Dr. Shelly Shires’ journey into the education and technology sector was anything but conventional. As a young student, she struggled with traditional classroom strategies, feeling disconnected from the material being taught. It wasn’t until after high school that she realized many others shared a similar experience—students who needed a different approach to succeed academically.

Determined to make a difference, Dr. Shires initially pursued special education, working as an instructional assistant in a middle school special education classroom while continuing her studies. However, the emotional toll of the work prompted a career pivot, leading her into the fields of statistics, strategic planning, project management, and information systems.

Her transition into educational technology began at the Baltimore County Public Library, where she leveraged digital services to serve the community in new and innovative ways. Earning a Master’s degree in Information Systems Management, she was soon recruited for her first EdTech role as a Senior Project Manager at a global private language school.

What started as a project to rewrite a student information system quickly evolved into something much bigger—a digitally native course designed to teach English as a second language to adult learners. Despite initial skepticism about the feasibility of such an initiative, her team successfully launched the program, marking the beginning of a deep passion for building transformative learning experiences.

“I got hooked,” she recalls. “Hooked on building learning experiences. With each successful product and technology launch, I was rewarded with even more complex and exciting opportunities to reimagine education.”

Eventually, her curiosity led her back to academia, where she pursued a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction, this time focusing on special education and family engagement. Her journey underscores a deep commitment to reshaping education through innovative, technology-driven solutions.

A Defining Career Milestone

Among the many accomplishments throughout her career, one stands out as a defining moment. Nearly a decade ago, while working for an educational organization supporting private language schools, she spearheaded a large-scale initiative to create a digitally native, outcome-oriented student experience.

This ambitious portfolio consisted of 50 projects, integrating digital instruction, assessments, storyline videos, content management, learning management, student information systems, professional development, and even digital classroom environments. With teams across the globe contributing, it took two years of meticulous planning and execution before the platform launched in 2015.

“It was the largest portfolio of product and technology development I had ever embarked on,” she recalls. “Seeing it come to life and fuel the learning journeys of hundreds of thousands of English language learners was humbling. To celebrate, we made a toast around the world, starting in China and ending in San Francisco, all within 24 hours.”

This global collaboration remains a highlight of her career, reinforcing the power of technology to transform learning experiences on a massive scale.

Leading Innovation

As a Chief Product  & Service Officer at Springboard Collaborative, Dr. Shires plays a pivotal role in shaping the organization’s vision. She leads teams across curriculum development, engineering, operations, and services, ensuring that young learners—from Pre-K to 5th grade—receive high-quality literacy instruction.

“At Springboard Collaborative, we believe that family-educator collaboration is the most joyful, culturally affirming, and cost-effective way to give kids access to high-quality instructional time,” she explains. “We coach educators and parents to help kids learn to read by fourth grade.”

Her role involves setting the strategic vision for product and service development, ensuring that every initiative is informed by macro and micro trends, competitive analysis, and the needs of the communities Springboard serves. On a daily basis, she reviews data, monitors project portfolios, and engages in meaningful collaborations with both internal teams and external stakeholders.

“I spend equal time developing our teams, products, and services as I do working closely with the rest of the organization to ensure we deliver the impact our families and schools deserve,” she says.

Dr. Shires never aspired to be a leader in her early career. She was content with being a hardworking contributor. However, as she advanced, she realized that stepping into leadership was essential to doing the work she loved at a larger scale.

Over the years, she has cultivated a leadership style centered around positivity, empathy, and servant leadership. She sets ambitious visions while empowering her teams to chart the path toward achieving them.

“I maintain a balance between empowerment and accountability,” she explains. “I strive to cultivate the next generation of leaders who will deliver industry-leading educational experiences to students around the globe.”

This leadership approach enables her to drive innovation effectively. She operates seamlessly at both macro and micro levels, balancing long-term strategy with a keen understanding of user journeys, feature specifications, and curriculum development. Her ability to break down broad concepts into actionable steps allows her teams to build cutting-edge learning solutions with real impact.

Balancing Global and Local Needs in Learning Products

Dr. Shires has faced the challenge of delivering high-quality learning products and services that work effectively across different local communities. She acknowledges that every school has its own unique needs, making it difficult to create a one-size-fits-all solution. To address this, she emphasizes the importance of defining a program’s core elements—those that are critical to achieving desired outcomes—while allowing flexibility in areas that can be adapted to local needs.

“If you build in a level of configurability upfront, it will reduce the number of customizations needed and empower communities to implement a program that meets their needs and delivers results,” she explains.

Exciting Developments at Springboard Collaborative

Dr. Shires is driving initiatives that foster deeper collaboration between families and educators. The organization aims to make family-teacher partnerships a standard practice in American education.

One of the standout innovations under her leadership is the Family Educator Learning Accelerator (FELA) methodology. This approach equips teachers with Science of Reading (SoR) literacy instruction while providing families with strategies to support their children’s literacy growth at home.

Recognizing that not all families can attend workshops due to accessibility issues, Springboard is leveraging technology to engage parents remotely. “There is a correlation between workshop attendance and student literacy growth, so we are developing ways to meet families where they are,” she says.

Additionally, she is spearheading the development of a family learning objectives framework, ensuring that families have clear guidance on how to support their children’s education effectively.

