Celebrated superintendent Cary Matsuoka and instructional technology expert Al Motley join nonprofit board dedicated to blended and personalized learning
Cupertino, CA – January 23, 2017 – The Learning Accelerator (TLA), a nonprofit catalyzing high-quality blended learning across the United States, today announced that Cary Matsuoka and Al Motley have joined the organization’s board of directors.
As an experienced superintendent and educator, Cary Matsuoka has pioneered blended learning programs in several school districts. He is currently Superintendent of the Santa Barbara Unified School District. “Cary is a lifelong educator and learner. As a superintendent who has led blended efforts in Milpitas and Santa Barbara, he brings critical expertise about the opportunities and challenges leaders face as they move to blended and personalized approaches,” said Beth Rabbitt, CEO of The Learning Accelerator. “This perspective is critical to our work at TLA helping to transform public school districts.”
“I am delighted to join the Board of Directors of The Learning Accelerator,” said Matsuoka. “Blended and personalized learning hold great promise for education and TLA will be a catalyst for change in schools across the nation.”
Al Motley is a leading expert in education technology and has deep experience working with charter schools that are implementing blended and personalized learning. He is currently Chief Technology Officer of Matchbook Learning. “As a technologist and system leader, Al works daily at the nexus of IT strategy, product design, and academics. He understands this work at the classroom and network level and will bring tremendous knowledge to the TLA Board,” said Rabbitt.
Gisele Huff, current TLA board chair, highlighted the new member’s real-world experience implementing blended learning as key attributes. “Cary and Al bring unique and deep experience as both education practitioners and leaders. They have been and continue to be at the forefront at the school level of transforming learning for all students,” said Huff. “We’re delighted to have them on the Board to contribute to TLA’s national work.”
Cary Matsuoka Bio
Cary Matsuoka is Superintendent of the Santa Barbara Unified School District. Superintendent Matsuoka has been a lifelong learner in both formal and informal settings. He studied nutrition science at UC Davis and also received his teaching credential there. He earned his master’s degree in educational administration from San Jose State University. Along the way, he taught himself computer science and cabinetmaking, mostly by tinkering and learning-by-doing. He has a passion and talent for design and has applied those skills to the design of creative learning spaces in schools and the structure of school organizational systems.
In addition, Superintendent Matsuoka is a lifelong educator. He spent 17 years as a teacher, mostly in a high school setting and 20 years in administrative leadership roles. He taught chemistry, physics, and AP computer science at Saratoga High School in the Silicon Valley area. After he went into administration, he served as a high school assistant principal, district coordinator, high school principal, and finally superintendent. He has over ten years of experience as a superintendent in two districts: Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District and Milpitas Unified School District, and recently was named superintendent for Santa Barbara Unified School District.
Al Motley Bio
Al Motley is Chief Technology Officer of Matchbook Learning, a nonprofit charter management organization. Mr. Motley oversees the company’s and schools’ IT hardware, software and instructional technology design and implementation needs. Al leads the identification and deployment of new tools and platforms to achieve the organization’s academic mission. He also develops systems, supports, and trainings to maximize staff and student daily technology use to support all academic goals. Over the past few years Al has lead the work at Matchbook to build a next generation competency based platform called Spark. This platform allows organizations to deliver personalized instruction, content and classroom workflows in a scalable framework. Prior to joining Matchbook Learning, Al served the same capacity for Touchstone Education, a leading blended charter management organization based in Newark, NJ.
Prior to Touchstone, Al was the Director of Information Technology at Mastery Charter Schools, a turnaround charter management organization in Philadelphia, PA. He was also a Vice President at Monarch Consulting, which provides technology solutions for small business, education and nonprofits. Al is also a Pahara Institute NextGen Leader.
Al got his start in education technology from Pennsylvania State University, while working as a computer lab consultant at PSU’s Center For Academic Computing. As a student working for the university he identified early on the need for technology to support the academic needs of a student and faculty in order to accelerate learning.
