The TECedge Team

TECedge offers experienced and knowledgeable practitioners with a blend of educational and technical expertise in:

• Teaching and evaluation—PreK-12, university
• Education Administration—school board member, deputy superintendent, executive director of learning services, principal
• Business Administration—president, chief operating officer, chief technology officer, executive vice president, program director
• Product Development and Implementation—engineer, web designer, developer, project manager, trainer

We hold doctoral, master, and bachelor degrees in education, business, technology, engineering, and finance.

Leadership Team

Marcia Kaplan has over 23 years of experience in all facets of the technology industry. In her 15 years consulting to education, Ms. Kaplan has worked with some of the largest as well as smaller school districts throughout the country. Her expertise includes:

• administrative / instructional technology audits and strategic / tactical technology planning
• analysis of IT operational processes, organizational restructuring, staff capabilities, and technical support / service delivery models
• technology procurement assistance for administrative and instructional applications including needs assessment, requirements definition, and bid specifications
• curriculum improvement planning and curriculum / technology integration
• project management for large-scale technology audit, planning, and implementation projects

Ms. Kaplan holds a Bachelor of Arts in History at Mount Holyoke College and a Master in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education where she concentrated in Technology in Education.

Stephen Kelley has extensive experience providing technology consultation and implementation services to schools, school districts, state departments of education, public libraries, and higher education institutions throughout the U.S. for over 25 years. His expertise includes:

• E-rate planning, procurement, application filing, and compliance audits
• technology procurement assistance for administrative, instructional, and decision support applications including needs assessment, requirements definition, and bid specifications
• data, voice, and video network designs and bid specifications, including LANs, WANs, Internet access, Ethernet, Web, client/server, analog and digital video, Centrex/PBXs, and building wiring
• strategic and tactical technology planning and budgets, including implementation plans
• technology and organizational audits / assessments, including administrative audits, WAN assessments, and review of statewide technology standards

Mr. Kelley earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from UCLA.

Our Colleagues

Jeff Bajgot has been working in the K-12 technology and education space for over 30 years. Prior to consulting with TECedge, Jeff was the Chief Solutions Officer for Virtucom, Inc. focused on development of leading-edge technology services and solutions for K-12 learning organizations throughout the United States. Previously Jeff was Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at the Center for Leadership and Technology (CELT) and Chief Technology Officer for Merrimack Education Center.

Mr. Bajgot’s recent work has been focused on providing management consulting support to K-12 organizations on such technology challenges as Information Security, Mobility, Wireless Networks, Data Center, Cloud Adoption, and Organizational change around service management. His expertise spans the full spectrum of technology lifecycle from vision through design, procurement, installation, project management, operations, support, refresh and funding strategies.

Mr. Bajgot received his Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology with a specialization in Network Technology, Summa Cum Laude, from Capella University, Associate in Electrical Engineering, from Northeastern University. Jeff is ITIL Certified and is a Registered Communications Distribution Designer with BICSI.

Greg Palmer has worked in public education for more than 20 years in four different Massachusetts School Districts; the Newton Public Schools, the Canton Public Schools, the Shrewsbury Public Schools and the Northbridge Public Schools. Mr. Palmer has served as a Director of Technology, an Elementary Principal, a Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology, and as a classroom teacher.

In addition to working in public schools, Mr. Palmer has also worked extensively as an educational technology consultant to public organizations including, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Fort Worth, TX ISD, Pasco County, FL, Orange County, FL, and state education agencies in Tennessee, Arizona, Florida, Texas, and the Bureau of Indian Education.

Mr. Palmer has directed numerous Student Information System (SIS) procurements and implementations, Learning Management System (LMS) implementations, and data warehouse projects for state education agencies.

Mr. Palmer holds a Master of Education degree from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from Boston University.

