In this episode of "On Balance," Dr. Rod Berger sat down with Christopher "Chip" Paucek, the co-founder and CEO of 2U, Inc.

About Chip Paucek and 2U

2U, Inc. (Nasdaq: TWOU), described by Forbes Magazine as the “nation’s leading provider of software for universities” delivering digital higher education at scale.Paucek's innovative work at 2U has earned him many accolades, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2012, the Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs Award in 2013, and multiple Highest Rated CEO awards from Glassdoor. In 2017, Paucek was named among America's best chief executives by Institutional Investor magazine, ranking third among mid-cap technology, media, and telecom companies. He is a leading voice and speaker on entrepreneurship and the global education and technology landscape. Paucek also sits on 2U’s Board of Directors.Paucek has been involved in education ventures since the early 1990s. Prior to 2U, Paucek served as CEO of Smarterville, Inc., the parent company of Hooked on Phonics. Paucek began his entrepreneurial career in 1993 when he co-founded his first company, Cerebellum Corporation, which produced the award-winning educational television program and video series Standard Deviants. He led Cerebellum as Co-CEO until 2003. In 2004, Paucek took a break from the business world to serve as deputy campaign manager for the successful re-election of United States Senator Barbara Mikulski.Paucek holds a B.A. from The George Washington University and an M.B.A. from the 2U-powered MBA@UNC program at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School. As a native of South Florida, he is an avid Miami Dolphins fan. Paucek lives in Annapolis, MD, with his wife Gabbi and two sons Noah and Henry.

In this episode of "On Balance," Dr. Rod Berger sat down with J.D. LaRock.

About. J.D.

A respected educator, scholar, and policy expert, Dr. LaRock NFTE's President and Chief Executive Officer.

He came to NFTE from the Commonwealth Corporation, Massachusetts’ public-private state authority focused on workforce development and regional economic development. As president and CEO of Commonwealth, Dr. LaRock chaired Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s Commission on Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning, producing a blueprint for innovative work-based learning models that garnered significant investment from major foundations.  Previously he served as a senior education advisor to the late U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, leading work on the renewal of the federal Higher Education Act, as well as passage of a law that provided $20 billion in new Pell Grants to college students. As education policy director for former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, he helped author a K-12 education law that enabled turnarounds in low-performing school districts and helped the state win $250 million through the U.S. Department of Education’s “Race to the Top” program.

For much of the past decade, Dr. LaRock has worked as a teacher, scholar, and university administrator focused on experiential learning, entrepreneurship, and the future of work. As chief of staff to the president of Northeastern University, he served on the leadership team that completed the institution’s transformation from a commuter college to a top-ranked global research university. He has also served as Professor of the Practice of Law and Policy at Northeastern and as a Fellow with the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities program.

Dr. LaRock grew up in Queens, New York, in a family of public school educators, and is a  proud graduate of the city’s public schools. He went on to earn his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate at Harvard University and his law degree at Georgetown University. He currently resides in Massachusetts with his wife Christina, a sign language interpreter, and their daughter Callie.

In this On Balance episode, Dr. Rod Berger sat down with Doug Dennerline, CEO of Betterworks.

Doug has worked in Silicon Valley since 1982 - starting with HP selling the first PC, followed by 12 years at 3Com, and 12 years at Cisco, massively scaling those companies. In his last role at Cisco, he became the CEO of Webex post the acquisition of Webex by Cisco.

Doug has run SaaS companies ever since. He’s worked for many famous leaders - Marc Benioff, John Chambers, Lars Delgaard - and learned many lessons about what it takes to grow and scale high-performing teams. 

In this episode of On Balance, Dr. Rod Berger sits down with Kelsey Clark.

Kelsey is a member of Boston Consulting Group's Public Sector and People & Organization practices as well as a member of the firm’s education leadership team in the US. Kelsey serves as the Dallas office lead, as well as leading the Pride@BCG network for the US. Kelsey focuses primarily on the education, employment, and welfare sector, covering topics including strategy, change management, performance management, consumer insight, and organization design and transformation.

Her client work has included supporting the development and implementation of a comprehensive early childhood education strategy—from birth to third grade—for one of the largest urban school districts in the US. She also supported the transformation of a community college to align programs to the workforce needs of the community and increase student success and developed a case for change and long-range strategic planning to guide a state legislature with deep dives on education, health care, and economic development in rural communities.

Kelsey is active in the Dallas community, and is on the board of Child Poverty Action Lab (CPAL), and Lumin Education, a Dallas-based charter school network.

