Newsela CEO and leadership

Matthew Gross has a nineteen-year career in the education sector, for-profit and nonprofit entrepreneurship, and product development and distribution. Matthew was Executive Director of the Regents Research Fund, a privately funded affiliate of the New York State Board of Regents and Education Department that helped lead the implementation of Race to the Top–driven education reforms. Reporting to Education Commissioner John King, Jr, Matthew oversaw the organization’s growth strategy, public–private partnerships, talent acquisition, and day-to-day operations. While at the Fund, Matthew led the development of EngageNY.org, a web application providing teachers and administrators with resources for implementation of Common Core state standards and teacher and principal evaluations. Since its August 2011 launch, the site has been viewed over fourteen million times by educators in all fifty states. Matthew played a leadership role in the development of the Regents Research Fellows, a team of nationally recognized thought leaders who help lead the implementation of the Common Core, next-generation assessments, and other education reforms spurred by Race to the Top. Under Matthew’s purview, the Fund raised over $9 million in support from many of the nation’s most respected education funders including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and the Robin Hood Foundation. Prior to joining the Fund, Matthew was Vice President of Planning & Resource Development at Pencil, a national leader in building private-sector partnerships with public schools that improve student achievement. He led a wide array of initiatives at Pencil, including the development of the Pencil Exchange, a social media and relationship-management application for business–school partnerships now used in over 400 schools nationwide. Earlier, Matthew spent several years managing entrepreneurial ventures, including as co- founder and President of out-of-home media company Submedia, which secured over $6 million in venture investment, $2 million in annual bookings, contracts with multiple government agencies, and licensing agreements in Europe and East Asia. Matthew co-holds two patents for Submedia’s technology. Matthew began his career as a Teach for America corps member, teaching music at C.S. 50 in the South Bronx. He serves on the School Leadership Team of P.S. 101 in Queens, which his three boys attend. He holds a B.A. from Columbia University.

Co-Founder and Chief Academic Officer, Newsela.

Newsela is a personalized reading service providing article-length fiction and non-fiction at five reading levels in order to help all students in grades 3 to 12 master literacy. The software constantly assesses each student's reading ability and automatically gives them the level of each article that's just right for them, while students also have the power to change the reading level with a single click. Common Core-aligned quizzes provide rich data about students' mastery of informational literacy; writing tools offer opportunities for performance tasks and instruction of research-based reading strategies.

Specialties: Curriculum development in online and blended learning environments. Blended learning school models. 1:1 mobile device programs. Program development and grant writing. Teacher education, teacher professional development. Digital learning software review and evaluation. Google Apps for Education, mobile learning, Chromebook implementation.

Co-author of winning $4.4 million Investing in Innovation (i3) Race to the Top grant proposal.

Blended learning curricula for high school Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) design competitions using the Moodle LMS. Blended learning mentoring program matching high school teams with experts in industry and academia.

Co-designed video annotation software. (http://vpb.concord.org) Delivered training workshops for students and teachers in USA, Denmark, Hungary, England, France.

Teaching experience in public, independent, urban, suburban, charter school settings from middle school through graduate teacher education programs.

Jennifer Coogan is a Chief Content Officer at Newsela and is based in Mountain View, California. She has worked as Reporter at Thomson Reuters; Managing Editor at INTUIT INC; and Content Strategist, Content Manager, Editor, Writer at Content Management Consultant. Jennifer studied at Northwestern University between 2002 and 2004 and Wellesley College between 1996 and 2000.

Entrepreneurial, High Energy, Key Metrics Driven, Sales, Success, Marketing and Revenue Leader with a 30 year track record of explosive revenue growth, leading companies including startups, hyper growth and public companies. An enterprise executive with unique combination of strategic leadership, team building, motivational, high achievement, accountability, coaching & mentoring skills; who has successfully built world class selling, customer success and marketing teams on six continents that have consistently been recognized by Gartner and the Investment Community as leaders in their space. A change agent with a proven track record of building and scaling successful companies to financing events and exits.

