ASU+GSV Summit

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Nell K. Duke, Executive Director and Professor at the Center for Early Literacy and Learning Success, Stand for Children, and The University of Michigan; Steve Hannon, President and CEO at LENA; Tenette Smith, Chief Academic Officer at the Maryland State Department of Education; and Jackie Mader, Senior Early Childhood Reporter at The Hechinger Report.

The speakers explored how early literacy can be rethought through stronger alignment across language development, assessment, and system-wide coherence. They discussed how research, policy, and practice have shaped more effective approaches to literacy by emphasizing the foundational role of language, improving how progress is measured, and creating more connected systems that support educators and young learners. The session highlighted how coherent strategies can drive better literacy outcomes and more equitable opportunities from the earliest stages of education

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this Early Childhood Education Summit session presented by Valhalla Foundation featured featured Gabe Hakim, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Promise Venture Studio.

This session highlighted the power of play in early childhood development and explored how playful learning can create meaningful opportunities for children and families. Gabe Hakim discussed Promise Venture Studio’s vision for advancing innovation in early learning, emphasizing how strategic investment, creative solutions, and ecosystem-building can help unlock better outcomes for young children. The session also included a special announcement focused on expanding Promise’s impact in shaping the future of early childhood education.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this Early Childhood Education Summit session presented by Valhalla Foundation featured Jessica Sager, CEO & Co-Founder at All Our Kin; Amir Matallaoui, Co-founder & CEO at HOOPOOH; Celia Stokes, President at Teaching Strategies; and Michelle Kang, CEO at NAEYC.

The speakers explored how building stronger infrastructure across early learning systems has helped transform fragmented approaches into more coherent, equitable support for children, families, and educators. They discussed the critical role of innovation, leadership, and coordinated systems in strengthening early childhood education, supporting providers, and creating the foundational structures needed to improve access, quality, and long-term outcomes for young learners.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this Early Childhood Education Summit session presented by Valhalla Foundation featured Elena Silva, CEO at Learning Policy Institute; Heejae Lim, Founder & CEO at TalkingPoints; Alejandro Gibes de Gac, CEO & Founder at Paloma & Springboard Collaborative; Dr. Onia Mayberry, Parent Leadership at NAFSCE; and Michael Levine, Senior Advisor at Kapor Center.

The speakers explored how family engagement has served as a powerful equity strategy in early childhood education, highlighting how everyday learning opportunities can create exponential impact for children and communities. They discussed how stronger partnerships between families, educators, and communities have helped close opportunity gaps, empowered parents as leaders, and supported more inclusive systems that advance educational equity from the earliest years.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this Early Childhood Education Summit session presented by Valhalla Foundation featured Isabelle Hau, Executive Director at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning.

The session explored how early childhood education remained foundational in shaping human development, particularly in an AI era increasingly defined by technological acceleration. Isabelle Hau examined the importance of relational intelligence in young children’s growth, emphasizing how connection, human interaction, and developmental relationships serve as essential building blocks for learning, well-being, and future success.

This conversation focused on how educators, families, and systems could center early childhood experiences that strengthened connection rather than allowing technology to erode it. The session highlighted the need to thoughtfully navigate the intersection of AI and early learning by prioritizing the human capacities—belonging, empathy, communication, and trust—that children need most in their formative years.

At its core, this session examined how early childhood leaders could design environments that preserved and elevated relational development while preparing children for an AI-shaped future, reinforcing that technological progress must be balanced with the deeply human work of connection.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured John Woods, Provost and Chief Academic Officer at University of Phoenix; Susan Winslow, CEO at Macmillan Learning; Lisa Marsh Ryerson, President and CEO at Southern New Hampshire University; Sean D'Arcy, Chief Solutions Officer at Kahoot!; and Ann Kirschner, President and CEO at Comma Communications.

The speakers began with a hard truth: many students arrived with real literacy and numeracy gaps, and institutions were serving learners with an unprecedented range of preparation and ability. They explored how the question was no longer whether these deficits existed, but how higher education responded at scale and without lowering expectations.

Panelists examined how institutions, curriculum developers, and edtech organizations were combining clear-eyed diagnosis with new approaches to teaching and support, moving beyond one-size-fits-all remediation toward learning environments that delivered continuous feedback, targeted practice, and early intervention. The session highlighted how AI-enabled tools were reshaping large lectures and gateway courses by surfacing misunderstandings in real time and helping faculty address gaps before they became barriers.

