I help EdTech startups and mission-driven education companies scale smartly - from messy beginnings to meaningful impact.

With over a decade of experience spanning classroom instruction, curriculum design, product strategy, and organizational operations, I now work with pre-seed, Series A, and growing educational organizations to build better learning experiences, stronger systems, and more strategic teams.

I specialize in:

- Curriculum and product development (especially experiential, SEL, STEM, and AI-integrated learning)
- Operational infrastructure and go-to-market strategy
- Policy-informed AI professional development for educators
- Branding, messaging, and community-building
- Cross-functional team leadership with a human-first approach

Whether I’m serving as a fractional COO, leading market research, developing a data dashboard, or building a gamified student learning journey - I’m a connector, a problem-solver, and a builder.

If you’re a founder or education leader looking to move faster without sacrificing quality, let’s connect.

Claire Smizer

Happy #SocialSaturday!

If you are an #Educator, #Principal, #DistrictAdministrator, someone in the #Curriculum, #School or #Classroom IT space, or anyone that works with or has ever worked with #Schools, #Districts, or organization that serves kids - we should be connected! 💯

In a nutshell: I'm a former #Teacher, turned #EdTech generalist that specializes in early stage #StartUps and #UserExperience (think #ProductDesign, #UI, #InstructionalDesign, #L&D) - I've been fortunate to have a wonky career path that has given me the opportunity to work across neurotech (that bordered on sci-fi!), #STEM, gamified #SEL, and even with a handful of founders working on much-needed products in the #Education space. 

What do I do now? I run BrightMinds AI with my best friend and co-founder, Jessica Maddry. 🥰🥰🥰

We're two former #Teachers who got tired of watching districts adopt #AI and innovative tech backwards - tools first, strategy maybe. BrightMinds flips that. We build policies, train educators, and audit tech stacks so districts make informed decisions, putting people first, always. 

Think that sounds like someone you'd like to have in your network? Smash that connect button! 

Can't wait to see you in my DMs!

💜 me!

Co-Founder @ BrightMinds AI | Board Member | EdTech Start-up Builder and Strategist 🌀| Teacher Advocate | Oxford Comma Enthusiast

Let's talk math for a moment. #Politician math. 😒

The proposed FY2026 federal budget cuts over $6 billion from #K-12 #PublicEducation. 

Not one program. 
Not one state. 
Across the board.

$6B is a large number - a really large number. So large that it's almost incomprehensible so... what does that look like in reality?

💸 Migrant Education: $1.3 billion. Poof.
💸 English Language Acquisition: Eliminated entirely.
💸 Title I funding to high-poverty schools: $4.7 billion. Gone.
💸 18 grant programs consolidated from $6.5 billion down to $2 billion - over a 60% reduction.
💸 Community Schools grants: $168 million. Cut.

But we won't be feeling that loss evenly. #Districts primarily serving #Students of color would lose nearly double the funding that their counterparts serving primarily white students will face.

Want an example? 

In #Pennsylvania, the districts most underfunded are also those where students of color make up the majority of enrollment - 64%, compared to 22–30% in adequately funded districts. That gap equals $1,732 less per student, nearly 9% less, in state and local revenue. Federal dollars can help (or rather would have helped) to bridge that disparity.

This isn’t a budget conversation. It’s a values conversation. It's an #Equity conversation.

When #Legislators use language like “local control”, they aren't talking about community empowerment. They're obfiscating the truth. They're asking (telling, really) local communities to make do. 

With less. 

For the kids who already had the least.

I’m not sharing this to spark outrage (though we should all feel outraged). 

I share this to bring attention to the tension local decision makers - #Superintendents, #CFOs, #SchoolBoard members - are grappling with. 

Too many conversations about “innovation” in #Education gloss right over the part where the floor is being pulled out. Purposefully. Systematically.

You can’t build on a foundation that's actively being dismantled.

💜 someone who thinks *actual* math should inform policy

#Teachers! Help!!! 

I'm trying to get a general temperature check on where we are with Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) in classrooms. 

Are you able to set your own?
Is that something that feels necessary in this moment?
Is that something you'd expect for your district or even school leaders to set and roll out? 

You know Jessica & me - we're always looking to close gaps and create useful tools! 

❤️  someone very excited to be building tools that #Educators actually want

#Education #K12 #TeachersofLinkedin #AIinEducation #InnovativeTech #AcceptableUse #ItTakesAVillage

Do you have an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for AI-enabled/enhanced tech in your classroom?

Lexia Learning

Provide customer support  for 5 educational learning platforms for both youth and adult learners regarding technical and licensure issues to up to 50 customers a day virtually via email, chat, and phone utilizing Salesforce, Jira, SQL, Slack, Outlook, Guru, Teams, and G Suite to maintain timely contact, document cases, and research cases both internally and externally.

•Utilize creative problem solving to educate customers on best product use practices as well as to work with other teams internally to troubleshoot and resolve technical issues within a 24 hour time period
•Collaborate with three different teams on a daily to weekly  basis in order to ensure consistent customer care, discuss trends in customer pain points and to learn new technologies in order to provide top tier customer service
•Document customer cases with excellent attention to detail and create reports that will increase productivity in Salesforce
•Mentored 10 new hires by training, providing feedback on cases, assisting in training videos and answering questions and  encouraging them with effusive praise via Slack and on Teams meetings calls

Product Support Specialist

Williamson County Schools

Delivered instruction and managed academic progress for up to 75 students in virtual and in-person learning environments using educational technologies including Schoology, Newsela, CommonLit, STAR (Renaissance), Kahoot, Kami as well as core business tools like Zoom, Microsoft Office suite, and Google Suite to manage and differentiate instruction.

