It is my immense honor and privilege to serve as the new President and Chief Executive Officer of Digital Promise. I am fully committed to build on the great work of my predecessors and provide leadership and support to fulfill the “promise” of Digital Promise: close the Digital Learning Gap, improve student and adult learning, and help put our most underserved students on a path to succeed in school, work, and life.
Several priorities are clear. We are facing the largest global education crisis in the last century. At the same time, we know the challenges we saw in 2020 are not new. The COVID-19 pandemic has only highlighted long-standing disparities in outcomes and resource distribution. In this Annual Report, we highlight the transformational work our organization took on last year in response to these ongoing challenges, and how we’re innovating our way to broader definitions of success.
In the wake of the pandemic, we were not deterred in our mission to accelerate innovation in education and improve opportunities to learn. We created the Center for Inclusive Innovation, which helps communities engage in equity-centered research and development to change the trajectories of Black, Brown, and Indigenous students. We also launched multiple webinar series and built resource libraries and toolkits to help engage educators in powerful digital learning opportunities online. The Verizon Innovative Learning Schools initiative helped smooth the transition to distance learning by providing devices and data plans, while also coaching educators on how to effectively leverage technology for powerful learning. These examples represent just a small slice of the work that came together last year.
Over the last 10 years, Digital Promise’s impact, influence, and size have grown significantly. We have developed dozens of programs that have placed Digital Promise at the cutting edge of research, practice, and technology innovation. All in all, Digital Promise’s work tells a story of rapid growth, diversification, and innovation over the last decade.
As we prepare to celebrate our 10th anniversary this fall, we are contemplating what our next 10 years of impact will look like. We plan to spend the next few months wrestling with some of the core questions that naturally come at this stage of an organization’s evolution. We intend for this effort to play a critical role in shaping the narrative surrounding innovation and technology in education, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and our nation’s racial reckoning. We look forward to engaging you in this important conversation.
I’d like to thank all of our partners and staff for their support and dedication during exceptionally difficult times. I’m proud to continue this work alongside you.
Jean-Claude Brizard
CEO, Digital Promise
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