Many of you know pieces of my story – a project here, a post there – and maybe you are part of my story, but the full picture connects in ways you might not expect. Looking back, every chapter has been driven by the same thing: curiosity – about people, learning, and how technology can bring them together. I’d like to share it with you, not just to tell where I’ve been, but to show how each chapter led to what I’m building now.
Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on my dad’s knee while he worked at the computer – a green-screen machine with no graphics, just blinking text. I was fascinated. A few years later, when he began working from home, I remember the screech of the dial-up modem and how picking up the phone could drop the connection instantly. My dad was a software and electrical engineer – the smartest person I knew – and I wanted to be just like him. Engineering didn’t end up being my path, but it sparked a lifelong curiosity about how technology connects people and powers learning.
Meet my parents, Mike and Sandy Saad – the ones who taught me that curiosity and persistence can build almost anything.
At the University of Iowa, I thought I was destined to be a physical therapist – until organic chemistry changed my mind. I shifted toward what I already loved: solving problems through technology and systems thinking. Computer science and business gave me the tools to ask better questions, build effective models, and turn ideas into systems that actually worked.
Armed with new skills in technology and systems thinking, I entered the workforce eager to build. But what I found instead taught me something deeper about meaning. After a year working at the bottom rung of the field, I realized something was missing. One week I came back from being sick to find the same stack of work waiting for me – only taller. That’s when it hit me: I wanted my work to mean something, to make an impact. So I decided to change direction. I would become a teacher.
Teaching changed everything. I loved what I was learning about my students, about education, and about myself. My first year – teaching 7th grade on Chicago’s West Side – was the hardest and most humbling of my career. My students’ lives were so different from my own, and I had to learn quickly how to connect, earn trust, and make learning matter to them. It became one of the most powerful and transformative years of my life.
After that first year, I moved to a school closer to home and began teaching an externship class for seniors, helping them explore real-world careers and connect classroom learning to their futures. Not long after, I added computer science, web design, and web development courses to my schedule. It was a busy season, but it blended two things I loved most: preparing students for what comes next and showing them how technology can help them get there.
Technology was beginning to reshape classrooms, Smart boards, online gradebooks, and new ways to track learning. Before long, colleagues were coming to me for help, and I became the go-to for instructional technology support. That opened a new door: a role that allowed me to split my time between teaching students and teaching educators how to use technology in meaningful ways. I loved both, but over time I realized something powerful – helping teachers learn meant reaching far more students than I ever could on my own. So I made the leap to focus on adult learning full-time.
Around this time, I met my husband, who introduced me to the world of triathlons. I learned to run and ride with determination, and to stay calm when swimming in a crowded, open lake. The training was intense, but it taught me discipline, endurance, and focus, qualities that shaped how I approached my work and learning. On the days I didn’t want to train, he’d remind me, “Your competitors are training today.” That mindset stuck.
The world of adult learning quickly became my passion. I wanted to understand everything – best practices, learning theories, what worked, and why. The more I learned, the more questions surfaced. I dove in headfirst: developing content, facilitating sessions, sending newsletters, recording videos, even launching podcasts. My goal wasn’t just to answer questions, but to anticipate them – to help educators feel supported, capable, and inspired to keep growing.
I learned that one of the most important days in a triathlon training plan was the rest day. For me, that became yoga. Over time, yoga replaced racing as my way to reset and recharge. It taught me the value of stillness, focus, and breathing through challenge – lessons that would later shape how I approached teaching, leadership, and change. I eventually trained as a yoga instructor, taking my practice, and my perspective, to a new level.
While leading adult learning at my high school, I joined a master’s program in educational technology. Very quickly, I realized my teachers were already ahead of the curve; we were applying much of the research and best practices in real time. That experience deepened my curiosity and sparked a drive to keep growing. Next came a degree in educational administration, where I learned how to lead teaching and learning at a systems level. Not long after, I was invited to teach in a graduate education program, an experience that magnified everything I loved about adult learning and solidified my passion for developing others.
When we decided to move to Iowa, I left my job of more than 15 years and started fresh. I wondered what came next – what I was qualified to do, and what I truly wanted. Then I found the opportunity that brought everything together: serving as the State Lead for Computer Science at the Iowa Department of Education. The role combined my love of technology, learning, and systems design. I led statewide professional learning, managed $2 million in grant funding, and guided the “CS is Elementary” initiative to expand computer science education across K–12. Supporting educators and administrators as they brought computer science to their students became some of the most rewarding work of my career.
One of the initiatives we launched was SCRIPT, a framework that helped districts plan how to integrate computer science across K–12 in ways that fit their local context. When an opportunity opened to manage the program nationally, I jumped at it. I trained more than a hundred educators across 20+ states to facilitate SCRIPT workshops, refined the content, and introduced 12-month Communities of Practice to extend learning and build networks of support. Those facilitators went on to guide hundreds of teachers and leaders as they brought computer science education to their own communities.
I discovered that building and delivering professional learning wasn’t just something I enjoyed – it was the work I was meant to do. So when I saw the opportunity to build a professional learning program from the ground up at aiEDU, an organization focused on bringing AI literacy to schools, I said yes immediately. I knew artificial intelligence was the future, but I quickly realized that future wasn’t distant – it was already here. At aiEDU, I developed strategy, partnered with clients, trained facilitators, and built a scalable professional learning system that helped educators feel ready to bring AI into their classrooms.
We eventually moved to Colorado, where I traded the Midwest humidity for mountain views and four seasons I actually enjoy. The change of pace gave me space to reflect – on everything I’d built, and what might come next. A doctorate? A Chief Learning Officer role? Maybe. But what I really wanted was to create something of my own. Every chapter – each classroom, program, and leap – has been connected by the same thread: curiosity. Now, through my own work, that same curiosity helps others navigate their own shifts with confidence.
