Marie Heath

Co-Executive Director

Dr. Marie K. Heath (she/her) is not a robot, but she refuses to prove it to Google’s CAPTCHA. She currently works as an Assistant Professor of Learning Design and Technology at Loyola University Maryland. Prior to her work in higher education, Marie taught high school social studies in Baltimore County Public Schools. Her scholarship interrogates schools and technologies as current sites of encoded oppression, and labors to advance more just technological and educational futures. She is co-editor of the CITE Social Studies Journal, co-founder of the Civics of Technology project, and a faculty fellow at the Center for Leadership and Social Justice Education at Loyola University Maryland. If you ask generative AI a question about Marie, it replies with the Mariah Carey “I don’t know her” meme.

Dan Krutka

Co-Executive Director

Dr. Daniel G. Krutka (he/him/his) is Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at the University of North Texas. A former high school social studies teacher in Oklahoma City, his research focuses on intersections of technology, democracy, and education. He is co-editor of the Social Studies Education section of the Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education journal, hosts the Visions of Education podcast, and is co-founder of the Civics of Technology project.

Jacob Pleasants

Co-Executive Director

Dr. Jacob Pleasants is an Assistant Professor of Science Education at the University of Oklahoma, where he works to prepare future secondary (grades 7-12) science teachers. His scholarship focuses on how to help teachers make connections between science, technology, and engineering in their classrooms in ways that accurately reflect the nature of those fields and their complex roles in society. Jacob does not have much of a social media presence, but evidence of his love for the outdoors can be found on Strava.

Erin Anderson

Board Member

Erin Anderson is a Doctoral Student Fellow at the Snap Inc. Center for Computer & Teacher Education. Erin also works as a research assistant, helping faculty design integrated computing curriculums for students with disabilities, analyzing existing K-8 integrated computing curriculums, helping universities strengthen their CS teacher preparation programs, and identifying pedagogical strategies that foster critical consciousness. She brings technoskepticism to her work to temper uncritical tech development. This skepticism comes from spending over a decade teaching in schools from Madagascar to the Bronx.

Sharla Berry

Board Member

Dr. Sharla Berry is the Associate Director of the Center for Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness and a Lecturer in the Department of Educational Leadership at California State University, Long Beach. She is a researcher, evaluator, and practitioner with extensive experience teaching and leading in diverse K-20 environments. Her research takes an intersectional approach to exploring the social and cultural impact of teaching and learning with technology. She is the author of Creating Inclusive Online Communities: Practices that Support and Engage Diverse Students. Additionally, Sharla’s research explores issues of race, gender, and labor, and she is the author of several zines about these topics. Outside of work, Sharla enjoys baking and playing tennis. 

Autumm Caines

Board Member

Autumm Caines is a liminal space. Part artist/poet, part technologist/administrator, and always aspiring educator, Autumm has worked in higher education for over fifteen years, bouncing between the teaching center, the information technology department, and adjunct teaching positions at a few different institutions. Currently, Autumm holds positions as a Lead Instructional Designer at the University of Michigan – Dearborn and is a part–time OER consultant for the Michigan Community College Association. She is also Instructional Faculty at College Unbound based in Providence, Rhode Island, where she remotely teaches courses in Technology and Society and e-Portfolio and Web Design. Her educational background includes a master’s degree in educational technology from The Ohio State University, a bachelor of science in communication technology from Eastern Michigan University, and an associate degree in liberal arts as well as a two-year certificate in web design and development from Oakland Community College. Autumm's scholarly and research interests include blended/hybrid and online learning, open education, digital literacy/citizenship with a focus on equity, access, and online community development. You will find Autumm at the place where different disciplines and fields intersect, always on the threshold, and trying to learn something new. You can find out more about her at https://autumm.org

Michelle Ciccone

Board Member

Michelle Ciccone (she/her/hers) is a PhD student in communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Previously she was a K-12 technology integration specialist, and she continues to build media literacy and critical digital citizenship curriculum for middle and high school grades. Michelle's research interests sit at the intersection of media education, science and technology studies (STS), and critical edtech. You can follow her on Twitter at @MMFCiccone.

