Month: July 2024

Mya Baker joined iCivics in 2024 as the Chief Learning Services Officer, leading business strategy and the design of learning services for teachers, leaders, and districts.

Prior to this, Mya was Vice President in the Consulting division at TNTP, where she oversaw work across 14 states, significantly expanding TNTP’s impact and revenue—from $3 million to $15 million in four fiscal cycles—supporting over 3 million students. Her leadership encompassed curriculum adoption, instructional improvement, school turnaround, community engagement, talent management, and leadership development. She also developed an equity-based academic diagnostic process used in hundreds of schools annually.

Previously, Mya served as Senior Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Uplift Education in Dallas-Fort Worth, managing five academic teams and overseeing curriculum development, academic programming, English as a Second Language support, and instructional coaching across 40 schools serving over 18,000 students. She was instrumental in the certification of 32 International Baccalaureate programs, making the district the largest group of IB continuum schools in North America.

Mya’s career began in school-based roles, progressing from a 5th-grade teacher to a Principal and Principal Manager in Washington, DC. During her early years, she also trained new teachers through Teach for America and DC Teaching Fellows. Mya holds a Bachelor of Science in Communications and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Master’s Degree in Teaching & Learning from American University.

Mya is a dedicated servant leader with a passion for fostering inclusive environments and advancing educational equity through strategic planning and development. Her extensive experience in instructional and district leadership informs her innovative approach to business strategy.

Molly is a seasoned nonprofit development leader with more than 20 years of experience helping high-impact organizations realize their ambitious visions—building deep and lasting relationships to secure significant and sustainable funding. Prior to joining iCivics, Molly worked in senior development roles for organizations transforming the lives of millions of people and communities throughout the world, including Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, UNICEF, Concern Worldwide and Sightsavers.

Molly joined iCivics in 2016 as Chief Development Officer, leading a small but mighty team to grow and diversify iCivics’ revenue. During her tenure, iCivics’ annual fundraising has grown five-fold, including support from some of the nation’s most prestigious philanthropists, and the organization launched and is nearing completion of its first growth capital campaign. An avid civics buff since childhood, she is thrilled to help iCivics raise the necessary investment to ensure every student in America is educated and inspired for lifelong civic engagement.

Molly holds a B.A. in Political Science from Trinity Washington University, as well as an MPhil in International Peace Studies from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. She lives with her family in Boston, MA.

Tom is a third-generation computer scientist who started programming at the age of 12. In his final semester at Hamline University, Tom dropped his resume off at a company called MECC, and the next thing he knew, he was working on The Oregon Trail. At MECC, Tom discovered his love of edTech and the mission he continues today.

Tom’s career has seen him work on some of the most legendary education products: The Oregon Trail, Carmen San Diego, Compton’s Encyclopedia, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, Number Munchers, National Geographic, and many others. During his 30-year career, Tom has also worked in the advertising and entertainment industries building some of the first websites in the state of Minnesota and heading up external game studios for PlayFirst.

In 2001, Tom founded SnowOwl Studios, which created modern versions of Number Munchers and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. SnowOwl also created top ten titles for casual gaming clients like THQ and PlayFirst. One of the most interesting projects at SnowOwl was creating a digital reading program for special education curriculum that utilized adapted interfaces for kids will wide ranges of special needs.

The latest adventure for Tom was with Capstone, a children’s book publisher focused on the school library market. At Capstone, Tom built the development team around PebbleGo and Capstone Interactive. PebbleGo started life as a simple research and inquiry tool focusing on K-2 literacy. Tom’s team advanced PebbleGo from a simple web app to an entire education platform and has served up one billion articles to students in Tom’s tenure at Capstone.

Tom is an Eagle Scout, and his minor at Hamline was Political Science. Tom has a passion for civics and a deep sense of civic duty. At Hamline, Tom worked with the political science department to create computerized statistical models to predict election outcomes.

Tom lives in Plymouth, MN, with his wife, Karen. When not at the keyboard, Tom enjoys spending time at his cabin and supporting Karen’s adventures as a Hall of Fame marathon swimmer.

With over 20 years in the nonprofit sector, Roxy Garcia Marcus joined iCivics as the first Senior Director, Human Resources. Roxy has worked in People/HR roles for over 10 years, working to positively contribute to staff culture and team development. She has served in a variety of HR roles with a focus on employee relations, team management, organizational development, employee retention, and leadership development. She is passionate about supporting senior leaders and people managers to elevate and support their teams to high outcomes. Prior to working in HR, Roxy also served in a variety of nonprofit functions, including fundraising, site operations, external engagement, and direct programming. She leverages this varied experience to better understand an organization’s strategic needs and ties the HR strategy to those needs.

Roxy has a bachelor’s in public relations from the University of Florida and a master’s in organizational leadership and learning from The George Washington University. She is passionate about cultivating environments in which employees can thrive. Born to Cuban and Dominican immigrants, Roxy is a first-generation American, grew up in South Florida, and served two terms in AmeriCorps prior to completing her bachelor’s. Roxy now lives in Maryland with her husband Ben, their four kids, and an unruly Irish Wolfadoodle. When she’s not working, Roxy enjoys drawing, cooking, and reading.

Luess joined iCivics in January 2023 as the Chief Product Officer. In this role, Luess leads the product strategy and editorial development for the iCivics portfolio.

Prior to iCivics, Luess held many positions in the K-12 educational publishing industry focused on developing history, civics, and government curricula. Most recently, as the VP, Humanities Product Development at Savvas Learning Company (formerly Pearson K12 Learning), Luess oversaw the K-12 Social Studies and World Languages product lines. There she was instrumental in the development of several market-leading programs, including Magruder’s American Government. She started her career in educational publishing in the Educational Technology group at Houghton Mifflin. Her first experience in the publishing world was as a children’s trade editor on the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series.

Luess holds a M.A. in History from University of Massachusetts and a B.A. in History from Duke University. She excels at navigating complex issues and developing creative product solutions that help students learn and practice knowledge and skills they need to engage in the civic process. She is an avid gardener and downhill skier who loves reading mysteries and doing jigsaw puzzles.