PRESENTERS

Eirene Chen
Director, District Partnerships
Khan Academy
@KhanAcademy

Eirene Chen leads Khan Academy’s work in supporting school districts in the United States. This work includes developing responsible pilots for exploring how an AI-powered teaching assistant and AI-powered student tutor might enhance student learning in schools. Khan Academy’s mission is to provide free, world-class education for anyone anywhere. Khan Academy serves 20 million students each month and supports over 500 schools and districts in the US.  

Christie Chu
Co-Founder and Head of Learning
Koalluh
@Christie-Chu

Christie Chu is a former elementary school teacher from Oakland. Her experience ranges from building after-school programs for girls to explore STEM careers using hands-on lessons and engaging live experiences to authoring entire distance-learning and SEL curricula. Christie is especially adept at understanding and addressing the educational and SEL needs of children from diverse backgrounds. She is based in the Bay Area, California. 

Nick Haber, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Stanford Graduate School of Education
LinkedIn 

Nick Haber is an Assistant Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and by courtesy, Computer Science. After receiving his PhD in mathematics on Partial Differential Equation theory, he worked on Sension, a company that applied computer vision to online education. He then co-founded the Autism Glass Project at Stanford, a research effort that employs wearable technology and computer vision in a tool for children with autism. Aside from such work on learning and therapeutic tools, he and his research group develop artificial intelligence systems meant to mimic and model the ways people learn early in life, exploring their environments through play, social interaction, and curiosity. 

Vicki Phillips, Ed.D.
CEO
The National Center on Education and the Economy
@drvickip   @CtrEdEcon 

Driven by a fierce determination to help all students realize their dreams, Dr. Vicki Phillips has championed students’ rights to a high-quality education as a teacher, superintendent of schools, state level policymaker, nonprofit leader, and K-12 education director for the world’s largest foundation. 

Dr. Phillips is the CEO of the National Center on Education and the Economy where she oversees NCEE’s work to help states, districts, and schools discover, design, and lead high performing education systems. Most recently, Vicki served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Education Officer at the National Geographic Society. There she transformed the Society’s small, US-centric education program to a largescale, global strategy focused on changing the learning experience for millions of educators and youth. 

Immediately prior to joining the National Geographic Society, Dr. Phillips worked with a variety of organizations helping to create the enabling conditions for courageous leadership and high-quality teaching and learning, including as the CEO in Residence for Educurious. She previously served as Director of Education, College Ready, for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation focused on ensuring students graduate prepared to succeed in college, career, and community. Before joining the Gates Foundation, Dr. Phillips twice served as a Superintendent of Schools – first in the School District of Lancaster in Pennsylvania and later in Portland Public Schools in Portland, Oregon. She also has served as a state level policy maker – in her home state of Kentucky, helping to implement the sweeping changes demanded by the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, and later as Pennsylvania’s State Secretary of Education, working to pass legislation and implement innovations in education, economic development, and the environment. 

Dr. Phillips began her career as a middle and high school teacher. 

Raised on a small farm in Kentucky, she was the first in her family to go to college. She holds a Doctor of Education in educational leadership and management from the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom; a Master of Arts in school psychology from Western Kentucky University; and a Bachelor of Science in elementary (K-8) and special education (K-12) from Western Kentucky University. 

Dr. Phillips has served as a founding member of the governing council for England’s National College for School Leadership, an advisor to the Harvard Urban Superintendents Program, a senior advisor/faculty for the Holdsworth Center District Leadership program, and a Senior Executive Coach for the Institute for Personal Leadership. She is a member of the boards of Renaissance Learning, Inc. and Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity as well as a member of the Education Committee of Greater Share Fund. 

Dr. Phillips was honored with a Social Impact Award by the British Council for her dedication to addressing inequities in education in the United States. 

Pati Ruiz, Ed.D. 
Senior Researcher
Digital Promise 
@patiru @pati_ru @digital-promise 

Dr. Pati Ruiz is a Learning Sciences and Emerging Technologies Senior Researcher at Digital Promise. Pati spent 16 years teaching Spanish and computer science in grades 6-12 before becoming a researcher. Her research focuses on emerging learning technologies (specifically AI and machine learning), critical AI, accessible web design, responsible innovation, design justice, equity, ethics, and inclusion in tech, and educator professional learning. She is particularly interested in the consequences (intended and unanticipated) of emerging technologies on systemically excluded populations and learners experiencing marginalization. Pati is a 2023 Women Leaders in AI Fellow with the EdSAFE AI Alliance.   

Tom Sayer
Co-Founder and CEO
Ello
@ReadWithEllo

Before Ello, Tom was the head of impact and adoption programs at Google for Education, where his team was responsible for ensuring that Google tools were used effectively in classrooms worldwide. He is on the board of GO Public Schools, an organization dedicated to giving voice to families in the most underserved communities, and on the advisory board of Education Reimagined, the movement builder of learner-centered education. He has also worked as an intelligence officer and product manager, founded an EdTech company (with Catalin), and built a mini-golf course in Cambodia. Tom graduated from Cambridge University with first-class honors in maths and psychology and has an MBA and MA (Education) from Stanford. He has won the Lamor prize at Cambridge, the Queen’s medal at Sandhurst, the Intelligence top student award, and was a Siebel Scholar at the GSB. He loves running and rugby, and lives with his wife and son in Doylestown.

Jim Steyer
Founder and CEO
Common Sense Media
@jimsteyer

James P. Steyer is the Founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, the nation’s leading nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of children and families by providing trustworthy information, education, and an independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century. An influential figure in education and civil rights, Steyer is a Stanford professor and has authored notable books including “Talking Back to Facebook: The Common Sense Guide to Raising Kids in the Digital Age”. He passionately promotes digital literacy, advocating for policies that foster a safer, more equitable digital world for kids and families. 

MODERATOR

Isabelle Hau
Executive Director, Stanford Accelerator for Learning
Stanford University

Isabelle Hau is the executive director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, a Stanford-wide initiative to connect researchers across disciplines, and bridge research, practice, and policy, to bring quality, scalable and equitable learning experiences for all learners and throughout the lifespan. 

Prior, she was a founding partner at Imaginable Futures, a venture of the Omidyar Group, the philanthropic investment firm of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. She led the U.S. education initiative, portfolio and team. Her work has directly impacted millions of learners and families.  

Isabelle earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated from ESSEC and Sciences Po Paris. 

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