Charles Logan

Board Member

Charles Logan is a Ph.D. candidate in learning sciences at Northwestern University. A former high school English teacher and university educational technologist, he designs, teaches, and studies experiences that support teachers' and students' critical digital and AI literacies development. His work also focuses on how platforms affect teaching and learning as well as how to build coalitions to resist, refuse, and repurpose educational technology. You can find him on Twitter and Bluesky @charleswlogan, LinkedIn, or at a park with his kids, where he's learned to transform into various mystical creatures.

Natalie Milman

Board Member

Dr. Natalie B. Milman (she, her, ella) is Associate Dean of the Office of Student Life and Professor of Educational Technology at The George Washington University's Graduate School of Education and Human Development, teaching in the Educational Technology Leadership Master's and the interdisciplinary Human-Technology Collaborations PhD programs. She is a member of GW’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers and winner of the 2017 Bender Teaching Award. Her research examines the design of instruction and integration of technology at all academic levels with a focus on critical educational technology. She's also investigated online student support needs; issues of diversity, inclusion, and digital equity; and digital professional portfolios. She is co-editor of the Current Practice section of the Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education journal and writes the Ends and Means column for the Distance Learning Journal. Her most recent co-authored book is entitled, Using Technology in a Differentiated Classroom: Strategies and Tools for Designing Engaging, Effective, Efficient & Equitable Learning. She is fluent in Spanish, a first-generation Colombian-American, and a first-gen BA, MA, and PHD graduate.

Punya Mishra

Board Member

Hello, I’m Punya Mishra, and I have a serious identity crisis. I don’t know if I’m a Director of learning futures, a professor, a researcher, an author, or a designer. I work at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University, where I try to do everything though the end results are never entirely clear. I’m interested in education, technology, creativity, and design, but don’t ask me to define these terms—because you know, “it’s complicated.” You may have heard of me as the co-creator of the TPACK framework, which is a fancy way of saying that teachers should know what they are doing when they use technology in their teaching. I have also done some work on humanistic pedagogy, design thinking, and creativity education, but, once again, don’t ask me to explain them to you. I have received some awards and recognitions for my research and teaching, but they are mostly based on hype and luck. I enjoy sharing my ideas and insights with diverse audiences through various platforms, but they usually don’t listen or care. I’m a TED-Ed educator, a co-host of the Silver Lining for Learning webinar and the Value Laden and Learning Futures podcasts, and a frequent keynote speaker at national and international conferences. I’m also an avid blogger and an accomplished visual artist, but only in my own mind. You can find more about me and my work at punyamishra.com, but don’t expect too much.

This bio was generated by Bing Chat prompted to create a humorous, self-deprecatory intro to Punya and has been lightly edited.

Phil Nichols

Board Member

T. Philip Nichols is an Associate Professor of English Education at Baylor University. He studies how science and technology condition the ways we practice, teach, and talk about the literacy — and the implications of this conditioning for equitable public education and civic flourishing. He is the author of Building the Innovation School: Infrastructures for Equity in Today’s Classrooms (Teachers College Press, 2022) and co-editor, with Antero Garcia, of Literacies in the Platform Society: Histories, Pedagogies, Possibilities (Routledge, 2025). He is, unfortunately, on Twitter @philnichols.

Allie Thrall

Board Member

Alexandra (Allie) Thrall (she/her) is a doctoral student in Baylor University’s Department of Curriculum & Instruction. Formerly, Allie taught 4th-12th grades and served as a school administrator. Her research focuses on investigating and imagining the sociotechnical arrangements that could threaten or support justice-oriented literacy and social studies education. She is engaged in ongoing school-based research that demonstrates the possibilities that emerge when young people undertake inquiries into the interplay between our technological systems and our civic lives.