Leadership

Gordon Freedman – Executive Director, Blackboard Institute

Gordon Freedman is executive director of the Blackboard Institute and Blackboard’s vice president for global education strategy. Freedman represents Blackboard in discussions on the integration of technology, policy and strategic planning. His efforts are focused on education change to meet global economic demands, institutional transformation and individualized education.

In the U.S., Freedman has an extensive background in both K-12 and higher education and their cross-over in the various K-20 efforts underway. Freedman’s background includes key start-up and executive roles at Knowledge Exchange, LLC, California State University Monterey Bay and the online learning portal HungryMinds.com. Freedman’s consulting firm, Knowledge Base, LLC, had among its clients the University of California, The George Washington University, Michigan State University, Capella University, the National Science Foundation, O’Reilly books, WebCT and eCollege. Freedman has also worked closely with textbook and journal publishers, as well as with a number of science museums.

In K-12, Freedman was a co-founder and long-time board member of the International School of Monterey, a K-8 California charter school, and he was among the founding group of iNACOL - International Association for K-12 Online Learning. In his work for the Blackboard Institute and in his non-profit board service, Freedman has been an advocate for improving K-20 student progression. In this regard, Freedman serves on the boards of Innovate-Educate New Mexico and the K-20 California Educational Technology Collaborative.

Internationally, Freedman represents Blackboard at numerous education forums, including the Organisation for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD), the European Union, the Universities UK (UUK), the Association for Commonwealth Universities (ACU), the Chinese, Singaporean and Korean Ministries of Education, the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), the Consortium for the North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC), the National Training Service (SENA) in Colombia, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) in the UK and the Forum for the Future of Higher Education.

Freedman and his family live in Northern California. Prior to entering education, Freedman worked in government, media and was a film and television producer.

 

Jessie Woolley-Wilson – President, K12 Sales and K-20 Strategy

As President of Blackboard's K-12 Group, Jessie Woolley-Wilson brings more than fifteen years experience in the education industry to Blackboard. In her role, she oversees Blackboard’s growth and development strategy focused on elementary and secondary education. Jessie brings a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience in helping schools implement technology programs that positively impact student learning.

Prior to joining Blackboard, she served as President of LeapFrog SchoolHouse where she was instrumental in establishing SchoolHouse as a leader in education technology and as one of the fastest growing educational software producers.

Throughout her fifteen-year career in the education industry, Jessie has held several leadership roles in general management, marketing, and business development. She has extensive experience managing start-ups, turnarounds, and high-growth environments. Prior to joining LeapFrog, Jessie was Vice President of Marketing College Solutions at collegeboard.com, the interactive division of The College Board. In addition, Jessie was part of a three-member executive team that built MyRoad.com, an e-learning company that helped middle school, high school, and college students prepare for college and careers, before it was acquired by The College Board in 2001.

Jessie began her career in education at Kaplan, where she held roles as Regional Area Director of the Southern California Test Prep Service Centers and Executive Director of Pre-College and Pre-Graduate testing programs. She was also President of Crimson & Brown Associates, a diversity recruiting firm and Kaplan's first acquisition in the career industry.

Jessie received her MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Harvard Business School and her BA in English from The University of Virginia. She is a 2007 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and is on the Board of the National Education Association Foundation, Junior Achievement of the National Capital Area and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Jessie most recently was appointed to the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Technology and Education. The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

 

Richard Horton – Sr. Director of Education Strategy, Blackboard International

Richard’s current role within Blackboard is concerned with the intersection of education policy with practice and the corresponding impact of technology. His role includes researching the trends in education and the future technology required to support them. His role further includes fostering strong customer relationships, supporting international marketing activities and building partnerships across the education sector to ensure that Blackboard maintains its leading market position worldwide. Richard brings to Blackboard over 25 years of experience with information technology and its application since graduating from Durham University. Richard also holds a Master of Engineering degree from Liverpool University. Richard is currently studying for his Doctorate in Education at Southampton University.

Richard’s career has included the role of a seismologist in the oil industry, marketing the world’s most powerful supercomputers, European technical press relations, and running his own IT business. Richard’s career has given him the opportunity to travel extensively as well as to live in mainland Europe, the Middle East and in Africa. Richard currently lives in Poole, England.

 

Garen Singer – Program Director, Blackboard Institute

As program director of the Blackboard Institute, Garen Singer guides the strategic direction and manages the day-to-day operations of Blackboard Inc.’s internal education research organization.

Singer came to Blackboard from Widmeyer Communications where as senior account manager she helped higher education clients, such as CourseSmart, West Virginia University, West Virginia University College of Law and private student lender First Marblehead, broaden recognition and develop and implement crisis communications plans.

At Neusner Communications, a start-up speechwriting and corporate public relations consultancy, Singer developed and executed media relations strategies, drafted opinion pieces for publication in major newspapers, wrote speeches and educated policymakers on behalf of Neusner’s clients.

Singer was the speechwriter for Israel’s Ambassador to the United States where she wrote on Israel’s security policy, Iran and the Israeli economy. She also worked as both the director of public affairs and cultural affairs officer for the Embassy of Israel in Washington D.C., responsible for event planning, fundraising and grassroots outreach.

Singer received a Master of Public Policy from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts from Emory University.