Board of Directors

AALF is governed by a six member Board of Directors, which meets four to five times a year and is chaired by the Foundation's Chairman. Advice is also provided by an appointed Advisory Council. Both the Board and Advisory members are representative of various sectors of education and experienced in implementing and sustaining one-to-one technology programs for students and teachers.

2007 Board of Directors

Walt Buster, Chairman

Walter L. Buster is director of the Central Valley Educational Leadership Institute at California State University, Fresno and coordinator for the Central Valley partnership with Springboard Schools. Walt served as superintendent of the Clovis Unified School District from July 1995 until June 2002. Walt is a charter member of ACSA and directs the ACSA Superintendents' Academy in Fresno. Walt and his wife, Susan, live in Fresno, California where he enjoys reading and running.

Bruce Dixon, President

Bruce has more than 25 years experience working with schools and technology, as a teacher, Principal, educational software developer, undergraduate college lecturer, and in 1987 with a partner he established an educational technology company, Computelec, which oversaw the establishment and growth of laptop programs in more than 80 schools across 3 states, before he sold it in the mid-nineties to focus on consulting and pro-bono work.

Since 1995 he has worked extensively in North America, and was in part responsible for developing the One-to-One program there, through the Anytime Anywhere Learning initiative. He consults to schools, School Districts, Education Departments, Ministries of Education and corporations.

Over the past 3 years, Bruce has consulted in the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, UK and New Zealand, and has been invited to speak in Korea, Thailand, Italy, South Africa, Singapore, Taiwan, Philippines, Japan as well as Australia and several North American states.

In addition to his consulting work, Bruce’s pro-bono work is around his role as a co-founder of the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation.

Charles Clark

Dr. Charles Clark has more than 33 years of independent school leadership experience, and is renowned as a visionary thinker committed to promoting a whole-student approach to learning. Dr. Clark’s esteemed track record includes his most recent headship at Cincinnati Country Day School in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he had served since 1994. He led CCDS to national prestige implementing the first comprehensive grades 5-12 Anytime, Anywhere Learning Laptop Program. Prior to CCDS, he served as Head of School for 10 years at The Orchard School in Indianapolis, Indiana. Earlier in his career, Dr. Clark held a variety of leadership and teaching positions at the Tatnall School in Delaware, St. Lawrence University in New York, and The Peddie School in New Jersey

A well-respected authority on leadership, Dr. Clark has contributed to Independent School Management (ISM) as presenter for the past 18 years on such topics as "Leading the Changing Middle School," and "Understanding and Developing Your Leadership Style."

Barbara Grohe

Barbara Grohe is Superintendent, Kent School District, Kent, Washington.

Barbara attended the very first Anytime, Anywhere Learning Summit in Seattle in 1995 and has been a staunch advocate of using technology to change education throughout three superintendencies in three districts in three different states (Wisconsin, Iowa and Washington). Kent School District has recently opened the Kent Technology Academy and plans to expand one-to-one computing through all middle schools over the next several years. The Tech Academy is the "proof of concept" model and already it is garnering wide attention throughout the district and the country.

Suzanne Cooke

Suzanne is Headmistress of Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart.

Suzanne has served on the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools Board and on the Council of Florida Independent Schools as well as on a variety of Sacred Heart School Boards. Suzanne was also a member of the original AAL Task Force established to explore ways to integrate technology into the learning environment and one of the pioneers with Anytime, Anywhere Learning while serving as Headmistress at Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bellevue, WA. The Forest Ridge adoption of Anytime, Anywhere Learning was most successful. In 1998 Suzanne became Headmistress of the Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart and spearheaded the effort to make Carrollton, the only K to 12 all-girl school in Florida, into a technological integrated laptop school.

Adam Smith

Through his work at SchoolKiT, Adam helps school districts to 'walk the talk' so that their one-to-one initiatives result in clearly defined improvements in student thinking, learning and achievement. His ability to transform thought leadership into pragmatic action - and to help others do the same - is the common thread that runs through his career.

By 1995, Adam had spent five years teaching in and leading some of the world's first and highly successful one-to-one initiatives. That year, presenting at the inaugural Anytime Anywhere Learning Summit in Seattle, Washington, he described 21st century learning processes and environments, and showed student work samples that captured our attention.

After spending a number of years providing in-person professional development and consulting services to schools and companies engaged in one-to-one programs, Adam played a key role in the foundation of SchoolKiT; a company that could develop the scalable products and services that schools need to undertake such systemic change.

Today, working with a 'great team of educators' to develop professional development and curriculum materials, Adam enjoys talking with schools and their leadership teams. This, he says, is the secret to embedding the ideals of 21st century learning into practical resources that can be used by every teacher in every classroom.

Jerome Behrens

For the last 30 years, Mr. Behrens, attorney, has represented a variety of public agencies throughout the state of California. He specializes in public agency law, with an emphasis on eminent domain, land use, CEQA law, construction and tort defense litigation. Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Behrens worked in the Office of the California Attorney General in San Francisco, the Fresno District Attorney’s office and the Fresno County Counsel’s office. Mr. Behrens has litigated claims in administrative proceedings, the trial courts and the appellate courts of the State of California and the federal system. He has argued on behalf of public sector clients on four separate occasions before the California Supreme Court. Mr. Behrens advises clients in the funding and acquisition of capital facilities, and is nationally recognized as municipal bond counsel in the Bond Buyer’s Municipal Marketplace guide, commonly referred to as “The Red Book.”

Mr. Behrens joined the California bar in 1974, after earning his Juris Doctorate from Hastings College of Law. Mr. Behrens also holds a Master of Laws in Taxation. He earned his B.A. degree in 1967 from the University of California at Berkeley.

Michael Quinn, C.A.

Mr. Quinn, a Chartered Accountant in Canada, is President of LCSI (Logo Computer Systems Inc), an educational software company, started by Dr. Seymour Papert, that develops constructivist software for children in K-12 schools. He has been president of LCSI for 19 of the last 21 years. During his tenure as President, Mr. Quinn restructured the company and expanded company sales to Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. He has also participated in the design of all LCSI products.