About Us
A Virtual Teacher Can Change a Student’s Life
Mission
Inspire Virtual Teachers to provide excellent instruction.
Vision
Our vision is to create a world where virtual teaching is as good as or more effective than in-person instruction.
Background
The National Virtual Teacher Association (NVTA) was built by a group of educational leaders who have pioneered the delivery of virtual education in the K-12 and higher ed spaces. We believe that when a virtual teacher is trained properly, they can create a world-class learning environment that engages students on a medium they live in every day. We believe it is time to start focusing on how to be an effective virtual teacher by building a community of educators who want to work as a group to create standards and share quality educational options.
Education Advisory Board
The Education Advisory Board consists of leaders, scholars, and innovators from around the country with extensive knowledge of the importance of quality virtual instruction.
The Education Advisory Board is responsible for providing oversight and guidance to the processes by which the NVTA develops guidelines for quality virtual teaching, oversight of the National Virtual Teacher Association Certification, and any other program curriculum materials that are developed and administered by the NVTA.
Arizona School Board Association Executive Director
Dr. Sheila Harrison-Williams was president of the Illinois Association of School Administrators and served on their board for 12 years. She also served as executive board treasurer for the National Alliance of Black School Educators since 2015. She also co-founded the HWC Executive Leadership Institute with Dr. Connie Collins in Hazel Crest, Ill., a nonprofit that promotes the development of high performing school district leaders. She served as superintendent of Hazel Crest School District in Illinois for 14 years and as superintendent of Fairmont School District for 2 ½ years.
Former New Jersey Commissioner of Education
Kimberly Harrington Markus worked as a classroom teacher in New Jersey for 16 years and taught all grades from kindergarten to 8th grade. She then served three years as Director of Curriculum and Instruction. Finally, she served as the Chief Academic Officer at the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) prior to her role as the Commissioner of Education. Currently, she is the Executive Director of Innovation and Personnel at Mount Olive Township School District.
Kimberly is passionate about working with educators to develop and empower student voice. She shares her 30 years of experience in education with leaders and solution providers in order to work in concert to increase access and opportunities for all students.
Pulitzer Nominated Author and the President and Founder of the Building Community Institute
Clifton Taulbert has been a guest professor at Harvard University, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, and the United States Air Force Academy. He is one of the most recognized and sought after authors when it comes to social issues including equity and breaking down color barriers. He has an extensive list of literary works which include the award-winning Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored, the Pulitzer nominated The Last Train North, and Watching Our Crops Come In. Clifton Taulbert has also written two award-winning picture books for children; Little Cliff and the Porch People and Little Cliff’s First Day of School.
Vice President on the Spectrum Center Board
CEO of Proximity Learning, Inc.
Evan Erdberg is the President and Founder of Proximity Learning, Inc., an industry-leading K-12 virtual teacher staffing company that acts as the HR backup plan for over 100 school districts nationwide, placing thousands of teachers in vacant classrooms. With 15 years of K-12 and higher education experience, Erdberg has spearheaded educational equity for students across the nation.
Proximity Learning grew out of Erdberg’s firsthand experience working as a teacher evaluator. He noticed schools in the most impoverished areas had the highest number of teacher vacancies, which caused students to suffer inequity two-fold: not only were the students deprived of highly qualified teachers, but the average student pass rate was significantly below the state average for each district. Erdberg founded Proximity Learning to fill this education equity gap, and now, Proximity Learning reaches over 100,000 students daily who otherwise wouldn’t have access to teachers and employe thousands of teachers from home.
Former Superintendent and Deputy Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education
Chris Cerf served as Superintendent of the Newark, New Jersey public schools and New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education. In that role, he oversaw 2,500 public schools, 1.4 million students, and 110,000 teachers in over 600 school districts. Between 2004 and 2009, he was Deputy Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education.
In the private sector, Cerf serves on several boards and previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Edison Schools, Inc and Chief Executive Officer of Amplify Insight. He earlier served as Associate Counsel to President Clinton and as a partner in two Washington, D.C., law firms. A graduate of Amherst College and Columbia Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, Cerf also was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Prior to attending law school, he spent four years as a high school history teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio.
