The Learning Accelerator welcomes nonprofit and education technology leader Gwen Baker to Board of Directors
August 24, 2018 – The Learning Accelerator (TLA), a nonprofit catalyzing high-quality blended learning across the United States, announced today that Gwen Baker has joined the organization’s board of directors.
With expertise that bridges the fields of education and technology, Gwen brings several decades of experience in education reform and innovation to TLA’s board. She currently serves as Chief Operating Officer and Senior Adviser for Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit focused on changing education and life outcomes for underserved children through helping education organizations accelerate their impact and by working to improve policy and practice.
“I am thrilled to join the TLA board,” said Gwen Baker. “The work that TLA does is so crucial for developing our collective understanding about how we can best prepare learners for success in school, college, career, and life. I am excited work with the team to carry forward their important vision.”
Gwen channels her deep understanding of technology to help schools advance their goals to enhance student learning experiences, opening up innovative pathways for leaders to pursue in order to provide an effective and equitable education for children.
“”Gwen brings a rare and valuable combination of experience to TLA,” said Beth Rabbitt, CEO of The Learning Accelerator. “As a former founder and CEO of an innovative technology nonprofit and with experience as a leader in the public, private, and philanthropic sectors, she brings critically valuable knowledge and insights that will guide our work and our mission.””
“As a founding member and current chairman of the board of TLA, I see Gwen Baker’s agreement to join the board as a mark of how the organization has matured,” added TLA Board Chair Gisele Huff. “To welcome a person of Gwen’s caliber is a feather in our cap.”
Biography
Gwen Baker is Bellwether Education Partners’ Chief Operating Officer and serves as a senior adviser with the Strategic Advising practice area. She has over 15 years of experience in education reform and focuses primarily on the uses of technology to advance ambitious goals.
Before joining Bellwether, Gwen was CEO and Co-Founder of CoreSpring, Inc., a nonprofit whose mission is to provide the field with access to high-quality formative assessment content and digital authoring tools. During her tenure at CoreSpring, the team partnered with organizations to build a shared bank of over 50,000 open education resources in core subject areas. They also built a suite of authoring tools that enables item developers with little or no technical experience to draft complex items that measure learner progress toward college- and career-ready goals. Today, educational technology companies, nonprofits, and schools use CoreSpring’s technology to administer millions of items each month.
Before CoreSpring, Gwen worked at NewSchools Venture Fund, where she led the organization’s portfolio data collection and analysis efforts as well as its community of practice work. Before NewSchools, Gwen served as Director of Knowledge Management at New Visions for Public Schools, the largest school reform organization in New York City. Gwen also worked at Teachscape, Inc., where she served as Vice President of Teaching and Learning and Senior Vice President of Operations. She began her career at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), working with clients to build performance-based and simulated learning solutions.
Gwen holds a master’s degree in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University, an interdisciplinary graduate program focused on applying the principles of cognitive and computer science to education and business, and a bachelor’s degree in Corporate Communication from Ithaca College. She lives in New York City.
