Emily Feistritzer

Education expert Emily Feistritzer has studied how best to prepare teachers for over 40 years, leading her to testify in front of Congress and state legislatures, brief members of presidential administrations, and now, push for accessibility in education. Feistritzer, who began her career as a Catholic nun teaching high school science and math while still in her teens, left the convent in 1972 to better focus on the classroom--particularly because she disliked traditional teaching methods used at the time. She didn’t like talking at students as the expert and having to plan lessons to dispense knowledge. Rather, she liked collaborative learning for a world where knowledge acquisition is so readily available. With a desire to do better, she founded and directed two large clearinghouses for national education research before establishing online teaching certification program Teach-Now in 2011, which stemmed from her worry that “we’re not doing anything to prepare teachers for [digitally native] kids.” Washington D.C.-based Teach-Now offers collaborative, frequently live virtual courses toward goals like a globally recognized certification, a Masters of Education in one of five concentrations, and re-certification courses for current teachers. Since its founding, enrollment in Teach-Now programs has grown about 711%.