Exponential Learning InitiativeOur Board
Board of Directors
Al Motley, Chair
Al Motley is a technology thought leader and also the founder and CEO at Techademics, a technology company focused on innovation in education, social impact, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector. Al is a nationally recognized expert in the intersection between responsible and innovative use of technology to deliver online learning for K-12, higher education and workforce for adult learners. Al supports many organizations through his CIO & CTO as a service model where he embeds himself in organizations in a part-time role to build the internal capacity for a high-level technology executive or department. An example of this service is his role as the Chief Technology Officer Lead for Gallaudet University, a university for deaf and hard of hearing students in Washington DC. He also has served as CIO for Philanthropi a national Fin-Tech platform that seeks to democratize Donor Advised Funds. Al is a partner or part-owner of several companies located in The United States, Canada, Argentina, and Botswana in Africa.
A mission-driven leader with extensive experience in executive management, Al has served as chief technology officer for Matchbook Learning, a national education management company, and has provided information technology leadership for Philadelphia’s Mastery Charter Schools, technology services for government clients, and venture investment analysis for various tech companies and young entrepreneurs. He also served as a key technical advisor for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation from 2013-2016 and as the Vice President of Technology Systems & Data for The United Way of Greater Philadelphia & Southern NJ.
Al is also a Pahara Aspen Institute Fellow and holds a certification in Agile CSM project management. In addition, Al serves on the board of trustees as chair for The Learning Accelerator and also serves on the board of The Education Law Center in Pennsylvania. Al also has served as an instructor and mentor for the University of Pennsylvania’s Capstone Education Entrepreneurship Masters Program at the Graduate School of Education.
Beth Rabbitt, CEO
Beth Rabbitt is Chief Executive Officer of The Learning Accelerator (TLA). She is a nationally recognized expert in education innovation and blended and personalized learning. Prior to becoming CEO in 2016, Beth was a Partner on TLA's start-up team, leading the organization’s work to develop educator training systems and research on emerging teaching and learning models and practices.
Beth brings over 20 years of experience in the K-12 nonprofit, philanthropic, and private sectors, having worked as a teacher, consultant, researcher, and funder. Most recently, prior to joining TLA, Beth was a Doctoral Resident and Director of Human Capital at a start-up school system in Newark, NJ, an Associate Partner at the NewSchools Venture Fund, a consultant to and with Education Resource Strategies, and the founding Doctoral Fellow at the Harvard Innovation Lab.
Beth is a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow and serves on the board of several education nonprofits, including Catalyst:Ed and GiveThx. She earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a doctorate (Ed.L.D.) from Harvard University, where she was an inaugural cohort member in the University’s Doctor of Education Leadership program.
Beth is based in Portland, Maine, where she lives with her husband and two elementary-age daughters. As a parent and educator, she is inspired daily and urgently to create school experiences that better meet the needs of every child, everywhere.
Gwen Baker
Gwen Baker has over 20 years of experience working in K-12 and focuses primarily on the uses of learning and technology to advance ambitious goals.
Gwen has held a number of roles in the field and currently serves as a Venture Advisor to The LearnerStudio. Her most recent role was Chief Learning Officer at Mursion and before that, she was Chief Operating Officer and Partner on the Strategic Advising Team at 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. Prior to 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 and a bachelor’s degree in corporate communication from Ithaca College. She lives in New York City.
Helayne Jones
Helayne Jones is an Education Consultant specializing in education strategies in Innovation, Personalized Learning, Scaling and Sustaining nonprofits, and Leadership. She served as a Sr. Strategy Advisor to New Profit, a national venture philanthropy fund. Prior to that, she served as a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation developing and implementing the Innovation & Personalized Learning strategy. Prior to joining the foundation, Jones was the President & CEO of the Colorado Education Initiative (CEI). As the leader of CEI, a dynamic, growing organization, Jones drew on 15 years of expertise gained as an education consultant, her experience as a college professor, and her previous work as a marketing executive. Her consulting experience includes working with for-profit & not for profit education firms, school districts, and education foundations in Colorado and throughout the country to focus on systems change resulting in improved student outcomes for all students. She also has extensive experience with private-sector and nonprofit organizations to facilitate strategic planning, board governance and communications, and managing the impact of change.
Jones has been an active philanthropist and community leader. She currently serves on the national boards of Throughline Learning, EdsUp, and the Keystone Policy Center. Past board involvement includes The Aurora Institute, Boulder Valley School Board for 8 years, 4 of those years as Board President, past trustee of the Rose Community Foundation, and past chair of the Health and Education Committees. She served as a member of Governor Hickenlooper’s Education Leadership Council and a board member of the Boulder Community Health Foundation. She has served on the board of ETown, Dairy Center for the Performing Arts, and Impact on Education.
Prior to consulting, Jones spent three years as an adjunct professor at Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y., and 12 years in the technology industry, including several executive marketing positions at Wang Laboratories.
She received her doctoral degree in educational administration from the Columbia University Teachers College with an emphasis on school reform. She received a master’s degree in English from the University of Massachusetts and a bachelor’s degree, Honors College, from the University of Michigan.
Sandra Licón
Sandra Licón is an educator and advocate dedicated to empowering kids and families from underserved communities. She has worked as a classroom teacher, non-profit leader, and funder, developing strategies and new ideas to improve public education in the U.S. and globally. She is an experienced bilingual facilitator and coach with a proven track record of building highly effective teams and forging partnerships across sectors and cultures.
