If you haven’t had a chance to have a nice, long conversation with Heather Staker, you may want to add that to your “to do” list for this fall. (She’ll be a bit busy this summer as she welcomes her new baby into the world next week!)

While being the mom of four (soon to be five) curious, compassionate and generous children is enough to make her a hero, our own Heather Staker is looked to as one of our nation’s leaders in education innovation. Here is a glimpse of her bio:

“Heather Clayton Staker is a Senior Research Fellow for the education practice at Innosight Institute and a thought leader in the field of educational innovation.

Scholastic’s blog named Mrs. Staker as one of 5 people to watch in education in 2012 and her Innosight report “The rise of K-12 blended learning: Profiles of emerging models,” was listed by Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning one of the 11 most valuable reports for online learning policymakers and practitioners in 2011. She is a frequent keynote speaker at major education innovation conferences and has testified before state policymakers, including in Arizona, California, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Heather graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, with a concentration in Government. She received an MBA, with distinction, from Harvard Business School.”

I don’t make promises lightly; and I happily promise you that Heather’s recent blog post about Acton Academy will be of great interest to you. Enjoy:

http://www.innosightinstitute.org/education-blog/the-first-principle-of-blended-learning/

Thank you, Heather, for changing the world for good.