Julia Freeland Fisher

I lead a team that educates policymakers and community leaders on the power of Disruptive Innovation in the K-12 and higher education spheres through its research.

The Institute operates at a unique intersection of working to deepen our understanding of what’s happening in education today to build a better tomorrow. I love having a job that allows me to scan a huge array of innovation efforts and synthesize and clarify where the field is headed. That role has also offered me the space to explore emergent trends that I believe merit more rigor and investment, like students’ social capital—an invisible but critical asset in the opportunity equation. Most of all, I feel so lucky to have a job that allows me to interact with and spotlight education entrepreneurs working day in and day out to address long-standing opportunity gaps.

I first read Clay’s work when I taught Disrupting Class as part of a college seminar I was leading at Yale. It was still the very early days of edtech, and the book brought rigor and clarity to a still-emerging space. I was drawn to Clay’s unique lens on education: both the far-reaching impact technology could and should have on schools, but also the chance to think about innovation beyond just trial-and-error to a predictable process.

Experience

• Director, Education Research, the Christensen Institute
• External Relations, NewSchools Venture Fund
• Instructor, Yale College Seminar Program
• Princeton University, BA
• Yale Law School, JD