As a consultant, Sandra partners with a variety of funders, non-profit, and system leaders, coaching them on strategy, program development, and impact. Most recently, Sandra served as Vice President of Global Learning at the National Geographic Society, building partnerships to help build the next generation of young leaders. Previously, she spent more than a decade in various roles at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she managed grant portfolios focused on improving college readiness and teacher effectiveness. She also worked at Teach For All, supporting social entrepreneurs in Latin America and Southeast Asia to launch social enterprises to address educational inequity. Sandra has received several fellowships recognizing her leadership, including the Eisenhower Zhi-Xing China Fellowship, the Graduate Congressional Hispanic Caucus Policy Fellowship, and Aspen Ideas Festival Fellow. She proudly started her career as a bilingual second-grade teacher in Los Angeles. Sandra holds a master’s degree in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
Cary Matsuoka
Carry Matsuoka is retired after a 40-year career in education, having served as superintendent of the Santa Barbara Unified School District. 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, Matsuoka is a lifelong educator. He spent 17 years as a teacher, mostly in a high school setting, and 23 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 superintendent of three school districts. He served 14 years as superintendent of Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District (5 years), Milpitas Unified School District (5 years), and superintendent for Santa Barbara Unified School District (4 years).
Nikolaus Namba
Nik is a Managing Partner at Transcend. He has spent his entire career in education as a teacher, academic coach, principal, and leader in school districts and charter organizations focused on personalizing learning using a competency-based systems approach. Nik maintains a strong track record of successful and committed leadership focused on serving learners first. Prior to Transcend, he was the Director of 21st Century Learning for Lindsay Unified School District, where he was engaged in the system-wide transformative work of building a learner-centered, performance-based system. At Lindsay, Nik led several exciting projects focused on defining personalization, increasing staff capacity to deliver personalized curriculum, refining the community's WiFi project to ensure Lindsay families were provided access, hardware, and installation free of charge, and developing and future-visioning the district's learning management system. Prior to this leading role at Lindsay, Nik served as the principal of a K-8 school for the district.
Before his time at Lindsay Unified, Nik worked as Chief Academic Officer of Ingenium Schools, a charter management organization in the Los Angeles area, where he led a grassroots development of a system-wide, personalized, and competency-based learning approach. Prior to this, he was an academic coach and a teacher in the Westminster 50 school district in Colorado. Nikolaus holds a Master's degree in educational psychology from the University of Colorado at Denver and a Bachelor's degree in liberal studies from California Lutheran University. Nik currently lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife, son, and daughter.
Matt Noble
Matt Noble has more than two decades of leadership experience in student enrichment and experiential learning. He is CEO of Galileo Learning, a national organization that runs STEAM-focused summer programs for K-8 students at more than 75 locations in partnership with schools, districts, and local communities. Galileo’s mission is to develop innovators who envision and create a better world, which it does through its award-winning Galileo Innovation Approach: a proven pedagogy combining mindset, process, and knowledge.
Prior to joining Galileo, Matt held a variety of leadership roles within EF Education First’s educational travel group, including heading up business units in the U.S. and Canada that served educators and students in both the K-12 and post-secondary segments.
Matt worked in a number of education-focused startups beginning in the late 1990s. He was an early employee at Revolution Prep, where he managed the development and growth of Revolution’s e-learning offerings addressing SAT/ACT preparation, California High School Exit Exam intervention, Algebra Readiness support, and more. He worked closely with districts, schools, and educators in systematically underserved communities to implement some of their earliest edtech efforts with a focus on adoption, educator support, and student outcomes.
Matt holds a bachelor's degree in Government from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Danny Rojas is the Executive Director of All Star Code, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to creating economic opportunities for young men of color by developing their entrepreneurial mindset, skills, and networks needed to succeed in a technological world. Since joining All Star Code in May 2018, Danny has spearheaded the organization's strategic growth, program development, and operational excellence.
Under Danny's leadership, All Star Code has achieved financial resilience and significant growth. Since taking the helm as Executive Director, Danny has increased the organization’s revenue by securing $11 million in multi-year commitments from strategic donors. He has also managed the organization's finances responsibly, navigating economic downturns and ensuring long-term sustainability. Danny has led All Star Code through transformative changes, including adapting to the challenges of the pandemic, advancing racial justice initiatives, and transitioning to digital-first program delivery. His efforts have expanded the Alumni base to 1,600 Scholars, with 325 Scholars securing meaningful employment in tech.
Prior to All Star Code, Danny held several senior leadership roles at General Assembly, where he managed enterprise tech talent pipeline solutions for Fortune 100 clients and pioneered accelerated training models for underrepresented communities in tech. His career also includes serving as Principal, Strategic Advising at Bellwether Education Partners, Senior Manager at Deloitte & Touche LLP, and roles at Deutsche Bank, Bloomberg, and General Electric.
Danny's commitment to social justice and community empowerment is reflected in his board memberships with The Learning Accelerator, New Immigrant Community Empowerment, and Phi Iota Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He is a lifetime member of ALPFA and was elected as a Council Member for Community Education Council District 30 in New York City.
Danny holds a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University and has completed the Senior Leaders Program for Nonprofit Professionals at Columbia Business School's Tamer Center for Social Enterprise. His core values guide his mission to create a more equitable and inclusive society, making a lasting impact on the communities he serves.