Kathy M. Hurley
Kathy Hurley, Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, for Pearson School and the Pearson Foundation, is a 35-year veteran of the education industry. Prior to joining Pearson, Hurley served as Vice President, Education for PLATO Learning.
Hurley has also served as the Senior Vice President for NetSchools (prior to its acquisition by PLATO Learning), where her responsibilities included overseeing the Sales, Marketing and Business Development departments of the company.
Hurley’s tenure in the education industry also includes her time as Senior Vice President of Education Marketing for The Learning Company, and Senior Vice President of Skillsbank Corporation. In addition, Hurley held important positions with IBM, Mindscape, Grolier and DLM.
She currently serves on several key industry and education advisory boards, including, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), the National School Boards Foundation (NSBF), of which she is past Chairman, the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), Foundation for Education Investment (FEI), and National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET). She is also past president of the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) and she still sits on their Board of Directors. She was recently appointed to the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) board.
In addition, Hurley has received various awards for her service in the industry. In 2001, Hurley was named the CoSN’s first ever Outstanding Private Sector Achievement Award. More recently, in December of 2003, Hurley was inducted into the Association of Educational Publishers Hall of Fame for her achievements and service to the education publishing industry.
Hurley began her career in education working with learning disabled students, after receiving her Masters degree at Jersey City State College. To this day, she continues to support her undergraduate institution, the University of Dayton, by serving on their Advisory Board for the School of Education. Kathy is married to Charles Blaschke, President of EducationTURNKEY, an education information-focused group that provides market research, market projections, information on funding, and market strategy development. They live in Arlington, Virginia.