Board of Directors
Brenda Kempster, Chief Executive
Officer
Brenda Kempster is advocate of digital literacy,
and has participated on many national and
international committees related to information and
communications technology policy and digital
literacy framework development. She is founder of
KEMPSTER GROUP a consulting firm specializing in
building strategic alliances for clients focused on
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
Digital Literacy. She served as business Chair of
the National Coalition for Technology in Education
and Training (NCTET) —a role in which she assisted
the White House in developing education technology
policy and strategic alliances for the national
information infrastructure. She has been honored
for achievements in telecommunications, public
relations, and government relations, including:
Federal 100 Award Recipient-Federal Computer Week
Magazine 100 most influential in telecommunications;
International Association of Business Communicators
(IABC)-Gold Quill Award in Government Relations; and
the Public Relations Society of America-National
Award in Excellence Recipient.
Richard Methia, Chairman of the Board
Richard Methia is President of Infinity Group, a
consulting corporation focused on educational
professional development and data driven
decision-making. Richard has also served in
executive capacities at the Challenger Center and at
NASA Headquarters. He is past Executive Director of
the Foundation for Educational Field Studies and the
EFS Discovery Lab, and advised Microsoft Foundation
on its educational programs and served as President
of the National Coalition for Technology in
Education and Training (NCTET), a Washington-based
national leadership coalition focused on
educational technology and training policy
issues.Richard Methia is President of Infinity
Group, a consulting corporation focused on
educational professional development and data driven
decision-making. Richard has also served in
executive capacities at the Challenger Center and at
NASA Headquarters. He is past Executive Director of
the Foundation for Educational Field Studies and the
EFS Discovery Lab, and advised Microsoft Foundation
on its educational programs and served as President
of the National Coalition for Technology in
Education and Training (NCTET), a Washington-based
national leadership coalition focused on
educational technology and training policy issues.
His creativity is recognized as an author of
educational publications, short stories, poetry, and
award winning plays. NEWSWEEK and National Review,
among other publications have featured his
articles.His creativity is recognized as an author
of educational publications, short stories, poetry,
and award winning plays. NEWSWEEK and National
Review, among other publications have featured his
articles.
Sharell Blakely
Sharrell Blakeley
has distinguished career experience focused in areas
of human and social services delivery. She
directed child health and adolescent programs,
including administration of several women’s
correctional and rehabilitation programs. Her career
includes assignments in executive positions for four
governors in California. She was Executive
Director of the Crittenton Center in Los Angeles, a
full service non-profit children’s group home
providing residential care to pregnant young women
and their infants. As Director of Public
Affairs at Blue Cross of California she was
responsible for the company’s corporate
communications program, media relations, product
promotion and marketing and sales support.
Sharrell is frequently a featured guest on numerous
television and radio; child welfare educator and
advocate of legislators, celebrities, corporate
leaders and foundation executives.
She serves as a Commissioner, Community
Services, City of La Quinta, California and for
Anthem Blue Cross of California, as a Member, the
Consumer Advisory Board, and is President, Childhelp
Merv Griffin Village, Indian Wells Chapter. (agency
serving 84 abused children in Beaumont)
Gary Finn
Gary Finn graduated
from the University of California Santa Cruz with a
Bachelor’s Degree in Latin American Studies,
followed by a Juris Doctorate in 1988 from Whittier
Law School in Los Angeles. He was admitted to
the California State Bar in 1988 and the Federal
Courts the next year. Gary has an extensive
background in volunteer work in the Hispanic
community, including the Central American Refugee
Center in Los Angeles preparing asylum applications
for Central American refugees, and in the Coachella
Valley with Comite Latino an immigrants’ rights
group. Gary serves as a “pro-bono” attorney for the
El Centro, California Immigration Court, providing
his serves to indigent respondents.
His programmatic interest is
the Foundation’s emphasis on digital literacy and
strategic alliances with other NGO’s in the
Americas.
Tony Fowler
Mr. Fowler is
Director of Interagency Affairs for the U.S.
Department of Education. His current
responsibilities focus primarily on managing the
Federal Resources for Excellence in Education (FREE)
web site, a part of the Learning Registry. His
duties include identifying and posting educational
materials developed in the federal space. He uses
this material to maintain an education Twitter
account (@FREEResources) and to post education
“highlights” on the
www.ed.gov web site. Prior positions at the
Department have included Interagency Coordinator,
Grants and Contracts, Migrant Education and
Educational Research and Improvement. Mr. Fowler
works on several STEM-related activities, such as
serving as a judge for FIRST Robotics, liaison to
the Departments of Labor and Transportation on a
Memorandum of Understanding focused on STEM
education, the CyberPatriot competition, and the
Real World Design Challenge (RWDC). In addition, he
represents the agency on the National Initiative for
Cybersecurity Education
Dr. David Leveille
Dr. Leveille is a retired executive with the
California Post Secondary Education Commission
(CPEC), and was founder and President of the CPEC
Foundation. Dr. Leveille has extensive background
in technology, telecommunications, and distance
learning. Over the last decade, Dr. Leveille has
represented the California University Systems on
numerous state and national advisory commissions and
task forces. Dr. Leveille has a high level of
interest in developing education, environmental and
non-profit programs related to economic and socially
responsible development between the Americas.
