ETIN's guest blogger for today is Mark Quintana, Senior Education Consultant for Promethean and co-chair of ETIN's Diversity Committee.
ETIN’s diversity committee is tackling a clearly evident problem in the software industry: the senior leadership of our companies collectively are not representative of the diversity we find in the student and school district populations we serve. Public discussion of the issue include Intel Discloses Diversity Data, Challenges Tech Industry to Follow Suit and Meet the founder who briefly forced Silicon Valley to confront its race problem.
ETIN recognizes this as a pertinent and critical current issue and established a Diversity Committee in the summer of 2015. I have the privilege of serving as co o-chair of this committee (representing Promethean) along with David Rust of Sandhill Consulting Group, with ETIN providing regular leadership and guidance through Donelle Blubaugh and Karen Billings. The brainstorming discussions that defined the mission of our work evolved into the launch of our Ed Tech Leadership Development Program: Building Diversity on the Executive Team as part of the annual ETIN Education Industry Symposium 2016 in Denver Colorado July 25-27. You can see the details of the July 25 Leadership Development Seminar here.
The complete program is designed to provide guidance and mentorship for women and ethnic minorities who aspire to upper management and/or senior leadership positions within their companies. It also provides companies an opportunity for an additional strategy to increase their pipeline of qualified internal candidates for these important positions.
How is this program different from the many programs available to aspiring leaders? This one will look at leadership through the ed tech industry lens. For example, we’ll look at the known challenges of marketing and selling to the preK-12 market and what leaders need to do to prepare their teams for success.
The program faculty will be our own industry leaders that are making the ed tech industry an innovative educational and economic force among U.S. and international businesses.
Company leadership are asked to identify and sponsor qualified participants they find to have potential for upper management and/or senior level positions. Look for and consider those that were once in your position and could use that guidance that you wish you had back then. Identify individuals such as yourself that are dynamic, intelligent and hands-on in their work experiences. This is your opportunity to be a part of paying forward on your success to future generations of leaders to grow our industry.
For more information, please contact Donelle Blubaugh.
Donelle Blubaugh is the Education Programs Manager at the Education Technology Industry Network (ETIN) of SIIA. Contact Donelle for information about ETIN’s Vision K-20 survey, U.S. K-12 Market survey, Innovation Showcase program or Diversity Initiative.