Presented by Bobbi Kurshan, President of Educorp Consultants Corporation, and Senior Innovation Advisor to the Graduate School of Education, Education Entrepreneurship, University of Pennsylvania; Kathy Hurley, President of Kathy Hurley Consulting LLC, and Co-Founder of Girls Thinking Global, now merged with Women’s Education Project; and Lisa Schmucki, Founder and CEO, edWeb.net
Moderated by Laura Smulian, entrepreneurship educator and contributor to InnovateHERs

Watch the Recording Listen to the Podcast

Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.

View this edWebinar to celebrate the launch of a new book, InnovateHERs: Why Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurial Women Rise to the Top. Kathy Hurley and Bobbi Kurshan, the authors, along with Lisa Schmucki, one of the women profiled in the book, offer insights from research on the entrepreneurial mindset. Kathy and Bobbi report on what they learned from their personal interviews with 27 of today’s global, top-performing women. The panel discusses how accomplished, purpose-driven, entrepreneurial women have blazed new trails and risen to the top of their professions around the world.

This recorded edWebinar is of interest to anyone who wants to understand how an entrepreneurial mindset can help you advance in your career aspirations. Discover how to think bigger, lead stronger, and embrace your unique passions, traits, and skills.

About the Presenters

Dr. Barbara “Bobbi” Kurshan, is the President of Educorp Consultants Corporation and Senior Innovation Advisor, Graduate School of Education, Education Entrepreneurship, University of Pennsylvania, and a former education industry entrepreneur. Dr. Kurshan has more than 40 years’ experience in education as a researcher, entrepreneur, developer, investor, and company executive. She developed the first children’s software products for Microsoft, as well as award-winning products for McGraw-Hill, Apple, CCC (Pearson), and others.

She is the author of several books, including Internet for Kids (Sybex); Exploring Creative Writer and Exploring Fine Artist (Addison-Wesley Longman); Understanding Computers Through Applications (Glencoe); and Activities for Kids and Kids at Heart (Reston). She has received numerous awards and recognitions including the WISE Prize, the King Bahrain UNESCO Prize, 2019 Most Influential Corporate Board Directors, 100 Edtech Influencers, and Laureate Tech Awards – Technology Benefiting Humanity.

Kathleen Hurley is a former senior executive for numerous educational publishing and technology companies, including IBM and Pearson. Currently, she is a senior advisor to educational technology companies, education associations, and school superintendent networks. She also serves on the board of directors for several non-profit and for-profit organizations. After retiring from Pearson, she was selected as a Fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) at Harvard University. Upon completion of the program, she co-founded a global nonprofit organization, Girls Thinking Global, which has since merged with the Women’s Education Project, where she serves on the board of directors.

In 2004 she was inducted into the Association of Educational Publishers’ Hall of Fame and in 2019, she received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in Education Technology from the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). She is the co-editor, with Priscilla Shumway, of Real Women, Real Leaders: Surviving and Succeeding in the Business World (Wiley).

Lisa Schmucki is the founder and CEO of edWeb.net, an award-winning professional learning network that serves a global community of 1 million educators. edWeb helps educators share their best ideas and practices to improve teaching and learning and prepare students to be successful in life. edWeb is a five-time winner of the SIIA CODiE Award. Lisa is an education, publishing, and media industry veteran with 40 years’ experience in product development, professional learning, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Lisa serves on the Board of NCTET (National Coalition for Technology in Education & Training), the Expert Network for ERDI (Education Research and Development Institute), and the Advisory Board for the Powertrip for Women Superintendents and District Leaders. Prior to founding edWeb in 2008, Lisa held senior positions with Time, Macmillan, Peterson’s, Films Media Group, MKTG Services, Acxiom, and Achieve3000. She is a graduate of Princeton University and has a master’s degree from the Stern School of Business at NYU.

About the Moderator

Laura Smulian has over eight years of experience cultivating the entrepreneurial mindset in learners of all ages. At Alterna, Central America’s leading social entrepreneurship incubator, she led the initial growth strategy that led to the team’s expansion from eight to 30 people, helping the team to serve more entrepreneurs in the region. She then began to work with young adults as a lead guide at Acton Academy Guatemala, designing learning environments that fostered innovation, curiosity, creativity, and resilience using cutting-edge pedagogy and edtech tools. During this team, she founded the E-Ship Bootcamp, a six-week training in entrepreneurship for kids ages 11-14. She recently completed a master’s in education entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania and has contributed research analysis and writing to this book.

Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.

Join the Women’s Education and Leadership community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.