Meet the team

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Erica

ceo, co-founder

Erica Crane, EdD (she/her) wants you to feel like you’re on the best team there ever was so you can learn audaciously. She and her best team created a school that was centered on deeper learning for equity with a competency-based, student-centered approach. she started her career teaching in the South Bronx and has coached, consulted, professored, and supported educational systems across the US. she’s wildly passionate about developing classrooms for liberation and educators for a future we can (RE)Imagine together.

A young child sitting in a dark blue armchair, looking at a colorful picture book and a pacifier in their mouth, wearing pajamas with a space-themed pattern.

Mike

cto, co-founder

Mike mendelson (he/him) wants you to fail really fast. He’s taught, launched and led companies, been tasked with transitioning a large school district to a competency-based approach, and believes in partnering educators for meaningful conversations to accelerate learning. He’s dedicated his life to making this possible and scalable. He’s also the first person to say “yes you should do that” anytime you’re not sure if you should but you really, really should.

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Kippy

senior vice president of learning

Kippy (she/her) wants you to be nicer to yourself when you make a mistake or don't know something yet. Some of Kippy's most important learning and growth happened outside of school, so she's focused most of her career on making classroom learning more powerful. She's also founded an ed-tech start up and instructed wilderness courses for adjudicated youth. Kippy really wants schools to become true learning organizations for the educators, in which learning together is a central way of working together.

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Cass

product management & executive consultant

Cass Marketos's friends like to joke that she has had "every single job that exists." Which is sort of true. She has worked in tech, the arts, nonprofits, and government, in addition to running the community compost in her neighborhood, and regularly moonlighting as a teacher about dirt. She has been on the founding team of several startups, specializing in mission-driven organizations that strive to make the world a better place. She has built and nurtured communities all across the digital landscape, as well as IRL in her own neighborhood.

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Diego

AI-enabled software developer

Diego Gonzalez Cruz (he/him) wants you to make experiments. To prototype. To make slime and code computers. A scientist turned educator turned software developer, he believes in a human-centered approach—where technology and AI exist to enhance human potential. He founded a startup in Chile to promote STEAM learning in schools because he knows education expands the horizon of possibilities. His flow state? Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and making music.

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Why we exist

We believe educators are the true nerds in understanding how AI can transform learning and teaching. We aim to elevate educator voices, challenge traditional models, and empower educators to shape the future of AI in education through collective, informed expertise.

Our commitment to this great community isn't performative—it's genuine, valued, and transformative for both educators and the students they serve.