Happy new year, friends! I hope yours was a blessed and restful holiday season. It was very special here, and now off we go into a new year. I know you enter 2018 with new hopes and energies for your work in the industry. There are challenges ahead, but I know they are none that cannot be met and dealt with by all of you, especially as you work together as a community. I launched into the reality of retirement with this new year but will be posting one last column next week. Have no worries – you will continue to get great articles, so keep reading each week. For now, check out the first scoops of the new year!
People on the move….
Heather Connelly has joined the team at SAFARI Montage as Vice President of Strategic Accounts and will be exploring the best ways for school districts nationally to solve digital instruction challenges through the SAFARI Montage platform. Heather is highly respected by both the ed tech and Curriculum & Instruction K-12 community due to her diversified experience as a teacher; Senior Enterprise Sales and Marketing Executive at Desire2Learn; Senior Sales, Strategy and Digital Executive at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; and, most recently, National Sales Director at Learning Ally. Tim Beekman, President and Co-founder, says her skills and background make her expertise ideal for SAFARI Montage.
Join me in congratulating Heather on joining the great SAFARI team!
And big news at eSchoolMedia! After more than 10 years with the company, Editorial Director, Content Services, Meris Stansbury is moving to San Francisco to join the Christensen Institute.
Ellen Ullman will join the staff as the new Editorial Director, Content Services. Ellen has been a magazine writer and editor since 1987 and began reporting exclusively on K-12 and higher ed technology in 2003. For the last several years she’s been a contributing editor for Tech & Learning. Ellen will be working on both eSchool News and eCampus News.
Congratulations to Meris and Ellen on their new roles! Feel free to write to Ellen at EUllman@eSchoolMedia.com.
And sad news to share….
My dear friend, Anne Meyn, former TCEA President and retired Houston Independent School administrator, lost her husband of 49 years, Ray, on December 27th, following his long battle with cancer.
Memorial services will be held at 11:00 am on January 13th at West University United Methodist Church, 3611 University Boulevard, Houston, TX 77005. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Raymond E. Meyn Memorial Research Scholarship Endowment Fund at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, P.O. Box 4486, Houston TX 77210-4486.
Many of you know and love Anne, and I know you join me in sending thoughts and prayers for her during this difficult time.
And that’s a wrap on the first scoops for this new year. Keep sending items about yourself and others in this wonderful industry. And I will see you back here next Friday for my final column as the Snoop! My best always – Vicki, the Snoop