Dr. Richard Kesner serves Northeastern University as an Executive Professor in the Department of Information, Operations and Analysis within the College of Business Administration. Prior to his Northeastern assignment, Dr. Kesner served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of an IT strategy and architecture firm working with K-12 public education systems. He has also served as a senior IT executive for Northeastern University, MetLife, Babson College, Multibank (now part of Bank of America), and the Faxon Company.

Dr. Kesner is a well established member of the higher education community with extensive experience with all aspects of university information systems and operations. As part of his ongoing work in data and knowledge management, he has led a twenty-six state effort to assess the needs and design solutions for State Education Agency (SEA) decision support systems (DSS). In this regard, Dr. Kesner has architected data integration, unique student/education ID, and data warehousing and analytics solution sets for both not-for-profit and for-profit organizations.

Dr. Kesner holds CLU and ChFC certifications from The American College, a M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University, and an A.B. and M.B. from Oberlin College. He has also completed post-doctoral training in finance and strategic planning at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of numerous articles and nine books, including his most recent publication from Auerbach, The Hands-On Project Office: Guaranteeing ROI and on Time Delivery Office (2004). His current hands-on consulting and research interests focus on eCommerce, knowledge, identity, and data management within educational organizations and across associated vertical market spaces.

Eric Esteves specializes in provides Web and IT strategy services (planning, design, hosting, etc.) for small businesses and non-profit organizations. He has manageed a student-run, school-to-career program that provides cost-effective services to businesses and hands-on work opportunities for students. In this capacity, he recruits students and clients, develops programmatic resources, and manages Web and IT projects.

Mr. Esteves previously worked as project manager for a leading educational consulting and IT architecture firm, where his responsibilities included knowledge management, professional development and project management office (PMO) coordination. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems and a M.S. in Information Systems, both from Northeastern University.

Scott Garren has over 30 years experience in delivering information technology solutions to business, industry, and K-12 education with a focus on designing and implementing educationally effective computer and network systems. Mr. Garren is an expert in E-rate. He was a project leader for the Mass Ed Online statewide technology plan as well as other technology planning projects. Mr. Garren led the development of the State of Connecticut's School Building Technology Infrastructure Standards. He is the author of various reports on information technology topics, including local and wide area network design and system security. He earned a Bachelor's of Science Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Bob Howell has over 35 years of experience in both private and public schools and in corporate healthcare. His work has included leadership in consulting with private and public entities in developing programs for children and adults with education and or mental health needs. He has been a principal both in elementary and secondary schools, and has lead large district-wide initiatives in curriculum and instruction. He has conducted workshops, trainings and in-service in the US and Mexico. His major focus has been students at risk, including research findings, application of research to programs, program development, research and evaluation.

Recently Dr. Howell led a District-wide initiative to implement Response to Intervention (RtI) in a public school setting to increase student achievement for sub-groups impacting Average Yearly Progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). As part of this initiative, Dr. Howell secured funding for the evaluation and research of RtI with nationally known researchers.

Dr. John Kerr has worked as Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, Executive Director of the $210 million Bond Implementation Program, Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Executive Director of twenty-one schools K-12, elementary principal, and elementary and adult education teacher.  After retirement, he served as Chief Human Capital Officer for an education technology consulting firm.  He holds a Doctorate and Masters degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado where he focused on strategic planning, educational administration, curriculum development, and counseling/guidance. His undergraduate work was in elementary education and library science.

Stephanie Meegan is an educational consultant, author, international speaker, and facilitator. She has worked with schools, school districts, state departments of education, and higher education institutions in strategic planning, professional development design, and organizational planning large and small across the country. Her areas of expertise include: school-based management, strategic planning at the district and school level, school council development, group process skills, school board’s role in education reform, educational leadership and the change process, monitoring and evaluation of school improvement initiatives, cooperative learning, cooperative discipline, and prevention education. In August 2003, she facilitated and documented the Sudbury Public Schools’ strategic planning retreat for the leadership team. The following summer she facilitated and documented the follow-up strategic retreat for the leadership team and a companion retreat for the Sudbury School Committee.

