Jodi Marshall was destined to be an educator. Raised by a father who was a child psychologist and a mother who taught business education, she had the genes needed to succeed in this field, even before realizing she had the desire. Her dad, as Head of the Psychology department at All Children's Hospital, had an amazing sense of humor, was phenomenally skilled at building trust with his patients, and cultivated strong relationships with families, which allowed the children he helped to reach optimal success. Jodi’s mother was a Business Technology teacher at Lively Vocational Technical Center, and later Dean of Students. She had an infectious enthusiastic spirit, taught students who needed help finding alternatives to college, was consistently an early adopter of the latest technology, and often used this in her classroom to hook hard to reach students. Having no inclination during that early period of her life to go into education, little did Jodi know at the time, that these characteristics would greatly influence her and she would eventually develop these exact same traits - helping others succeed by building strong relationships while learning to utilize the technology that would allow them to reach new heights.
EARLY YEARS
Jodi was an active and energetic child physically, so her parents enrolled her in gymnastics at the young age of four, where she progressed competitively, placing in the top three in two events, and placing 10th overall in her final meet, the Junior Olympics, at age 12. The experience of competing athletically helped give confidence to a young girl who felt overshadowed at times by her brother. Growing up in a household with very high expectations, and an older brother who was extremely talented academically (who missed only one question on the SAT), she was determined to not be second best in her own household. Jodi is and always has been an over-achiever, and extremely goal-oriented. She worked hard in high school and was very well-rounded and involved in everything; whether it was athletics, service clubs, or academic competitions, Jodi often found herself serving in a leadership role. Finishing as salutatorian, ranking 2nd in her high school class, Jodi was offered admission to several of the colleges she applied to, eventually narrowing the list down to two: Vanderbilt University and the University of Florida. She chose UF as it afforded her a generous scholarship, ensuring that her parents would not feel more financial pressures (as her brother was still attending MIT).
TEACHING AND LEARNING
After graduating college in only three years with a BA in English (minor in Latin), Jodi became CPR certified, and was working as a fitness instructor at a local gym while substitute teaching. While studying for the LSAT and contemplating where to apply for law school, she met a professor who encouraged her to take a graduate class in young-adult literature, which ended up drastically changing her path forward. An avid reader and writer, the love for this class led to taking another and before she knew it, she was completing a Master’s degree in English Education and was offered a job in a Literacy Project Classroom in central Florida, a pilot program designed to improve reading skills of at-risk students. The program was a partnership (coincidentally) with Vanderbilt University and Orange County Public Schools and the technology used was eventually bought by Scholastic and became Read 180. Jodi was hooked, and realizing that she really could help these students, she convinced her principal to allow students to stay with her for consecutive years, allowing those students to grow academically more than any others in the pilot, with every single student reaching grade level before leaving middle school. Jodi moved to Los Angeles, CA, three years later and replicated the same reading program there, in an inner city school, but without the use of the technology program. Again, every single student reached a reading level on grade level before leaving her classroom.
Jodi spent much of her early career working in K-12 education, specifically teaching at-risk middle school students who were far below reading level, both in Florida and in California, where she was chosen to attend the UCLA teacher-researcher program. She learned how to conduct action-research there that she later proposed to Stenhouse, and successfully published as a book for fellow teachers. Jodi was also the first teacher in the entire school district to earn National Board Certification. Still believing she had more to learn in order to truly help more children, Jodi was accepted into the EdD program at the University of Southern California (USC), but ultimately returned to Florida to be closer to family and to accept a full scholarship to study at the University of Miami. Once again she graduated early with a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, with a specialization in Reading. Wanting to understand whether collaboration could help students succeed, Jodi's dissertation was on the effects of participation in literature circles on reading comprehension.
