Shift Blog

Dear SHIFTers: Happy Earth Day 2021! I hope this finds our community doing well and enjoying the beginning of Spring. Besides wishing you a happy Earth Day, we wanted to share the winners of our Unreal Futures’ Earth Day PSA CompetItion, as the winners were announced today! The competition was part of our annual event, the Close It Summit, and was a collaboration with Epic Games and Unreal Engine for the ‘Create and Earth Day Awareness Ad Competition’. Partners include NASEF.org and Tallo.com. Videos of the winners can be viewed at   https://innovate-educate.org/portfolio/epic-games-earth-day-awareness-ad/. As part of this project, I was honored to get... Read More

SHIFT Blog Conversation with Kevin Clark Conversation with Kevin Clark, President and Founder of Content Evolution LLC and co-Founder of DistributED Kevin, thanks for your time today to talk about “SHIFT HAS HAPPENED…WHAT’S NOW!” …the theme of this year’s Close It Summit.  I am really excited to talk with you today, as you and I have been talking for more than a year about the changing global environment and how to address these changes with innovation and impact. As we began our discussions around new ways to “gather”, we imagined a new way of working, learning, communicating, collaborating and gathering.   ... Read More

THESH/FT BLOG. People Centered.  An Interview with Lois Johnson, Workforce Development Institute of NY, on the need for Future Skills! Hello Friends!  Happy September from Santa Fe, New Mexico! It’s time for another SHIFT Blog.  The purpose of this blog is to really elevate work happening across the Globe around making an impact in workforce and learning.  Just last week, I had the opportunity to sit down (or “Zoom Down”) with Lois Johnson to talk to her about WDI-NY’s Statewide efforts to ensure future skills for all New Yorkers.  Lois is the Director of Workforce Strategies for the Workforce Development Institute... Read More

After being dormant through the past few months – watching the world turn upside down, I pondered on who I wanted to interview for our next blog.  Then, I met Kristin and I knew! I am excited to have had the opportunity to get to know Kristin through some weekly Uberconference meetings and to interview such a leader in research and design.  Kristin and I met through our colleague Kevin Clark, Founder of Content Evolution.  And, I met Kevin as an advisor to SocialTech.AI.  The world is closely connected, and what I like most about the work of Innovate+Educate and... Read More

This month, we held the 7th annual Close It Summit, in La Ciudad Diferente, also known as Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was an honor to host over 500 amazing leaders from across the globe focusing on ensuring equity, access and opportunity in the future of working and learning. I had a chance to catch up with Dr. Katherine Bihr, Vice President of Programs and Education at TGR Foundation, A Tiger Woods Charity, where we discussed her Close It 2019 session with Native American and New Mexican professional golfer Notah Begay III. Moderated by Susanne Thompson, Senior Vice President at Discovery Education,... Read More

October is off to an exciting start! This week, I had the privilege of speaking with Lee Lambert, Chancellor of Pima Community College, about the release of “SHIFT HAPPENS @ Pima Community College.” Lee and I had the opportunity to meet in March 2019 at the NAWB Forum in Washington, D.C. It was there that we formed a collaboration to produce “SHIFT HAPPENS@PIMA.” Authored by Dr. Merrilea Mayo and the Pima leadership team, SHIFT Happens@PIMA is the first paper of its kind to describe the implementation strategies a large higher education institution has taken to address the rapidly changing environment... Read More

This month, I had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Lorenzo Esters.  Dr. Esters currently serves as Executive Director for Higher Education Partnerships with the Global Education Division of Education Testing Service (ETS), a nonprofit organization that seeks to advance quality and equity in education for all people worldwide.  Dr. Esters will be joining us at the CLOSE IT SUMMIT 2019 to be held October 15-16, 2019, highlighting the new initiative Skills for A New Economy. Lorenzo, I am so pleased to interview you for the CLOSE IT blog, specifically as CLOSE IT less than one month away!  When I... Read More