Bill Salak has more than 20 years of experience overseeing large-scale development projects and more than 24 years of experience in web application architecture and development. Bill founded and served as CTO of multiple Internet and web development companies, leading technology projects for companies including Age of Learning, AOL, Educational Testing Systems, Film LA, Hasbro, HBO, Highlights for Children, NBC-Universal, and the U.S. Army. Bill currently serves as the CTO of Brainly, the world's leading learning platform worldwide with the most extensive Knowledge Base for all school subjects and grades.

On Balance with Ashley Naranjo

Ashley Naranjo, M.Ed.

Education and Outreach Strategist, Office of the Under Secretary for Education, Smithsonian Institution

Naranjo is a museum educator specializing in the use of digital resources for teaching

Learning Lab link here: https://learninglab.si.edu/

National Education Summit information can be found here: https://www.si.edu/educators/smithsonian-national-education-summit-2023

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-naranjo/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/smithsonian-education/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ashleymnaranjo?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naranjoa

Facebook - @SmithsonianEducation

Twitter - @SmithsonianEdu

LinkedIn - @SmithsonianEducation

Advait co-founded GoGuardian to provide K-12 schools with new technologies that enable students to engage in a better learning experience. His dedication to help unlock student potential in education is made clear through his mission of using the internet in an open, but safe way. In his role as CEO of GoGuardian, Advait brings his passion for using data and technology to solve problems in education.

Based on his accomplishments in education and technology, Advait was selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Education in 2016, as a finalist for Los Angeles Business Journal’'s CTO of the Year in 2017, as a finalist for Ernst & Young's prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Greater Los Angeles in 2018, and for Los Angeles Business Journal’s 20 in Their 20s in 2019.

Before co-founding GoGuardian, Advait worked at Google as an engineer, combining innovation with the power of scale and helping to launch key products, such as Google Pay (formerly Google Wallet). Advait holds a B.S. in Computer Science from UCLA.

Follow Advait on LinkedIn

On Balance with Hunter Moore explores the journey of an entrepreneur aiming to break outdated industry norms to better the world for generations on the come. Check out more of Hunter's background below!

While working at many STEM corporations (IBM, Boeing, Pratt and Whitney, Sandia National Laboratories), Hunter saw that it was always difficult to find qualified Americans for open STEM jobs. He discovered this was because the United States ranked 25th in the world in science. He realized that this was not sustainable for our economy, national defense, and children’s future. This is when he decided to augment his BS & MS in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech with an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill to provide the necessary foundation to build a company that would improve our economy, national defense, and our children’s future by revolutionizing STEM education. This was the genesis of Plasma Games.

Caroline began her career as an entrepreneur and joined JA as a volunteer in Slovakia in the 1990s. She worked to establish JA operations in eight Eastern European countries after the Berlin Wall came down and eventually led the founding of JA Europe in 2002. She is passionate about the impact entrepreneurship education can have on young people, and during her 17 years as CEO at JA Europe, she and her team launched several innovative initiatives such as the Entrepreneurial Skills Pass (a micro-credential for teenagers), the EE-HUB (a policy platform), the Innovation Cluster for Entrepreneurship Education (impact research), and The Entrepreneurial School Awards.

In 2014, she received a Leonardo Award for "Crossing Borders" and was given the Soraya Salti Award by JA Worldwide in 2017 for her achievements in Europe. In 2019, her alma mater, the University of Alberta in Canada, awarded her an Honorary Doctorate.  

Caroline also became the Global Head of Regional Growth and Development for JA Worldwide in 2016 and joined as COO in February 2020. Caroline has spoken at numerous conferences and events, including the World Economic Forum, the OECD, and the Global Education & Skills Forum and is a frequent panelist and moderator.

Caroline is a dual citizen (Canada and Belgium) and is based in Brussels.

On Balance with David Shafer - Shafer serves as Chief Entrepreneur responsible for Cognia’s Trusted Partner Program, along with exploring partnerships and new ways to increase Cognia’s impact. For more than two decades, he has led multiple successful start-ups, including Frontline Education and bringing the Skycam™ aerial robotic broadcast camera system to professional and college sports. Shafer has worked in several markets outside of education that, include broadcast, entertainment, and banking.  He has served terms as an elected school board member in Pennsylvania and currently serves as an Executive Board Member for Millersville University, his undergraduate alma mater, along with advising the Lombardo Business School’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. He has volunteered as an Executive Board Member of the Boy Scouts of America and served on the Executive Board of the YMCA.