•Analyzed student performance data (AIMS web) to determine areas of opportunity for growth, developed plans for academic intervention, reviewed student performance data on a bi-weekly basis, and met bi-monthly with key stakeholders (principal, district administrators, academic coaches) to adjust student plans to ensure student progress against grade level standards
•Conducted virtual training sessions via Zoom for to up to 40 parents on how to navigate and use Google Classroom and Schoology so parents could support students’ daily/weekly/monthly requirements
•Used Google Forms to design and administer assessments to baseline student knowledge and identify areas of opportunity and used insights to modify curriculum content and delivery, increasing the number of students ranking as “proficient” from 50% to 80%
•Selected to serve on professional development and mentorship committees to instruct English Language Arts (ELA) best practices and teaching strategies to a staff of 50 educators and provide one-to-one mentorship to 15 teachers
•Served as student council co-chair for 22 students and awarded $9k through the Darrell Waltrip School Award for collecting the most food for community food banks in 2020, 2021, and 2022

Educator, 4th Grade ELA/Social Studies Teacher

In this hybrid role, I worked closely with 2 peer coaches to observe, train, and provide best practices to over 60 teachers throughout the school district and provided academic interventions to up to 200 underperforming students annually.

•Partnered with key stakeholders (parents, peer educators, coaches, administration, school psychologists) to analyze student data, develop individualized accommodation plans, and enact strategies to support student growth for over 50 students
•Identified skill deficits for students scoring in the bottom 15% on national testing and developed needs-specific plans of action to provide appropriate intervention and successfully move 95% of students out of intervention within the academic year
•Delivered coaching and training to a staff of over 60 educators through weekly in-person meetings, live demonstrations/modeling of teaching strategies, and custom resources for classroom instruction, resulting in 100% of participants receiving teacher effectiveness scores of ‘proficient’ (3), ‘above proficient’ (4) and ‘outstanding (5) on a 5-point scale
•Selected from over 70 candidates to serve on a five-person leadership team to analyze standardized assessment questions and determine which test items should be used for grade-level benchmark testing throughout the district

Instructional Coach/Interventionist

The Sagemont School

Provided writing instruction for 75 students and high-level math instruction for 25 students on an annual basis.

•Used educational technologies including Successmaker and STAR (Renaissance) to gauge student understanding and inform instructional practices, resulting in 100% of students gaining 1-2 years of academic growth in a single academic year 
•Identified shared interests, demonstrated empathy, and communicated proactively to diffuse challenging and contentious parent conversations 
•Coordinated and ran a weekly newspaper club for 25 students
•Taught dances from countries around the world to over 75 students to introduce engaging and creative methods of promoting diversity, equity, and cultural understanding within the school

Educator, 4th Grade Writing/Math Teacher

Broward County Public Schools

Delivered instruction and managed academic progress for up to 160 students. Additionally served as team leader, representing 5 peer educators. 

•Selected for team lead role to represent peer educators in monthly meetings with Administration and attend Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings: Led weekly team meetings to review student progress, understand and address academic challenges, and share best practices
•Co-led a literacy program to provide family-friendly literacy activities to parents and increase parental engagement in student academic performance, increasing school performance ranking from “B” to “A” according to State of Florida school grading system
•Selected from over 100 educators to serve on a county-wide textbook adoption committee; Used rubrics to analyze and select textbooks based on quality of content, cultural diversity, and student engagement

Educator/Team Leader 8th Grade ELA/7th Grade Social Studies

Chicago Public Schools

•Taught 28 6th grade students ELA, math, science and social studies in a Title 1 school

•Worked after school to tutor students for state testing
•Planned lessons that addressed student reading deficits  which propelled student growth 2-3 years in their reading level

Educator 6th Grade

Highly qualified and motivated product support and educational specialist with 16 years of experience looking to leverage my skills to obtain a position where I can demonstrate the value your product brings as a Customer Success
Manager. 

💪🏻Adding value to an organization by cultivating relationships, engaging stakeholders, satisfying clients, and offering training on technology products. 

✏️Showcasing my ability to multi-task while being an organized, detailed oriented, and driven employee who delivers quality customer service, support, guidance, and training.

🤝 Supporting and guiding internal and external customers through challenges by building relationships with empathy and developing trust. 

I am a tech savvy relationship expert that has educated, trained, and provided problem solving solutions for hundreds of stakeholders and customers.  My accomplishments vary from consistently being a top 3 performer on a team of 18 support professionals by successfully closing over 50 percent more customer issues to being awarded a highly effective teacher for growing student achievement by 18% in one year on state standardized testing to receiving an award for leading a school to collect the most donations in the entire county for a local food pantry, to being a highly respected mentor on my support team at Lexia Learning.  

About Me:
I love to read! (mostly Historical Fiction)
Big time history nerd 📚
Traveling is a passion of mine.🌍
I am obsessed with my Shih-Tzu. 🐶
Self proclaimed foodie 🌮🍕🥡🍽
                  

Would love to chat and discuss how my skill set can help your company to grow!

awsalkind@gmail.com

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Claire Smizer

Amy Salkind, M.Ed.

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