About ParentPowered

Rebecca is the Chief Content and Curriculum Officer at ParentPowered. She has authored numerous curricula, parent guides, and children’s storybooks for Sesame Workshop, Scholastic, Disney, Compass Learning, PBS, WGBH, HITN, Nickelodeon, Mo Willems, and The Norman Rockwell Museum. She has also served as a Curriculum and Content Specialist for Sesame Street and spent ten years teaching in public, private, and after school programs. Rebecca has a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street.

Weezie is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at ParentPowered. She has spent over a decade of her career cultivating and managing relationships that support financial sustainability and bolster social impact. Weezie has worked for businesses, public benefit corporations and nonprofits, including Giving Assistant, GreatSchools, and Sesame Workshop. She holds a B.A. in political science from Louisiana State University.

Francoise is the Director of Content at ParentPowered. She began her career teaching kindergarten in the South Bronx through Teach for America, and has ten years of experience working in both the public and private sector. Most recently, she worked with the Flying Cloud Institute to design and implement STEM and STEAM based units for elementary classrooms. Francoise has a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College.

Susanna is an Academic Advisor of ParentPowered, and a Professor of Education and International and Public Affairs at Brown University. She is also the Director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown, and was previously the Director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis at Stanford University. Susanna holds a doctorate in economics and a master of public policy from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor’s in political science and civil engineering from Stanford.

Shira holds a Bachelor of Arts from College of the Atlantic and a Masters of Education from Boston University.

Steve is a Technical Advisor of ParentPowered and a founder and managing director of Learning Tapestry, an educational innovation company. He has served in government as Deputy Director of Educational Technology at the US Department of Education, and as the Director of Education at the FCC. Steve also ran the technology consulting firm Mixrun, providing CTO services to organizations including the CA Department of Education, Pearson, Amplify, and the Gates Foundation. He holds a BA in Anthropology from UC Berkeley.

Alex is the Senior Software Engineer at ParentPowered, responsible for the design, development, and maintenance of the technical side of the ParentPowered program. He is an IT specialist with a focus on web development, and has helped build numerous web apps and services. Alex holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI in Moscow, Russia.

Palmer holds a Bachelor of Arts in Child Development from San Jose State University and a Master of Education in Applied Linguistics from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in Australia.

Kris holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Missouri Kansas City.

Heer is the Program Success Manager for Distance Learning at ParentPowered. She began her career designing a mobile public education program for the government in Pakistan and teaching in underserved areas in Karachi. More recently, she worked as the Tech & Data Lead responsible for Pre-K for All Outreach in New York City. Heer has a Masters in Education Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Mary is the Director of Marketing & Communications for ParentPowered PBC. She is passionate about helping great ideas take flight. A life-long member of the mission-driven entrepreneurial world, she has worked across industries and sectors, with the last 7 years in edtech. She holds an MBA in Managing for Sustainability from Marlboro College and a B.A. summa cum laude from the College of William & Mary in Anthropology.

Ben is the founder of ParentPowered and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors. Prior to founding ParentPowered, he was the Executive Director of CEPA Labs at Stanford University. It was at Stanford where Ben and colleagues first studied the ParentPowered approach. His career spans education technology, education research, public education as an after school program manager, philanthropy, and finance. Ben has a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Colorado, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, as well as a Master of Arts in political science and a Ph.D. in education from Stanford. He enjoys spending his free time with his wife Shelly and daughters Ellie and Emma.