Leading and Sustaining Technology Innovations in Today’s School District Settings

About the Presenters

Dr. Teresa A. Brown is an innovative educational leader with over 39 years of experience driving student success, system improvement, and technological innovation at the local, district, and state levels. Currently serving as Superintendent of Madison Consolidated Schools, Dr. Brown also shares her expertise as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her distinguished career includes serving as Superintendent of Jennings County Schools and Assistant Superintendent of School Improvement for the Indiana Department of Education. Recognized nationally for her visionary leadership, she was named the 2026 National EdPower and AASA Superintendent of the Year and received the 2025 Candice Dodson Trailblazer Award for leading educational technology in Indiana. Dr. Brown serves on the CoSN National Advisory Panel for Leading Technology and Educational Innovation and actively mentors aspiring school leaders across the state.

Kelly May-Vollmar, Ed.D., is the proud Superintendent of the Desert Sands Unified School District (DSUSD), serving approximately 26,000 students. Previously, Dr. May-Vollmar served as the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services and Chief Innovation and Information Officer for Desert Sands. Dr. May-Vollmar currently serves as the Co-chair for the CoSN CTO Council and the CoSN/AASA EmpowerED Superintendents Advisory Committee. She is also a CoSN Board Member and the current Chair-Elect of the Board. She is passionate about bridging the divide that often exists between curriculum and technology departments, as well as bridging the digital divide for all students. To this end, she is thrilled to have led her district to launch its own LTE Network to address the digital divide. This work was recognized as Dr. May-Vollmar was awarded the ACSA Technology Administrator of the Year in 2019 and the CoSN Digital Equity Award in 2021.

Dr. Nick Polyak serves as the Superintendent for Leyden High School District 212. The district contains two comprehensive high schools with 3,500 students from Franklin Park, Melrose Park, Northlake, River Grove, Rosemont, Schiller Park, and Unincorporated Leyden Township in suburban Chicago. Dr. Polyak has co-authored five books on educational leadership, and he is the 2026 Illinois Superintendent of the Year. He is married with four children, and they reside in suburban Chicago.

Paula Maylahn is an education industry consultant with 40 years’ experience working with companies and organizations across the K-20 spectrum. She is a Project Director for CoSN and has authored their annual EdTech Leadership Survey Report since 2015. She is a frequent speaker at education conferences and a published writer on education topics, as well as a contributing author on the books The Experts’ Guide to the K-12 Market and The Experts’ Guide to the Postsecondary Market. Paula is a council member of the Women’s Education Project and a former board member of the Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association. Paula is past Chair of the Education Council of the United Design Guild, where she also served as a member of the Board, and is a former executive council member of the PreK-12 Learning Group of the Association of American Publishers.

About the Moderator

Ann McMullan is Project Director for CoSN’s EmpowerED Superintendents Initiative, created in partnership with AASA, The School Superintendents Association. Ann served as Executive Director for Educational Technology in Klein ISD, near Houston, Texas, until September 2013, when she and her family moved to Los Angeles, California. For 16 years, Ann led the district team that provided professional development on technology and 21st century instructional strategies to 4,000 educators serving 50,000 students. She was Co-chair of the Texas Education Technology Advisory Committee, which developed the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology. Today, Ann works as a public speaker, writer, and consultant focused on leadership to meet the needs of today’s students. Ann serves on the edWeb.net Advisory Board. Ann is co-author of Life Lessons in Leadership.