2026 North Carolina Education Innovation Lab Program – Speakers

Growing up, I craved knowledge. I wanted to read everything, try out everything, learn everything. When my classmates were reading fiction, I remember reading biographies about the Kennedy family. As I matriculated through school, I had countless teachers who shaped me. I knew I wanted to make a difference in the lives of students like my teachers made in mine.

Because I loved reading, teaching English was my first choice. When I walked into my first classroom I learned quickly that as much as I loved English, I loved my kids more. Creating relationships helped to cultivate learning.

Brenda is the President & CEO of BEST NC (Business for Educational Success and Transformation NC), a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of over 100 business leaders with a focus on making education in North Carolina the best in the nation.  Through policy and advocacy, BEST NC strives to ensure that every student in North Carolina will graduate with the knowledge, skills and behaviors to succeed in a competitive global economy.

Brenda’s passion for education stems from her own experience as a first-generation college graduate. With two children who attended North Carolina public schools, she is driven by the belief that every child should have access to a great education.

With over twenty-five years of experience as a business owner, public policy professional and education advocate, Brenda leads the overall BEST NC vison, strategy, and operations while leveraging her expertise to be the business-to-education bridge in BEST NC’s work to transform education in North Carolina. In 2002, she founded Scandinavian Child, a baby products manufacturing and importing business. Prior to founding her business, she had almost ten years of public policy experience in both education and transportation policy and programs. She serves on various boards and education organizations, including the Kenan Fellows Program, the Institute for Political Leadership, and the NC Community College Foundation. Brenda has a B.A. in Economics and a Master’s degree in Public Policy, both from Georgetown University.

Rachel Candaso is the 2025 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year, representing Pitt County Schools and the Northeast Region. She serves as the AVID Site Coordinator and elective teacher at Wellcome Middle School, where she leads schoolwide implementation of AVID strategies to expand college and career readiness for students. Born and raised on Guam and a graduate of Arizona State University, Rachel’s experiences as a first-generation college student fuel her commitment to expanding opportunity through public education. She also serves as a State Board of Education Advisor and Chair of Governor Stein’s Teacher Advisory Council, where she elevates educator voices in shaping statewide education policy. A Teach For America alumna and Kenan Fellow, Rachel is dedicated to building strong partnerships between schools, communities, and industry to ensure every student is prepared for the future. 

Leah Carper, the 2022 North Carolina State Teacher of the Year, is a dynamic and innovative English II teacher at Northern Guilford High School in Greensboro, North Carolina who utilizes her curriculum to not only teach the skills and standards of the course, but also to teach her students how to be empathetic, contributing members of a global community.

She earned an Associate of Arts degree from Davidson County Community College, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Secondary English Education from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a Master of Arts degree in Education Leadership from Queens University of Charlotte.

She has served and continues to serve on various state commissions and as state teacher of the year, Carper serves as an advisor to the North Carolina State Board of Education. Carper has earned many awards in her career including the Guilford County Schools Rookie Teacher of the Year Award in 2007, the 2018 and 2020 Guilford County Schools PTA Outstanding High School Educator Award, the 2021 Guilford County Schools Teacher of the Year, and also holds the record as the only 3-time Northern Guilford High School Dancing with the Faculty Winner.

Matt Daniel is an Assistant Principal at Pactolus Global School in Pitt County Schools, where he is committed to fostering student agency, engagement, and high-quality instruction. With experience as a 5th-grade teacher and a professional development facilitator for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), Matt brings a practitioner’s lens to tailored learning — grounded in both classroom experience and systems-level support.

Matt’s work centers on adapting instruction to meet the evolving needs of learners while empowering teachers to design meaningful, student-centered experiences. He was the youngest educator ever named Pitt County Schools Teacher of the Year in 2022, served as a Pitt County Schools Principal Fellow in 2023, and was selected as a UNC Chapel Hill World View Fellow in 2023.

Matt earned his Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education (2017) and his Master of School Administration (2025) from East Carolina University. Through his leadership and facilitation, he is passionate about equipping educators with practical strategies that elevate engagement and ensure all students can thrive.

