About that Emmy...

Yes, I won an Emmy for a documentary I wrote and produced. That qualifies as a success story, surely, but it does not fit neatly into any EdTech category. I began my career in television production, TV News first and then a wide variety of entertainment and informational programming. I moved into EdTech after producing a four and a half hour series with a K-12 partner on how to teach a lesson, based on best practices and research in cognition and learning. It was at that point that I became enamored with the potential for technology to dramatically improve the teaching and learning experience.

The documentary was called "A Hard Road to Glory," with content from what would become a three-volume book series by Arthur Ashe on the history of black American athletes. He was concerned that many great stories of struggle and triumph would be forgotten, so he set about chronicling all the stories he could find in encyclopedia form. About halfway through his research, I was brought in to write produce a 2-hour, syndicated documentary. Co-written and hosted by Arthur, narrated by James Earl Jones, with a music theme recorded by Lou Rawls, it gained a lot of attention and, obviously, some accolades. The documentary could have been submitted in Primetime, Daytime, News & Documentary Emmy competitions as well, but we were well-advised by the Academy to go with Sports. The Emmy is for writing. Arthur wrote the source material and I wrote the documentary script.

I have always been a "producer" at heart. Give me a project, an audience, a team, and the opportunity to create something valuable, and I'm fulfilled. Moving from television's one-to-many approach to the interactive world of EdTech has been transformative. What remains constant is impact. I believe learning fundamentally changes people—when a student becomes an engineer, a nurse, or an entrepreneur, participating in that journey far outweighs the satisfaction of creating even award-winning television. I don't produce TV anymore, and honestly, I don't miss it. Two paths diverged in the wood, and I chose the one less traveled by. And with a nod to Robert Frost, my EdTech choice has made all the difference.