InnovateHERs

Author Biography

Dr. Barbara (Bobbi) Kurshan has honed her vision of “what can be” using technology while supporting education companies and developing innovative products. She currently serves as a Senior Innovation Advisor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania where she builds and advises education innovation ecosystems and co-directs the global certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. As President of ECC, she provides strategic consulting in the areas of investment, digital transformation, entrepreneurship, and innovation. As past Executive Director of Curriki, Bobbi helped to build one of the most innovative global open-source education communities. She previously has served as the Co-CEO of Core Learning, an education investment fund, and the Chief Academic Officer of bigchalk, one of the first online digital libraries with K-12 educational content. As an investor she has invested in numerous edtech startups including Fablevision, Mindprint Learning, SoWork, Mindstone, BoxMedia and The Qgroup, a language learning company that she took from startup to IPO. She currently serves on the corporate board of American Public Education Inc.; and advises several edtech companies including Thinkster, Edconnective, RobotLabs, and TeachMe TV. She is the author of several books, articles and regularly blogs for Forbes.com. Bobbi is the 2023 Winner of the IBIT Innovator of the Year Award; and also was selected as the Globant Woman that Build Board Executive Winner for 2022.

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.