Geri has been involved in education for over 30 years, doing work in research, curriculum, software development, children’s television, teacher professional development, classroom teaching, and working and volunteering in libraries. Her first professional classroom experience was as a teaching assistant for pre-K to middle school visually impaired and blind students. Later, she became a certified secondary English teacher and has taught and tutored all grade levels and adults in English, ESL, computers, science, social studies, and math. While a Program Associate at the North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium, Geri worked on state-wide, regional, and national initiatives to support teacher professional development in effective and sustainable integration of technology in schools and other education institutions. Her work in children’s educational television began at WXXI in Rochester, New York, and continued with work at Children’s Television Workshop/Sesame Workshop, and WGBH in Boston. Geri has also worked as an Executive editor for a major development house and as an editor for textbooks and assessments for numerous publishers. In informal learning settings, Geri was a manager of formal education programs at Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, where she collaborated with subject matter experts, technology teams, and informal educators in developing museum-based programming for teachers and students. She volunteered as an early childhood docent at Brookfield Zoo for 12.5 years.
The majority of Geri’s career has been in developing learning materials delivered via computer, from the days when software was delivered on disks to today’s most modern interactive, synchronous and asynchronous, online learning environments. She has worked as a content/curriculum developer, instructional designer, manager and director for several pre-K-12 and adult/higher education ventures, including Learning Sciences Corporation/Cognitive Arts, Siboney Learning Group, Education City, Pearson, Wiley Education Services, and Age of Learning/ABC Mouse. She is currently Managing Editor for Digital Initiatives at Loyola Press, where she was the main developer of content and design of an online learning adventure game for elementary school children. Geri received her B.A. in English and psychology from University of Rochester and her Ed.M. in Technology in Education from Harvard University. From her earliest memories, Geri has been a lover of libraries. She worked her way through college and graduate school as a Circulation Desk Supervisor at Rush Rhees Library in Rochester, New York and a Media Center Assistant at Gutman Library at Harvard. She served as the librarian, building the library, with parents, at a school for refugee children in Chicago. She has also actively volunteered as an assistant for visually impaired and blind patrons and at her community library in Forest Park, Illinois, and as an adult literacy instructor for Glendale Library, Arts & Culture in California.