About the Presenters

As an experienced entrepreneur and CEO, Jay Goyal loves bringing innovation to solve large, thorny problems. He founded Alongside to combat the youth mental health crisis, with the goal of providing every adolescent with research-based support that they like and trust. Prior to this, Jay founded and scaled Actively Learn to millions of students, empowering them to engage in deeper learning across subjects. Jay has taken on startup roles within the private, nonprofit, and public sectors, including helping launch Bing at Microsoft, providing microfinance to rural women in Honduras, and determining manpower and security requirements as one of the first 15 employees of the Transportation Security Administration. Jay also enjoys being part of the Seattle community, coaching youth baseball and serving on school and nonprofit boards. He graduated from Duke University and completed his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Rebecca Berlin has a B.A. in American government and English from Georgetown University, an M.A. in infant and toddler special education from George Washington University, and a Ph.D. in education policy, leadership, and foundations from the University of Virginia. She is recognized as an industry expert and leads many transformative early childhood initiatives throughout the United States. Dr. Berlin has previously served as Executive Director of the Parenting Translator Foundation, Chief Learning Officer at Start Early, and Chief Strategy Officer of Teachstone. She has been an early childhood special education teacher, an inclusion teacher, an autism specialist, and a school administrator. Dr. Berlin is the Senior Vice President of Intellectual Properties at Kaplan Early Learning Company and President of Gryphon House, Inc. She lives in Charlottesville, VA and serves on the school board of Albemarle County Public Schools.