December 14, 2020AUSTIN, TEXAS – Ed-Fi Alliance, today, named the winners of the 2020 Ed-Fi Community Awards, designed to recognize leading education advocates for their work to effectively use connected data and interoperability to support students and teachers, transforming American classrooms. 

Awards are given in four categories; Ambassador, Technical Contributor, Partner and Rookie of the Year. All nominees must demonstrate measurable and concrete examples of contributions to the Ed-Fi Community in advocacy, technical work, community-building, knowledge sharing and leadership. Nominations come directly from members of the Ed-Fi Community and are voted on by the Ed-Fi Governance Advisory Team. 

“Our Annual Community Awards give us the opportunity to honor and recognize the tireless work and dedication of our most ardent advocates and supporters. We are inspired that these leaders have dedicated their professional careers to transforming education through data,” said Troy Wheeler, president, Ed-Fi Alliance. “All of our 2020 Community Award winners have not only shown, but also demonstrated their commitment to interoperability and have made significant contributions to the broader Ed-Fi Community, efforts that will improve education outcomes across the nation.”

Please join the entire Ed-Fi Community in congratulating and recognizing this year’s award winners at our virtual Award Ceremony on Tuesday, December 15 at 11am CT.

The Ed-Fi Alliance is pleased to announce the following 2020 Annual Community Award winners.

2020 Ambassador of the Year
Dr. Happy Miller, Executive Director of Research, Assessment, Data, and Accountability at Rio Rancho Public Schools

Dr. Miller has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to the Ed-Fi Community and to sharing the benefits of interoperability with others. Through her tireless work she has provided leadership and direction to Ed-Fi and strengthened our ability to deliver interoperability to even more school districts across the country.  Dr. Miller is a consistent advocate and advisor to her peers, for the education technology sector and for using data to impact teaching and learning.

2020 Technical Contributor of the Year
Lori Ludwick, Senior Consultant, UPD Consulting

The Technical Contributor of the Year is awarded to Lori Ludwick of UPD Consulting. Lori has contributed significantly to the technical work of the Ed-Fi Alliance, and particularly refining the Teacher Prep Data Model to the benefit of the entire Community. Lori has demonstrated commitment to the Ed-Fi Data Standards and has driven collaborative efforts to help others within the Community. Specifically, Lori has spearheaded several changes to the teacher prep data model working with universities and teacher preparation programs. She has greatly improved the data model through her focus on customer problem-solving and interoperability. 

2020 Partner of the Year
Google Cloud & Innive, Inc. 

Both Google Cloud and Innive, Inc. have been named Partners of the Year for their work and contributions to migrating Ed-Fi technology to support .NET Core and Docker.  Both partners have demonstrated a commitment to interoperability and the Ed-Fi Community by being a champion for data standards, a thoughtful partner for education agencies and a visionary in the use of data to improve outcomes for learners. Their technical work this year will help education agencies achieve interoperability more quickly and seamlessly. 

2020 Rookie of the Year
Latika Keegan, Vice President, Data & Analytics, Harlem Village Academies 

Ms. Keegan has been awarded Rookie of the Year, which is reserved for a leader engaged in the Ed-Fi Alliance Community for two years or less.  As one of Ed-Fi’s newest contributors, Ms. Keegan has demonstrated her commitment to data interoperability by quickly ramping up on the technology and driving her school’s Ed-Fi implementation. Latika has demonstrated her ability to work with vendors and others within the Community to effectively implement Ed-Fi in her environment and to share that knowledge back to the broader Community.

We congratulate this year’s award winners and thank them for their continued commitment to transforming education through connected data.

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