From Network Cables to Accommodations: Why This Technologist Found His Home in EdTech
I never imagined I’d end up in education. My background? Corporate IT—server rooms, email outages, crawling under desks to plug in printers. My IT career before Education Advanced was all about fixing whatever was blinking or broken: from small office routers to sprawling network infrastructures for retail stores. I was good at it, but something always felt... incomplete.
When I joined a start-up called Education Advanced back in 2016, I didn’t know what I was walking into. Education wasn't a world I understood beyond my own school days and my kids’ experiences but, almost immediately, I could feel something different in the air: Purpose; Passion. People who care deeply about helping others. That energy hooked me, and over time, I realized this was the most fulfilling work I’d ever done.
Learning the Landscape, Building the Plane
In those early days, there were twelve of us in the entire company. We did it all—tech support, customer calls, data integration—you name it. There were no manuals, no step-by-step processes. We learned by doing, by asking questions, by messing up and figuring it out together. I’ve had to develop what I think educators would call a “growth mindset.” Not because I necessarily set out to, but because I had no choice.
When you're flying the plane you're building mid-air, there's no time for ego.
We built the foundation that so many others are now standing on. And even now, nearly a decade in, I still live in that space between "this is working" and "how can we make this better?" My instinct is to fix things—not just for today, but for the long haul. If I teach a customer how to solve their issue instead of just patching it up, I save both of us time in the future. That long view has guided me in nearly everything I do.
Translating Tech into Trust
Support, for me, is personal. It’s not just about solving technical puzzles—it’s about building trust with the districts and educators we serve.
I’ve sat in on calls where seven different people from a district and an accommodation vendor team are waiting to hear what I have to say. It’s surreal sometimes. Just a guy from South Georgia, who once ran a grocery store and collects plastic transforming robots, helping massive districts streamline their testing accommodations.
But that’s the thing: our work is human. When we helped standardize the way accommodations are entered across systems, that wasn’t just a cool tech win; it was clarity for educators and time saved for kids who need support. Our job is to give teachers back their time—time they can spend with students, not systems.
The Systems We Build Matter
One of the most important things we do at Education Advanced is to help districts build better systems.
Not just technical systems—but sustainable, repeatable, human systems. And part of that is sharing what we know. I’ve got a head full of knowledge from years of trial and error, and my goal is always to pass that on—whether it’s to a teammate, a district, or a vendor.
I think a lot about Future-Winston. Will this solution cause headaches six months from now? How do we make it easier for the next person? That mindset has helped us avoid pitfalls and scale better. It’s not flashy, but it’s foundational.
This Work Is Personal
My belief in this work deepened in a new way when our own family needed support. My step-son is autistic. He struggled early in the wrong school environment without all the resources he needed. It wasn’t until we found a school that offered the right setting and right accommodations that everything changed. Just a few weeks ago, he won a district-wide technology award for his willingness and aptitude to help his teachers with their ever-changing technology and helping his fellow students use the technology available. He’s helping his teachers, helping other kids. He is Thriving.
The systems we support don’t just serve students—they shape lives. That’s not stuff for a marketing flyer. That’s my lived experience.
Looking Ahead: Challenges and Confidence
Yes, there are tough times ahead for school districts, and potentially for EdTech: Budget cuts, political uncertainty, the pressure of doing more with less.
But I believe in the team we’ve built. I believe in the products we’re improving every day. And I believe, more than anything, in the educators and students we serve.
I left Education Advanced for a year to peruse what, on paper, looked like a good career decision. However, the work wasn’t fulfilling; the priorities were not aligned with what I felt were right. I came back to EAI because I wanted to be around people who care; people who show up for one another; people who believe that what we do actually matters. And it does.
I was at a conference where the founder said, “Always leave people better for having met you” and I took that to heart. At the end of the day, I don’t want to just fix problems—I want to make people’s lives better. That’s why I’m here.
