I’ve written about the future of education—with a focus on empowered, learner-driven education—for the likes of TheAtlantic.com, the NPR/PBS MindShift site, and Salon. (For an introduction to learner-driven education, please see this presentation.) My most popular articles include: “Five-Year-Olds Can Learn Calculus” (translated into half a dozen languages), “This is What a Student-Designed School Looks Like,” and “To Advance Education, We Must First Re-Imagine Society.”

I also host the Empowered Education podcast, featuring conversations with experts on topics such as the role of AI in education, what adolescents need to thrive, and how to foster resilience in children. (The podcast has been on hiatus for a year but will be resuming soon.)

Building on what I’ve learned through all this research, I co-founded and ran innovative multi-age learning communities for homeschoolers in Washington, DC for many years. Then in 2020, I launched The Hub, a part-time online microschool that makes it practical for tweens and teens to reap the benefits of learning in community while retaining the flexibility of homeschooling.

Bringing the idea of greater empowerment into the next phase of education, I’m now working on a tool to improve the college search process and guide families toward schools that might be the best fit across nuanced academic, social, financial and personal dimensions. Stay tuned; more coming on that soon.

I have degrees in systems engineering and journalism, and have also worked in IT, journalism, and marketing communications. Please see my LinkedIn profile for more details about my work outside education.