Barbara Kurshan

Dr. Barbara (Bobbi) Kurshan has honed her vision of “what can be” using technology while supporting education companies and developing innovative products. She currently serves as a Senior Innovation Advisor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania where she builds and advises education innovation ecosystems and co-directs the global certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. As President of ECC, she provides strategic consulting in the areas of investment, digital transformation, entrepreneurship, and innovation. As past Executive Director of Curriki, Dr. Kurshan helped to build one of the most innovative global open-source education communities. She has previously served as the Co-CEO of Core Learning, an education investment fund, and the Chief Academic Officer of bigchalk, one of the first online digital libraries with K-12 educational content. As an investor she has invested in numerous edtech startups including Fablevision, Mindprint Learning, SoWork, Mindstone, BoxMedia and The Qgroup, a language learning company that she took from startup to IPO. She currently serves on the corporate board of American Public Education Inc.; and advises several edtech companies including Thinkster, Edconnective, RobotLabs, and TeachMe TV. In addition to co-authoring "InnovateHERs: Why Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurial Women Rise to the Top," she is the author of several books, articles and regularly blogs for Forbes.com. Dr. Kurshan is the 2023 Winner of the IBIT Innovator of the Year Award; and also was selected as the Globant Woman that Build Board Executive Winner for 2022.