Deborah Boisvert is the Founder and Executive Director of CSforMA, Inc. Formerly, she was the Principal Investigator for an NSF-funded Advanced Technological Education National Center of Excellence that created coordinated computing pathways from high school to community college in urban areas across the country; Principal Investigator for an NSF CPATH grant on computational thinking; Principal Investigator for Research, Practice And Transformation Through Synergy focused on research in scale of innovation within education; and Co-Principal Investigator for a Broadening Participation in Computing Initiative based at UMass Amherst.
Boisvert has extensive experience in researching workforce needs and developing and implementing educational programs that advance the educational and professional objectives of students, current workers and community residents. She has developed and/or conducted numerous workshops, summer institutes, and graduate courses that advance the content and pedagogical capabilities of educators across K-12 and higher education.
Boisvert is a facilitator for Strategic CS for All Resource and Implementation Training (SCRIPT), which is a formal process for creating and adopting a district-wide computer science education plan and the Regional partner for Code.org in Massachusetts.
Shaileen Crawford is Deputy Director of CSforMA, Inc. Shay began her career as a software developer and became interested in education through volunteer work at the flagship Computer Clubhouse in Boston. Now a specialist in computer science education, she advocates for early, meaningful computing experiences for all students as a mechanism for improving equity and diversity in technology fields.
Over the past decade, Shay has led a number of K-12 computer science education programs including MIT App Inventor, EiE Computer Science at the Museum of Science Boston, The Massachusetts PACE program for school districts, the Root project at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Bioinspired Engineering, and the K-12 computer science pathway at Project Lead the Way. Shay co-wrote the 2016 K-12 Computer Science Framework that defines the content and practices at each stage of a comprehensive computer science learning trajectory. Shaileen Crawford holds a B.S. in computer science from Cornell University and a Ed.M. in education technology from Harvard Graduate School of Education.