. Neither campus could see the other's data. Both were already 1:1 with devices, but there was no remote-learning infrastructure, no LMS, and no dedicated Technology Director to oversee this massive shift. I stepped into the breach. We deployed Zoom and Google Classroom in the first days. Bridging them required a central hub. Clever became that hub. That was the beginning.
The scope expanded from there: PowerSchool migration from Schoolbrains, Schoology LMS integration, device fleet growth as the school added a high school campus, and a dual-enrollment integration between Veritas's SIS and a partner college's LMS. 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, and 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.
For major implementations (PowerSchool, Schoology), vendor post-sales teams led the initial onboarding — the entry point, not the ceiling. In each case the pattern held: learn it thoroughly, put it to work within Veritas's specific constraints, then make it teachable. Once the foundation was solid, administration and day-to-day content work moved to coordinators, teachers, and subject matter experts. I built and maintained the integration architecture connecting every platform 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
Standards & Integrations
- IMS Global (LTI, OneRoster)
- Clever integrations
- Custom SIS middleware (FERPA-compliant)
- Dublin Core metadata
If this sounds like the problem you're working on, reach out.
Get in touch