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ISTE Plans Search for New CEO to Help Advance Ed Tech

The International Society for Technology in Education is looking for a CEO who can bring together its members and other organizations to increase ed tech adoption.

One of the largest education technology membership groups in the world is in the market for a new CEO.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) advocates for its more than 100,000 education members at the state level, hosts a large conference every year and creates education technology standards. Last week, ISTE said that CEO Brian Lewis' employment ended Sept. 10 and announced a new interim CEO. 

ISTE hasn't had much changeover at the top position in the last 15 years, with Lewis serving for nearly four years and Don Knezek filling that role for 10 years before that. While the ISTE Board plans a search for a new CEO, the interim CEO will be Cheryl Scott Williams, a former ISTE Board president and executive director of the Learning First Alliance, a group of education organizations including ISTE that collaborates on improving student learning. 

Within the next few weeks, the organization plans to post the opening on its website, said Kecia Ray, chair of the ISTE Board and executive director of the Center for Digital Education, which is affiliated with Converge. The CEO is responsible for working with the ISTE Board to set the organization's direction, representing the ed tech community at large in speaking engagements, and leading staff in the Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C., offices. 

The board is looking for a leader who can help move the ed tech field forward in partnership with other organizations. In general, the ed tech conversation today still revolves around adoption just like it did when ISTE started in 1979, Ray said. 

"Getting ed tech to be the norm has been something we've been focused on since the '80s," she said, "and we haven't as a field made the impact that one might think we would have made."

Along with advancing education technology as a field, the board would like to find someone who can represent its members well and involve them in activities designed to build up their ed tech skills, Ray said. These activities include the organization's large annual conference, professional learning networks, online communities and membership with local affiliate organizations.

"ISTE represents the whole sum of the ed tech community, and we have a duty to keep that conversation alive and keep the connections thriving," Ray said.