Ms. Meegan is a former Boxford, Massachusetts School Committee member and was a consultant for the Massachusetts Department of Education’s program, The School Committee’s Leadership Role in Education Reform. She is also an Associate Producer and educational consultant for the historical documentary, Damrell’s Fire, which was distributed nationally by PBS, and author of a companion, standards-based Teachers’ Guide. She is the founder of Impact On Youth Educational Services for educators and parents. Ms. Meegan has a Bachelors Degree in English from Denison University and is an Internationally Certified Trainer of the Cooperative Discipline Institute.

Karen Becker Karen Becker brings a wealth of experience in the areas of education, training and program management to the TECedge team. Karen has over 20 years’ experience in nearly every aspect of program development and management. She has implemented state-wide programs, trainings and events, and has worked with many non-profits, school districts, hospitals and businesses. Karen is passionate about education and holds a Master’s in Science Education. She has varied STEM and science teaching experience in K-12 classrooms. As our E-rate consultant, Karen currently assists our clients by preparing, submitting and managing all aspects of the E-rate program process, including the bid procurement process.

Ms. Becker has worked with TECedge co-founders since 2016.

Jan Miele has been designing visual communications for more than a decade, including corporate identity, marketing materials, packaging, display ads, product literature, Web sites, trade show displays, and more-through all phases from initial concept through final production. Ms. Miele was a computer programmer and then senior software engineer with Software Research Corporation in Needham, MA, and with Pegasystems in Cambridge where she did software development and installations of large database applications for the banking and financial industry. With a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Oberlin College and a Masters in Art History from the University of Missouri-Columbia, fine arts training, and years of experience as a computer programmer, Ms. Miele brings a blend of skills to graphic design that is at once aesthetic and technical, practical and academic-experience particularly well-suited to Web design with its demand for a combination of technical understanding and a grasp of the visual arts. In addition to the purely aesthetic aspects of a Web site, the analysis of site content and structure as well as needs analysis of functionality and usability are of particular interest to her.

Sandy Patton is a highly experienced school library media and technology specialist/administrator and a broad-based educator with 39 years experience in K-12 education. She retired as Executive Director of Learning Resource Services in Colorado Springs School District 11 where she recently served as Project Director for their Response to Intervention (RtI) Initiative.  Sandy was selected as Educator of the Year for Colorado Springs School District 11, was awarded the SIRS Media Specialist of the Year from the Association of Educational Communications and Technology, and was awarded the Outstanding Service Award from the Colorado Educational Media Association. She holds degrees from the University of Alabama (library science), University of Colorado (educational media & technology), and University of Denver (administrator licensure).

She is a national leader in Response to Intervention (RtI), with strengths also in professional development, information literacy, 21st Century learning, educational reform, standards-based learning, strategic and organizational planning, and project management. Ms. Patton is a frequent presenter at state, regional and national conferences such as Technology in Learning, Association for Educational Communications & Technology, T + L, CoSn, and NASSP. She serves on the Board of Trustees for the Educational Communications & Technology Foundation and has served leadership positions with local, state, regional, and national organizations, frequently serving as an officer.

Dr. Diane Schilder has served as the lead evaluator and director of numerous evaluations. Dr. Schilder leads a cadre of statisticians, methodologists, and data collectors in conducting formative and summative evaluations of education and family service interventions, studies of teacher quality, and assessments of the impact of education initiatives on student learning.

Dr. Schilder was the lead evaluator for two U.S. Department of Education-funded education interventions. The first is the evaluation of a large-scale, multi-year professional development program designed to enhance the quality of early childhood educators. This project involves Action for Boston Community Development, Urban College of Boston, and Lesley University. The second is a complex education intervention with three low-income school districts in the Boston area.

Dr. Schilder applied her expertise to studies of teacher professional development, early childhood interventions, and complex community change strategies. She applied her extensive knowledge of evidence-based evaluation methodologies to multiple a large-scale complex quasi-experimental research studies, including an early education financing arrangements funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.