Evergreen was founded in 2000 and now has four full-time staff. We also tap into a large network of professionals from around the country with expertise in education, technology and other areas, who often work on our projects. Our network of consultants and subcontractors who have worked on our projects includes Blue Marble Creative, Matthew Wicks and Associates, Zebo Media Group, and David Glick and Associates.
Tami McSweeny 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 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 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.
Butch Gemin has over 20 years of marketing, sales and business startup experience in educational publishing, online learning and educational software. Butch has recently held executive positions in marketing, member development, and sales management with two innovative educational nonprofit organizations, the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE) and Prometheus, a software startup within The George Washington University. As Director of Marketing and Member Development, Butch developed and implemented the promotional plan for the MITE’s cornerstone project, the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC), a library of multimedia-based online course content. He co-founded the organization, helping to define the product, services and operational strategies, while establishing relationships with educational institutions to ensure the successful introduction of the NROC project. At Prometheus, Butch was responsible for positioning the company as one of the premier course management software providers in the higher education marketplace. He led a marketing and sales effort to build strategic alliances with Prometheus users to expand the role of IT administrators and faculty in the product’s community source software development model. Prometheus became one of the three premier course management enterprise software products in higher education within 18 months of its introduction and was purchased by Blackboard, the leading commercial competitor. Prior to his positions in educational multimedia, Butch held key editorial, marketing and sales management positions at Archipelago Productions (an internal startup at Harcourt Brace College Publishers and Thomson), and Harcourt College Publishers. Butch has a BA from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
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.
© 2010 Evergreen Education Group