Biography and Background
Today, I am the Director of Digital Learning and Technology at Cohasset Public Schools, a Teaching Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a UX Research and Design Consultant for 7Mindsets.com.
I graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2000 with a degree in Science-Computing and earned a Masters in Liberal Arts in Educational Technologies in 2009 from Harvard University. My award-winning thesis was a qualitative study of what good citizenship means to adolescents and in what ways the making of new media in a web design curriculum might help them develop their understanding of good citizenship.
I established LKR Design as a freelance web/UX design business in 2000 at the beginning of my career as a web developer at an e-learning startup in Boston. In 2002 I began working for a non-profit, WiredWoods Inc., in partnership with the Boston Public Schools, teaching kids web design in the woods at summer camps, before I transitioned into the classroom full-time. I created and taught the web design, media literacy, and digital storytelling curriculum for high school students at TechBoston Academy, a successful public school model for technology integration that was nationally recognized by President Barack Obama in 2011.
In 2008, I joined an elementary (K-6) charter Boston Public School as the Director of Instructional Technology, where I developed and implemented the school’s 3 year technology plan as part of the move to a newly constructed campus in 2010. I created a scope and sequence of the Massachusetts K-6 technology standards integrated into every grade level and subject area. Teachers were trained in the standards and relevant technologies and showcased their lesson plans and student work in a school-wide annual showcase called the STEM Fair.
In 2013, I joined LogMeIn Inc.’s digital services team where I designed web-based experiences across multiple support channels (knowledge bases, online communities, live chat, and social media) to help LogMeIn users learn how to use their products. I was a member of the Customer Care Leadership Team during the 2016 LogMeIn/GoTo merger and remotely managed a global cross-functional team of content developers, social support agents, and online community managers to drive the digital service vision and roadmap.
In 2019, I moved to Florence, Italy, to join the Senior Leadership Team at the International School of Florence as the Director of Digital Learning and IT as they embarked on building a new school in the rolling hills of Tuscany. During the COVID-19 crisis, I created the Digital Learning Framework and supported staff, students and parents in their transition to remote learning.