Core Team Biographies

Roseyn Hood

Special Assistant to the Commissioner’s Office, Colorado Department of Education

Prior to joining CDE fulltime in June of 2016, Roseyn Hood was a public educator in the Phoenix area for over two decades. . At the building level, her role as Principal at Higley High School in Gilbert, Arizona was proceeded by other administrative assignments including, Assistant Principal/Curriculum, Assistant Principal/Athletic Director and Activities Assistant Principal in two other districts. Beyond her site work, Hood served as the Secondary Education Specialist in Chandler USD, working directly for the Superintendency servicing over 20,000 students in grades 7-12 in both the traditional and alternative settings. In her current role, Hood leads the Stories of Promising Practices work, highlighting sites and districts that are approaching education in innovative and effective ways across Colorado. Additionally, she is the Department's Chief Learning Officer, internally and externally developing, evaluating and implementing a variety of opportunities to advance and connect individuals and systems in an effort to expand the understanding and use of successful educational practice and protocol.

Rebecca Holmes

President and CEO, Colorado Education Initiative

Rebecca Holmes began her education career as a teacher in Denver’s Cole neighborhood, and is a proud alumna of Colorado’s public schools, a graduate of Yale University, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Prior to joining CEI, Rebecca was the Senior Program Officer for the Gates Family Foundation. She has also served as the Associate Commissioner for Innovation, Choice, and Engagement at the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), and as the CEO of a public charter school network that serves over 90 percent low-income students. Rebecca also has worked in the private-sector, and brings experience in change management, talent strategies, and organizational design.

Renee Martinez

Online and Blended Learning Specialist, Colorado Department of Education

Renee served as an elementary school teacher for eight years in various Colorado districts prior to becoming the Online and Blended Learning Specialist at the Colorado Department of Education.  CDE’s Blended & Online Learning office informs interested parents and students about what it means to participate in online and blended learning and how to participate in K-12 online learning in Colorado. This office certifies all new multi-district online schools and recognizes new single-district online schools and programs. The office also provides technical support to existing blended & online learning schools and programs in Colorado and promotes responsible growth of online schools.

Dan Morris

Director, Colorado Digital Learning Solutions

Dan Morris has over 40 years of experience in public education in Colorado. He is currently managing the state supplemental online program with Colorado Digital Learning Solutions and serves as the Director of eNetLearning, project of the Colorado BOCES supporting a statewide network of over 100 districts and 19 BOCES in Colorado which is collecting, housing, and delivering staff development programs, resources, and tools that support student learning and the development of 21st century, technology-rich classrooms. He most recently served for two years as the director of Educational Technology and Innovation for the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). Dan has been a high school math teacher, assistant principal, district technology director, and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Denver and University of Colorado Denver.  He has created and delivered online classes and has been an online facilitator, trainer, and staff developer for a number of educational organizations and foundations.

Judy Perez

Founder and CEO, iLearn Collaborative

Judy has been identified as a national level expert in K-12 online and blended learning by the U.S. Department of Education. She has over 27 years of experience in education with 15 years in online and blended learning. Prior to founding the iLearn Collaborative, she directed district-level blended learning at Jeffco Public Schools, the largest school district in Colorado, and led their online school from turnaround status to Performance accreditation. Judy\'s career in education includes science teacher, assistant principal, principal, district leadership and CAO for the Charter School Institute at the Colorado Dept. of Education. Other experiences in the area of blended and online learning include consulting for numerous districts and ed tech companies, speaking engagements at conferences across the U.S., participation in national research projects, published articles, state level advisory, and work on legislation supporting innovation in education. She is also the parent of two blended learners.

Matt Samelson

Director of Special Projects, Donnell-Kay Foundation

The foundation’s resident lawyer, Matt uses his background in research, journalism and law to be a crucial behind-the-scenes player in education legislation and policy. Prior to serving in this role, he was a journalist for eight years and worked for several natural resource and water organizations, and has worked in partnership with both the Building Excellent Schools Today program and the U.S. Green Building Council. A Colorado native, Matt has a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Colorado Denver and a law degree from the University of Colorado Boulder. His work has focused on blended learning, school facilities, transportation and finance. Matt devotes much of his time to developing strategies to address facility needs, both in Denver and across the state. Currently, Matt and a team of local and national funders are working to pool capital and design a creative new approach to facilities finance, specifically for charter school operators. Matt is also working in partnership with the Denver Mayor’s office and RTD-Denver on improving affordable access to transportation for Denver Public Schools students. Recent data shows that transportation can be a major barrier for students and their families seeking to access high-performing schools. As DPS moves toward a portfolio system with enrollment zones rather than single neighborhood assignments, more and more students are relying on the infrastructure of public transportation to get them to and from school. A critical and common-sense step is to maintain an affordable cost of the RTD bus pass so middle- and high-school students can independently and reliably transport themselves to school.

Greg Wilborn

Assistant Director of Education Services, Colorado Digital BOCES

Greg Wilborn, Assistant Director of Education Services, Colorado Digital BOCES. Greg Wilborn is an innovative education leader who’s worked with a variety of organizations specializing in designing learning systems that meet the needs of next generation learners. He currently serves as the Assistant Director of Education Services for Colorado Digital BOCES tasked with promoting and delivering their products and services throughout the state of Colorado.  Greg has presented extensively at the local, state and national levels and was recently recognized as one of the nation’s top 50 Innovators in Education by the Center for Digital Education and Converge Magazine. He holds Masters Degrees from the University of Kentucky and the University of Phoenix with emphases in Psychology and Education. He enjoys time with his family and is active in the outdoors, including fly-fishing, mountain biking, hiking and camping.