Deborah Boisvert is the founder and executive director of CSforMA, Inc. Her extensive experience includes researching workforce needs and developing educational programs that further the educational and professional goals of both educators and students. She has led numerous workshops, summer institutes, and graduate courses aimed at enhancing the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of educators in K-12 through higher education.
Previously, she was at the University of Massachusetts Boston, concentrating on college and career pathways in computing. She spearheaded an NSF-funded Advanced Technological Education National Center of Excellence, which developed coordinated computing pathways from high school to community college in urban areas nationwide; an NSF CPATH grant on computational thinking; and a Research, Practice, And Transformation Through Synergy project, focusing on scaling innovation in education. Additionally, she serves on the Leadership Team for Broadening Participation in Computing grants at UMass Amherst, EDC, and MIT.
Boisvert facilitates the Strategic CS for All Resource and Implementation Training (SCRIPT), a structured process for developing and implementing a district-wide computer science education plan, and is 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.