Rupen Fofaria serves as the director of operations and policy for the North Carolina State Board of Education, where he supports the Board’s strategic planning and governance work to strengthen public education across the state. He previously reported on education policy for EdNC.org and is a licensed attorney with experience in corporate and intellectual property law. His work focuses on helping the Board navigate policy decisions that support public schools and the Department of Public Instruction’s ability to serve students, educators, and communities across North Carolina.

Virgel Hammonds is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of FullScale, the national nonprofit formed by the merger of the Aurora Institute and The Learning Accelerator (TLA). Virgel, a nationally recognized leader in education innovation, originally joined the Aurora Institute as CEO in 2024 with over two decades of experience working alongside young people, educators, communities, districts, and policymakers as they endeavor to become more learner-centered. Having previously served as Chief Learning Officer at KnowledgeWorks, Virgel has forged partnerships with national policymakers and local learning communities across the country to redesign learning systems to become more learner-centered. Prior to his time at KnowledgeWorks, Virgel served as superintendent of the RSU 2 school district in Maine, where he collaborated with five communities to develop and implement a curriculum designed to ensure mastery of standards by all students. Before serving as superintendent, Virgel was a high school principal at Lindsay Unified School District in California. There, Virgel helped implement a personalized learning model where learners didn’t earn letter grades, but rather are awarded mastery for subjects in which they’ve proven to be proficient.

Currently, Virgel also serves on the PBLWorks Board, the Learner-Centered Collaborative Board, and Jobs for Maine Graduates Executive Board. Additionally, he is Board Chair Emeritus of the Aurora Institute and a former member of the CompetencyWorks Advisory Board.

Virgel holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and a Master of Education from Fresno Pacific University.

Virgel holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and a Master of Education from Fresno Pacific University.

Christy Hovanetz is a Senior Policy Fellow at ExcelinEd. She served as the Assistant Commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Education and Assistant Deputy Commissioner at the Florida Department of Education. Christy started working in education policy for the state of Florida in 1999 and served in various capacities including as a Policy Analyst for Governor Jeb Bush, Director of Reading First and Director of School Accountability at the Department. Christy graduated summa cum laude from St. Cloud State University with a BS in Education, a minor in math, and is a Minnesota certified teacher. She earned her MPA at the University of Minnesota and Ph.D. in Public Policy at Florida State University.

Lisa’s purpose and passion is rooted in the desire to address inequities in education which she has translated into a career leveraging competency-based approaches to ensure equitable outcomes, drive high-quality learning experiences, and lead to economic and social mobility. While Lisa started her leadership in learning innovation as a high school English teacher and principal, she has experience across K-12, workforce, government, higher education, ed tech, and non-traditional learning providers.

Prior to joining C-BEN, Lisa was Vice President of Learning Innovation at Guild where she led strategy and operations to ensure that high-quality workplace learning counts toward a degree and provides a pathway to mobility. She also led Guild’s Learning Center of Excellence, focused on improving learning outcomes for working adults. She also served as Senior Advisor at Entangled Solutions and Vice President of Partner Strategy and Innovation at Pathstream, a non-traditional learning provider embedding industry certificates into academic and workplace pathways. Prior to these system approaches, Lisa was the Executive Director of Learning Innovation at Laureate Education and Walden University’s founding Dean of Competency-Based Education responsible for developing and scaling the university’s direct-assessment offering. As a scholar, Lisa’s research has been published by the Clayton Christensen Institute and is featured in several peer-reviewed journals.

As President of SparkNC, Lynn works closely with the Board of Directors, ensuring effective governance and strategic direction. She leads the team oversight in vision and mission aligned to strategic direction. She plays a crucial role in fundraising, community engagement, and financial oversight to support the organization’s mission and achieve its goals.

She is best known for her passion for transforming education. She helped to co-create the proposal and the vision for SparkNC. Dr. Moody has received several awards, including the NC Order of the Long Leaf Pine, Discovery Education’s “Innovation in Education” Award, and the “Friday Medal” from the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.

