Mr. Joe Blatt

Harvard Graduate School of Education

Joe Blatt teaches courses about children, technology, and learning, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he is a Lecturer on Education and faculty director of the Technology, Innovation, and Education program. For more than twenty years he has also created educational multimedia and broadcast television programs, and he is now president and executive producer of RiverRun Media. Before serving as executive producer of Scientific American Frontiers, the PBS series featuring Alan Alda, Mr. Blatt made documentaries for NOVA and educational programs for the Children’s Television Workshop. More recently he created the BREAKTHROUGH television series, and companion Web site, to profile African-American, Latino, and Native American scientists. Mr. Blatt has made close to 100 programs for the Annenberg Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, including the popular statistics series Against All Odds, the discrete mathematics series For All Practical Purposes, and, most recently, an hour-long documentary about mathematics learning called Surprises in Mind. He coauthored both trade and text books to accompany several of these television series. For six years he was a producer of public affairs and new technology programs at WGBH Boston. Before that, he created Feeling Free, his first nationally broadcast television series, to facilitate mainstreaming of disabled students into public schools. As an undergraduate at Harvard Mr. Blatt concentrated in English and American history and literature, and graduated with honors. After working for five years in film and video, his educational media career started in earnest when he obtained an Ed.M. from HGSE.

Dr. Fred Mednick

Teachers Without Borders

Fred Mednick founded Teachers Without Borders in 2000. His work has been cited as exemplary by the World Bank, Stanford University, UNESCO, the Hewlett and Cisco Foundations, and Dr. Jane Goodall (who serves as the spokesperson for TWB). Mednick was selected by the Global Philanthropy Forum to present at their annual conference and was invited by Cisco Systems to the 2006 Nobel Peace prizes. In 2007, he presented at the Global Creative Leadership Summit (100 leaders making a difference), which included Nobel Prize winners and heads of state, and shall do so again in 2008. Dr. Mednick completed his undergraduate work at the University of California, his Master's Degree at the Claremont Colleges, and his doctorate at Seattle University. He has served as the head of two prominent schools and has published widely in the fields of comparative education, international development, adolescence, curriculum design, and effective teaching strategies. He is also considered a pioneer in the field of open-educational resources and access to information and communications technology in resource-poor regions of the world.

Mr. Chuck Kane

One Laptop Per Child

Chuck Kane is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). He comes to OLPC with an array of experience, including having been CFO at RSA Security (recently acquired by EMC), and CFO at Aspen Technology. Prior to joining Aspen Technology, Kane served as president and CFO at Corechange, Inc., an enterprise software company purchased by Open Text, Inc. Kane previously served in executive management roles at Informix Software and Ardent Software; and he held senior financial management positions at Stratus Computer Inc., Prime Computer Inc. and Deloitte and Touche.

Mrs. Sima Yazdani

Cisco Systems

Sima Yazdani is an Information Technologist, with over 25 years of experience in delivering IT solutions. She specializes in data standardization, knowledge management, business process management and web 2.0 strategic planning. She is an IT manager at Cisco Systems, serving as Leadership Fellow at Cisco-sponsored NGO’s, enabling their mission via strategic planning use of technology and global deployment of programs in leadership training, entrepreneurship, promoting human rights and community development. As a community leader and volunteer, she serves on the City of Pleasanton Economic Vitality Committee, representing the software community. Sima earned her B.S. in Computer Systems Engineering from Western Michigan University and M.S. in Computer Science from Southern Illinois University. Her career grew with the advances in database and internet technologies. She has written technical books and articles, authored six patents on the use of metadata in streamlining cross-functional processes and increasing data quality in business applications. She has lectured at the University of California; she has been nominated for the Women of Action award at Cisco Systems. She is also a community volunteer, working as a human rights activist and social entrepreneur. She founded the non profit educational and cultural organization, United for a Free Iran, advocating human rights and democracy. This organization utilizes the innovative use of technology to remove barriers on individual’s rights to access information, education, and health care for disadvantaged people. By delivering programs which enable self-empowerment, capacity building and leadership skills, her long-term goal is to contribute to international development.

< back to track II