Jennie Magiera is the Global Head of Education Impact at Google, the Corwin bestselling author of Courageous Edventures and the founder of the non-profit organization, Our Voice Alliance, whose mission is to elevate marginalized voices and perspectives to improve equity & empathy in education. She also serves on the board of Saga Education. Previously, she was the Chief Program Officer for an edtech company, the Chief Innovation Officer for the Des Plaines School District, the Digital Learning Coordinator for the Academy for Urban School Leadership, and a Chicago Public Schools teacher. Jennie uses her classroom experiences to inform her work supporting educators to create new and better opportunities for their students. She believes that despite the many challenges facing schools today, every classroom can be a place for “edventures”: student-centered, passion-based experiential learning.

Jennie is also passionate about reimagining professional learning to facilitate more relevant teacher support. She has served on the Technical Working Group for the US Department of Education’s National Educational Technology Plan, helped develop the Dynamic Learning Project, and co-founded various conference concepts such as PLAYDATE and Teachers for Tomorrow. She has been recognized for her work as an Obama White House Champion for Change, Chicago Public Schools Innovator of the Year, TEDx Speaker, Golden Apple Teacher of Distinction, ISTE Impact Award Winner, SheRunsIt Working Mothers of the Year, and featured on various programs such as NBC’s Education Nation, C-SPAN’s Reimagining Education and NPR.

Jennie shares her experiences taking risks in the classroom and helping others to feel comfortable doing the same in her book, Courageous Edventures. You can follow her on Twitter at @MsMagiera and learn more about her work and her book at bit.ly/edventuresbook.

Jennie is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and has earned a BA in psychology and history from Columbia University and a MS from University of Illinois at Chicago in Mathematics Education.

When not working to improve the world of education, she can be found at her home in Chicago, baking, ice-cream making, and always dancing with her daughters Lucy and Nora.