During her time in CA, right before moving back to FL, Jodi discovered Florida Virtual School (FLVS) and was offered a 10th grade English adjunct instructor position, allowing her to teach at the brick and mortar middle school during the day, while teaching high school online at night. The time change between the two states and multiple preps made this especially difficult but Jodi was determined to see it through at least until the end of that school year. She soon fell in love with virtual education, realizing the personalization it afforded her as a teacher, truly allowing her to meet each and every student's individual needs. Once admitted to the University of Miami, and as a returning Florida resident, she was asked to transition into a full-time teaching role at FLVS, while studying in the doctoral program -- another grueling but rewarding schedule. Jodi was also able to teach at the university during this time, giving her experience at both the undergraduate and graduate level during those three years.
VIRTUAL EDUCATION
At Florida Virtual School, Jodi served in a variety of roles on many different teams in almost every department. Initially open to high school students only, FLVS was given a grant to develop middle school courses and Jodi was tapped to create a suite of middle school English Language Arts courses, teaching a class of students in the 8th grade course, while developing a module at a time, making sure to stay ahead of the students, revising content based on their response and progress in it. Soon after, Jodi was asked to serve in a newly created role of Literacy Team Manager, and was the first person to write a state-approved reading plan for a virtual organization in the state of Florida, which allotted the school over a million dollars to be used for reading interventions. These dollars helped fund her work leading a team in creating the first ever online intensive reading course. In collaboration with 360Ed, the course, Conspiracy Code Mindbender, was a very popular video game-based course that brought about high enrollments and satisfaction among students and teachers. Working with Dr. Roger Farr (former international Reading Association president), Jodi conducted an efficacy study on the course, which proved it to be a reliable and valid tool for helping at-risk readers.
LEADING AND LEARNING
Her over-achiever personality firmly intact, Jodi continued working at Florida Virtual and was consistently promoted, sometimes multiple times in one year. With the entrepreneurial atmosphere and the start-up nature of FLVS, no week, month or even year was the same, and Jodi was able to learn and grow in the areas of teaching, mentoring, professional development, research, data analytics, and curriculum development. With the exponential growth Florida Virtual continued to experience, doubling in size each year, Jodi became even more interested in helping develop the new teachers joining the company. Rapidly becoming known as the poster child for life-long learning, Jodi earned an Educational Specialist degree online in Educational Leadership, which most certainly contributed to her being chosen for the roles of Instructional Leader, Vice President of Academics, and eventually Chief Academic Officer. Jodi was fortunate to work closely with and learn from the founder of FLVS (Julie Young) and was also able to be of service to her successor, former Superintendent of Orange County Public Schools, Ron Blocker, where she served as the only female on his 4 member executive team as the first EVP of Business and School Solutions. This role encompassed all academic aspects of the organization but also supported areas that Jodi was less familiar with, including sales, marketing, global services, and business development. In order to learn more about the business side of her new role, it was during this time that Jodi chose to pursue another degree, this time from Florida International University, earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA), specializing in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. With 55 employees the day she started and over 2500 some sixteen years later, Jodi worked alongside the very best in the industry. She was passionate, loyal, and dedicated to this work and was able to help shape Florida Virtual into a nationally-known innovative enterprise, ultimately being appointed President and Chief Executive Officer.
LIFELONG LEARNER
Wanting to broaden her knowledge of online education programs beyond Florida, and in order to gain valuable experience in a publicly traded, for-profit company, Jodi accepted the role of GM of School Services with K12, Inc. in 2018, where she served for three years before being asked to run the school partnership division and became SVP/GM of Learning Solutions With roots in child psychology and what was once called vocational education, coupled with her success working with at-risk students and her ability to grow and develop the people around her, this role with the leading company worldwide in virtual education and career readiness afforded Jodi the opportunity to continue to learn, grow, contribute, and lead. Four years after joining, Jodi was recruited away from K12/Stride, Inc., for the role of CEO of All About Learning Press, Inc., a reading intervention content company, where she currently still serves today.
With over 25 years of experience in K-12 and higher education, in traditional and online models, and in nonprofit, for-profit, and PE-backed sectors , Dr. Jodi Marshall is one of the most innovative educational leaders in the country.
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