Dr. Joyce Malyn-Smith
Dr. Malyn-Smith’s body of work focuses on
developing strategic initiatives in workforce and
human development for EDC’s Division of Learning and
Teaching where she is Co-Lead for LTD’s Strategic
Investment Group in STEM and leads various national
projects funded by the National Science Foundation
(NSF), Education Department (ED), state and local
agencies. She is principal investigator of the
ITEST (Innovative Technology Experiences for
Students and Teachers) Learning Resource Center
(NSF, 2003-present.) serving more than 195 NSF
projects, and partnering with national
organizations. She is principal investigator of the
Computational Thinking (CT) in America’s Workplaces
(NSF) project working with scientists and engineers
to create a framework that details the work of U.S.
STEM professionals. Dr. Malyn-Smith served on the
ETS International ICT Literacy Panel that produced
Digital Transformation: a Framework for ICT
Literacy; the National Research Council Planning
Committee that produced IT Fluency and High School
Graduation Outcome; Certiport’s Global Digital
Literacy Council; the National Visiting Committee
for BATEC (Boston Area Advanced Technological
Educational Connections) ATE Center; and various
Advisory Committees for ITEST projects. Prior to
joining EDC, she served Boston Public Schools as a
teacher and city-wide administrator for more than 20
years.
A sought after speaker at national
conferences and published in peer reviewed journals,
Dr. Malyn-Smith is a graduate of Boston Univesity
(Ed.D), Boston State Teacher’s College (M.Ed.) and
Universidad Interamericana (B.S.) Hato Rey, Puerto
Rico.
Dr. Barbara O'Connor
For over
thirty years, Dr. O'Connor served as a Professor of
Communications and Media at California State
University (CSU), Sacramento. She is considered an
international expert in communication theory,
particularly as it applies to political
communication and media communications. At CSU, Dr.
O'Connor founded the Institute for the Study of
Politics and Media which is recognized as world
class in media communications and collaborates with
governmental, corporate and non-profit entities in
shaping educational technology and
telecommunications policy. She frequently serves as
an expert commentator on politics and media for most
of the large news organizations. She has served on a
number of Presidential, State, and international
advisory committees and commissions focused on
educational technology, bridging the digital divide,
and providing universal and equitable access to
diverse populations for telecommunications and
information technologies.
Dr. O'Connor is also a
Board member of AARP and the California Emerging
Technology Fund (CETF). Dr. O'Connor has served as
an expert consultant to McClatchy Newspapers, the
Boston Globe Media Properties, the Tribune Company,
and The Washington Bureau of the Associated Press.
Jodie Pozo Olano
Jodie
Pozo-Olano is Chief Communications Officer for the
International Society for Technology in Education
(ISTE). Prior to ISTE, she was Vice President,
Global Communications for Promethean (LSW: PRW) a
publically traded, global education company. Other
key roles include: Director of outreach and
Communications for Project Tomorrow (formerly
NetDay); Deputy Director of Outreach and
Communications for the Universal Service
Administrative Company; Communications Specialist
with the Federal Communications Commission; and
Special Assistant to the U. S. Secretary of Commerce
during the Clinton Administration.
Jodie holds
an M.A. from George Washington University Graduate
School of Political Management, and a Bachelor of
Science in Political Science from South Dakota State
University.

Dr. Jose Luis Rueda
Dr. Jose Luis Rueda has served for the past six years as the Senior Environmental Specialist at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank in Washington, D.C. He has held posts in international research and development for over 20 years, and has leads and manages sustainable development assignments worldwide, specializing in environmental, economic and social development initiatives in the Latin American and African regions. In his current role at the International Finance Corporation he oversees development and administration of strategic alliances, joint ventures, and networks, to reach excellence in cross-continental programs, including challenging conflict environments. He has a background in developing fundraising strategies and donor relations programs for global initiatives. Dr. Rueda is the founder of the Consortium for Sustainable Resource Development of the Andean Region (CONDESAN) in South America. He has worked with institutions worldwide in promoting the advance of democracy through civic engagement and equitable access to information and communications technologies.
He is multilingual in English, French, Spanish, Italian, good understanding of Portuguese, and rudimentary knowledge of Swahili.

David Saedi
Mr. Saedi is former CEO of Certiport. He was instrumental in helping grow Certiport from start-up to the leading provider of global, performance-based certification programs and services for workforce skills development. David has more than 20 years of management experience in a number of industries. Prior to joining Certiport, he served as Vice President of Business Development for CENTRA. In this capacity, he worked with the president of the company to restructure CENTRA following its acquisition of Equifax Healthcare Systems. He has completed several professional development programs and is a member of the American Management Association, American Society of Association Executives, and British Market Research Society.
David works with teams around the world to promote ICT digital literacy strategic initiatives work force skills development projects, and global standards for digital literacy certification.
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