Dr. Barbara “Bobbi” Kurshan, is the President of Educorp Consultants Corporation and Senior Innovation Advisor, Graduate School of Education, Education Entrepreneurship, University of Pennsylvania, and a former education industry entrepreneur. Dr. Kurshan has more than 40 years’ experience in education as a researcher, entrepreneur, developer, investor, and company executive. She developed the first children’s software products for Microsoft, as well as award winning products for McGraw-Hill, Apple, CCC (Pearson), and others. She is the author of several books, including Internet for Kids (Sybex); Exploring Creative Writer and Exploring Fine Artist (Addison-Wesley Longman); Understanding Computers Through Applications (Glencoe); Activities for Kids and Kids at Heart (Reston). She has received numerous awards and recognitions including the WISE Prize, the King Bahrain UNESCO Prize, 2019 Most Influential Corporate Board Directors, 100 Edtech Influencers, and Laureate Tech Awards – Technology Benefiting Humanity. Barbara has had several published articles, including “Why Women are Rising to the Top in Purpose-Driven Organization” (Forbes magazine, September 7, 2022) and “Innovation Ecosystems: Can We Scale What We’ve Learned?” (Coller School of Management at Tel Aviv University's 2022 Coller Venture Review). Barbara and her co-author, Kathy Hurley, have also been selected to present “Why Women are Rising to the Top in Education,” which will focus on the findings detailed in InnovateHERs, at SXSW EDU 2023 in Austin, TX in March 2023.

Kathy Hurley is a former senior executive for numerous educational publishing and technology companies, including IBM and Pearson. After retiring from Pearson, she was selected as a Fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) at Harvard University and co-founded a global nonprofit organization, Girls Thinking Global (girlsthinkingglobal.org). In 2004, Hurley was inducted into the Association of Educational Publishers’ Hall of Fame and in 2019, she received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in Education Technology from the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). Currently, Hurley is a senior advisor to several educational technology companies, education associations, and school superintendent networks. She is also the co-editor, with Priscilla Shumway, of Real Women, Real Leaders: Surviving and Succeeding in the Business World (Wiley). Kathy has received the following esteemed awards: • The Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents at its 19th Annual National Education Summit in October in San Juan, Puerto Rico • The 2022 Distinctive Mentor Award from the Education Research and Development Institute on July 18 in Baltimore, MD • The NCTET (National Coalition for Technology in Education & Training) Founders Award at their annual gala in May • The Rock Star Award at the RTM School Congress in San Diego on Dec. 6 Kathy and her co-author, Barbara Kurshan, have also been selected to present “Why Women are Rising to the Top in Education,” which will focus on the findings detailed in InnovateHERs, at SXSW EDU 2023 in Austin, TX in March 2023.