Derrick is a highly accomplished technology leader who has solved tech problems at scale in a variety of large and high-growth SaaS and B2B tech companies, and has also proven his social impact bona fides as founder of a mission-driven technology company. Derrick began his professional career as an F-15E “Strike Eagle” crew chief in the United States Air Force, and subsequently spent several years working on hardware and software solutions at IBM.Derrick creates, scales and optimizes impactful technology strategies by focusing on delivering key outcomes, building amazing teams and quickly adapting to new learnings. He excels at the execution of big ideas with given constraints and while his intuition is excellent, he seeks data for decisions.Professional Skills:Software Engineering | Product Management | User Experience (UX) Design | Product Analytics | Team Development | Strategic Planning | Product Engineering | Product and Technology Roadmap | Portfolio Management and Strategy | Agile Delivery | IT and Data Security | IT Management | Enterprise Software | Small-Medium Business SoftwareIndustries:EdTech | FinTech | LegalTech | HRTech | CMMS

Jennifer Ruth is a seasoned executive with deep experience establishing, growing, optimizing and managing software and marketing business units around the world. She has a proven track record expanding start-ups globally and leading large customer success, full service account management, acquisition and marketing teams across multiple industries, including digital and FSi. After over seven years in Australia, Jennifer and her family have returned to the United States where she is leading the United States expansion of Simple, the Marketing Leadership Platform.

Adriel Sanchez is a Chief Marketing Officer at Newsela.

Matthew Gross has a nineteen-year career in the education sector, for-profit and nonprofit entrepreneurship, and product development and distribution. Matthew was Executive Director of the Regents Research Fund, a privately funded affiliate of the New York State Board of Regents and Education Department that helped lead the implementation of Race to the Top–driven education reforms. Reporting to Education Commissioner John King, Jr, Matthew oversaw the organization’s growth strategy, public–private partnerships, talent acquisition, and day-to-day operations. While at the Fund, Matthew led the development of EngageNY.org, a web application providing teachers and administrators with resources for implementation of Common Core state standards and teacher and principal evaluations. Since its August 2011 launch, the site has been viewed over fourteen million times by educators in all fifty states. Matthew played a leadership role in the development of the Regents Research Fellows, a team of nationally recognized thought leaders who help lead the implementation of the Common Core, next-generation assessments, and other education reforms spurred by Race to the Top. Under Matthew’s purview, the Fund raised over $9 million in support from many of the nation’s most respected education funders including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and the Robin Hood Foundation. Prior to joining the Fund, Matthew was Vice President of Planning & Resource Development at Pencil, a national leader in building private-sector partnerships with public schools that improve student achievement. He led a wide array of initiatives at Pencil, including the development of the Pencil Exchange, a social media and relationship-management application for business–school partnerships now used in over 400 schools nationwide. Earlier, Matthew spent several years managing entrepreneurial ventures, including as co- founder and President of out-of-home media company Submedia, which secured over $6 million in venture investment, $2 million in annual bookings, contracts with multiple government agencies, and licensing agreements in Europe and East Asia. Matthew co-holds two patents for Submedia’s technology. Matthew began his career as a Teach for America corps member, teaching music at C.S. 50 in the South Bronx. He serves on the School Leadership Team of P.S. 101 in Queens, which his three boys attend. He holds a B.A. from Columbia University.

Co-Founder and Chief Academic Officer, Newsela.

Newsela is a personalized reading service providing article-length fiction and non-fiction at five reading levels in order to help all students in grades 3 to 12 master literacy. The software constantly assesses each student's reading ability and automatically gives them the level of each article that's just right for them, while students also have the power to change the reading level with a single click. Common Core-aligned quizzes provide rich data about students' mastery of informational literacy; writing tools offer opportunities for performance tasks and instruction of research-based reading strategies.

Specialties: Curriculum development in online and blended learning environments. Blended learning school models. 1:1 mobile device programs. Program development and grant writing. Teacher education, teacher professional development. Digital learning software review and evaluation. Google Apps for Education, mobile learning, Chromebook implementation.

Co-author of winning $4.4 million Investing in Innovation (i3) Race to the Top grant proposal.

Blended learning curricula for high school Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) design competitions using the Moodle LMS. Blended learning mentoring program matching high school teams with experts in industry and academia.

Co-designed video annotation software. (http://vpb.concord.org) Delivered training workshops for students and teachers in USA, Denmark, Hungary, England, France.

Teaching experience in public, independent, urban, suburban, charter school settings from middle school through graduate teacher education programs.