Dr. Vince Bertram

Since joining Project Lead The Way in June 2011, Dr. Vince Bertram has led the nonprofit to unprecedented growth. Under his leadership, PLTW has grown to serve more than 6,500 schools nationwide, trained thousands of teachers throughout the country, increased partner and sponsor support, and received numerous national recognitions and awards. In 2012, the Social Impact Exchange listed PLTW as one of America’s top 100 performing nonprofit organizations; in 2013, the CEO-led initiative, Change the Equation, named PLTW one of only four nationally scalable, high-quality STEM programs; and in 2014, the CLASSY Awards, working in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, awarded PLTW the top honor in the category of Education Advancement.

Dr. Bertram is recognized as thought-leader in education and has traveled across the United States, as well as internationally, to address audiences on the issues of STEM education, workforce, and the economy. He was appointed by the U.S. Department of State as its speaker and specialist on STEM education in 2014; testified before the U.S. House of Representatives about the importance of STEM education in solving America’s skills gap; and serves as a speaker and panelist at numerous national events including SXSWedu and the U.S. News STEM Solutions National Leadership Conference. He is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.

In the forward to Dr. Bertram’s new book – One Nation Under Taught – out November 2014, Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media, writes, “Dr. Bertram is no armchair reformer. He’s been in the trenches as a teacher, principal and superintendent.” Prior to joining PLTW, Dr. Bertram was superintendent of Indiana’s third-largest urban school district, which he led to unprecedented improvements in student achievement, community collaboration, and operational efficiency.

Dr. Bertram is a member of the Indiana Education Roundtable and has held numerous leadership roles, including serving on the Clinton Global Initiative STEM Working Group and chairing the National Council for National Honor Society, as well as serving as director for several nonprofit boards. Dr. Bertram was named a “Distinguished Hoosier”—one of Indiana’s highest honors—by former Governor Mitch Daniels, and his peers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education honored him with the Intellectual Contributions/Faculty Tribute Award for his contributions to intellectual life at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Bertram earned his doctorate, specialist, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees from Ball State University, a master’s degree in education policy and management from Harvard University, and an executive certificate in strategy and innovation from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is an alumnus of the Chicago Management Institute at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and received an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering.