Kirk Anderson is director of Educational Technology at Denver Public Schools. He has worked for Denver Public Schools for nearly 20 years. He started in the classroom, then worked in IT support for years before transitioning to Educational Technology five years ago. He has overseen the district distribution of laptops to 5,000 teachers, the roll-out of Google Apps for Education and the administration of over $10 million in preparation for online assessments. In a portfolio management district, his team is dedicated to establishing systems that allow for teacher and school autonomy, along with the advantages of centralization. In his spare time, Anderson likes playing Frisbee, making movies and spending time with his wife and seven-year-old daughter.

Steve Clagg is CIO for Aurora Public Schools, where he led a campaign to transform IT into a customer-focused service delivery team. A big believer in blended learning, he serves as an advisory board member of the Colorado eLearning Collaborative. As a result of the 2012 Aurora theatre shooting, Clagg became an advocate for school safety, is NIMS certified and has presented to school districts at the local and national level on school safety protocols. He also served as president of the Colorado Association of Leaders in Education Technology, developing a sell-out conference of over 180 School Education Technology leaders three years running. He is an advocate of leadership development and teaches leadership and strategic communication to MBA students, conference workshops and local organizations.

Gwen Giddens is an educational leader with over 32 years of experience as a teacher, school librarian, college adjunct instructor and program director who believes the best educational experiences allow one to create and take ownership of one’s own learning in a collaborative and personalized learning environment. She currently serves as the director of learning resource services/instructional technology in Colorado Springs School District 11 and has professional experience in numerous K-12 school districts in the states of Georgia, Florida and Colorado.

Sharyn Guhman is CIO for the Denver Public Schools. DPS serves approximately 90,000 students in more than 150 locations. In her role, she actively works to drive innovation and excellence while fusing technology and education. Before serving as CIO, Sharyn led the DPS Program Management Office, facilitating the setting of district-wide technology priorities and building a team of skilled leaders who manage bringing technical projects to fruition at DPS. She brought to DPS more than 16 years of previous experience in private-sector management and IT consulting where she led large-scale systems development, implementation and change-management initiatives across a variety of industries.

Gautam joins the Douglas County School District with over 18 years of information technology experience. In those years, he worked as a technology consultant for companies like Verizon and Johnson & Johnson, prior to joining New York City Department of Education. It was at NYCDOE he discovered his passion for solving deeply complex educational and operational problems using technology. During his eight years at NYCDOE, he managed various IT projects impacting the 1.4 million students and 1,600 schools. He then moved from the largest school district in the U.S. to Atlanta Public Schools to work in an urban environment with significant equity issues as it relates to technology.