Evergreen Education Group

Online Learning Consulting for School Districts

Evergreen Education Group — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 06:17:33 +0000

We serve as experienced, unbiased guides to assist school administrators who are considering how to effectively implement online and blended learning in their school districts. Our consulting is both strategic and operational in nature, depending upon the local need. Our independent guidance has helped school districts in several areas including:

Investing resources wisely to create strategic long-term plans that lead to high quality online learning for students.
Rapidly building school district capacity and expertise to manage a quality online program locally and independently.
Improving educational opportunities while addressing growing competition and shrinking budgets.

Lauren Vashaw

Evergreen Education Group — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 22:01:17 +0000

Lauren grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan before attending Denison University in Ohio. In 2007, she graduated with a B.A. in psychology and a minor in communication. While there she played on the Women’s Varsity Basketball team for four years. After graduating she worked at Michigan Virtual University analyzing and configuring research data. She then joined Ryan Marketing Group where she provided technical support for the NCAA Men’s and Women’s national championship tournaments. Before joining Evergreen Education Group, Lauren took time to travel and volunteer abroad. She now lives in Durango, Colorado and enjoys hiking and trail running.

Tami Kleban

Evergreen Education Group — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:41:30 +0000

Tami Kleban has over 20 years in business consulting and accounting systems technology. Most recently, she is providing accounting, bookkeeping and accounting systems expertise for businesses in Evergreen, Colorado. Prior to owning her consulting practice, she worked as an SAP implementation analyst for a titanium metals company in Denver. While serving as a systems implementation specialist at an accounting software company and a Big 8 accounting firm, she acquired her experience of implementing, training and supporting end users on various software packages, business process reengineering projects and software selections. Tami has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego.

Amy Murin

Evergreen Education Group — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:42:56 +0000

Amy Murin brings 15 years of education, nonprofit management and technology experience to the Evergreen Education Group. She started her career in AmeriCorps in the Sheridan School District as a corps member and then the program manager. Amy then spent six years at eCollege, first working with K-12 and higher education clients to launch and grow their online programs, and then managing their administrative product line. Most recently she has been writing for the fundraising team at National Jewish Health; and consulting with nonprofits, virtual schools and charter schools on best practices, donor management databases and proposal writing. She received her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education and Social Sciences from Vanderbilt University, and a master of Nonprofit Management from Regis University.

Chris Rapp

Evergreen Education Group — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:34:23 +0000

Chris Rapp has spent over 20 years in online education, digital publishing and educational technology. Most recently, Chris served in executive roles for statewide virtual schools in Colorado and Idaho. As Executive Director for Colorado Online Learning, Chris led the organization to a 50% increase in enrollments, while maintaining a student completion rate of over 88%. While serving as Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Idaho Digital Learning Academy, Chris managed the development of dozens of new online courses, while also implementing a thorough review and revision process for over 150 existing courses. As a pioneer in internet-based online learning, Chris was the founding Director of the Center for Internet Technology in Education (CiTE) at eCollege and served as a Senior Consultant working with universities such as Seton Hall University, the University of Montana and Drexel University to set up their first online programs. Chris has also served as an Editor of digital media for Prentice Hall and Manager of Showcase Schools for TCI Educational Technologies. Chris has a B.A. in Television Journalism from the University of Georgia – Athens and a M.S in Telecommunications/New Media from Indiana University – Bloomington.

Additional Projects

Evergreen Education Group — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:10:34 +0000

Many of our projects don’t fit neatly into any of the above categories, although they are no less important to us. Examples of these projects include:

State Virtual School Alliance

We are facilitating a collaborative group of state virtual schools working together to share information around best practices and common challenges.

Trujillo Commission

The Trujillo Commission was formed by the Donnell-Kay Foundation in response to the Colorado state audit of online schools. The commission held public hearings, interviewed online learning leaders, and created recommendations that formed the basis for the subsequent law that was passed in Colorado to allow the expansion of online learning. We provided support to the Commission’s research and reporting efforts.

Wyoming Department of Education

In Wyoming we held a similar role with the Wyoming Distance Education Task Force, which proposed recommendations that subsequently were passed by the legislature to create the Wyoming Switchboard Network.

Advisory Services

Evergreen Education Group — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:07:37 +0000

Some of our projects are less defined with a concrete deliverable; we sometimes take on a role as advisors to organizations that want to better understand K-12 online learning. At various times we have taken on this role for the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education, Angel Learning, LearningMate, Plato Learning, ThinkWell, Words & Numbers, eCollege, and others.

Driving Directions

Evergreen Education Group — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:52:43 +0000

If you’re visiting us in Colorado, you’ll find our office in the Prudential Building, Suite i, on the corner of 7th and Main Ave. Coming from Pagosa Springs, take 160 West and continue onto Camino Del Rio, turn right on West 7th Street. Take the 2nd left onto Main Ave and the Prudential Building, with our offices, will be on your right.

Butch Gemin

Evergreen Education Group — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:25:24 +0000

Butch Gemin has over 20 years of marketing, sales and business startup experience in online learning, educational software and publishing. Before joining Evergreen Education Group, Butch held executive positions with two innovative educational nonprofit organizations, the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education and Prometheus. At Evergreen Butch has co-authored the Promising Practices in Online Learning series, Keeping Pace with Online Learning report, and consulted with higher education institutions, state virtual schools, and state education agencies.

John Watson

Evergreen Education Group — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:23:05 +0000

John Watson, founder of the Evergreen Education Group, started consulting in 2000 after serving as director of business development and consultant for eCollege, where he helped educational organizations launch their online programs and was instrumental in developing the company’s K-12 strategy. John and Evergreen’s work has been cited in the New York Times, Education Week, and eSchool News, he has appeared on NBC Nightly News, and he has presented numerous times at the Virtual School Symposium of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, Technology and Leadership Conference of the National School Boards Association, and other conferences. Prior to online learning, John worked in environmental consulting, environmental education, and a variety of other education, environmental, and travel-related fields. John holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MS and MBA from the University of Michigan.