Building an Impactful Digital Learning Experience

Prior to her role at Springboard Collaborative, Dr. Shires played a key role in developing a digital curriculum for a network of charter online public schools. This initiative was designed for students who struggled to thrive in traditional classrooms but still sought a high-quality education.

The curriculum integrated peer model videos, interactive narrative text presentations, and real-world applications of 21st-century skills, all aligned with CCSS and state-specific standards. Teachers were given the ability to customize lessons to meet students’ unique needs, while parents—acting as learning coaches—could preview lessons and receive targeted guidance on supporting their children.

“This learning experience is still in use today, serving students and families, and changing futures,” she proudly shares.

Keeping Teams Motivated

Balancing long-term vision with day-to-day operations is no easy task, but Dr. Shires believes the key lies in clear vision, strategic planning, and continuous recommitment.

She ensures that everyone in her organization understands both the customer experience and the desired outcomes. By breaking the vision into component parts and mapping team members to specific responsibilities, she fosters a sense of purpose and accountability.

“In every quarterly or monthly planning session, we start with and center on the vision. Retelling the customer story and evaluating key indicators allow each team member to adapt and recommit to the vision. Quarter by quarter, month by month, the wins, the lessons, and the progress inch closer to that vision until it has been reached.”

Redefining Education Through Technology

Dr. Shelly Shires believes that technology and education have become inseparable, transforming the way students learn and educators teach. What once began with simple classroom tools like smart boards has now evolved into a dynamic ecosystem where data-driven insights enhance instruction, and digital platforms make learning more accessible. Mobile devices, adaptive learning systems, and virtual classrooms are shaping an educational landscape that extends far beyond the four walls of a school.

She envisions a future where the traditional concept of a classroom fades, replaced by a world where learning happens anytime, anywhere, seamlessly integrated into daily life. “We will not be putting real life aside to go learn someplace else; we will learn as we experience day-to-day activities in real life,” she explains. Dr. Shires also emphasizes the importance of strengthening family-educator partnerships, ensuring that learning is not restricted to the school year but becomes an ongoing, immersive experience. By fostering collaboration between educators and families, she believes education can become a continuous, lifelong process, empowering students to learn beyond the confines of structured schooling.

Shaping the Future of Education

Keeping teams focused on long-term impact requires balancing daily operations with strategic goals, a challenge many leaders face. For her, success lies in a clearly articulated vision understood at every level of the organization. When this balance is at its best, the vision is broken down into sequenced components, with leading and lagging indicators mapped to outcomes. Individuals and teams must see their role in achieving the broader vision. By regularly revisiting this vision during quarterly and monthly planning, teams remain motivated, adaptive, and aligned, ensuring progress toward ambitious educational goals.

As the education landscape evolves, several key trends are shaping the future of EdTech. Interoperability standards are gaining traction, with organizations like 1EdTech, EdFi, and CoSN working toward seamless, integrated solutions that enhance K-12 education. Responsible AI in education is another transformative force, with the potential to improve learning efficiency and personalize education. Additionally, parental inclusion is becoming increasingly significant, as parents take on a more proactive role in their children’s education, a shift she believes is essential for systemic improvement.

To stay ahead in the rapidly changing EdTech industry, she remains committed to continuous learning through various sources, including online courses from platforms like EdX, industry-leading podcasts such as This Week in Tech and WSJ Tech News Briefing, and publications like Fast Company, BizTech, and EdWeek. She also relies on government and district websites for targeted insights. By keeping pace with technological advancements and the evolving priorities of educators, she ensures that her work at Springboard Collaborative remains impactful.

Her vision for the future of education is twofold. She envisions a shift away from the traditional classroom model, where learning is no longer confined to four walls but embedded in daily life. At the same time, she seeks to make family-educator partnerships the norm, ensuring that parents play an active role in shaping their children’s education. To realize this vision, she focuses on contributing research on virtual learning’s effectiveness, developing high-quality, unconventional learning experiences, and advocating for parental inclusion in education as a standard rather than an exception.

Empowering the Future of EdTech Leadership

One of the most common pitfalls in education technology is the disconnect between technology development and educational methodologies. She emphasizes the importance of integrating multiple development approaches, starting with backward design—defining desired outcomes first and then building technology to support pedagogy. “Curriculum and engineering teams should work together, rather than passing tasks back and forth,” she advises. By fostering collaboration across development, curriculum, and service delivery teams, EdTech solutions can become more efficient, effective, and impactful.

Beyond her work at Springboard Collaborative, she is deeply passionate about researching the experiences of parents of students with special needs in online schools. She also aspires to start her own business to coach parents on becoming active partners in their children’s education. Her ultimate goal is to make virtual learning more accessible and empower families to take a leading role in shaping educational outcomes.

For the next generation of education leaders, her message is clear: “Start with and always center on your students.” She encourages aspiring leaders to ignore distractions, trends, and external pressures, focusing instead on truly understanding and addressing student needs. She also reminds them, “You are not alone.” Whether as teachers, engineers, or curriculum developers, collaboration with families, communities, and professional networks is essential. “Families and communities are not ‘end users’—they are assets. Work together as equals to empower the next generation.”

A Legacy in Education and Technology

When asked how she hopes to be remembered, her response is simple yet profound:

• As the person who helped parents navigate the special education system.
  As the one who made virtual learning more accessible.
  As the mentor who developed future leaders.

Ultimately, her work is driven by a deep commitment to ensuring every child, regardless of circumstance, has access to a high-quality education.