Creative Commons CEO to Keynote Innovations Conference
Catherine M. Casserly, CEO of Creative Commons and long-time advocate of open educational resources (OER), will provide the opening keynote address at the Innovations conference to be held March 4-7, 2012, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cathy’s career is dedicated to openness and particularly to leveraging possibilities at the boundaries of formal and informal learning to equalize educational opportunity. A recent quote from Cathy sums up her thoughts on the importance of OER in higher education:
I think that by putting some of the spectacular professors, and putting their approaches and pedagogical instructional strategies that they use with their students in front of the world, it sets a new benchmark for all of us to learn from…. And I think that’s actually one of the incredible powers of [Creative Commons]. (qtd. in Yang, 2010)
As the Director of the OER Initiative at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, she managed investments totaling more than $100 million to harness the efficiently and effectiveness of knowledge sharing worldwide. At the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Cathy spearheaded work in the areas of transparency and technology as a Senior Partner and the Vice President of Innovation and Open Networks. With the extended Carnegie team she launched a continuous performance improvement system to create alternative mathematics pathways for community college students.
Cathy has been instrumental in supporting many young organizations and currently sits on the Startl board and the Peer-2-Peer University board. She also serves on the advisory committee for MIT OpenCourseWare and the University of the People. She earned her Ph.D. in the economics of education from Stanford University and a B.A. in mathematics from Boston College.
To learn more about the Innovations conference and to register, visit www.league.org/i2012.
Resource
Yang, J. (2010, March 30). As Colleges Make Courses Available Free Online, Others Cash In. The New York Times. Retrieved January 24, 2012, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/education/31iht-riedopen.html?pagewanted=all.