Rather than debating readiness, this conversation focused on responsibility: how learning environments could be designed to confront skill gaps directly, strengthen core competencies, and make progress visible. In an era of heightened scrutiny and declining trust, the speakers emphasized that honest and effective responses to literacy and numeracy would matter more than ever.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Geordie Hyland, Chief Executive Officer at American College of Education; Ajita Menon, President and CEO at Calbright College; Chris Lynne, President at University of Phoenix; Jacob Fraire, President at ECMC Foundation; and Charles Westrin, Managing Director and Chief Product Officer at BCG U.

The speakers explored how non-traditional students had become the majority of learners in higher education—students who were working, parenting, returning after a break, or attending part-time—and how this shift was fundamentally reshaping enrollment, persistence, and the financial model of higher education.

This session convened higher education leaders for a critical conversation about what it took for institutions to adapt and remain at the forefront of meeting the needs of non-traditional learners. Panelists highlighted evidence-based strategies driving results, including leveraging enterprise-grade AI to provide proactive advising and persistence supports; building stackable, workforce-aligned credential pathways that improved speed to value; redesigning enrollment and academic calendars for greater flexibility; and strengthening financial resilience through models that expanded access without shifting costs to students.

At its core, this conversation focused on institutional readiness and how designing for the new majority of students was no longer simply about access, but a defining strategy for higher education’s future.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Ben Nelson, Founder and CEO at Minerva Project; Shai Reshef, President at University of the People; Jeannie Tarkenton, Founder and CEO at Funding U; Ian Wilhelm, Deputy Managing Editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education; and Nancy Gonzales, Executive Vice President and University Provost at Arizona State University.

The speakers convened a future-focused dialogue on the three forces most likely to shape higher education through 2030. In a fast-moving, double-moderated conversation, they examined where pressure was rising, which models were breaking, and what was emerging to replace them.

The session explored financial challenges including rising costs, the limits of loan forgiveness, and new models designed to reduce student debt while keeping institutions financially viable. Panelists also examined learning transformation through the move from seat time to outcomes, with AI positioned as core learning infrastructure powering assessment, guidance, and credential pathways aligned to work and mobility.

The conversation further addressed human-centered priorities including belonging, mental health, equity, and the evolving expectations of Gen Z and Gen Alpha, as well as working adults, caregivers, and learners under extreme conditions. Blending national reporting, institutional innovation, and real-world case studies, this session surfaced what higher education must rethink now to remain credible, accessible, and human-centered in the decade ahead.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Thomas Arnett, Senior Research Fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute; Noelle DeLaney, Chief Operating Officer at the National School Choice Awareness Foundation; Emory Edwards, Vice President of Outreach and Entrepreneurship at EdChoice; and Keri Hunter, Director of K12 at Stand Together Trust.

The speakers took a fact-based look at what school choice meant today, why millions of families had been navigating the education system differently than they did a decade ago, and how participation was evolving across the country. They explored who was participating in school choice and where innovation was emerging across public, charter, and private schools.

This session examined how school choice was shaping K–12 education nationwide by highlighting what families were choosing while identifying the key questions policymakers, educators, and funders should be asking next. The conversation focused on understanding the realities of modern school choice through data, trends, and practical insights, offering a clearer view of how educational options were expanding and what those shifts meant for the future of American education.

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Justin Dent, Founder and CEO at Outschool.org; Jamie Rosenberg, Founder and Executive Chairman at ClassWallet; Chris Minnich, CEO at MetaMetrics Inc.; Raphael Gang, Director of K12 Education at Stand Together Trust; Frank Sikernitsky, Chief Information Officer at Step Up For Students; and Bill Hansen, President and CEO at Building Hope.

The speakers explored how choice did not scale on aspiration alone, but on infrastructure. They examined the complex operational backbone behind every ESA, scholarship program, and pluralistic ecosystem, including payment flows, fraud prevention, eligibility verification, vendor onboarding, compliance automation, reporting, and user experience.

This session pulled back the curtain on what it actually took to operationalize choice at scale. Panelists discussed how leaders were designing systems that balanced efficiency with integrity as policy ambition met technical execution. The conversation highlighted the importance of building modern infrastructure capable of supporting multiple choice pathways while ensuring accountability, access, and trust across increasingly complex educational ecosystems.