Prior to joining SparkNC, Dr. Moody served as a school superintendent for 15 years in two school districts; Rock Hill Schools in South Carolina and Rowan-Salisbury Schools in North Carolina. While at Rock Hill, she led the school district in a 1-to-1 digital conversion more than 10 years ago. During her tenure in Rowan-Salisbury School District, she achieved the only renewal status in North Carolina from the General Assembly, which granted charter-like flexibility for finance, curriculum and personnel. She later obtained a $26M federal grant to support the renewal change process. Dr. Moody has served on numerous boards, presented at national conferences, including the Future Ready Summit, ISTE, ASU-GSV, and Digital Promise, and published articles in national publications such as Literacy Today.

Dr. Moody holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from NC State University and a doctorate from Nova Southeastern University. Dr. Moody resides in Kure Beach, NC with her husband Wayne. She is proud of her three grown children, all who have been classroom teachers.

As assistant director of P-12 policy, Nicholas is responsible for overseeing work on a range of topics, including resource equity, assessments and accountability, and school improvement. Prior to Ed Trust, Nicholas was a senior policy analyst at Education Reform Now. Nicholas previously worked as a high school English Language Arts teacher in New Hampshire, in both charter and traditional public schools, which spurred his interest in education reform. He has a master’s in Education Policy from The George Washington University, an M.A. in Teaching Secondary English from Southern New Hampshire University, and a B.A. in Writing, Literature & Publishing from Emerson College.

Jonathan Plucker is a Professor of Education and Program Director for the Master of Science in Education Policy program at the Johns Hopkins School of Education. He previously served as the Julian C. Stanley Endowed Professor of Talent Development at Johns Hopkins, the Raymond Neag Endowed Professor of Education at the University of Connecticut, and Professor of Educational Psychology and Cognitive Science at Indiana University. He is past-president of the National Association for Gifted Children and the Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (APA Division 10).

His research examines education policy, talent development, and creativity. Recent books include the 2nd edition of Creativity and Innovation, 3rd edition of Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education with Carolyn Callahan, and Excellence Gaps in Education with Scott Peters. He is an APA, APS, AERA, and AAAS Fellow, and a recipient of the Arnheim Award for Outstanding Achievement from APA and of the Distinguished Scholar Award from NAGC. He graduated with a B.S. in chemistry education and M.A. in educational psychology from the University of Connecticut. After briefly teaching at an elementary school in New York, he received his Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Virginia.

Kayla M. Siler, a research education analyst at RTI International, has nearly 20 years of professional experience in education policy, research, strategic planning, and project management. She has held a variety of analyst and project management positions with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, where she worked in data research, policy and strategic planning, and project management in efforts to reform standards, transition to online assessments, revise the state accountability model, and implement a statewide instructional improvement system. In her role at RTI, Ms. Siler is currently involved in a wide range of project management support for the Defense STEM Education Consortium (DSEC), as well project management, research, and coaching support related to the implementation and scaling of competency-based education (CBE) at the school- and district-levels.

Chris William launched Carolina Business Review in 1990 as a way to initiate a public dialogue around community challenges. He served as the television program’s Moderator and Executive Producer, hosting more than 1,000 episodes that aired in 22 media markets throughout North & South Carolina. Chris is a Managing Director for a major financial institution and leads a team of financial professionals to comprehensively manage families’ wealth and strategic financial direction. In addition, he annually participates and authors forums and conferences on the most acute Public Policy and Business issues.

Geoff Coltrane comes to the NC Department of Public Instruction from the NC Governor’s office, where he served as deputy public policy director and senior education advisor under Governor Cooper. In this role, according to the press release, he advised the governor and senior staff on K-12 and postsecondary education policy issues and served as the governor’s primary liaison to the State Board of Education, NC Community College System, UNC System, and other K-12 and postsecondary stakeholders. In addition to roles with the NC School of Science and Mathematics and the Hunt Institute, Coltrane spent five years in the classroom as a kindergarten and first grade teacher at Forest View Elementary School in Durham Public Schools. Coltrane earned a master’s degree in public policy from Duke University and bachelor’s degrees in elementary education and history from UNC-Chapel Hill.