The Unstuck Woman

This website is about getting unstuck. Getting out of the rut you are in and moving forward.  Helping yourself to make all aspects of your life enjoyable. Sometimes we work at it and pull ourselves out of that rut and sometimes something happens beyond our control to put us on a different path. It started for us by getting laid off. If you are stuck, join us and other women as we explore all the many ways of moving forward and getting to the good stuff.

Who are Bridget and Deb?

About Deb
Deb deVries has over 20 years of experience in the education industry. She began her career in the classroom as a special education teacher after earning her masters degree at the University of Utah. She taught in Utah, Washington, and Minnesota before joining the private sector by going to work for Control Data Corporation. At CDC she held marketing and sales positions supporting computer-based education in K-12 schools nationwide.

In 1986, Deb joined MECC as a sales representative and held sales management positions, including Vice President of School Sales. The Learning Company purchased MECC in 1996 and in 1998 Deb left TLC to pursue independent consulting work with other companies focused in K-12 educational technology.

In 2000 she re-entered the corporate world as Director of Marketing Programs and Development at NetSchools Corporation, until PLATO Learning purchased it in May of 2002.

In 2004, Deb joined Pearson Education School Companies as Vice President, Strategic Market Development, where she focuses on partnership opportunities with other industry organizations and associations, and on market development.

Deb also serves on the Board of Directors for several key industry and education associations, including the National Teachers Hall of Fame (NTHF), the Florida Education Technology Conference (FETC), and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), of which she holds one of only two board seats reserved for ISTE 100 Member companies. In addition, Deb served for a number of years on the Education Division Board of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA).

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About Bridget

Bridget Foster has over twenty years experience in education and technology. She works with companies to help them find and manage strategic partnerships, strategize and implement strategic marketing campaigns and develop organization and association relationships. Previously, she was Manager, Technology Products for Key Curriculum Press where she was responsible for managing new product development opportunities, business partnerships and increasing the visibility of technology products in domestic and international markets. As the Director of Business Development for SchoolNet Inc, she managed their SchoolNet Synchronized Partner Program, including instructional content and assessment partnerships, to help develop universal access to their content through the SchoolNet IMS platform.

Prior to SchoolNet, she was the Director of Education for PLATO Learning, Inc. where she was responsible for establishing a company presence in key markets, seeking out and developing opportunities, responding to RFPs and state adoption submissions, leveraging partnerships, formulating strategic joint-ventures, and contributing to the development of company sales and marketing strategy.

Before PLATO, she spent seven years as the Director of the California Learning Resources Network (CLRN), a statewide education technology service funded by the California Department of Education, which provides review information for standards aligned supplemental electronic learning resources. She was responsible for responding to the RFP which funded the project and then overseeing operations, which included: development of review process, collaboration with industry, liaison with the State Board of Education, and oversight of over 100 teacher reviewers. During her tenure at CLRN, the project grew to serve over 12,000 teachers in California and in 47 countries around the world.

She has presented on the topic of electronic learning resource review and state textbook adoption practices at a variety of National and state conferences. She currently serves on various education association boards and committees including the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). She also served as a classroom teacher for sixteen and has owned and operated a retail store. Her free time, which she wedges in between sleeping and eating, is spent at home in Northern California with her family, two  horses, and four dogs on a small ranch. Occasionally she goes to horse shows, a very un-technological pursuit.

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